THE WAILERS

The Wailers
(from l tor) Kent Morrill, Rich Dangel,Mike Burk, Ron Gardner, and Buck Ormsby
The historical importance of the Wailers is undeniable. They were one of the very first, if not the first, of the American garage bands.The very beginnings of Seattle's grunge rock sound can be directly traced back to the pioneering efforts this of the rock 'n' roll combo.The Wailers are probably directly responsible for the sixties rock explosion in the Northwest. Paul Revere and the Raiders aspired to be as big as the Wailers were; the Kingsmen had a hit with their arrangement of "Louie Louie; the Sonics were groomed by the Wailers and the list goes on and on.
The fifties in the Northwest were an interesting melting pot. Clubs such as The Black and Tan, Birdland, and the Evergreen Ballroom routinely brought black R&B acts to town, and Ray Charles was based in the area. Rockabilly had made its presence known, and Elvis Presley was huge. It was out of this environment that five teenagers from Tacoma, Washington formed the Wailers.
Originally an instrumental band the Wailers had a national hit with "Tall Cool One" (#36, June 1959) while still in high school. They then went to the East Coast for some appearances, including the Alan Freed Show and American Bandstand.
Unhappy with the way they were being handled they returned to Tacoma and formed their own label Etiquette Records. Thus their material was self recorded and self promoted. The Wailers also produced a number of other acts, and Etiquette has left a fine history of some of the Northwest's most gritty recordings.
Gail Harris
Wailers with Rockin' Robin Roberts
The Wailers had several fine vocalists in Rockin' Robin Roberts and Gail Harris who was only 13 years old when she first sang with the Wailers, and eventually became a regular during the early sixties. With Harris and Roberts the Wailers started moving in a far more R&B direction. With Robin Roberts doing the vocals, the Wailers turned an obscure R&B song "Louie Louie" into a 1961 local hit that served as the prototype for the countless subsequent versions of the 60s most popular garage song.
The live album The Wailers At the Castle was the first record featuring The Wailers, Gail Harris and Rockin' Robin Roberts all together. They often toured and recorded with female back-up singers the Marshans, thus emulating and updating the R&B revue/extravaganzas that had been so influential years earlier. Songs such as "Hang Up" and "Out of Our Tree" showed their abilities with mid-sixties "punk rock", but they were certainly as talented in any other musical sub-genre of that magical decade.
Rockin' Robin Roberts died in aa automobileaccident after leaving the Wailers in 1967
It was their hard-nosed R&B/rock fusion that inspired the Sonics and Kingsmen. Though the Wailers anticipated the British Invasion bands with their brash, self-contained sound, their inability to write first-rate original material, as well as their rather outdated sax and organ driven frat rock, that led to their decline in popularity. As the decade progress they did adsorb mild folk-rock and psychedelic music without much success.
Beginning in the late seventies and through the 80's The Wailers joined together for a number of successful reunion concerts. Today a new wave of interest and fans all over the world have enticed the Wailers to once again pick up their instruments and play their rock 'n' roll.

THE SONIC'S

http://www.mp3.com/albums/14893/summary.html Louie ,Louie, and "Have Love will Travel" are Fantastic.

