Chapter 7
Hollywood


Everything was beginning to jell for us in 1967. We had virtually retained all of  the same players for a couple of years. The band was very tight, and our show was sharper than it had ever been. Dan Silas was doing a magnificent job as the voice of the Boogie Kings. I was always proud to have Dan as the M.C.  Dan is of American Indian descent, and his unique look made him a natural front man. Flashing a beautiful smile, together with his good looks and a command of the English language, gave the band a nice touch of class.
    Duane was beginning to excel as a front man vocalist. His Otis Redding imitations were upsetting crowds everywhere. I can remember nights at the Blue Bull in Baton Rouge where the people would stand on the tables when Duane's set would come up.   Although Jerry Lacroix had the star spot in the show, there were many nights where Duane skunked him.  Together, they were both dynamite.  I always liked for the vocalists to be competitive. It made them work harder.  I must admit that Jerry Lacroix always gave 110% on every gig.  That is why the audiences loved him so much.  Whatever he was like offstage, he was a different person on stage.  The only thing was that he didn't care much, one way or the other, what the goals of the band were.  He knew that as long as he was as great as he was, that no one would say too much.   I often asked myself, ‘Why is it, that the world's greatest white blues singer can't realize that he had the ten best backup musicians in the business"?  Jerry always seemed to be a world all his own, choosing not to  engage in the politics of the band.  I never was one of his favorite people.  I think I tried too hard to gain his respect.  I am happy to say that today, we are close, and the best of friends.  But, unfortunately, at that time, we really had a personality clash that impeded our success.
    I was divorced from Cathie now and I didn't know what to do with myself. I was making money hand over fist Duane and I had so many hundred dollar bills, we didn't know where to hide them! We had gigs everywhere!
     The Bamboo Hut was located right on the beach in Galveston and it was frequented by beautiful girls in bikinis. One evening, a fine looking woman from Houston came up to me on a break and handed me her phone number with a message on it that read, "call me later."  I made that phone call as soon as the gig was over. Sex was so easy in those days. When I went to her place later that night, she answered the door in a very revealing teddy and I knew she was a score.  We made love several times and several ways that night. I dated her for a few weeks and we had a lot of fun together.
    I had so much cash, I decided to buy a car. I selected a brand-new T-Bird, paid seven grand cash for it, and still had a ton of money left over. That T-Bird turned out to be the biggest lemon in the world. But, what the hell, I didn't care because I had a four-track stereo in it to play my Dinah Washington tapes. I was hot on the "Vanilla Fudge" group, and anyone who rode with me to a gig knew that they were in for some good tapes and excellent pot, to which there seemed to be no end.  1967 was the most exciting and productive period in the long history of the band.
    It was in this year that Duane Yates gave some of the most spectacular performances that I have ever seen any white man give. Some nights he would have the crowds so mesmerized, you would have thought he was Elvis!  Even though the vocalists that preceded Duane presented him with an almost insurmountable challenge, Duane more than lived up to it.   He, in fact, surpassed it.   Many people think it was Jerry and G.G. that performed with us in Hollywood and Las Vegas, it was really, in fact, Duane Yates that pulled us through the big shows. With the possible exception of his laryngitis in the first six weeks of his Boogie Kings career, Duane has never, in the thirty years that we have been together, given me a second rate performance. He is the most consistent vocalist that I have ever seen. It is my sincere hope that his hit record is right around the corner.
    When I booked Hollywood and Las Vegas, the band was ecstatic. We all thought this was going to be the break that we needed. Could this be the year of the Boogie Kings?  At last?
