Now I remember when I wrote that song. I was imagining being in London though I'd never been I don't know if there is a street named Rickety Lane in London but it sounded good to me at the time In those early days of my songwriting I was certainly feeling the effects of the british invasion Which was the background music to the mid-60's rise in counter culture that had crossed the Atlantic and even worked it's way to the mouth of the Mississippi River
The repetoire of the upstairs alliance was filled with songs by the Dave Clark Five. The Kicks, The Stones, Hermits Hermits, The Animals and of course The Beatles, We all wanted to look, sound and act British But the closest we really ever could get to being an international group was having a Canadian member
Rick Bennett was my roommate in college, the bass player in my band and a life-long friend He is now Chair of the Toronto film school and has worked in the film and commercial world, ever since leaving the band and school He also directed the: Who's the blonde stranger video Which we filmed in Key West We've stayed in touch over the years and I always visit RB when we play Toronto as we did this summer
When we had finished putting together the tracks in storage for this collection I sent it to Ricky to fact check as this stuff happened a long time ago and sure enough he came up with a few bits of treasure that I had forgotten about and that's when I thought it would be cool to have him read this start Hell he lived a major part of it and since then he's made a pretty good living as an actor, director, producer and voice-over specialist relying on that husky Canadian voice of his So, without further adieu here's Mr. Rick Bennett reading Sgt. Pepper in the gumbo pot Take it away Ricky
Hi I'm Rick Bennett, Jimmy's colleague roommate and the bass player in our first band, The Upstairs Alliance JImmy Buffett, The Beatles and Bourbon Street what a combination and in the summer of 1967, that was the combination, the stars were lining up In the Spring of 1967, Jimmy, myself and Benny formed a little band called The Upstairs Alliance
And on Jimmy's insistence, we auditioned for and got the gig at a folk club called The Bayou Room on Bourbon Street in New Orleans And I'm thinking, does it get any better than that? We played our folk and pop tunes adding a few new Beatles ballads as they came along and usually played to pretty good crowds, then in June of '67 the music landscape changed
The Beatles released the album Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band That album blew us away, we had to be part of that It was time to go electric JB traded in his Martin D acoustic for the electric version I traded the stand-up Bass for a Fender Jazz Master And Benny, well she kept her old tambourine as fate would have it, the bar next to the Bayou Room was the Gunga Den, the hottest Rock 'n Roll bar on Bourbon Street The owner kinda liked our electric sound and figured our next progression should be with his bar
So he offered us a gig, and for more money as well It was a no-brainer, we thought we might surprise him by opening with Sergeant Pepper Now these boys didn't always take surprises well Back on the College campus we made an after hours visit to the theatre costume department and 'borrowed' some outrageous Sgt, Pepper style costumes
Now let it be noted that it was always our intent to return those generous gifts We recruited a drummer and a lead guitar player to add to our eclectic electric circus band We stayed up nights learning the lyrics and chords to Sgt, Pepper Jimmy carried the load, while Bennie and I did the harmonies We were getting ready to rock the Gunga Den a new audience With the new electric version of the Upstairs Alliance
On Sunday we played our last folk set at the Bayou Room and with a change of wardrobe we walked into the Gunga Den with strobe lights flailing, electric energy prevailing, and Sergeant Peppers Lonely Hearts Band ready to go Top quote the Beatles, it was wonderful to be there it certainly was a thrill
The show was a hit the bar made money and we were getting some pretty good press The upstairs alliance became the first Sergeant Peppers cover band in New Orleans There was no going back Surely we would be discovered here and the road to success would start down Bourbon Street
But this is the music business, fickle at best and there are a lot of vultures out there Like Jimmy, New Orleans was one of the great experiences of my life We didn't make it, but way back then we knew Jimmy was going to make it Why? Because he never entertained a plan b and as fate would have it Here is the wino who had something to sayTeksty umieszczone na naszej stronie są własnością wytwórni, wykonawców, osób mających do nich prawa.
