This post pertains to Como Audio music system owners. I’m trying to get a message sent to all Como Audio radios worldwide through the station aggregator. If I’m successful, then you’re reading this because you saw the message directing you to this website for more information, or I’ve replied to your email query directing you here.
The point of this post is to educate Como Audio users who have no idea what’s been going on with their Internet radio and podcast service and why they can’t access My Favorites. Also, to let you know about a helpful resource.
The Internet radio service was dropped by Frontier Silicon, the Wi-Fi module supplier, due to the cost of maintaining their legacy Wi-Fi modules. The service was taken over by the station aggregator. The aggregator required all audio brands (not just Como Audio) with radios using these older modules to pay an annual fee to continue the Internet radio and podcast service for those radios or else the service would be discontinued on October 31, 2024. Several brands opted not to pay the fee and those users unfortunately have no recourse to have their service restored.
Since Como Audio went out of business 18 months ago and was therefore unable to pay it’s $5,000 fee, I didn’t want Como’s customers to be amongst those that had their Internet radio and podcast service disabled. As Como’s former General Manager and a multiple Como radio owner myself, I launched a GoFundMe campaign to raise the $5,000. I did my best to try to get the word out but I’m only one person and my resources were limited. That said, we successfully raised the $5,000 for the first year’s fee, then we raised another $5k for the second year, plus an additional $1,000 towards year #3’s fee. All of the money was wire transferred to the aggregator who confirmed receipt in late September. Images of those documents were posted to the GFM campaign as well as on Patreon for Como Elite members. The remaining balance of $4,000 for year #3 will be due by October 31, 2026. I expect to start a new GFM campaign to raise that money as we approach that deadline. Also as that deadline approaches I should know more about Como’s fee for 2027 and beyond.
Whether you contributed to the GFM campaign or not, your Como radio will continue to have Internet radio and podcast service until October 31st, 2026, as it was an all or nothing proposition. There was no way to disable service to radios of Como owners who didn’t contribute to the fund.
In addition to Internet radio and podcast service continuing, the My Favorites feature, which allows an almost unlimited storage of your favorite Internet stations and podcasts, has also been transferred to the aggregator. Plus, a new smart radio web portal has been built, both of which would’ve been disabled along with Internet radio and podcasts had the fee not been paid. Frontier Silicon no longer has control over the 75,000 Internet radio stations, 100+k podcasts, My Favorites, or the smart radio portal. As of 10/31/24, these services and features are entirely the responsibility of the station aggregator which is why you cannot access My Favorites.
If you weren’t aware of this Internet radio service situation, you probably also don’t know about Patreon. Please allow me a moment to explain. Around the time Como Audio went away, I started a service on Patreon to report news on the kinds of issues important to Como customers along with other exclusive content, as well as to provide unlimited 24/7/365 tech support, knowing that there would be zero support once Como Audio closed. Having product managed every Como Audio model, no one knows more about Como’s products than I do. There are currently several hundred Como customers taking advantage of this unique resource. The service costs $3 per month and the small income helps me pay a few bills since being let go by Como Audio after 7+ years with the company. There is also a $1/month tier but that doesn’t get you Como news and support.
If you’re not a Como Elite Patreon member, here are some of the topics you’ve missed: GoFundMe updates, an exclusive Q&A with the station aggregator, Como items for sale like Amica speakers and accessories, never before published frequency response specifications for every Como model, product FAQs, features you didn’t know about, tuning HD Radio stations, improving FM reception, how to deal with gremlins, the top Internet stations Como customers are listening to, what happened to the Como Control app and what you can do, the new Musica that almost was, how to tune iHeart radio stations, which universal remote works with Como models, and much more. My 10/30 Patreon post reveals the URL of the new station portal and instructions on how to transfer My Favorites from the Nuvola smart portal to the new portal. If you’re not interested in joining Patreon on a monthly basis, you can purchase just that single post. I also wrote a few posts on Patreon addressing issues some users have experienced (including yours truly) with podcasts, stations not tuning, and issues with the registration code all caused by the transition.
With Como Audio gone, there’s no other source for this kind of information or for technical support. To be perfectly clear, you don’t have to be a Patreon member for your radio to work, but you do have to be a member to access this kind of content and support.
A Holly Dolly Christmas on 8 track tape. Photo by Peter Skiera.
I’m also going to take a few seconds to plug my new YouTube channel while I still have your attention. It’s a fun look back at things like 8 track tapes and other analog music formats as well as vintage audio equipment.
Enjoy your Internet radio and podcast service for the next two years. I hope you’ll contribute to year # 3’s fee when the time comes, especially if you’re getting the next two years for free.
In honor of Halloween, my favorite “holiday” of the year after Christmas, I present an exclusive interview with composer John Massari. Massari is best known for his score to the 1988 cult classic Killer Klowns From Outer Space, but he’s also written and performed music for The Wizard of Speed and Time, The Cell 2, Retro Puppet Master, and the theme to The Ray Bradbury Theater. He’s worked with HBO, MGM, Disney, and Sony Pictures and owns his own sound and music production company, Cinematic SteamPunk.
That’s me on the right in my ‘Killer Klowns’ shirt with the stars of the movie.The actor to my left is laughing because I just said, “Oh, I’m getting a massage!”
Although I’ve never met Massari, a few months back I had the pleasure of meeting some of the people involved with Killer Klowns From Outer Space including the Chiodo brothers who conceived of and wrote the film and designed the Klown masks. I also met the men who played the Klowns in the film along with the three main stars! Now, on with the interview…
My rare first CD release of the KKFOS soundtrack on Percepto Records signed by Massari and the Chiodo brothers. WaxWork records reissued the CD a few years ago but it’s out of print.
Peter: Your audition for the Killer Klowns composer job was more like a contest, wasn’t it?
John: “It was indeed a unique audition process. The Chiodo brothers held auditions where multiple composers submitted their interpretations of what the music for Killer Klowns should sound like. It was competitive, for sure. I fell in love with the film when I saw that gorgeous spaceship in the forest. I’m grateful that my particular musical interpretation resonated with them.”
Peter: I read that the Chiodo brothers asked you to approach the music for the film differently…to use different instruments than you would typically use for certain types of music. Did that take you out of your comfort zone?
John: “It was such a relief NOT to emulate another composer’s horror score. They needed me to distinguish my music for this film. The Chiodo brothers wanted to achieve a particular sound, which involved using unconventional instruments to create a unique atmosphere. I was free to explore new creative avenues, resulting in a score that defined the film’s quirky and otherworldly tone.”
Peter: The Chiodo brothers were pleased you took their film and the music seriously. Why did classical music heavily influence your compositions, especially considering the kind of film it was and that a punk rock band recorded the title track?
John: “Classical music has always been a profound source of inspiration for me, and I felt that incorporating classical elements into the score added depth, richness, and, most importantly, contrast to the overall sound. While the title track by the punk rock band was a defining aspect of the film’s fun identity, I wanted to approach the score with a level of seriousness, that extra something that creatively works with the campiness. The juxtaposition of classical influences with the film’s crazyness (sic) creates a unique experience for the audience.”
Peter: What was the most challenging aspect of developing the soundtrack besides the low budget and very short time frame?
John: “My first step was composing all the thematic material. I originally wrote the piece known as ‘The Killer Klown March’ for my band in high school. My band mates thought it sounded too Jazzy, but it worked for the film. Then one to programmed totally original sounds on my synthesizers. One of the most challenging aspects of developing the original soundtrack was balancing the film’s playful and comedic [side] with its darker, more sinister undertones.”
Peter: You’ve recounted some great “Klown” stories for liner notes, personal appearances, and other interviews, but is there anything about the Killer Klowns soundtrack or the movie you’re aware of that few if any people know about?
John: “Besides me composing ‘The Killer Klown March’ when I was a teenager, there is this story: ‘As John Massari returned the music master tapes to the studio, people in the accounting and legal departments completely dismissed Killer Klowns as ‘A complete failure that will die a quick death.’ Massari responded: “Well… YOU don’t get it! There are people who will LOVE this movie.’ Then, this gem: ‘John Massari‘s music for the entrance of Klownzilla was originally composed a year earlier for the Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives movie trailer. Massari’s music for that trailer was rejected in favor of a more cliche musical approach.’ Lastly, The Chiodo Bros despised all the scores from 80s horror. So, I had the rare joy of creating my score. To this day, I am still expanding the score. Follow me for more updates.”