http://theregents.net/mp3/sonics1strycnine.aiff Strycnine




The Sonics
The Sonics whose name it is said was inspired by both the Boeing factories in and around Seattle and the jetlike sound this fivesome produced. A premier garage band with hit after hit on the local charts, the band inexplicably was never able to break out nationally, leaving their sound largely undiluted for mass consumption.
They played classic songs by Little Richard and Chuck Berry, but wrote their own work too. It is by those songs that the Sonics have reached the legendary status they still have. The horror inspired texts, distorted and loud guitar playing and the hysterically screaming vocals make songs such as “(She's a)Witch”, “Boss Hoss”, “Cinderella”, “Psycho” and “Strychnine” true classics.
Andy Parypa, Jerry Roslie, Bob Bennett, Rob Lind, Larry Parypaphoto courtesy Here are the Sonics
The Sonics from Tacoma, Washington were formed in 1963 in the wake of the early 60s success of local favorites the Kingsmen and the Wailers (whose Etiquette label they recorded for). The original members were Gerry Roslie (lead singer and piano/organ), Andy Parypa (bass), Larry Parypa (guitar), Bob Bennett (drums), and Rob Lind (saxophone).
The Sonics combined the classic Northwest-area teen-band raunch with early English band grit (particularly influenced by the Kinks), relentless rhythmic drive, and unabashed '50s-style blues shouting for a combination that still makes their brand of rock and roll perhaps the raunchiest ever captured on wax.
Lead singer Gerry Roslie was no less than a White Little Richard, whose harrowing soul-screams were startling even to the Northwest teen audience, who liked their music powerful and driving with little regard to commercial subtleties.
The Sonics started out playing at St Mary's Parish Hall, then Tacoma's Red Carpet teen dance club, Olympia's Skateland, Evergreen Ballroom, Pearl's and the Spanish Castle Ballroom. It was the Wailers bassist, Buck Ormsby that discovered the band as he was out talent scouting for their label, Etiquette Records.
Unlike what was customary in those days the Sonics used to play as loud as possible. One of the semi-legendary stories going around about their recording sessions tells that the Sonics were only satisfied about the studio sound when all VU-meters were continuously in the red, thus driving the technicians to despair.
"The Witch" became a hit in November after the Sonics had performed at Tacoma's Curtis High School. Andy: "We had just played their homecoming dance and Pat O'Day (the regions biggest DJ) came in the next week to do one of his sockhops and give a few records away. A bunch of kids kept requesting, The Witch so I guess he finally played it and the place went nuts. The next day Pat started playing (the record on the air). The single then became the all-time best-selling local rock single in Northwest history. In fact this radio station (KJR) wouldn't air the tune prior to 3pm. Andy: "O'Day later told me that eventually the song had reached No 1 in sales, but the station policy said it was too far out to chart at No 1. The station only played it after kids got out of schools". Their first album was a masterpiece: rough, aggressive, distorted with sweaty and frantic rock and roll. The songs "(She's a) Witch", "Psycho" and "Strychnine" written by Gerry Roslie were outstanding. For those who are not familiar with the Sonics, the first lines of “Strychnine” give a nice impression of their world: “some people like water / some people like wine / but I like the taste ... / ... of straight Strychnine”Their second album was not that frantic, but still fantastically good - (their "Louie Louie" is really the best version ever recorded!) In 1966 they were the opening act for the Beach Boys, Jan & Dean, Jay & the Americans, Ray Stevens, Herman's Hermits, the Righteous Brothers, the Kinks, Lovin' Spoonful, Mamas & Papas and the Byrds. They also played together with another garage band, the Liverpool 5 and the female trio, Shangri-Las.
Their third album, which was produced by Jerry Dennon of Jerden Records, was called Introducing The Sonics because it was their first on a major label. This album was later re-released in the late seventies under the title The Sonics' Original Northwest Punk. The last 45 recorded by the original line-up was "Any Way The Wind Blows." After this members departed to go to college or join other bands with Rob Lind being the last original member to leave in 1968. Breaking up in the late '60s, after attempting to water down their style for national attention, the Sonics continue today to be revered by '60s collectors the world over for their unique brand of rock & roll raunch
Gerry Roslie, reformed the band in 1979 with a new line-up to record an LP called Cinderella for Bomp. Rob Lind now lives in LA where he is involved in the film industry. Gerry Roslie still records and writes songs today. Andy Parypa is now teaching.
Even nowadays, more than 30 years later, the Sonics' music can make a crushing impression on someone who hasn't heard anything from them before.

