Chapter4

CHAPTER 4
Clint West

   The year was 1964 and Clint West was now the leader of the band. Things were great in 1964. Gas was cheap, vehicles were inexpensive, and cigarettes were two-bits a pack in most machines. This year would prove to be very eventful for the band. The Bamboo Club in Lake Charles was going great guns, as was the Big Oaks Club in Vinton. Clint West, GG Shinn and Gary Walker were singing with the band. This would be the last year that the band would be unorganized. But even as unorganized as the politics of the band were, the performance level was at a peak that would never again be reached. We were making great money, the groupie situation was fabulous, and there was pills and booze everywhere.
   We were playing in Monroe at "Smitty" Smith's Dynasty Club on Louisville Avenue and the crowds were terrific. Some of the pharmacy students would give us pills of every kind. Some uppers, some downers. We didn't care. We would take the uppers to play the gig and the downers to sleep. We were doing a lot of driving at the time. We had two vans with the name "Boogie Kings" painted in huge letters on both vans.   We wanted to attract attention. Norman "Toro" land was our roadie. He has since gone on to become one of the most successful booking agents in the state. Some of our fans would follow us to every city that we played in.
   Clint was a strong force in the band. He was also a wonderful blues vocalist, specializing In James Brown and B. B. King tunes. We had rehearsed the entire "James Brown at the Apollo" album. The Boogie Kings performed this medley of James Brown hits as well as James ever thought of playing it. Intense!
   Jack Hall moved from bass to guitar and Clint hired Johnny Giordana, an excellent bassist, keyboardist and vocalist. Johnny added a great deal to the band with his playing. I remember the first time I met Johnny. He invited us over to his house in Monroe, and while we were there, he broke out a jar of the most beautiful weed that I had ever seen. We rolled it up, but when we tried to smoke it, everyone broke into coughing spasms. We thought that it must have been some good smoke to make us cough that much. We found out later that Johnny, being the practical joker that he was, had us smoking oregano.
   Floyd Soileau, owner of Jin Records, put us in the studio and recorded the first Boogie Kings album. We made a serious mistake at that time by letting the album get released as "Clint West and the Boogie Kings." We should never have linked a singer's name to the band. That has proven to be a thorn in our side throughout the whole Boogie Kings era. Of course, we had no choice, because Clint was the one that got the record deal with Floyd. Clint's rendition of "The Twelfth Of Never" is a fine a recording as it represents the best of Clint.
   Some of the vocalists that followed Clint were to take the name linkage and use it as a weapon against the band for years to come. The Boogie Kings have always been measured and described as the sum total of all its parts. In other words, no one individual is responsible for the sound of this great band. It was always a team effort. I tried to keep it that way, but the public chose to link the singers with the name anyway.
      We were playing primarily at the Big Oaks, the Bamboo Club, the Continental in Beaumont and Paul's Lounge in Bossier City. After the Bossier City gigs, we would all meet at a place called the "Kickapoo Restaurant" and pill talk till the sun would come up. Again, there were pills floating around everywhere, and the cops were not really aware of how widespread the pharmaceutical drug scene was. They were busy chasing real criminals. We were the benefactor of the generosity of all of the local pill heads who loved to share.
      We were very hot in Monroe, playing for a truly unforgettable man called "Smitty "Smith. Smitty gave me some great advice, as he had been in the club scene for a long time. He told me to keep my day job. He had a club called the Dynasty Lounge. It was in this club that I had some of the greatest times of my life. This is where I met my second wife, Cathie. The Candlelight Inn in Lake Charles, home of the famous Midnight Skinny Dippers, was my home. It was 1964!
   I had re-arranged all of the tunes for the "Clint West and the Boogie Kings" album. This album is still available in CD format on the boogiekings.com website. but had it been recorded with today's technology, I am sure it would rank as the greatest, purest Boogie Kings album of all time. I thought that Clint's vocal rendition of "The Twelfth of Never" was a classic. The instrumental tunes on this album were some of the hardest hitting numbers that the band ever played. Some examples are, "Oakie, Dokie Stomp," "Night Train," "Boogie Chillun," "Honky Tonk Part III," and of course, "Choo Choo Locomotion," which has always been our theme song.