Peter: Are you surprised at the huge following Killer Klowns has amassed? Why do you think the movie continues to be so popular? It’s supposedly the most requested movie on Svengoolie.
John: “I believed in this movie from the very beginning. It was just a matter of time. We have the fans to thank for all of this popularity. There is a subtext of creativity that resonates with audiences. Hence, it rises from the ashes like the majestic Phoenix! LOL”
My KKFOS “Reimagined” CD signed by Massari and the Chiodo brothers.
Peter: Why did you decide to release a “reimagined” Killer Klowns soundtrack in 2018?
John: “The decision to release a ‘reimagined’ Killer Klowns soundtrack stemmed from a desire to revisit and revitalize the music for a new generation of fans with a real orchestra. Since the score is based on classical music, we can approach the music with fresh eyes and ears.”
Peter: You’ve accomplished much in your career and are still very active. Does it bother you that you’re known as the Killer Klowns composer by many?
John: “Not at all! While Killer Klowns holds a special place in my heart, I’m proud of the projects I’ve composed throughout my career.”
Peter: If you were a zombie, who would you want to eat first and why?
John: “Ha! That’s certainly a unique question. As tempting as it might be to sink my teeth into the brains of… YUK! I prefer to stick with a more traditional nutrition plan.”
Peter: What was your favorite Halloween costume when you were a kid and what was your favorite Halloween candy?
John: “Astronaut and Snickers.”
My thanks to John Massari for taking the time to answer my questions and sign my CDs. Happy Halloween!
Trivia (from halloweencostumes.com):The 2024 top trending girls costumes this year are witches, Inside Out 2, Minions, and Disney Princesses. The 2024 top trending boys costume are Spider-Man, Sonic the Hedge Hog, Minions, and Transformers.
Trivia (from candystore.com):Halloween candy sales for 2024 are expected to reach $3.5 billion, which is actually down from last year. The top 5 trending Halloween candy for 2024 includes M&Ms at the top spot followed by Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, Sour Patch Kids, Skittles, and Starburst. Last year saw Reese’s in the #1 spot.
Trivia (from hers.com): The three healthiest Halloween candies are Jolly Ranchers, Salt Water Taffy, and tied for third place are Blow Pops and Hot Tamales.
I worked in commercial radio broadcasting for nearly 7 years. As they say in the radio business, I had a great face for radio. That’s not meant as a compliment. Translation: I’ll never make the cover of GQ Magazine (unless GQ stands for “Geek Quarterly”) and no one’s going to swipe right on me in a certain dating app. I was comfortable speaking on the radio to tens of thousands of people because they couldn’t see me. So, it was out of character for me to decide to start making YouTube videos, though I agonized over the decision for months.
Fool Me Once
Having seen many a video on YouTube, one thing is certain: There are vloggers of all shapes, sizes, ages, orientations, and levels of attractiveness, not to mention levels of talent. Regarding the latter, I’ll warn you right now…My video skills are on the same level as my aesthetic appeal. Nevertheless, I’m giving it a go. I can’t afford a snazzy new digital camera so I’m using my old Android smartphone. When you’re financially challenged you must improvise like MacGyver. Accordingly, this will result in audio and lighting issues. There will be no green screen effects, no custom music, and no fancy graphics, at least not for a while. Worst case, I make a fool of myself. It wouldn’t be the first time, and I’m sure it won’t be the last. Hey- If I’m going to be made fool of, I’d rather it be at my own hands.
The Wall
To be clear, I’m operating under no delusions. I’m not aiming to become a video star, or a major social media influencer, or have my videos go viral. My singular motivation derives from the fact that I’ve hit a wall when it comes to getting the word out about my free website blog and my subscriber-based Patreon blog. I can’t afford advertising and I’m not into Facebook or TikTok, so YouTube seemed to be the next logical step. YouTube has only been around for about 20 years. I guess I’m not exactly an early adopter.
GFM
My first YouTube video was to educate Como Audio owners about our GoFundMe campaign and what’s happening to the Internet radio and podcast service. The video was only available for a week or two and then I took it down after the campaign ended.
My second video, posted early last month, is a very basic overview of how to search for Internet radio stations and to also introduce my own Internet radio station, Wind Chime Radio.
My video for this month is about light organs. What’s a light organ? You’ll just have to tune in to find out. And in this video, you’ll notice a subtle change in my attire along with a new hairdo. Links are at the end of this article if you dare.
Do you know what this is? Photo by Peter Skiera.
I’ll be uploading another video October 15th with more fun vintage fare. The above photo provides a hint to the subject matter.
Vintage Videos
Each month I’ll post a video that will focus on music, approaching it from a vintage angle…vintage audio gear, records, CDs, 8 tracks, and more…kind of like a video version of this Recommended Stations website blog. I’m going to try to keep it laid back, like a conversation between friends who are into music. I might devote some videos to horror films since that’s my second passion behind music. It’s possible I’ll broaden the subject matter even more, especially if I start to run out of music related ideas, but for now, this is my plan.
“…it was out of character for me to decide to start making YouTube videos…”
Nasty Boys
One important decision I had to make was whether to allow comments or not. It’s tricky because I’ve found some people can be quite nasty and YouTube’s filter doesn’t seem very aggressive. I don’t mind if someone disagrees with something I say, but there’s no need to get personal. Moreover, personal attacks do nothing to further one’s argument. I think constructive comments contribute a lot to the overall YouTube experience. I enjoy scrolling down and reading viewer comments as I watch a video. Accordingly, I’ve enabled the option, though not notifications if someone posts a comment. I don’t plan to monitor the comments. I openly provide my email address in my YouTube channel information so if someone has something they want to say to me they can do so. Otherwise, feel free to comment if you feel so inclined, just please be civil. We’re all friends here.
Suggestion Box
Please check out my YouTube videos, “like” them, subscribe to my channel, email me with some music related topics for future videos if you wish, and most important, spread the word. With a few exceptions like this month, I’m going to try to commit to posting 1 new video every month. One video per month might not seem like much, but it’s a lot for me with the other things I have going on in my life.
This YouTube thing is a totally new chapter for me, and frankly, it’s a little scary. But I’m hoping it’ll be fun and you’ll enjoy it. As I remarked before- worst case, I embarrass myself, we share a few laughs, and then I fade away into oblivion. If that happens then it really will be video killed the radio star.
Trivia (according to Wikipedia):The first-ever YouTube video was uploaded on April 23, 2005. “Me at the zoo” lasted 19 seconds and featured YouTube’s co-founder, Jawed Karim, at the San Diego Zoo standing in front of 2 elephants.
Trivia (according to broadbandsearch.net):YouTube has nearly 2.68 billion monthly active users; 45% of people use YouTube daily; and; Google paid $1.65 billion for YouTube 18 months after YouTube started.
09.10.2024 update: The GFM campaign reached its goal and is no longer accepting contributions. Thanks to everyone who contributed.
Last month I launched a GoFundMe campaign. No, it isn’t to benefit me. The purpose is to keep Como Audio’s Internet radio and podcast service alive, along with the smart radio portal and the popular My Favorites feature which allows storing an almost unlimited number of Internet stations.
You see, those services and features are being taken over by the station aggregator, Airable, because the platform provider, Frontier Silicon, will no longer cover the costs to maintain them. Accordingly, the aggregator is charging the audio companies that use Frontier Silicon’s legacy Wi-Fi modules to continue the service. Those brands that don’t or can’t pay will have their radios’ service disabled on October 31, 2024.
This placed Como Audio customers in a precarious position because Como isn’t around to pay it’s $5,000 fee since it went out of business 18 months ago. As I had a long-term relationship with both Frontier Silicon and the station aggregator, I intervened and launched a GoFundMe campaign last month following an agreement with the aggregator. No one asked me to do this and I wasn’t required to, but if I didn’t act, the service would be terminated on all Como radios.
The $5k invoice from the station aggregator with personal/banking details redacted.