JIMMI HENDRIX

In his brief four-year reign as a superstar, Jimi Hendrix expanded the vocabulary of the electric rock guitar more than anyone before or since. Hendrix was a master at coaxing all manner of unforeseen sonics from his instrument, often with innovative amplification experiments that produced astral-quality feedback and roaring distortion. His frequent hurricane blasts of noise and dazzling showmanship -- he could and would play behind his back and with his teeth and set his guitar on fire -- has sometimes obscured his considerable gifts as a songwriter, singer, and master of a gamut of blues, R&B, and rock styles.
When Hendrix became an international superstar in 1967, it seemed as if he'd dropped out of a Martian spaceship, but in fact he'd served his apprenticeship the long, mundane way in numerous R&B acts on the chitlin circuit. During the early and mid-'60s, he worked with such R&B/soul greats as Little Richard, the Isley Brothers, and King Curtis as a backup guitarist. Occasionally he recorded as a session man (the Isley Brothers' 1964 single "Testify" is the only one of these early tracks that offers even a glimpse of his future genius). But the stars didn't appreciate his show-stealing showmanship, and Hendrix was straight-jacketed by sideman roles that didn't allow him to develop as a soloist. The logical step was for Hendrix to go out on his own, which he did in New York in the mid-'60s, playing with various musicians in local clubs, and joining white blues-rock singer John Hammond, Jr.'s band for a while.
It was in a New York club that Hendrix was spotted by Animals bassist Chas Chandler. The first lineup of the Animals was about to split, and Chandler, looking to move into management, convinced Hendrix to move to London and record as a solo act in England. There a group was built around Jimi, also featuring Mitch Mitchell on drums and Noel Redding on bass, that was dubbed the Jimi Hendrix Experience. The trio became stars with astonishing speed in the U.K., where "Hey Joe," "Purple Haze," and "The Wind Cries Mary" all made the Top Ten in the first half of 1967. These tracks were also featured on their debut album, Are You Experienced?, a psychedelic meisterwerk that became a huge hit in the U.S. after Hendrix created a sensation at the Monterey Pop Festival in June of 1967.
Are You Experienced? was an astonishing debut, particularly from a young R&B veteran who had rarely sung, and apparently never written his own material, before the Experience formed. What caught most people's attention at first was his virtuosic guitar playing, which employed an arsenal of devices, including wah-wah pedals, buzzing feedback solos, crunching distorted riffs, and lightning, liquid runs up and down the scales. But Hendrix was also a first-rate songwriter, melding cosmic imagery with some surprisingly pop-savvy hooks and tender sentiments. He was also an excellent blues interpreter and passionate, engaging singer (although his gruff, throaty vocal pipes were not nearly as great assets as his instrumental skills). Are You Experienced? was psychedelia at its most eclectic, synthesizing mod pop, soul, R&B, Dylan, and the electric guitar innovations of British pioneers like Jeff Beck, Pete Townshend, and Eric Clapton.
Amazingly, Hendrix would only record three fully conceived studio albums in his lifetime. Axis: Bold as Love and the double-LP Electric Ladyland were more diffuse and experimental than Are You Experienced? On Electric Ladyland in particular, Hendrix pioneered the use of the studio itself as a recording instrument, manipulating electronics and devising overdub techniques (with the help of engineer Eddie Kramer in particular) to plot uncharted sonic territory. Not that these albums were perfect, as impressive as they were; the instrumental breaks could meander, and Hendrix's songwriting was occasionally half-baked, never matching the consistency of Are You Experienced? (although he exercised greater creative control over the later albums).
The final two years of Hendrix's life were turbulent ones musically, financially, and personally. He was embroiled in enough complicated management and record company disputes (some dating from ill-advised contracts he'd signed before the Experience formed) to keep the lawyers busy for years. He disbanded the Experience in 1969, forming the Band of Gypsies with drummer Buddy Miles and bassist Billy Cox to pursue funkier directions. He closed Woodstock with a sprawling, shaky set, redeemed by his famous machine-gun interpretation of "The Star Spangled Banner." The rhythm section of Mitchell and Redding were underrated keys to Jimi's best work, and the Band of Gypsies ultimately couldn't measure up to the same standard, although Hendrix did record an erratic live album with them. In early 1970, the Experience re-formed again -- and disbanded again shortly afterward. At the same time, Hendrix felt torn in many directions by various fellow musicians, record-company expectations, and management pressures, all of whom had their own ideas of what Hendrix should be doing. Coming up on two years after Electric Ladyland, a new studio album had yet to appear, although Hendrix was recording constantly during the period.
While outside parties did contribute to bogging down Hendrix's studio work, it also seems likely that Jimi himself was partly responsible for the stalemate, unable to form a permanent lineup of musicians, unable to decide what musical direction to pursue, unable to bring himself to complete another album despite jamming endlessly. A few months into 1970, Mitchell -- Hendrix's most valuable musical collaborator -- came back into the fold, replacing Miles in the drum chair, although Cox stayed in place. It was this trio that toured the world during Hendrix's final months.
It's extremely difficult to separate the facts of Hendrix's life from rumors and speculation. Everyone who knew him well, or claimed to know him well, has different versions of his state of mind in 1970. Critics have variously mused that he was going to go into jazz, that he was going to get deeper into the blues, that he was going to continue doing what he was doing, or that he was too confused to know what he was doing at all. The same confusion holds true for his death: contradictory versions of his final days have been given by his closest acquaintances of the time. He'd been working intermittently on a new album, tentatively titled First Ray of the New Rising Sun, when he died in London on September 18, 1970, from drug-related complications.
Hendrix recorded a massive amount of unreleased studio material during his lifetime. Much of this (as well as entire live concerts) was issued posthumously; several of the live concerts were excellent, but the studio tapes have been the focus of enormous controversy for over 20 years. These initially came out in haphazard drabs and drubs (the first, The Cry of Love, was easily the most outstanding of the lot). In the mid-'70s, producer Alan Douglas took control of these projects, posthumously overdubbing many of Hendrix's tapes with additional parts by studio musicians. In the eyes of many Hendrix fans, this was sacrilege, destroying the integrity of the work of a musician known to exercise meticulous care over the final production of his studio recordings. Even as late as 1995, Douglas was having ex-Knack drummer Bruce Gary record new parts for the typically misbegotten compilation Voodoo Soup. After a lengthy legal dispute, the rights to Hendrix's estate, including all of his recordings, returned to Al Hendrix, the guitarist's father, in July of 1995.
With the help of Jimi's step-sister Janie, Al set up Experience Hendrix to begin to get Jimi's legacy in order. They began by hiring John McDermott and Jimi's original engineer, Eddie Kramer to oversee the remastering process. They were able to find all the original master tapes, which had never been used for previous CD releases, and in April of 1997, Hendrix's first three albums were reissued with drastically improved sound. Accompanying those reissues was a posthumous compilation album (based on Jimi's handwritten track listings) called First Rays of the New Rising Sun, made up of tracks from the Cry of Love, Rainbow Bridge and War Heroes.
Later in 1997, another compilation called South Saturn Delta showed up, collecting more tracks from posthumous LPs like Crash Landing, War Heroes, and Rainbow Bridge (without the terrible '70s overdubs), along with a handful of never-before-heard material that Chas Chandler had withheld from Alan Douglas for all those years.
More archival material followed; Radio One was basically expanded to the two-disc BBC Sessions (released in 1998), and 1999 saw the release of the full show from Woodstock as well as additional concert recordings from the Band of Gypsies shows entitled Live at the Fillmore East. 2000 saw the release of the Jimi Hendrix Experience four-disc box set, which compiled remaining tracks from In the West, Crash Landing and Rainbow Bridge along with more rarities and alternates from the Chandler cache.
The family also launched Dagger Records, essentially an authorized bootleg label to supply harcore Hendrix fans with material that would be of limited commercial appeal. Dagger Records has released several live concerts (of shows in Oakland, Ottawa and Clark University in Massachusetts) and a collection of studio jams and demos called Morning Symphony Ideas. ~ Richie Unterberger & Sean Westergaard, All Music Guide