   The Boogie Kings horn section of 1964 was probably the best honking section that the Boogie Kings ever had. Dig this lineup! It included Ned Theall, G.G. Shinn, Norris Badeaux, Mike Pollard, Murphy Buford and Dan Silas. That horn section could blow any other horn section off the planet The late Norris Badeaux was a monster and a genius on tenor sax. It is a great shame that some of his greatest solos were never captured on tape. The man was incredibly gifted. "Bado" as we called him, had a hard jazz and rock sound and the man simply played his ass off at all times. Mike Pollard had more of a pure rock n' roll sound than the other sax players. His sound on recordings is yet to be duplicated by anyone in this area. Mike has always had the uncanny ability to play perfect harmony to anything. This, combined with his letter perfect solos, set a precedent in the band that still lives today. As this book is being written Mike is still performing occasionally with the band and his contribution to the Boogie Kings will be there as long as the band survives.
   The band was being ravaged by pills of every size and shape. Uppers, downers, and anything else that would make a person crazy. We were slowly drifting toward a band that was driven by drugs. I can remember all night meetings with the whole band buzzing, where we would discuss the most idiotic things over and over. Paranoia and distrust were sneaking into the band as we were unaware that we were all becoming junkies.
   Clint was having marital problems and would miss a gig occasionally, much to the displeasure of the band. I remember one night in particular, at the Continental Club in Beaumont.   It was nine o' clock and Clint was nowhere to be found. I was sitting on the organ bench, cussing to myself, when this kid walked up to me and asked, "What's wrong?" I looked up and standing there was a skinny little albino kid with a big smile on his face. If I told the kid, "You wouldn't understand." The kid replied, "Try me." I said, "Our drummer didn't show up and we can't play without a drummer." To which he came back with, "I can cut the gig." Laughingly, I said, "Kid, you don't weigh a hundred pounds and you're far too young to understand the music that we play." He repeated in his quiet little voice, "I can cut the gig." I then said, "You've got a lot of balls son, but for some reason, I believe you. How long have you been playing the drums?" He replied, "Well, I'm not a drummer, I'm a trumpet player, but I can cut the gig." I looked hard at this kid and said, "I've got one more question: What's your name?" He said, "Edgar Winter." I told the kid that we would play one number and if he could indeed cut it, he could play the gig. After talking a very reluctant band into playing with this kid on drums, we began to play the gig.   I don't know why, but I just knew deep down in my soul that the kid could play. Just as I thought, he played his ass off on the first tune. We kept going from there and the kid did not miss a lick all night long. In fact, to our great astonishment, he played some tunes better than Clint did. As you know, Edgar has since gone forward to much greatness.
   I was in a position of having the very best of the "rock n' roll, sex and drugs" life and I didn't want to let anyone take that away from me or the guys. The band was now being identified strongly as "Clint West and the Boogie Kings." I loved and respected Clint West and still do, but he should taken his position more seriously. That would prove to be a devastating miscalculation on his part.
   We were asked to play for an all-black audience at Ball's auditorium. Ball's was a very popular venue, constantly featuring the top black artists of the times. We took the gig. It was on a Sunday and the place was jammed. B.B. King did the first show. We did the second. After Mr. King played, he decided to stay for our show. After we played a few tunes, Mr. Reginald Ball came up to the stage and said Mr. King wants to come up and play a couple of tunes with you guys. Well, the crowd was already going nuts over our music, but when B.B. King got on stage with us, sheer pandemonium erupted! The more they screamed, the better we played, and the better we played, the more they screamed! When it was over, B.B. gave all the guys a hug and a handshake, and words of praise for the band. He said we were the blackest band that he ever heard. We took that as an extreme compliment.
   Right before Christmas in 1964, the Moulin Rouge made Clint an offer to be a partner and participate in the profits on a fifty/fifty basis. It was presented to the band, and at first it sounded like a good deal. Clint was to get twenty per cent and the band would split thirty per cent.
   The way the money was to be split sounded strange to me. The thirty per cent that the band was to make had to be split ten ways. This meant that when players would make thirty dollars, Clint would make two hundred. After I put a pencil to it, we realized it was not a good deal. I made Clint aware of the figures, and asked him to take the whole fifty per cent and split it with us. I suggested that Clint take a leader's double share. He, of course, refused, and by refusing, the whole band turned on him.
   We had a band meeting and decided to replace Clint. We would give him an ultimatum. Leave the Moulin Rouge, and go back to the Bamboo Club, or take a hike. Once again, the unanimous vote had come down.   I was elected to deliver the message. After our New Year's Eve gig.   I brought the axe down on Clint. He elected to go his own way and part company with us. I was elected as the new leader of the Boogie Kings. But Clint was not finished messing with us. As a matter of fact, later on he almost whipped us.
Clint formed another group. In fact, it was a powerful group. And he went right on using the name, "Clint West and the Boogie Kings". This would cause much confusion and end up in a law suit later on.