Thanks to the generosity of Como users, the GoFundMe campaign met the $5,000 goal in less than 30 hours. There was no way to disable service only for radios of owners who didn’t contribute. That means every Como Audio radio around the world will retain it’s service until October 31, 2025 whether you contributed anything or not.
A copy of the $5k wire transfer with personal/banking details redacted.
If you’re a Como Audio user and didn’t contribute, considering you’ll be getting free service for 12 months, please do your part for year #2’s $5,000 fee. The GoFundMe campaign is currently accepting contributions for year #2, and although we’ve made excellent progress, we’re still several thousand dollars short for year two.
One friendly piece of advice if you contribute. GoFundMe automatically adds a generous tip for themselves to every donation. This money doesn’t go to the campaign but to GoFundMe. Believe me, they’re making enough money, they don’t need a tip. Use the tip bar to adjust the donation figure down to zero before you submit your donation. If you’re feeling especially generous, instead of tipping GoFundMe, you might consider buying me a coffee or making a PayPal donation for my time and effort on everyone’s behalf.
If/when the second year’s goal is reached, I shall close out the campaign and if possible, pay the second year’s fee in advance. As the date gets closer I will consider launching a new GFM campaign in August of 2026 to raise funds for the third year’s fee.
Paying a fee to keep our service alive isn’t a scenario I or anyone else envisioned and I’m sorry we have to go through this. Thank you to those who have contributed. If you’re a Como Audio music system owner or just appreciate music, I hope you’ll reward my voluntary efforts and support our cause. I can’t imagine life without music.
Part 1 of last month’s Album Spotlight covered the fascinating details behind the 1970 album Truth. In this, Part 2 of my interview with Truth’s Michael DeGreve, we cover life in the late 1960s, DeGreve’s Gypsy’s Lament solo album, and what he’s up to today.
Peter: In 1969 you were around 20. What was it like growing up in the 60’s in California as a young man? Was it really peace and love and all that?
Michael: “Yes, (laughs) it was.”
DeGreve during his hippie days. Photo courtesy of Michael DeGreve.
Peter: You know what they say- If you can remember the 60s, you weren’t really there.
Michael: “I know. I was going to slip one of those lines in…Yeah, there was a lot of that going on. I always tell this story and the younger people look at me like I’m from Mars. Yeah, I did get drunk with Janis Joplin in the studio. I did drop LSD with Jimi Hendrix at The Whiskey [a Go Go]. I was an all-American basketball player in high school. My last semester I started going to The Whiskey. I would see bands like The Doors when they were the opening act.
Bob Smith’s legendary The Visit double LP.
“I was working at the LA Times on the editorial staff, a glorified copy boy, but I did some rock reviews. I was kind of like in both worlds and this opportunity came up to quit my job at the LA Times, not go back to college, and join a rock n’ roll band called The Lid. My poor mom (laughs). The next thing you know, things started happening. The Lid didn’t stay together. The guy I was in the band with, his name was Bob Smith, and if you go up to YouTube or whatever, there’s an album called The Visit…Daryl Dragon from The Captain and Tennille’s on it, Don Preston from Frank Zappa’s band [The Mothers of Invention]. That album is a double psychedelic album and it’s got wings. If you can find that one out there it’s quite a bit of money to get it…the back cover, me in a hat. We were all pretty high for some of those sessions. Yeah, it was just those days.”
Yogananda. Photo from Self-Realization Fellowship’s Facebook page.
Peter: You were a real hippie back in the 60s.
Michael: “I was. I was. You know, I was always a hippie with some governors on me, Peter…I had a brief psychedelic era until I got into eastern philosophy and [Paramahansa] Yogananda. Every hippie worth his salt had a copy of an autobiography of a yogi. I was peripheral…but that’s what it was. Yeah, we all smoked pot and preached love and free love. All that stuff’s true until crazy Charlie Manson made everybody afraid of hippies. It was a glorious couple of years.”
DeGreve with Neil Young. Photo from DeGreve’s website.
Peter: I was born in the late 60s so I missed all of that. Maybe I was a result of it.
Michael: “My lady’s quite a bit younger than I am. When I do my shows…and it surprises me, Peter, how many young people, when I do all these Eagles or Neil Young [songs]. Neil and I, we did a big benefit together at Cheyenne after a terrible flood. The Governor asked me to put on a show and I called Neil. But how much those days mean something. Bob Dylan’s kid, Jacob, just did a thing I saw on HBO called Echo’s from The Canyon which is all songs by The Byrds, The Turtles, Buffalo Springfield, and in that two-episode thing from Laurel Canyon, there’s a real nostalgia, a real interest in that era of LA rock ‘n’ roll. Which I think [that’s] how Truth got to Jay’s attention because that’s kind of what [Sundazed Records does], lost things from that era. I was shocked beyond belief when all this started in November [2023] (laughs).
Peter: If I get too personal, just tell me to shut up, but since we’re talking about that period, did you burn your draft card or go to Canada?
Michael: “No worries. No, no…That seed had already been planted, Peter…I’m an asthmatic. I have pretty bad asthma. Not being in college, I went back and went to work for the LA Times. My number came up and I went down to the draft board. I can’t remember, 1Y, or what the designation was, but there but for fortune, I would’ve gone over and done that.
“I’ll tell you one quick story: On the new record that I’ve just started, it’s an old song now because I wrote it in Cheyenne. I just haven’t recorded all these songs yet, but I’m starting now. Cheyenne got around to dedicating a memorial in a park to all the guys who served in Vietnam and the Vietnam Vets motorcycle club asked me if I would write a song for them. I said, ‘Guys, I’d be more than flattered, but it’s my era, it’s my war, but I wasn’t there. They said, ‘Michael, we know, but we trust you’. The day of the dedication, the TV and all that stuff, and the mayor, and I played the song, and 200 brothers on Harleys showed up. A guy I knew pretty well named Big John walked straight up to me and…I thought, “Oh God, I’m going to get killed’, and he started crying and started hugging me. I had 200 bikers kissing me. [The song’s] called ‘American Soldier’. There’s a lot of songs with similar titles. I wrote this way before Toby Keith’s… I have absolute respect for everyone that serves this great country and I just hate war. There you go.”
Good times: Graham Nash, Susan Sennett, and Michael DeGreve. Photo from DeGreve’s website.
Peter: Staying with the personal questions, your ex-wife became an actress. How did you meet her?
Michael: “My ex-wife, Susan, I met her…I never told this story. When the Truth album came out, we did a concert [at the Hollywood Palladium] with a bunch of the bands from that time [Blue Cheer, Flash Cadillac, The Continental Kids]. We did a TV show in Palm Springs called The Visual Girls. It was just a…teenage girls, fashion and all that. That was Susan…17-year-old Susan Sennett. She went on to do some movies. She did one called Big Bad Mama with Angie Dickenson and William Shatner, the cover of 17 [Magazine], did a bunch of national commercials. We split up [after] about 4 or 5 years and she met [Graham] Nash and they were together 38 years.”
Peter: Didn’t I hear somewhere that Susan called you up while Graham Nash was in her bathtub?
Michael: “That’s exactly the truth (laughs). It was my Birthday. I was in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and she called. We almost got back together, but I went on the road and I’ve got these gigs I’m doing. She called and said, ‘Mike, I just want to wish you a happy Birthday. There’s actually someone in the bathtub that would like’…I said, ‘Okay.’ It was the house we lived in. I said, ‘I’m game.’ We weren’t together anymore. It’s not my business. He said, ‘Hey, Michael, it’s Graham.’ I went, ‘Nash’ (laughs)? He said, ‘Yeah, man, I’m just letting you know Suze and I are seeing each other. When will you be coming in to LA?’ He picked me up at the airport. He’s just a consummate English gentleman. We’ve always been friends. A great friend.
DeGreve (right) with Graham Nash in Nash’s home studio. Photo from DeGreve’s website.
“When I went to visit the two of them in Hawaii in the mid-80s which was when my Gypsy’s Lament album started, I played him a couple of songs. He said, ‘Well, what do you want to do? Do you want to go golfing or do you want to go in the studio?’ There’s a picture on my website of he and I in shorts around his recording equipment when we started it. He’s just a great friend. I love him.
