The
Wha?
Detroit,
Michigan
1964-1969
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The
Name
One Teen Summer, my parents took my
brother and I to New York City. My mother Helen, being the
loving and generous person that she was, suggested that I
invite my band mates Tom Tasseff and Bob Dempster to also
come along with us on the Vacation. It was a Teen Summer
because I can never recall the date. Teen Summers are those
that can only be recalled or identified by episode, one's
senses, or encounters at the time..... never a specific day,
month or year. I always have to search for when the Beatles
played their Shea Stadium concert... the Sheriff Badge
Beatles, the quasi military/neru jacket Beatles. There were
posters and flyers glued on walls, streetlight poles, even
the sidewalk. To my best recollection, I missed the concert
by two or three weeks. It was 'that' particular Teen Summer
in NYC....
We all tumbled into a hotel near Fortysecond Street, just
slightly ahead of the 'sleaze factor' that was approaching
that particular street. Unaware of at the time... Tasseff,
Dempster and myself were doing our best
Keith-Moon-in-a-hotel-room impersonations. As an artful
stroke to our masterpiece, Coca Cola bottles from our 11th
story window raced their way to the street below, to the
sidewalk, and between pedestrians. Timed to thoroughly
confuse the arriving or departing patrons, our most teenful
glee was shattering our crystal bombs just in front of a
Go-Go type club across the street from our hotel.
On the first evening, my parents to us took Greenwich
Village to witness the 'pop culture' going on there at that
time. After buying our mandatory 'beatnik art' from one of
the many art stands and shops, we spied the Cafe Wha? and
decided it looked the most interesting. We were totally
unaware of the Cafe Wha? entertainment legend, but all of
us, especially my mother Helen, thought the name was a
real... 'gasser'! In we went.
After visiting the club that night, my parents felt
comfortable enough to allow Tasseff, Dempster and myself to
go out unsupervised as long as we stayed together at the
Cafe Wha? or in the Village. One particular visit to the
Cafe Wha?, Tom Tasseff sprayed his hair blue with 1960ish
coloured hair spray... a shade of blue that could only be
marketed to 'working girls'... or Tasseff. That same evening
Tasseff strapped on his matching blue Gibson SG Deluxe...
and played along at our table... my teenage embarrassment
meter was fully pinned.
The Cafe Wha? was/is located in a basement, the passageway
or stairs being dark and claustrophobic... reminiscent of
Jack Lemmon or Tony Randal on a night-on-the-town with a
blonde bimbo or a beehived wife. The club is long and narrow
with the stage to your left as you enter the room. Correctly
or incorrectly, I recall a second stage, or attached portion
of the main stage, on a slight angle to the room towards the
back of the club. It was on this stage that we saw a Lenny
Bruce-type comic... who knows?... although I doubt it was
Bruce, a simple Beatle time-line check will confirm if Bruce
was dead or alive at the time.
One of the acts that really appealed to Dempster were the
Country Gentlemen. This particular group was a cocktail of
Beau Brummels, Dave Clark 5, Blues Magoos, Royal Guardsmen
and Shadows of Night. Although Dempster appreciated the
Stones and Yardbirds, he had a 'teen bopper' in him that
could not be denied. Much the same way as my 'closet
hillbilly' today... my band occasionally squirms as I call
off during our set; Six Days on the Road or Under Assistant
West Coast Promo Man... and refuse to look me in the eye
when I confidently suggest that we could execute nifty
arrangements of BR-549 and Hank Williams songs.
After the Country Gentlemen performed their set, I noticed
that the lead guitarist of the Blues Magoos was seated in a
dark corner with a 'hidden demeanour'* about him. (Years
later, through experience in the music business, I would
come to recognize this 'demeanour'* as the seated slouch or
posture many musicians assume when they are about to
'check-out' another artist of exceptional talents... just a
touch of nervousness, apprehension, and of course,
curiosity... often in the darkest area of the room but as
close to the stage as possible. If the particular
spy-musician smokes, most usually handle their tobacco with
the hypnotic caress of a Turk with a cigarette.)
*while I was in Barooga Bandit, opening all of the shows
for Dire Straits' first U.S. tour, I witnessed several well
established artists at our dates 'examining' Mark Knopfler
and DS in this same way. My most memorable recollection is
Bob Dylan at the Roxy Theatre in LA.
Jimmy James and the Flames set foot on the small stage, we
were about six feet from him. (The Cafe Wha? is only about
25 feet wide at best.) As far as we knew, Jimmy James was
just a freaky black guy who played guitar. And play guitar
he did... in addition, I had never witnessed such an unusual
vocal pattern from a performer. That Teen Summer Night
Tasseff and I were completely knocked off our musical
cornerstones, and I noticed that the guitarist for the Blues
Magoos was..................frozen! Jimmy James played 'Hey
Joe', 'Like a Rolling Stone' and several other songs that
I'm sure made their way to "Jimmy James" albums. He also
played some standards that were appropriate and vogue during
the 1960's. It was a frightening show... stage erotica...
the first such I had witnessed.
Beatle Boots were of course very popular at that time. I
used to buy my boots at Northland in Southfield Michigan.
Just before the NYC trip I had worn out my most recent pair.
I noticed Jimmy had a pair of boots exactly the same as my
tattered brogans back home in Detroit. After his show Jimmy
was hanging about the Cafe Wha?, the way most musicians do
between their first and second shows... sort of relaxed,
bored of the club, mind off somewhere else... Jimmy was
leaning on the doorway where the club collects the entrance
cover charge.
Although still flabbergasted by his talent, (especially
playing guitar behind his back... and then with his teeth),
I nevertheless felt comfortable enough in complimenting him
on his performance. He nodded in true appreciation with only
slight detachment. Then I popped the question: "where did
you buy your boots?" Very sincerely, but also looking around
to see if anyone was watching, he turned his head into me
while he hung his right arm and shirtsleeve on the doorway,
he said: "Flagg Brothers, Fortysecond Street." There was a
lyrical and minor key to the melody of his voice, and as he
said those words, I've always recalled how his voice also
dropped or tailed-off as he told me cautiously where to buy
my cool Beatle Boots. Sometime much later, (in 'teen-time'),
I recognized the same man and the same voice dropping or
tailing-off the exact same way to the words: "not
necessarily stoned, but beautiful"
At the time we didn't realize we had witnessed Hendrix, but
when we did, we reckoned by our Beatle time-line that we saw
him just before or the same week as Chas Chandler's
'discovery' of Hendrix at the Cafe Wha?
Tasseff, Dempster and myself were so impressed with the Cafe
Wha? experience, we wanted to name the band in honour of the
place. Dempster proposed calling the band "Cafe Wha?", I
convinced him to settle with simply "the Wha?"... we painted
"Wha?" on cardboard sized to pressure fit into the front of
the bass drum head... and off we went... half-cocked,
stupid, and marginally out of tune!
The short version of the
"Wha?" story.
Daniel O'Connell
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