Larry & The Blue Notes
PERSONNEL:
Rocky Shores, drums; Tommy Skaggs, rhythm guitar; Buddy Bates, guitar (replaced Skaggs); Dan Fletcher, bass; Mike Griffin, drums (replaced Shores); Larry Roquemore, vocals; Larry Slater, guitar; Randy Cates, bass (replaced Fletcher and subsequently replaced by John McDowell); Jack Hammonds, keyboards (later replaced by Tommy Kiser)
BEGINNINGS:
(Larry Slater) - Rocky Shores (his real name), a drummer, recruited me and Larry Roquemore to play a Halloween party in Hurst, Texas, (a Fort Worth suburb) for some of his adult friends. This was in October 1962, and we all were about 13 or 14-years-old. Roquemore and I knew each other (we both went to Elder Junior High in Fort Worth at one time) but had never met or worked together. I brought along a rhythm guitar player, Tommy Skaggs, who knew my stuff, mostly Freddie King instrumentals. Roquemore and I developed a mutual admiration at once.(Larry Roquemore) - I was a Slater fan since the 8th grade when I saw him play "Sleep Walk" in one of the junior high talent shows on a Fender Stratocaster. I even took guitar lessons from Slater's same teacher in Fort Worth, but soon realized I'd better stick to sax. In junior high, I'd performed with a vocal group called the Casual Teens and had joined a band at another junior high called the Countdown Five, doing mostly surf music.(Larry Slater) - After the Halloween gig, I told Roquemore I was rehearsing with another drummer, Mike Griffin, in his garage, of course, and Mike knew a bass player named Dan Fletcher, and would Roquemore like to join us doing vocals and sax? By this time, the English invasion was just getting started so we got Buddy Bates, a rhythm guitar and vocalist, so we could do Beatles-type harmony. In 1964, Randy Cates, the best bass player we had ever heard, replaced Fletcher. We also added Jack Hammonds on vocals and Vox organ. He also did vocals.RELATIONSHIP WITH MAJOR BILL SMITH:
(Larry Roquemore) - We had heard of the Major through the hits he had produced in Fort Worth, Texas, in the early '60s. The Major was a piece of work. He was loud, abrasive, and the joke was he didn't have to hit the control room intercom button to be heard by nervous musicians in the studio. The glass rattled every time he barked a command. He bragged considerably about all the hits he had produced on the first take, such as "Hey Paula." It would have to be a Major screw-up (pardon the pun) for him to let you go back and do it right. But love him or hate him, the Major was the Major, for better or for worse. He did have a reputation for producing hits, and he knew the business perhaps better than anyone in the area. He knew nothing about music ("I don't know a C chord from a cord you use to tie up a package," he'd proclaim. "But I do know hits - and that's a cotton picking smash!") but he did know how to promote. Plus, he had all the connections.The 2 noticable hits scored by the band,were,Night Of The Phantom and the ode to sex,In And Out.The track,Night Of The Phantom was originally titled,Night Of The Sadist.But due to the ultra p.c. sensors,who thought it too ghastly,it was changed to,Night Of The Phantom.Whatever the songs title,it was a viscreal and downright nasty slice of 60's punk.Make no mistake!!!!!!But this writers personal favourie has to be,In And Out.As earlier stated this track is a song about teenage lust!And you can tell!!!!!The savage hacking organ riff,along with the killer fuzz,the kick drums,manic mouth organ and relentless bass,makes me(well for this writer anyways),wanna get up and dance like a mad man!!!!!!!!Like all great rock and roll,its the unknowns that make you sit up and take notice!None so more than Larry And The Blue Notes!!!!
A little on,Night Of The Phantom...........
There are two different versions of this song, entitled "Night Of The Sadist": One with a sax lead and one with a guitar lead. Neither version was released because we went back in and dubbed the word "Phantom" every time "Sadist" occurred. Major Bill Smith was concerned because he believed the FCC would not allow the word "Sadist" on a record in early 1965. I came up with the word "Phantom." At first, the Major wanted to call it "Night Of The Burglar" (Ugh). Ray Hildebrand of Paul and Paula helped us do the vocals on the overdub. Larry Roquemore-Larry Slater were the writers. A number of things inspired the tune: urban legends about the escaped mental patient with a hook on his right hand who used to terrorize parkers in Lover's Lane; a guy dressed in a gorilla suit who used to tap on car windows of couples parking late at night at my old school, Northside High; and tales of a Goat Man who was scaring the crap out of parkers at Lake Worth.