“When I was in high school, he was in The Hollies. They wrote songs like [sings] Hey, Carrie Anne, and ‘Bus Stop’ was a big hit. He’s in the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame twice, so it was really fun for me to get to record with him. Just a great time.“
Peter: You’ve mentioned your Gypsy’s Lament CD several times. Tell me more about it.
Michael: “I did an album about 30 years ago. It was my first solo album. The only person I think on it that’s not in the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame is me (Peter laughs). Graham Nash is on it. Randy Meisner, bass player in The Eagles…Jackson Browne’s band, great bass player, Leeland Sklar, and David Milley. It’s never had a national release…it’s never been on all the [streaming] services, and now I think Jay at Sundazed [Records] wants to do it. But to my mind, it’s the record I’m known for.
“[Jay] got a hold of me yesterday. He said, ‘Hey, I’ve been working on Gypsy’s Lament.’ He said, ‘Boy, the recording doesn’t need much.’ I said, ‘I know’. It was done in the best studio in LA [Soundcastle Studios] with Graham Nash’s producer. I’m really hoping he’s going to do that, get it on all the [streaming] services. I’ve got a lot of people that’ve got their fingers crossed. “When we did Gypsy’s Lament in Graham’s House in Hawaii, that picture of us in shorts, it was such a great afternoon. He was my harmony hero. You know, it’s just weird he was married to my ex-wife. He’s always been one of my favorite musicians ever. I was feeling so saucy by the time we got done recording, I think I actually asked him to produce my record. He said, ‘No, Michael, it’s not what I do…but I’ll tell you who will and who is going to.’ The next thing I knew, Don Gooch flew out, set me up a bedroom studio, I cut demos, and Don, and one guy who ended up being a [arranger] on that was named Jeff Boydston. I literally had to take time off my Hitching Post gig in spurts to get out and do the sessions. It wasn’t like I was in LA.
DeGreve performing live in Russia. Photo from DeGreve’s website.
“I don’t know if you saw any of this, but the Gypsy’s album…when it came out, I didn’t have a label, and it was big regionally, but I sold them all off stage and everything…Wyoming’s a big oil and gas place. These guys from Russia were coming in all the time. It was 1991 and the Soviet Union had just broken up and the wall was coming down. They said (imitating a Russian accent), ‘Misha, you must come, you must come to Moscow. You play the Opera House. We’re going to do a film and you’ll be one of the first Americans ever to play the big festival in Belarus for all of eastern Europe and Russia.’ So, my lawyer looked at the contracts and the next thing I knew I was on a plane to Moscow and it was everything he said. I got off the plane and my songs off Gypsy were on the radio with Garth Brooks and Madonna…It’s all centralized there, Peter…All the radio and TV is like in one place, so I was going from one show to the other show to the other show. They did a TV thing and they did a film which I’ve got a VHS [tape] of and I’m thinking about trying to get, just for my friends that might care, putting it on a DVD. What an adventure that was. I’m old enough to have lived through Kennedy and Khrushchev and when we all had these things pointed at each other and I went over there and drank all their Vodka and made love to all their women and had a pretty good summer.” (laughs) That’s one of the craziest things that happened with the Gypsy’s album. It took me to Russia. I’m so thankful to have had that experience. It was just incredible.”
“…I did get drunk with Janis Joplin in the studio. I did drop LSD with Jimi Hendrix at The Whiskey [a Go Go].”
Peter: And you’re in Vegas now?
Michael: “I was.”
Nevada’s Mt. Charleston Lodge circa 1969. Photo from Nevada State Museum, Las Vegas.
Peter: Oh, okay. You’re tough to keep up with! Where are you now?
Michael: “I’m in Grants Pass, Oregon [in] a little house just north of the California border. My wonderful lady, Kris, now we’re a duo, when we’re ready to do this, I’m about ready to launch a YouTube channel. I went out to Vegas after the whole Hitch [Hitching Post] thing collapsed. Two years back in Wisconsin up in lake country. It was too cold for me. I was done. Went to Vegas…I was 60-years old or whatever. What am I going to do? I’ll be darned. I got a house gig at a really cool place about 30-40 minutes from the strip up in the mountains called the Mt. Charleston Lodge. It was a place where everybody went in the summer because it was cool and beautiful, and everybody went in the winter because there’s all this snow and everybody would go and do all their stuff. I packed the place three nights a week the last 8 or 9 years I was there. Then I’d come down off the mountain and we’d go by the strip and all that stuff. Kris would try to drive around Vegas. ‘Michael, I hate it, I just hate Vegas, I hate it.’ And I love her, and boy was it hard for me to give up that house gig in Vegas, but I did. The guy I had worked for…good friend. I worked for him at The Pioneer…and he lives in Grants Pass. He was trying to get me up here for 4 years. He said, ‘Michael…what are you doing? Come up and visit. It’s all wineries…you’re going to love it’, la, dah, dah, dah. And I got up here and COVID shut everything down.
“Then, only going to a doctor once in fifty years caught me. I have prostate cancer and I was pretty sick. For a year I couldn’t even play guitar once, not once. Now I’m back at it. Starting to record a little bit. We’re rehearsing everyday getting ready for this show, and somehow, angels like you are just coming out of the cosmos to light fires under me to say, ‘Come on, man, you’ve got another chapter to do here.’ And if I have a gift, Peter, it’s putting love in the air when I do a show. I won’t do politics; I won’t do any of that stuff. I’ll sing ‘Imagine’ and ‘Peace Train’…and live shows are my gift. To have people come up and say, ‘Michael, you just made our night. You made our wedding.’ Whatever. It was such great magic and they’d come back. I’ve built a 30-year audience, but it’s what I love to do, and just getting back to that. So, I’m excited about it.”
Peter: You do what you love and you get paid for it. I mean, you can’t beat that.
Michael: “No. No, that’s that old thing…I used to do a lot of career days and things in Cheyenne, and I’m not the first to say it, but pick something you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.”
Peter: Do what you love and love what you do.
Michael: “That’s right, my brother.”
Peter: I’ve seen a few videos of your live stuff and your toasts (Michael laughs) and you’re definitely having fun and building a connection with your audience.
Michael: “Yeah, they’re all wearing that t-shirt with a toast on it (laughs). I saw that recently.”
Peter: So, what did I not ask you that I should have, or anything you want to say that we didn’t cover.
Michael: “Let me think for a minute. To be honest with you, my friend, I’ve really enjoyed this.”
Peter: Well, I’m sure you’ve been asked a lot of these questions a million times and you must get sick of it, but for me it’s fun.
Michael: “I honestly don’t. If people take the time like you to care enough about it, and it also gives me a chance to go back there in my mind with some of these things…
“Kris (yells)! Come out and say hi to Peter! I live with an angel. She sings like an angel. I’ve always been a solo. She plays nice guitar. We’ve got great two-part Crosby-Nash harmony kind of stuff…I’ve been working a lot of her songs even before mine.”
Peter: I think I’ve seen her in a couple of pictures.
Michael: “Yeah, beautiful long, blonde hair…Peter, this is my lady, Kris.”
Peter: Hi, Kris. Nice to meet you by phone!
Kris: “Hi, Peter. Nice to meet you by phone.”
Peter: You’ve got a Birthday coming up, Michael. How do you feel about that?
Michael: “Fine. Age doesn’t mean anything. It’s kind of funny. My sister said, ‘Your hair looks just like it did in ’68.’ I said, ‘Yeah, it’s a little thicker.’ She said, ‘I’ll betcha I know why. Because this cancer drug you’re taking, it’s a hormone suppressant thing (laughs).’ I get hot flashes and everything (laughs). I feel fine, Peter….I feel fine about being 76…the only thing I’m asking for, if it’s in God’s graces, to give me a little time to do some of this stuff and hang out with my puppies and my lady.”
Peter: What keeps you going? You’ve been doing this a long time. Obviously, you love it. I’m assuming you don’t have to do it. So, what keeps you going?