     I was still having tremendous problems with Jerry Lacroix. It befuddled me why I could never get this man to be a team player. J erry was one of the greatest white blues vocalists that I have ever heard, but his only agenda seemed to be to abuse himself and the band. I have made some sharp criticisms of Jerry and I have revealed the fact that Jerry and I were adversaries, but there is something I did not reveal. Even though Jerry fought against my programs, and questioned by integrity constantly, I knew that I was working every day to achieve the success that the great Boogie Kings band deserved.  I always thought that Jerry would realize that much of my work was on his behalf. I do want to say, in print, that on any given day, Jerry would put on a performance that could never be equaled by any white man on this planet. It is my sincere hope that some day Jerry might snap and take his rightful place in the Boogie Kings band. Of all the great white soul singers, Jerry was definitely the most soulful of them all.
            We had retained all of the same players for about three years. The band was very tight and our show was sharper than it had ever been. Dan Silas was doing a magnificent job as the voice of the Boogie Kings. Jerry Lacroix had left the band and Duane Yates and Gary Walker were fronting the show now.  I was always proud to have Dan as the M.C.
        Sam Montel suggested that we do a live album at the Bamboo Hut in Galveston. We all thought this was a great idea.  Bert Frilot, a genius in the studio, was selected to engineer the live recording.  We plugged it for a couple of weeks, and on the fourth of July in 1967, we actually recorded it.   Bert Frilot came from Houston with a big stereo recorder and a couple of mikes.   He simply put a mike in front of each speaker.   We were supposed to tape the first show as a rehearsal, and the second show would be an actual tape. Bert  taped the first show and then left with the tapes, not realizing that there was a second show,  and we settled for the tape of the first show.   We never realized that recording would become so much of a classic collector's item.  I was asked to write the liner notes, so I got as stoned as I could, and let the thoughts flow,  If you have ever read the liner notes, you can tell what was in my head at the time. There are some hidden messages in these notes and I wish I could take some of those comments back.  The Bamboo Hut was located right on the beach in Galveston and it was frequented by singers, Jerry Lacroix's superb rendition of "Rainbow 65" will always stand alone, in a class by itself.
        Jerry's last night with the Boogie Kings of the Sixties was a memorable one.  He had been unsettled for months, and to be quite frank, his topsy turvy moods were affecting the band in a negative way.
        One Saturday night, the shit hit the fan!  Jerry knew that I had an extreme dislike for the tune, Bonie Maronie:  So this particular night,  he called that tune on his first show, pissing me off to the max. I don't know why this particular tune got under my skin as it did, but I always thought that a great artist like Lacroix could have picked better material to do.  After the first show, I approached Jerry and asked him not to call that tune anymore because it sucked.   I guess I ruffled his feathers real bad because on his second show, he called "Bonie Maronie" again.   I'm not quite sure whether I was fed up with the tune, or If I was fed up with Jerry, I just know I was fed up.  While the tune was In progress, I started blasting wrong notes as loud as I could right in Jerry's ear. He turned around and stared at me with daggers in his eyes and gave me a look that could kill.  He then put the mike on the stand, walked off the stage and right out the front door, and out of my life, at least for a while.  This was two weeks before we were to leave for Hollywood and Las Vegas.
    The band was shocked that Jerry would quit two weeks before the Hollywood/Vegas gig, but that was Jerry's style.  It seems so trivial now, that we would play those mind games with each other.
    The Boogie Kings toured California and Nevada in the Summer of 1967.  This was right after we had recorded "The Boogie Kings Live at the Bamboo Hut."  We were especially apprehensive about making this tour, because as usual, the band was in chaos and internal battles of the ego abounded.  We decided to take the tour, despite the fact that we had just lost Jerry.  However, we were fortunate enough to sign the great Gary Walker, who had worked with us many times before.  Duane was now holding down the star spot, a spot that he richly deserved, and had worked very hard for.
        Once again, we struck out for the West Coast, not knowing what fate had in store for us.  To tell you the truth, we needed a break from the Gulf Coast night club scene.   
    We played San Francisco first.  This was right in the middle of the hippie revolution, so needless to say, we looked quite formal in comparison to the rag-tag appearance of the hipple psychedelic bands of the time;  but we stuck to our game plan and kept on pumping out our Louisiana style of Blues.  I think they liked it in San Francisco because we got a lot of dates with some wild ass women, (those of us who were single). The club owner, Don Zirilli, was happy and we had a couple of weeks of after-hours partying at the club.
