Biloxi - Steve Miller Blues Band - Jimi - Kesey and Cassidy - 1968 - Jabo Starks - Owsleys lab - New Orleans

Sons of Tyme

230### The Crowd Loved It/ The sets with Jimmy’s bands were rehearsed and played without surprises. Jimmy also wanted the band to be visual in a “show biz” manner. He coached me to move around while I played the drum-set.

Jimmy said, “His other drummer did it and the crowd loved it.” When I tried to move and bob my head around like a turtle it felt stupid and diminished my focus from playing the music. A few times I lost balance and fell off the drum-riser.

#19 $$$ Gig July 1968 Beach House Biloxi, Mississippi/ By the end of the summer Jimmy had brokered a deal for Rake and me to leave the Head-Lyters and join The Sons of Tyme. He was fair in not firing us during our brief time with him.

He told us the main reason for the musical change was the vocal sound. Rake and me weren’t quite what his earlier groups sounded like, sweet and refined like The Beach Boys or The Association. James had wanted his old band members in the group from the very beginning. Ironically, James would eventually be replaced. In this deal Jimmy Head also arranged for The Sons of Tyme to be booked by the Hugh Rodgers Agency in Atlanta.

231### Wayne Sharp & Don Garrett/ Rake and me transitioned into a group called Sons of Tyme. Wayne Sharp played Hammond B3 organ. Don Garrett played electric bass. We seamlessly moved from the Fiesta to Frank Schenck’s Beach House. (A few hundred yards away) The money wasn’t as good as The Head-Lyters but it was a steady gig. Wayne, Don and myself were about the same age. Rake was now the elder member.

232### The Sons of Tyme — Franks Beach House/ Wayne and Don had been playing together several years. They were musically tight and very close friends. Rake and me brought an explorative approach to the group, performing more progressive music during this “psychedelic period.” The Sons of Tyme began working on new material that featured musical strengths of each member. We began rehearsing new material from groups like Traffic, Sly, Cream, Hendrix, The Steve Miller Blues Band and Deep Purple. Ian Paice was the first drummer I saw a photo of on a record album playing lefty like me.

The Sons of Tyme became good friends and hung out frequently. This was the first time I’d been in a group when everyone contributed equally towards a creative sound. We listened to music together and enjoyed playing on the Beach House bandstand each night. Music was fun again! I was able to play how I felt with positive encouragement from each member. Everything was fresh and sounded great.

I’d only been playing a year. I had very little technical ability but was able to perform what I heard in my head. The band was equal in musicianship and everyone sang. Wayne’s Hammond B3 and Don’s bass sound was fat, warm and full. I loved the sound on that bandstand at the Beach House. It was natural and dry. My drums sounded great on that stage. I could play as loud as I wanted.

Wayne was from Biloxi and Don was from Little Rock. Don had a nickname, “Gladys” because of his appearance with a pageboy haircut. We joked that he would have been a very unattractive woman.

233### Biloxi August 1968 - John “Jabo” Starks/ One night, I rode with Wayne to a nightclub where George Woods was playing. The club was on the “other side of the tracks.” We were the only teenage “white kids” there. It was a hot, Smokey club like I’d never been in before. The band was on a small stage. The music was loud as possible with the equipment they had. People were dancing, smoking, drinking, listening and having a goodtime.

Playing bass was Lamar Williams. Lamar was from Gulfport. He would later join the Allman Brothers. Playing drums was John “Jabo” Starks. Mr. Starks was on leave from James Brown. Jabo was playing a drum-set that looked like it was held together with tape and wire. None of the drums matched. It was the most memorable —Drum idol— experience of my life. Watching and listening to him play this bastard beat up drum-set demonstrated “It was the musician, not the instrument” that created music and art. Pretty drums can be beautiful to look at but Jabo’s performance embedded my preference for funky drums I can play without fear of scratching them. As an eighteen-year-old drummer, that couldn’t even play a double stroke roll, this was my first wakeup call.

234### Biloxi - August - 1968 - Owsley’s Lab/ There was a small psychedelic club of musicians and nightclub industry types that took part in local happenings. Most of the parties took place at the Bel-Aire Motel or someone’s apartment. These parties eventually migrated to a stilted river house out in the woods. These gatherings incorporated playing music, smoking and chemical research. Like many groups: The Beatles, Stones and bands from the West Coast and New York, musicians “experimented” with mind-expanders. The 1964 New Orleans visit from Ken Kesey, The Pranksters and Neil Cassidy driving the bus began in California at Owsley’s Lab.

The 1968 New Orleans community continued providing many varieties of those powerful, colored, psychoactive tabs. I visited New Orleans several times in 1968. It was always a highly paranoid trip back to Biloxi from New Orleans hoping the police didn’t have a stop and search roadblock along the way.

235### He Drank The Kool-Aid/ After one of these parties a local small time reefer-dealer was busted for a traffic violation. As he spent a night in the Biloxi jail, his buddy —mini-fag—took him some Kool-Aid. Vintage 68 electric spiked with Owsley’s colorful best. That evening the night shift desk clerk was the police chief’s teenage son.

The Biloxi newspaper article quoted, “He drank the Kool-Aid, wild things appeared, the ground moved, colors jumped out of the wall and things looked strange.”

236### Jimi Hendrix/ Though the Sons of Tyme played a variety of music from many groups, the Jimi Hendrix records were my favorites. Mitch Mitchell’s drumming was different from anyone I’d heard. His playing was energized. He was always “going for it.” His grooves and fills were mind blowing. The resonance of his drum-set—recorded by Eddie Kramer captured Mitch’s skillful performance. From Mitch’s playing brushes on Up From The Skies to his full attack on Spanish Castle Magic. I hadn’t heard Elvin Jones with Coltrane yet. Buddy Rich was the only “Jazz Drummer” I could relate his style to.

I wasn’t even analyzing Mitch’s drumming, putting it into any style. I just loved it! I’ve replaced copies of Are You Experienced, Axis Bold As Love and Electric Ladyland several times. The Sons of Tyme played Crosstown Traffic, Fire, Purple Haze, Little Miss Lover, Hey Joe, All Along The Watchtower, Wind Cries Mary, I Don’t Live Today, Let The Good Times Roll, Up From The Skies, Spanish Castle Magic and Manic Depression.

Manic Depression was new because of the three/four groove. Playing the songs triplet rhythm pattern and open fills in a Rock Band was quite different. That winter of 1968, Electric Ladyland, the double LP album was released. Hearing Mitch play the tracks in the studio, knowing these were “live without overdubs” or second takes was impressive.

Mitch sounds more like a jazz drummer playing with Steve Winwood and Jack Casady. His playing on Voodoo Chile 3/4 time signature jazz waltz feel, Open fills triplets around the set and open solo was very new to hear. That record album was my window to improvisation. The after gig hookah party happening favorite if you had a decent stereo system to hear the panning and stereo effects. ‘Quite innovative in 1968’