Michael: “Well, Mick & Keith, The Stones (Peter laughs), they are in their 80s and they’re on tour. Graham Nash, my friend, now living in New York. Graham’s on tour and he’s in his 80s. You know, if you’re blessed enough to do what we do, I’ve never taken it for granted, my friend, and I’m the happiest. I am…I love it. I love it. I’m not sure about not having to do it. I have a gorgeous home that’s paid for and a guitar collection that’s beyond my belief (laughs). I’ve never saved much, you know…but I love it. I’m excited right now. I’ve got all these songs and I’m trying to learn computer-based recording now. Us old analog hippie guys trying to learn some new tricks. I resisted it for a long time. But the truth of it is, that toys have gotten so good, I’ve got to learn. They’re wonderful, incredible. I get up in the morning and watch YouTube and I’ve got everything I need downstairs in my recording studio. You know, I can watch as many Dodgers and Lakers games up there, but does it make me as happy as music? No. Well, sometimes. When my Lakers are winning (laughs). The short answer is, I think if you’re blessed enough like I have been to do it for your life’s work and your living, what’s better? I love it. I love it.”
If you want the original vinyl pressing of Truth on People Records, it will cost you, especially if you want a sealed copy or one in mint condition. On the other hand, the Sundazed CD reissue costs $16.99 while the LP is $26.99 (link at the end). Unfortunately, there are no bonus tracks and the vinyl isn’t colored. In the spirit of the time, it would’ve been cool to have included a bonus track of one of the songs played backwards. It also would’ve been a great opportunity to press a limited edition, psychedelic-colored vinyl edition. Sundazed, if you’re paying attention, I’m available.
There are still hippies today even if they don’t dress the part, but the music and musical experimentation from that era is no longer practiced. I’m sure there are a lot of people who don’t even know what a sitar is. Truth is an entertaining snapshot of hippie philosophy and music. As the back of the album cover proclaims, “Truth is…Love…Beauty…Honesty…”, which we can all use a little of even 50 years on, and that’s the truth.
My eternal thanks to Michael DeGreve for being so generous with his time answering my questions. If you missed Part 1, read it here.
Trivia (from Wikipedia):Hippies: ”…originally a youth movement that began in the United States during or around 1964 and spread to different countries around the world. The word hippie came from hipster and was used to describe beatniks who moved into New York City’s Greenwich Village, San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district, and Chicago’s Old Town community. The term hippie was used in print by San Francisco writer Michael Fallon, helping popularize use of the term in the media, although the tag was seen elsewhere earlier.”
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The purpose of my Album Spotlights is to bring lesser-known albums to your attention, often vintage albums, with backstories you’ll find compelling and music you’ll find enjoyable.
Let me take you back to 1970. Gas cost 0.36 cents per gallon. The average cost of a home was $23,450. The hourly minimum wage was $2.10/hr. A McDonalds hamburger cost less than 20 cents. Some of the top shows on television included Hawaii Five-0, Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In, The Partridge Family, The Flip Wilson Show, Mary Tyler Moore, and The Wonderful World of Disney. Four students were killed at Kent State University. The Vietnam War entered its 15th year. Apollo 13 returned safely to earth days after an oxygen tank explosion. The Beatles broke up. Star Wars was released. The first Earth Day was held in the US. And Truth was released.
Reaching for the Truth: My sealed original copy of “Truth” from 1970. Photo by Peter Skiera.
Truth wasn’t a novel or a movie. It was the debut album by hippy musicians recorded under the same name. Recorded in 1969 and released in 1970, Truth’s members consisted of Micheal DeGreve on guitar and vocals, and Bob Doran and Janice Kerr on vocals (strangely, none of them were identified on the record’s jacket). DeGreve was close friends with Doran and Kerr who were married. The three were backed by select members of The Wrecking Crew, a well-respected group of Los Angeles session players who performed anonymously on hit songs by The Beach Boys, The Monkees, The Byrds, Frank Sinatra, Elvis, Sony & Cher, Simon and Garfunkel, The Mamas and the Papas, and producer Phil Spector. As if that weren’t enough, Truth was produced by three former Motown execs.
Despite all of the enormous talent behind it, the album got little traction. Doran and Kerr split up which effectively killed the group, thus making Truth a one and done release for the promising young trio.
Image from Van Morrison’s official Facebook page.
In all fairness to Truth, it had some pretty stiff competition on the record store shelves in 1970. You might recognize some of the other albums that were released that year: George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass, Simon & Garfunkel’s Bridge Over Troubled Water, Paul McCartney’s McCartney, The Doors’ Morrison Hotel, Woodstock, John Lennon’s Plastic Ono Band, Van Morrison’s Moon Dance, Jimi Hendrix’s Band of Gypsys, The Beatles’ Let It Be, The Velvet Underground’s Loaded, and Badfinger’s No Dice, just to name a few.
The fact that Truth was released on a small, unknown record label called People Records (not to be confused with James Brown’s People Records from 1971) didn’t help. The newly established label apparently did little to promote the record. People Records’ complete “catalog” included only one other album…Kim Weston’s Big Brass Four Poster, also released in 1970. It’s got some great music, but like Truth, it didn’t make any serious impact. To add insult to injury, various bios of Weston don’t even mention the album. Weston’s husband, William “Mickey” Stevenson, was People Records’ founder and producer. It’s nice to have friends in high places. That aside, People Records disappeared about as quickly and quietly as its only two album titles.
After being out of print for 54 years, Truth was reissued for the first-time last month by Sundazed Records. With song titles like “Far Out”, “Let It Out, Let It In”, “Contributin’”, and a wild song about Lizzie Bordon simply called “Lizzie”, you know you’re listening to something from a different era. Sundazed describes the music on Truth as “sitar head-swirlers, sunny, melodic harmonies and a country folk influence…” I would call it a great trip without the drugs.
Truth be told, Truth was actually issued on CD for the first time back in 2012 by Relics Records, though it was an “unofficial” release. That’s code for saying it was a bootleg. I don’t own a copy of it but I’ve read reviews complaining about the sound quality. So much for Relic’s motto, “Cuts for Connoisseurs”.
Like his personality, DeGreve has a gentle voice, reminiscent of John Denver’s. But paired with Doran and Kerr, the trio sound more than a little like The Mamas and the Papas with some extra spunk. They may have been hippies, but they could harmonize like crazy.
“I would call it a great trip without the drugs.”
Michael DeGreve and his girlfriend, Kris, circa 2021. Photo from DeGreve’s Facebook page.
I tracked down Truth’s vocalist and lead guitarist, Michael DeGreve, and in a lengthy phone interview, I asked him to reflect on this gem of a 1970 musical time capsule along with some of his other memories.
Peter: Were you the guy who was holding on to the Truth tapes?
Michael: “Mickey Stevenson [Truth’s producer] had them and I don’t think they exist. Mickey Stevenson was the head of A&R at Motown. He put The Funk Brothers together at Motown, he wrote songs like ‘Dancin’ in the Streets’, produced Martha and the Vandellas. I mean, I was 19 years old and I knew who Mickey was…I think [the tapes] are gone. I connected with Mickey but he was so crazy busy. He just gave me a thumb’s-up, go for it, I don’t have them. God bless him. But Jay Millar [the GM] at Sundazed [Records] took a virgin copy of the album and did all that work. It’s never sounded any better. It had never been [officially] on CD before. I had a couple of extra pictures that are on the inside cover of the CD.”
Image from Mickey Stevenson’s official Facebook page.
Peter: Where did the name “Truth” come from?
Michael: “I think it came from Mickey…my best memory. I wasn’t really supposed to be a part of this, though.”
Peter: You kind of came into Truth by accident. Bob Doran, one of the vocalists, asked you to come along and play guitar for the audition and Mickey insisted you be a part of the group.