        We heard about a big Jazz Festival in Monterey, California.  Janis Joplin, Otis Redding and Jimi Hendrix were featured artists, so we decided to take it in.  We were big fans of all three of them.  Janis was from Port Arthur, and I wanted to apologize to her for not letting her sit in with the Boogie Kings, a couple of years earlier.  At the time, none of us thought that she would amount to anything.  Wrong!   We also wanted to say hello to Otis Redding, who was a very dear friend that we had performed with in Lake Charles.  When we got there, we looked up Janis, and found that Otis was in the same tent.  After some fast talking, Duane, Gary and I were able to get a backstage pass and we found Janis' tent.  To our surprise, Janis and Otis and Jimi were sharing a joint of some knocked out California weed.  They invited us to share and introduced us to Jimi Hendrix, who was an up and coming force in the rock world.  Jimi told us that he had been hearing good things about the Boogie Kings and said he would catch a show when we got to Hollywood.  That concert turned out to be one of the greatest concerts ever held in California, and we stood on the     
side of the stage during the whole thing.  Wow, what a memory!
        After the Monterrey Jazz Festival, we headed for the Sunset Strip in Hollywood.  This was our big chance to see where we stood In the music capital of the world.  The first night we performed in Hollywood was very strange.  They danced to our fast tunes, but no one danced to our slow tunes.  We learned later that if one plays on the strip, slow music will put the audience to sleep. We  reluctantly changed our entire show and began playing nothing but fast tunes and boogie stuff.  That seemed to do the trick, as night after night, the celebrities started coming in. It began with Glen Campbell and Bill Medley and Bobby Hatfield (The Righteous Bros.) and then came the Buffalo Springfield, Sam the Sham, Roy Head, and Berry Gordy, Jr. with Motown.   Everybody loved it and we were back on top again.
    One Friday night, the club owner Tony Ferra asked if we would like to play at the Hullabaloo, which was a teenage nightclub and television show in Hollywood.  Tony said, "If these kids like you, you'll make it all the way."  We were up for the challenge and accepted the gig.  When the curtains opened, there were about three thousand kids in this auditorium, hungry to be entertained. We started the show with our usual theme and played a couple of Kings Bros. selections, but we couldn't generate anything but polite applause. I remember thinking to myself, "Could it be that we got this close to the goal line and fumbled the ball on the one yard line?"  We were looking at each other with a feeling of helplessness, playing our best material, and could not seem to upset the crowd at all.  In a moment of frustration, we decided we had nothing to lose, so I asked Duane to sing "Try A Little Tenderness" a slow, real emotional blues song, and the way we were feeling must have come out in the song.  Duane lived up to it and sang one of the most soulful renditions of that tune that I ever heard a white man sing.  It was chilling!  When that number was over, the crowd was on its feet, applauding and screaming like there was no tomorrow.  Every song we played after that was greeted with the same reaction. When the curtain came down, ten coonasses were hugging each other with alligator tears rolling down their cheeks. That was the finest hour that the Boogie Kings of the Sixties ever had. The players that performed that night will never forget it.  Duane and I decided to live the whole Hollywood experience. We each got an apartment on Hollywood Boulevard. We were positive that we would be discovered and propelled into a world famous act.
    All of a sudden, from out of nowhere, the new star of the show, Duane announced that he was quitting. This all came about because one of the record companies had convinced Duane that he could be a star without the band.  This follows the pattern set forth by G.G.. and once again, we would have to rebuild our show.  Anyway, I wished Duane good luck and I called Little Alfred, a great soul singer from Lake Charles. We put him on a plane, flew him to Hollywood, and he worked with us the very night after Duane left.