Crosby, Stills, and Nash

http://faculty.smu.edu/dsimon/Music/CSNY%20-%20Ohio.Mp3

Creedence Clearwater Revival

http://faculty.smu.edu/dsimon/AAAAds/Creedence%20Clearwater%20Revival-09-Fortunate%20Son.mp3

Hendrix

http://faculty.smu.edu/dsimon/Music/Jimi%20Hendrix%20-%20Wild%20Thing.mp3

DYLAN

http://faculty.smu.edu/dsimon/Music/Bob%20Dylan%20-%20The%20Times%20They%20Are%20A-Changing.mp3

The kingsman

The Kingsman brought fame to the Nortwest

Chronological History of THE KINGSMEN Personnel.1959-Present: (If your name is not here, you were never a Kingsmen!)
Mike Mitchell 1959-Present ,Lynn Easton 1959-1967, Jack Ely 1959-1963, Bob Nordby 1959-1963 ,Don Gallucci 1962-1963 ,Gary Abbott 1962-1963 ,Norm Sundholm 1963-1967 ,
Dick Peterson 1963-Present ,Barry Curtis
1963-2005, Kerry Magness 1966-1967 ,
J.C. Reick 1966-1967, Turley Richards
1967-1967, Pete Borg 1967-1967 ,Jeff Beals
1967-1968 ,Steve Friedson 1967-1973 ,FredDennis 1972-1984 ,Andy Parypa 1982-1984 ,Kim Nicklaus 1982-1984 ,Marc Willett
1984-1992 ,Steve Peterson 1988-Present ,Todd McPherson 1992-Present .