Michael: “Exactly right. Exactly right. Bob and Janice, my neighbors (laughs), it’s so funny, I had only been playing guitar a couple of years. I was really a basketball player. I had scholarships everywhere…I worked at the LA Times. So anyway, they said, ‘We’ve got this interview with Mickey Stevenson.’ I said ‘really?’ They said, ‘Would you play for us?’ I went, ‘Yeah!’ So, I went over to Mickey’s office and blah, blah, blah, and he said, ‘Well, you’re a part of this, right?’ I said, ‘Mickey, no, man, I’m waiting for my friend. We’re going to do more of a rock ‘n’ roll thing.’ He said, ‘We’re going to use some of The Wrecking Crew, but will you put you band together and do all your guitar parts?’ I said, ‘Yeah, of course.’ We got to the end of the first vocals and I could see him talking through the glass. Janice had said, ‘Hey, Michael’s got a part on this.’ “I was living with [Bob and Janice]. We had been, you know, 3 hippies up in the hills rehearsing all those harmonies. Mickey said, ‘Well, get out there and do it.’ Which is what you did at Motown. So, I did it. I could see him talking through the glass and Mickey said, ‘Get in here’, and I got this 10-minute thing- ‘you gotta be a part of this and whatever you do next is whatever you do next, but please be a part of this.’ You know, this is Mickey Stevenson for God’s sake. I said, ‘Of course, alright, I’ll definitely do it.’ Peter, I’m 19 years old and Tina Turner played with my hair in the studio one night. I met everybody at Motown through Mickey. I wish I would’ve been old enough musically to walk through some of the doors Mickey was trying to open, but it was an amazing influence in my life.”
Image from The Funk Brothers’ official Facebook page.
Peter: John Latini played bass on Truth, but besides him, the three of you, and some unspecified members of The Wrecking Crew, I don’t believe the record identifies anybody else. Do recall any other names?
Michael: “Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. My best friend, ‘The Bear’,David [Smith], plays acoustic guitar on [‘Being Farmed’]. I think Jimmy Curtis, my drummer that was in The Lid, my first band, was on it, and of course, I played a lot of the guitars.
“And then the other half of the album was…I was too young to even appreciate it. Trust me when I tell you, I did not know who The Wrecking Crew was. I mean, I should’ve. I just knew Mickey brought all these guys in. One time, one of the guys, I don’t know if he was actually a member of The Wrecking Crew, Jerry Sheff, a bass player, did one of the tracks. Now, I know all their names and got introduced to a bunch of them. There’s a song of mine called ‘Thoughts’…Ben Benay, he plays that sitar part on my song ‘Thoughts’. So, it’s really a mixture, you know. Mickey, he put The Funk Brothers together, the band that did all the Motown hits, Mickey put that band together. He and Clarence Paul and those guys would run the sessions and I put the sessions together that we did. It’s an amalgamation…I haven’t listened to it in years…But I’m just so thankful [the reissue] happened…
“I just sent a long Facebook thing to Gabe and Andy, Bob and Janice’s two boys who were born right at that time…but when all this [publicity] first happened, I left out a lot of that, so I did a kind of Mea Culpa, and said, ‘You know, I didn’t mention Bob and Janice and told some of our story about we lived together, all that stuff. It was great.’”
Peter: You mentioned all of the incredible talent behind Truth including yourself and Mickey. So, you must have been surprised when the album got out there and sort of disappeared?
Michael: “I was. I was. Especially because it was Mickey. I don’t know if it was that just people didn’t exactly know what to make of it or what. Mickey and I were really close in the studio. We did some social things. He opened the door, like me meeting some of the people that were my legends…Stevie Wonder, I mean, God, I didn’t know him, I just got to meet him. It was a label [Mickey] just put together. Other than Kim Weston, his lady, we were the only other thing on it. So, I never really understood what the business thing was. I know people have gotten a hold of me over the years in places in Europe and things saying they had it and they loved it. I think it was called in those days, Peter, rack jobbing, or something. Whatever they didn’t sell they went out, you know, you’d see [records] in grocery stores in those days or whatever. Somehow, he did that. Yeah, I think I was a little disappointed about that time.”
Peter: Since Truth wasn’t exactly a huge hit, did you ever see any royalty checks?
Michael: “Never received any royalties! Bummer!”
Peter: Is there any standout memory you have from Truth’s recording sessions?
Michael: “Lots of them. I guess the first one, of course, the one I told you about, Mickey actually wanting me to do it. Right when we were doing it, I had a fire. I was living up on Sunset and there was a fire in the middle of the early morning. The firemen broke down the door and got me out of there alive. I had nothing in the world except one pair of pants that were too short…my guitars were burned, and Mickey took me shopping to get a beautifully built 12-string.
“My memories are, we used to record in the evenings. That’s how that Tina Turner story happened. One night we got there and Mickey said, ‘Michael, I’m so sorry, can we do this tomorrow night? I promised Ike and Tina [Turner] could do vocals.’ And I [said], ‘Yeah, can we stay?’ (laughs)
“My memories are of my very first lead guitar solo ever, is the last thing on the album. Ah, pretty primitive. I go, ‘Oh, man, I hope my real lead guitar player, Bob, doesn’t hear this’ (laughs).
Image from Johnnynash.com
“What it was for me, it was being around, if my memory serves, I know he was in the studio with us, Johnny Nash, the guy that wrote ‘I Can See Clearly Now’ and having a real cool conversation with Johnny about, he was also a vegetarian, which I’d just recently become in ’68, and I think he sang back-up a little bit.
“Everybody came in and did stuff. Mickey’s on ‘Anybody Here Know How to Pray’ and a couple of other things. What was fun for me and what I remember about the most was the collaborative experience of all of us when we rehearsed, and did the album, and wrote all the harmony parts, and being in the studio in that environment with Mickey Stevenson and Jim Saunders and the great engineers. It was just an amazing experience. Lots of memories doing the sessions. I can look back and remember looking through the glass and being in the room and watching the guys from The Wrecking Crew go, see my friend John Latini. I still keep in touch with John, not in a few years, but I used to. He’s on that Bob Smith Visit album along with Jimmy Curtis, my drummer for years who I’m still in touch with…”
Peter: So, do you have a favorite track from Truth?
Michael: “Yeah, I have two. It’s the one Mickey loved the most. It’s the first one on the album. One of my very first records, a little bit of my Justin Hayward/Moody Blues influence, called ‘Have you Forgotten’. I also love the song ‘Let It Out, Let It In’. I thought that was just really well done. The harmonies are beautiful. But you know, I’m liking it more now, Peter.
“I quit listening to it. Life just got busy. Susan and I met and that part of my life started. Then I went out and did a two-year gig in Milwaukee, then went back. My agent called me and said, “What do you think about Cheyanne?” And I said, “I don’t. Where is it?” I went out there for two weeks and stayed 6 nights a week, 11 shows per week, on a handshake, for 30 years.”
Peter: Well, I love “Far Out” because I think it’s so emblematic of the time, but I also love the harmonies.
Michael: “You know, that’s what was fun about it, the three of us sitting around with a glass of wine and a joint, working out those three-part harmonies. That’s one of Bob’s songs, and of course, it was the hippie expression, ‘Hey, man, far out!’ (laughs). Bob wrote it. Cool! (laughs) I love that you love that one. I’m going to send Bob some spiritual vibes wherever he is in the cosmos. It would just make him smile so much.”
Peter: And what was the deal with “Lizzie”? A song about Lizzie Bordon!
Michael: “When you find that out, tell me” (Peter laughs).
Peter: You all kind of crack up or go a bit bonkers towards the end of that song, so it sounded like you had some fun doing it anyway.
Michael: “I think so.”
The naked Truth?
Peter: Maybe you don’t remember, but that great black and white picture on the back cover of Truth- were the three of you topless or naked?
Michael: “I think we were topless, but…I know we were topless, even Janice, but I don’t know if we….I don’t know. I think we had pants on.”
Peter: It’s my perverse curiosity. I can’t help it.
Michael: “No, no, I don’t mind visiting any of these things. If I knew the answer for sure I’d say, yeah, we were. Nudity was not much of a thing back then, brother. I thought it was a beautiful picture.”
Peter: It was! You look very Christ-like.
Michael:“Well, thank you. I wish (laughs), it’s an aspiration (laughs). Not sure I’ve lived up to that, especially when I was into rock ‘n’ roll and all of that. Trust me. But I never did anything past a brief psychedelic era, and then I smoked pot daily for 20 years. I’ve been battling cancer the last two years so I don’t even do that anymore. I don’t even drink.”
Peter: One thing I wanted to ask about is there’s not a lot out there as far as photos of Truth or the sessions.