        We made an attempt to change the name of the band to "The American Soul Train."  The "Buffalo Springfield," a very popular group hired the horn section to play on their second album, "Buffalo Springfield Again."  Also, we managed to salvage a deal with RCA and we were put in the recording studio. These recordings were only demos.  Gary Walker and Little Alfred each recorded about four tunes.  This was the period where Duane had quit for a while, so he missed out on this recording session.  But we still had not signed a contract.
        After a few nights of sitting in the audience, Duane realized that people were still cheering and applauding the band, just as before.  Add to this fact that big record deal fell through, Duane had a change of heart.   The word was out all over Hollywood about the Boogie Kings and celebrities were coming out and supporting us tremendously.  Everyone who knew us wondered why we didn't sign a major record deal at this time.  We had offers to sign with Columbia, RCA, MGM, and Motown to name a few.   The only problem was that the Boogie Kings voted on everything.  All of the record companies wanted a seven year minimum contract. The coonass mentality in the band, convinced the guys that seven years was too long a time period for us to be tied up. I was trying to convince the guys that seven years with a major company could give us nothing but a world of fame and success. But the negative side of the band prevailed, and we would leave Hollywood with no record deal.  We passed up the best opportunity that the band ever had, much to my regret.  I lost a great deal of my enthusiasm at this time, and ended up back on drugs.  We were never again offered a major record deal.
      Duane finally came back to the band. We finished up the Hollywood gig on a very successful note and headed for Las Vegas.  Our gig was at the "Pussy Cat A-Go-Go" on the strip. This was the hottest Rock n' Roll club on the strip.  We were to follow Ike and Tina Turner and precede "Sly and the Family Stone."  These were two of the most popular acts in Rhythm n' Blues at the time.  It was the strongest competition that we had ever faced.  I was very anxious to see how we would fare against big time professional competition.  The first few nights were rough. Gary Walker contracted laryngitis, or as it was called, "Vegas Throat." Finally, after a few days, we started to come together again and we began to be accepted by the Vegas Crowd.  The band was no longer doing "speed" or "amphetamines." I had quit through my own will power. No one was using hard drugs, everyone enjoying a milder cannibas high, and a few beers.
Apparently, all of this did not satisfy my players.  A band meeting was called two days before we left Las Vegas.  Jack Hall made the announcement.  He looked at me and said, "Ned, we've decided to replace you as leader and continue as a co-op band."  This hit me as a ton of bricks right between the eyes. It was the last thing that I expected to hear.  I could not believe that after all of my trials and tribulations with this band, that they would turn on me like a snake.  I was stunned, and I thought surely that I had enough votes to survive this challenge.  So, I made my statement, which went, "I don't know what more I can do for you guys than to book you in Hollywood and Vegas for top money. What's the fucking problem?"  I told Jack Hall that I'd like to take a vote myself. I took that vote and was very embarrassed to find that everyone, with the exception of my good friend Dan, voted against me.  Still undaunted by the mutiny, I felt entitled to ask for a reason for this stupid move.  What had I done to make all of these guys hang me out to dry?
    I went down the line and asked the guys one by one for a reason. None of the guys could give me a reason until I got to Gary Dorsey.  He very calmly stated, "You're an ass hole!"   I immediately broke into a fit of laughter, and when I picked myself up off the floor, I looked at Gary and said, "You're absolutely right.  I am an ass hole, and that would be the only reason that I could accept."
On that fateful night,   I was removed as leader, the Las Vegas gig was over, and the band headed back home. Over the next couple of years, the band would struggle to stay alive.  But I was not finished yet.  I was really dazed and confused after the band turned on me.  I wondered if I had what it takes to continue after I was demoted and humiliated in front of my band.  I really doubted that the Boogie Kings could survive as a co-op band.  There was just too much chaos, drugs and ego trips.  But I decided that I had enough clout to put another group together with some strong players and that I would prove to them that they had made a huge mistake by trying to destroy me.  My mission was not completed, and I had to go on.
CHAPTER 8