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Well, at long last, after
30 short years the older but none the wiser Clear
Blue Sky reunited once again on May 30th, 1998.
What a blast! All four of us were there, Keith
drove up to Detroit from North Carolina, John came
down from Lansing, (Les still lives in the area)
and we all converged in my living room in Milford,
MI. The original plan was to do this thing at Les's
studio, but he had a couple of big projects going
on so my wife and I had to scramble to move all the
furniture out of the way. Talk about a house party!
Actually it really did bring things full circle, as
the earliest gigs were in peoples basements and
living rooms.
There were a few personnel
changes as well. Keith, who originally played bass
usually plays guitar these days, so he and John
divided up the guitar duties. So I called on my
friend Paul Einhaus (also a guitarist) to fill in
on bass for us, and suddenly we were a quintet. I
also picked up a little guitar over the years and
played on two or three songs, otherwise I was back
at the piano and organ, while Les beat the living
crap out of his Ludwig drum kit.
The crowd consisted of
family and friends, many who hadn't had the
pleasure back in the 60's (some of my friends were
only 5 or 6 at the time-jeez). We had a pretty
diverse set list including nuggets like "Tobacco
Road", "I Fought The Law", "The Kids Are Allright",
"Knock On Wood" and "Time Won't Let Me", and some
newer stuff by the likes of Elvis Costello and John
Hiatt. But the highlight had to be when Paul and I
did an impromptu medley of "Eve Of Destruction" and
the Car's "My Best Friend's Girlfriend".
All the while we were
planning this thing, (which was a logistical
nightmare), I kept saying, "Hey, we're only gonna
do this once", but you know, now that it's over, I
think I could be persuaded to do this every couple
of years, it really was a gas!
By the way, if you've ever
wondered about the MFB logo...yea, that's us...left
to right: Dan, Keith, John and Les!
The photo was taken on the roof of my parent's old
house in northwest Detroit in the summer of
'68.
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