The Kingsmen formed in Portland, Oregon in 1959. As young teenagers, they played high school parties, teen dances, supermarket openings, and fashion shows. Like many fledgling bands of the day, they copied what they heard on the radio: Elvis, The Ventures, Country music, R&B, and the burgeoning Northwest Sound. They became one of the most popular bands in the Portland area. The band started recording in 1963. Their first effort was "Louie Louie," a song played by virtually all Northwest rock & roll and R&B bands, and an original instrumental, "Haunted Castle." The session, costing $36 at Portland's Northwest Recorders, produced a tape used to audition for a job on a cruise ship bound for Australia. The cruise line hated it!
Jerry Dennon, a record producer in Seattle, pressed a few hundred copies on his regional label, Jerden. Northwest music fans were already familiar with "Louie" as released by Richard Berry (1956), the Wailers (1961), and Paul Revere and the Raiders (who recorded their version in the same studio within a few days of the Kingsmen session). The Kingsmen fought it out with the Raiders on local radio for a few months. Somehow, the Kingsmen version found its way to the East Coast, where a couple of Boston stations played it, generating a huge response from listeners. Jerry Dennon entered into an agreement with New York's Wand label for immediate mass pressing and distribution. Wand worked the record effectively and "Louie" rapidly broke out in several markets, climbing the charts. As it began to drop, a controversy regarding the lyrics spread across America. The record was banned from sales and airplay in Indiana and elsewhere which, of course, stimulated even more interest; so much so that Wand reissued "Louie" in 1964 (and in 1965 and 1966). The record reached #2 in Billboard and #1 in Cashbox. The band's first LP resulted from a live recording in 1963 at The Chase, a teen nightclub in Milwaukie, Oregon (production costs were less than $800). Wand included the studio version of "Louie" to which they added taped crowd noise to simulate a live performance (a practice Wand continued for several subsequent studio LPs). "Money," their second Wand single was taken from the live LP. Many more releases followed. At one point, the Kingsmen had two singles and three LPs on the charts at the same time. They became the #1 touring band in the United States. In 1965, during a series of one-nighters, they set fifty-six consecutive attendance records in colleges, ballrooms, arenas, state fairs, and community dances. Many promoters used the Kingsmen as a promotional gimmick to "repel" the British Invasion (a joke to the band, as they loved that music). They appeared in concert and on television with the Rolling Stones, Zombies, Kinks, Searchers, Peter and Gordon, Chad and Jeremy, Dusty Springfield, and others; and North American acts such as the Beach Boys, Righteous Brothers, Four Seasons, Isley Brothers, Guess Who, Turtles, Shangri-Las, Byrds, Lovin' Spoonful, Kinckerbockers, and all their Scepter/Want label mates. They were featured on the top TV music shows including Shindig, Hullabaloo, American Bandstand, Lloyd Thaxton, Action; and in the beach party movie, "How to Stuff a Wild Bikini." With two breaks (during the psychedelic and disco eras), and several personnel changes along the way, they have performed ever since at concerts, corporate events, beach parties, and "Louie Louie" parades throughout North America. Three of the Kingsmen, Mike Mitchell, Dick Peterson, and Barry Curtis, have been together since 1963.

