I was a 17 year old
member of White Mud Blues Band in 1968-69. We are
mentioned only in the roster of bands that played
at the Crows Nest East out in the Shores, because
we worked there in 1967-1969 and managed to
convince Tom Smith, Charlie Delise, and Ron
LaCharite who operated the Nest that we should be
allowed a shot... White Mud was an adventure
more than a real band in Detroit then. Maybe
phenomenon is more accurate. White Mud was mostly a
bunch of boys from Lake Shore High School who had
come from several smaller basement bands of the
times, The Tish, Every Pig and His Brother, Frut of
the Loom, The Shilohs, City Limits, and Decembers
Children. One of us happened to
manage a gig to play in a battle of the bands at
St. Margaret's Catholic church sometime in 1967 as
I recall, and while it was supposed to be just a
few guys, the rest of us insisted that we turn this
into a small but dynamic fusion of local musicians
from several groups. We booked ourselves as a
15 man group who, although we played together in
smaller groups, never played together all at once
before. No rehearsing, no practicing, no real
planning except for our escape in the event we were
not liked. We then added a new level of danger to
the experiment by trading instruments. If you were
a drummer in Every Pig and His Brother, you had to
play guitar. If you were a guitar player, you
played drums in White Mud. No one knew what to expect
but we knew it would be kind of incredible. It was
the "Great Lie" The audience knew it was going to
be a great put on too. Only the Priest of the
school and the chaperones of the Band Battle would
be frustrated with the outcome. We stormed into the church
and began nailing drums (2 full trap sets) to the
stage. We brought with us all of the primitive
energy we had acquired from watching the great
ones. The MC5, The Up, and The Stooges were part of
the inspiration. The Fugs and the Mothers of
Invention helped us with our creative negative
energy as well. We Iced the cake with some
Chocolate Acid inspired drum ensembles, and went to
work terrorizing the entire event. Strangely, the
crowd loved it and we earned a small but
significant reputation as the worst band in St.
Clair Shores in our day. We were born! Vondy Campbell created the
name, borrowing from a Muddy Waters album called
Electric Mud. Being white boys from the burbs, we
were fine with White Mud Blues Band. The first set
was comprised of all the crap that basement bands
knew in those days and since we had never really
played together all at once before, the only rules
were: a) Everyone started at the
same time b) Everyone sort of
finished at the same time... no wait that wasn't a
rule. c) Everyone found their
own attorney afterwards This really was the way it
went. It got worse as we fed our own egos on the
next concert at The Crows Nest East in the Shores.
This time we started the gig by organizing everyone
we could muster to play. We had trumpets that
nobody knew how to play, a Tuba, and some small
foreign stringed instruments resembling guitars
that would be expendable in a closing version of
the Who's "My Generation" We even made a visit to
Gus Zoppi music center to pressure him into loaning
us a P.A. system. After several hours of pleading
and groveling, we suggested that we would "buy" the
stuff on time. Gus knew our credit history and
suffering from a migraine already surrendered into
loaning us the PA we needed at no charge as long as
we promised not to damage anything. Right Gus! we
Wont... We came on stage at the
Crows Nest East that night in July of 1968, and
before we could finish our first song, half of the
stage was destroyed. They were closing soon anyhow
so we figured to get away with it. The MC5 would
have been proud! John Sinclair would be smiling!
The police would be waiting outside. White Mud was
so incredibly bad that night that we would be
bragging for years! Still are! The Mudders are still out
there, lurking in the alleys of the Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame, waiting to damage further, the
chromosomes of Vintage Rap music with songs
like: Shu Personnel: Influences: Setlist
Sample: Equipment:
Rehearsal
Space: Band
Vehicles: Fashion
Statement: Best
Gig: Gig
from
Hell!: Last
Gig: The Crow's Nest, one of
many popular mid-60's teen clubs in the Detroit
area
Information contributed by
Dr. Greg Hormone maxsecinc@hotmail.com
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