Michael: “There isn’t. There isn’t. No. That’s it. Jay [from Sundazed Records] wanted more too, but I gave him the two [pictures] that are on the CD. But that’s it. I have no other pictures of Truth…we just didn’t; it wasn’t a big thing, or, I don’t know. I thought, ‘Why isn’t anybody taking pictures’, you know?
“That’s kind of the same thing about Gypsy’s Lament [DeGreve’s solo album]. Why do I not have pictures of the first session when I walked in. I had Leeland Sklar [bass] on one side of me, David Lindley [guitar, violin] on the other, and I looked around and went, ’Oh God, please freeze frame this. I just want to do this.’ And the whole thing with [Graham] Nash and I. There’s no pictures of all that stuff…I wish there was. With all my heart I wish there was.”
Peter: I know the other two vocalists on Truth, Bob and Janice, were married. They divorced shortly after Truth came out and that pretty much ended the group?
Michael: “Yeah, that was certainly a part of it.”
Peter: Did Bob or Janice go on to do anything else musically or was that pretty much it for them?
Michael: “Ah, that was pretty much it for them. Janice sang a little bit of vocals in a cover band. I was already on the road by then…but [Janice] sang with Bob’s cover band right after The Lid broke up…he had a band like we all [did] trying to make a living playing. She sang and she had two kids and Bob had gone back to Florida, what little I know. I really don’t know much after that. We had a really good mutual friend that I’m in touch with and he said Bob was living with one of the soap opera stars on one of them deals, and Janice raised her kids and moved to New Jersey…”
To Be Continued…
That concludes Part 1. Come back here next month for Part 2 of my interview with Michael DeGreve and find out what it was like to be a hippie, the big names in music who performed on his solo album, and what DeGreve is cooking up these days.
Trivia:On June 21, 1967, 75,000-100,000 hippies converged on San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district to celebrate peace, love, and freedom. It became known as the summer of love.
Trivia (from udiscovermusic.com): “During the 60s and 70s, Los Angeles producers needed reliable standby musicians who could be counted on to contribute to records in a variety of styles and deliver hits on short order. The Wrecking Crew were musically versatile performers who were usually brilliant at sight-reading. Their contributions feature in pop songs, television music, theme songs, film scores, and advert music. The reason The Wrecking Crew’s contributions to so many hit recordings went unnoticed at the time was that record labels wanted to keep it that way, maintaining the illusion that famous bands, such as The Monkees, always played their own instrumental parts.”
Trivia (from nbcnews.com, Nov. 2004): “A man who placed a lava lamp on a hot stove top was killed when it exploded and sent a shard of glass into his heart, police said. Philip Quinn, 24, was found dead in his trailer home Sunday night by his parents. ‘Why on earth he was heating a lava lamp on the stove, we don’t know,’ Kent Police spokesman Paul Petersen said Monday. After the lamp exploded, Quinn apparently stumbled into his bedroom, where he died Sunday afternoon, authorities said. Police found no evidence of drug or alcohol use.”
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We Americans love our hobbies. A survey conducted by Statista.com released this year revealed the surprising finding that amongst 18-64 year olds, the most popular hobby was baking. This was followed by reading, pets, and video games (respondents could pick more than 1 hobby). “Radio”, “audio”, and “music” weren’t categories, though “making music” was.
Also not an option was collecting radio station bumper stickers, yet that’s exactly what Phil Bytheway does. By the way, that’s his real legal last name. It’s British and it’s pronounced just as you think. Since I try to focus on radio and vintage music related topics, I thought this subject, which combines both radio and something vintage, would be perfect for this month’s blog article.
Bumper stickers are indeed vintage. You don’t see them as often as you used to, perhaps because newer cars don’t have bumpers, or at least not like how bumpers used to be. According to radiostationpromotions.com, “the bumper sticker as we know it today can be traced back to a screen printer in Kansas City, Mo., named Forrest P. Gill. In the 1940s, he had a surplus of two wartime technologies: adhesive-backed paper and fluorescent paint. He combined the two, and the bumper sticker was born. His new creation significantly improved handmade signs that were easily worn down or fell off cars…Radio Stations began using bumper stickers in the 1950s and 1960s to promote their stations to listeners, often with a contest.”
Bytheway, a retired electrical engineer, has been collecting radio station bumper stickers for nearly 35 years. I emailed him at his home in Washington state to learn more about his hobby, which is as unusual as his last name.
Some bumper stickers recently listed on eBay.
Peter: When did you start collecting radio station bumper stickers? I imagine it’s not a very expensive hobby compared to others.
Phil: “I have been seriously collecting since 1991 when I purchased a collection from a long-time collector. He had some 20 boxes of radio promo items… mostly paper (which has since been recycled).
Check out the prices for stickers on eBay… they can be pretty expensive… but I don’t bid on singles… usually collections, so I increase my collection and my traders.”
Peter: What was the genesis behind this unusual hobby?
Phil:“When I was in Jr High (1968), I got interested in tuning my AM radio for distant stations. I started collecting verifications of the stations I heard, which required me to tabulate program details for around 15 minutes and sent a letter asking for confirmations. Some of the stations would include a sticker with the verification… and I started collecting them. Eventually, I started writing stations asking for stickers. Once the internet became available, I started searching for websites and emailing the stations. Much quicker, and occasionally I send an SASE.”
Peter: How many stickers are in your collection?
Phil: “I have around 50,000 US and Canadian stickers…an unknown number of foreign ones and around 100,000 extras for trade…”
Peter: What’s the most unusual item you have?
Phil: “I have a stuffed Tookie Tookie bird (from George of the Jungle fame) from a station on the east coast.”
Peter: What’s your favorite sticker in your collection?
Phil: “Tough question. Many stickers from Hawaii are the most colorful ones. Favorites I guess would be stickers from stations I’ve heard on the AM band… there are many. Kinda nice to have a visible representation of the stations I’ve heard. Note, not every station will verify reception, nor is it always possible to get enough program information to ask for one!”
Peter: What’s the most distant radio station you have a bumper sticker from?
Phil: “Many from Australia/New Zealand. Also, quite a few from Europe/Asia. I don’t do distance, so not really sure the farthest. Maybe I should add a column [in my spreadsheet] for distance?”
Bytheway with his bumper crop of bumper stickers. The sticker he’s holding is for full service AM station WAIK 1590 out of Galesburg, Ill which went dark in 2019. Photo courtesy of Phil Bytheway.
Peter: What’s the oldest sticker in your collection?
Phil: “I presume many of the stickers are from the 60s or 70s… although not many. Same is true for the air checks… although there are a few from the late 50s.”
Peter: Is there a station you really wanted a bumper sticker from that didn’t cooperate?
Phil: “Can’t think of any. Most stations today do not do stickers… the popularity amongst the “normal” folks has dropped off dramatically. I really don’t see many on cars anymore… and the ones I DO see tend to be older. I think there is a different focus for stickers now. There are many that are smaller than what would work on a car, so I think they are intended for laptops or cell phones… not sure though.”
Peter: What’s your success rate when you ask for items from radio stations?
Phil: “I do exclusively email now… and get around 5-10% response… of those, around 10% say they are going to send something, but don’t (very frustrating). I really wish they would be honest with me. I do keep track of stations that say they are going to send something, and when I get the items in the mail, I always send a thank you. And, I have sent a follow up request from time to time… but the response to those is really small!”
Peter: What do your friends and relatives think of your hobby?
Phil: “[They think] it’s weird… and I have no one in the family to pass my collection on to!! Then again, a lot of folks collect sports cards… and I think that is odd (our son collects them). Sports cards are worth something though… and stickers don’t tend to be worth much, even though folks on eBay tend to think they are worth a lot.”
Peter: You have a little radio experience, right?
Phil: “I did the news at UW’s KCMU (now KEXP) when I was in college during the summer once. That’s my only on-the-air experience although folks seem to think I have a “radio voice”. I volunteered at KING-FM, but only did clerical work. I was hoping to go into radio as my second career, but health issues prevent me from holding down a full-time job now…. I’m not much of an ad lib person, except for an occasional joke… so being a DJ would not work too well.”
Image from Classical King’s Instagram page.
Peter: What are some of your favorite radio stations?