JIMMY HANNA & THE DYNAMICS

Parker's Ballroom Seattle’s venerable old Parker's Ballroom (which opened in 1930 on the "New Seattle-Everett Highway," now known as Aurora Avenue N) holds a unique place in Northwest music history. Like a few other local dancehalls, it spanned all of the sequential musical era’s from the wild jazz days of the Prohibition Era right on up through the forties swing scene, from the rise of rock ‘n’ roll in the fifties, to the psychedelic sixties, and onwards to the heavy metal, disco, and punk rock scenes of the seventies. Unlike most other historic dancehalls though, Parker’s still stands.
A Remarkable Architectural Marvel
The roadhouse was founded by its namesake, Dick Parker (d. 1940), a meatpacker by trade, who purposefully limited his search for a building site to those located just outside of Seattle’s northern city limits (then drawn at 85th Street). This was in an effort to escape various harsh city ordinances that restricted public dancing and other nightlife activities. In the end Parker acquired a 5-acre plot at 170th Street on the "New Seattle-Everett Highway" and in 1929 construction got underway.
Parker's self-built hall was some sort of a remarkable architectural marvel: the thing was basically a 20,000 square foot wide-open dance floor with absolutely no posts obstructing. When Dick Parker's Pavilion opened for business in 1930, they kicked off a long streak of booking popular local acts (including Putt Anderson & his Dixieland Band, and orchestras led by Frankie Roth, Burke Garrett, and Max Pillar) and a number of national stars as Tommy Dorsey’s, Guy Lombardo’s, and Jan Garber's orchestras.
With alcohol Prohibition still in effect and the Great Depression dragging the economy down, times were so tough that by 1932 Parker had resorted to advertising his dancehall as “Dick Parker’s Roller Rink” in order to attract a different clientele -- skaters. Sometime after Parker passed on in 1940 (and with his wife Dodie following soon thereafter) the hall was inherited by family and one sister, Kelma Shoemaker, took over as manager.
Seattle's Segregated Music Scene
The years went by and the big-band dances continued, but by the mid-fifties a younger crowd was developing an interest in the new rockin’ R&B sounds that were gaining momentum. Although Seattle had a couple pioneering R&B acts active at the time, they were not being booked at Parker’s nor at other major halls. The main reason being: This was still a day and age when the town was saddled with two different -- and racially segregated -- musicians unions, each of which had their turf well marked. The bigger, and white, union (AFM No. 76) claimed the lucrative downtown hotels and ballrooms and north-end rooms while the other, black, union (AFM No. 493) necessarily settled for the nightclubs in the central city and the strip of rooms south of downtown spread along Jackson Street.
Times were changing though -- and in fact the two unions finally merged in 1956 -- but not without a few skirmishes. It was that year that KCPQ-TV (Channel 13) decided to produce a new teen-dance show, Rock 'n' Roll Party. The problem was, they’d chosen a black band (Billy Tolles & the Vibrators) as the program’s host band and they wanted to broadcast it live from Parker's -- a room that was traditionally within AFM No. 76’s “zone.”
The late Dave Lewis, another local black bandleader, once recalled that Parker’s also wanted to hire his combo for some shows, but the white union balked and pointedly reminded the hall’s management that the north-end was still their area and that the booking of black acts there just couldn’t be allowed without risking the mounting of a boycott picket-line. Parker’s brave reply was nonnegotiable: Either the union would overlook their hiring of Billy Tolles’ group and the Dave Lewis Combo or the hall would never hire local white musicians to perform there again. To Lewis’ recollections, accommodations were suddenly made and a new era began with the Rock ‘n’ Roll Party.
One Legendary Night
Meanwhile the top white teen band in town, the Frantics, became the first combo to sign a recording contract with the new local label, Dolton Records. Dolton had just gotten off to a remarkable start by issuing a No. 1 national hit by the Olympia-based teen vocal trio, the Fleetwoods. Then the label signed the Frantics (who also cut a few 45s that became national hits) and began booking the two acts together at live shows – including one legendary night at Parker’s. It was on February 21, 1959, that the Fleetwoods and Frantics both performed there as opening acts for a visiting star, Bobby Darin. And, in fact, the Frantics were actually hired to play with Darin who came out west without a band. The Frantics’ bassist, Jim Manolides, once recalled that:
“We got this job at Parker's on a Sunday night. We knew for several weeks that we got this big gig coming so we already knew his [hit] songs -- “Splish Splash,” “Plain Jane,” “Queen Of The Hop” -- but in this case we learned both sides of all his records! So, he brings his own piano player with him, Dick Berke, and we play Parker’s. He loved it! He was just thrilled! The place was packed! There were 1200 people. And after he does his little show he came and joined the band! He sang Ray Charles' "I've Got A Woman" with us and then he started playin' the piano a little bit and he was singin' -- and playin' the drums! He just loved it and had a really good time” (Interview).
Jerry Lee's Dance Shoes
By that point Parker's Ballroom was the hottest dancehall around, but then something occurred that caused the hall to suddenly ban rock 'n' roll shows outright. The last straw for management was the night that that Jerry Lee Lewis performed there. Besides whipping the crowd into a riotous frenzy, the maniacal Lewis also had the poor judgment to leap upon the house's new piano (as per his usual live routine) to dance. Well, so the story goes, Mrs. Shoemaker rushed out on the stage mid-song driving the rockabilly wildman down with a broom and publicly scolding him for scratching her instrument with his shoes.
As a direct result of that incident the management swore that there would henceforth be no more rock 'n' roll dances at Parker’s. This turn of events was a sore loss to area teens, but after a year passed one ambitious young band, the Viceroys, somehow convinced the house that their crowd was well-behaved and around late 1960 they were given one shot. The Viceroys -- and an audience that apparently understood what all was at stake -- managed to successfully pull off a dance that went without any untoward altercations. Rock 'n' roll was back to stay at Parker’s.
For years (after Prohibition ended in 1934) Parker’s existed as “bottle club” whereby customers brought in their own booze (kept in a brown paper bag under their tables) and the house sold them “set-ups” -- a glass half-full of ice and perhaps some mixer. This arrangement was the legally prescribed way of running a club right up until 1961 when political leaders (in anticipation of the throngs of visitors expected to attend the upcoming 1962 World’s Fair) loosened a number of overly-restrictive old laws pertaining to nightlife, including strict noise ordinances and rules for liquor establishments. As a result, Parker’s was among the many local rooms that were finally free to sell beer and/or other alcoholic beverages.
Teen-Dances of the Sixties
Around that same time, Parker’s and Shoemaker’s nephews, Vern Amondson and Skip Horn, took over management and teen-dances became a weekend staple there for years. Many nights saw crowds in excess of 1,000 show up to dance to hit acts like the Beach Boys and Them (w/ Van Morrison).
But mainly, it was the Northwest stars like Paul Revere & the Raiders, the Kingsmen, the Sonics, and the Wailers who fueled so many dances there over the years. But it was another local combo, the Dynamics, who were the hottest draw at the hall and after recording a gig there, the resultant The Dynamics with Jimmy Hanna LP was issued in 1964 to great success. The album’s liner notes (as penned by label head, Tom Ogilvy) accurately noted the band’s significant influence on locals:
“If you were at Parkers’ Ballroom in Seattle recently, then you witnessed a new trend. The Dynamics were present and smokin’ with a big band sound. This has become a regular event for various kinds of fans whether they be listeners, members of other musical groups or just people who like to burn by knee-poppin’ across the dance floor.”
The Dynamics were a genuine phenomena, their LP became an essential in the record collection of every fan of the horn-driven “Northwest Sound,” and Parker’s Ballroom became solidified as the center of the north-end’s teen-dance action.
From the Sixties to Psychedelic
As the years went by Parker’s would successfully weather the changing times -- but only by going through radical updates. In 1970 the hall was recast as the psychedelic black-light drenched Aquarius Tavern. And although its first scheduled dance in this new incarnation was a flop -- the Buddy Miles Express was a no-show -- the place succeeded very well over the years bringing in such acts that ranged from A–Z, including (to name but a few): Aerosmith, America, BTO, Badfinger, the Byrds, Albert Collins, the Guess Who, Albert King, the Ohio Players, Johnnie Otis, the Righteous Brothers, Al Stewart, George Strait, Muddy Waters, Koko Taylor, Toots & the Maytals, the Ventures, and Warren Zevon.
In addition, a whole new generation of local bands – including Burgundy Express, Bighorn, and a group called Heart -- developed sizeable fan-bases in part because of their Aquarius appearances. In fact, one of Heart’s shows there in 1975 was captured live on tape and a few years later (after they’d broken out as an international hit act) those recordings were issued on the Magazine LP. But there were many other legendary nights at the hall including the time several years later when Motown superstar Stevie Wonder made a surprise visit to sit in and sing a few songs with Bernadette Bascom and her funky dance band, Epicentre.
Reincarnations and Further Reincarnations
By 1980 the hall required some spiffing up and the owners committed themselves to a $1,000,000 remodel in an effort to revamp it as a full-blown “supper-club.” With an all-new commercial kitchen, the renamed Parker’s Restaurant also continued to bring in major touring stars like Elvin Bishop, Blue Oyster Cult, Ray Charles, Joe Cocker, Crowded House, Joan Jett, B. B. King, Marshall Tucker, John Mayall, Simply Red, and Tina Turner, before (in recent years) reincarnating yet once again -- this time into a gambling joint called Parker’s Sports Bar & Casino (17001 Aurora Avenue N).
Sources:The Dynamics with Jimmy Hanna LP, The Dynamics, Bolo Records (BLP 8001), 1964; Sally McDonald, "Now It’s Parker’s Again and Dancing Cheek to Cheek," North Times, July 2, 1980; Rick Nelson, "Headliners At Parker’s Since ’71," Tacoma News Tribune, March 30, 1993; Pete Blecha Interviews with Skip Horn, October 5, 1989; Billy Tolles (The Vibrators), 1993, 2000; Dave Lewis, 1983-1995; Ron Woods, Terry Afdem, Jimmy Hanna (The Dynamics), 1983-1988; Jim Valley (The Viceroys), 1983; Jim Manolides, Ron Peterson (The Frantics), 1984-1998; Ann & Nancy Wilson (Heart), 1998.

MY MUSIC ROOM

This is my music room .I like to play along with differant styles, Blues, Rock, whatever strikes me.

VENICE BLEW ME AWAY

If I could take my entire family and all my friends, I would live in Venice for the rest of my life . It was like an alternate universe. Every place we went we had a new way of looking at life ,no stop signs no crosswalks no motorcycles and no cars. Boats everywhere ,Garbage boats ,Mail boats ,Fire Boats,Boats like subways leaving every ten minutes, just amazing.
The Art was everywhere too. I thought it was so magnificent and rich with the history and wealth of the city thru the century's,the trading deals signed and brokered thru the powers that be down thru the years just intrigued me.

CAMBRIDGE ENGLAND

My son and his wife and there son ( our Grand son) live in Cambridge England where he teaches so I guess the water theme with the canals is working for him. My wife and I visited in 2003 and had a great time.

JUST LOOKING AT THE WATER

This is how I relax. Most of the time I work but I enjoy getting up early and watching the boats on the sound,and sometimes I go out fishing .

CLAPTON IS ANOTHER ONE OF THE BEST IN MY BOOK

Hendrix was a "major influence" on Clapton, and that his "driven, fuzz-tone blues opened up a whole new world of possibilities for the electric guitar." The most visible influence Jimi had on Eric was actually fashion. During his stint with Cream, Clapton started wearing psychedelic clothing, and even went so far as to perm his hair like Hendrix. In addition, Jack Bruce wrote the main riff to Sunshine Of Your Love after seeing Jimi for the first time at the first proper Experience gig at the Saville Theatre in London. From: Eric Clapton

I LOVE PLAYING GUITAR

Hendrix was the first guitar player I heard that changed the way I listened to music .It may have been the way he used words or the composition of the chords and notes but it wasn't your normal three chord progression that was going on at the time .
I thought at the time that his growing up in Seattle and going to Garfield High School was kind of like" home town boy does good"and his music did change everyone's view of rock and roll forever.


After all the jacks are in their boxes
And the clowns have all gone to bed
You can hear happiness
Staggering on down street
Footprints dressed in red
And the wind whispers Mary
A broom is drearily sweeping
Up the broken pieces of yesterday's life
Somewhere a Queen is weeping
Somewhere a King has no wife
And the wind it cries Mary
The traffic lights they turn blue tomorrow
And shine their emptiness down on my bed
The tiny island sags downstream'
Cause the life they'd lived is dead
And the wind screams Mary
Will the wind ever remember
The names it has blown in the past
And with this crutch, its old age and its wisdom
It whispers "No, this will be the last"
And the wind cries Mary

HENDRIX