Phil: “I enjoy classical music… and listen to [Seattle’s] KING-FM a lot… also other classical music stations on the internet. No real favorites though… I enjoy the variety radio has. I guess I enjoy listening to older top 40 stations… so I’m starting to collect air checks.”
Peter: You also have some vintage air check tapes (recordings of DJ patter). Do you have any plans to post them on the net for people to hear?
Phil: “I recently acquired a large collection of reel-to-reel and cassette tapes, CDs and DVDs from a former collector in California who passed away. I am in the process of inventorying them, so I can offer them for trade. Posting on the internet might also be possible if I can figure out how to do it. There are 24 boxes, so it’s going to take a while. So far, I’ve inventoried the CDs and DVDs… but there are a lot of cassettes and reel-to-reel tapes to go. Will also need to figure out how to “convert” them to .mp3 before posting… that’s going to take a while. And I thought I could take it easy when I retired!!!”
Peter: Bytheway…that’s your legal last name. You must take a lot of ribbing.
Phil: “Yes. We’re from the UK, where someone lived on the road… and thus they were ‘by-the-way’. Mostly, folks don’t believe it… and I’ve had to get out my driver’s license a few times! I learned to not get upset when folks kidded me… a bit of armor reinforcement.”
Image from Honeywell.com
Peter: What’s your professional background?
Phil: “I was an Electrical Engineer for 36 years, working for Honeywell, Alliant Techsystems, Hughes, Raytheon and Technologic (a consulting firm). I designed circuit boards and eventually ASICs (Application Specific Integrated Circuits) which were used on the boards I designed. I participated in the design and check out of a series of testers that use software and cables to test various modules. My last job was debugging and repairing circuit boards returned for repair. I did quite a bit of traveling around the US to integrate and debug many of my designs… a few times being sent last minute to help fix a problem.”
Photo from the Washington Athletic’s facebook page.
Peter: Any final thoughts, Phil?
Phil: “I did design the “W” for UW [University of Washington] football helmet while I was a student manager for the UW football team (5 years in college). Guess that fueled my interest in stickers!! Given that I designed a large number of electronics… the “W” is really the only thing that has lasted… electronics are usually obsolete soon after they are on the market!! I am clearly a football nut… having played co-ed flag football for a number of years with the Underdog Sports group. Had to stop doing that when my medical issues prevented it!!”
One of Bytheway’s newsletters.
In addition to growing his bumper sticker collection, Bytheway is also involved with a couple of extensive monthly newsletters that take deep dives into radio stations and tuning distant AM stations.
Image from the JB105 facebook page.
I worked in commercial radio for almost 7 years. I was even a Promotions Director at one point at a classic rock station in New Hampshire. Yet I never amassed a collection of station stickers, T-shirts, or coffee mugs. I worked with a guy at one station who had an extra JB105 bumper sticker. JB105 was a very popular hit music station in Rhode Island when I was a kid. He promised to give me his extra sticker, but he never did. I definitely would’ve put that on my car.
Although I spot plenty of political stickers (which, unfortunately, are mostly offensive), rarely do I see radio station bumper stickers on cars. As Bytheway pointed out, fewer and fewer radio stations offer bumper stickers even though they’d likely receive a lot more exposure than other promotional items and are cheaper than T-shirts. With the cost of new cars today, I think people are more reluctant to permanently stick things on their cars. In any event, it’s nice to know there are still people in the world who appreciate radio station bumper stickers. Keep sticking it to them, Phil.
Trivia (from clashgraphics.com):”In 1991, a Georgia resident was charged with violating a state law prohibiting automobile owners from attaching “any sticker, decal, emblem, or other device containing profane or lewd words.” In Cunningham v. the State, the owner successfully argued this law was unconstitutional. The court agreed with him, ruling that the law violated the 1st and 14th Amendments. As such, the bumper sticker was now protected by freedom of speech.”
Trivia:January is National Hobby Month.
Trivia:According to a June 2023 Gallup poll, 66% of adults aged 18-34 said their hobbies and recreational activities were “extremely or very important”. That dipped to 61% among 35-54 year olds, and 59% for the 55 and over crowd.
Trivia: This website honors a different radio station bumper sticker every day.
If you like discovering new Internet radio stations, or would like to help support articles like this on my website blog, please consider becoming a Patreon member today for as little as $1.
Do you have unusual music-related hobby or would like to suggest a subject for an article? Let me know about it: stationsguy@gmail.com
Bang The Drum All Day. Photo by Peter Skiera.Photo by Peter Skiera.
They looked like albums. They were the same size as albums. They were sold in record stores. Yet these series of “records” weren’t records at all. They were essentially a series of large greeting cards made to look like records. Instead of containing a vinyl record you could play, each contained a thin, 12” cardboard “record” with the printed message: “I bought this Album for you as a gift… sorry, I couldn’t afford the record!’ (a blank “From” area at the bottom was provided to write a personal message to the recipient).
Photo by Peter Skiera.
Long playing vinyl record sales were really taking off in the 1960s. A company by the name of Kanrom saw an opportunity to cash in by selling gag “records” as unique gifts for Birthdays, Wedding Anniversaries, etc., or just to give to a friend (or a former friend) for a laugh. The company promoted them as “Wild, Whacky, Bawdy…and Screamingly Fun!…A Truly Wild Group Of Conversation Pieces.”
A record company that wasn’t a record company. Photo by Peter Skiera.
There was a total of 12 “records” in the series, released under the name High In-Fidelity Records. As the “label” implied, most of the titles had a sexual theme and featured naked or partially naked women on the covers (I used puzzle pieces in my pics to obscure the nudity). The Rated-PG artwork (remember, this was the 1960s) definitely took some attention away from the real records. They didn’t chart like real records did, so how much of that attention turned into actual sales isn’t known.
Each “record” cost $1.25. That seems impossibly cheap, but adjusting for inflation, that would be almost $13 today. That’s not that far away from the cost of an actual record.
Swing Out Sister. Photo by Peter Skiera.
The back of each “album cover” listed “suggested [song] titles suitable for enclosure” that played off of the album’s title and artwork. For example, Songs For Swinging Mothers, the cover of which featured four very pregnant women on a swing set, included suggested songs like Get Me To The Church On Time, Things We Did Last Summer, Careless Love, and Don’t Blame Me.
The cover says it all. Photo by Peter Skiera.
Some of the other titles in the series included Victory At Sea (featuring four couples on the deck of a boat), Music For Casual Affairs (picturing a pair of male and female bare feet at the end of a bed), Great Piano Pieces (depicting four naked ladies strewn across pianos), Music For You (the cover of which showed a horse’s rear end), and a similarly-themed Music For Half-assed Friends (featuring ½ of a toilet on the cover). The “suggested” songs for that latter title included Just In Time, Doing What Comes Naturally, At Last, I Gotta Go Now, You Go To My Head, and Just A-Sittin’ And A-Rockin’.
Politicians are the same all over. Photo by Peter Skiera.
Perhaps the most controversial “album” of the High In-Fidelity series was Communist Party Music, complete with a Nikita Khrushchev look-a-like along with several topless ladies. A few of the “suggested” songs for this release included Cuban Love Song, How The West Was Won, West Of The Wall, Who’s Afraid Of The Big Bad Wolf, and He’s A Devil In His Own Home Town.
It’s fun to look back on these risqué fake records from 60+ years ago. Even with the resurgence of vinyl, with our politically correct environment, I’m not sure you could get away with something like this today. That said, I can definitely imagine some amusing album covers poking fun at various news headlines…
My thanks to musiceureka for some of the information featured in this article, and my thanks to my Patreon members for helping to make this blog possible.
Radio Rewind is a random “pop-up” series that looks back at a Hitchhiker Station (a strange radio station) from the past. As last month’s post was 2 years since my last “Rewind”, I’m making up for it by posting another.
The historic lighthouse in Lime Kiln Point State Park on the west side of San Juan Island in Washington State is an impressive sight. But the 200,000 people who visit every year mainly go to see killer whales, gray whales, sea lions, and porpoises swimming along the shoreline. The Park claims to be “one of the best whale-watching spots on earth.” So much so, it’s nicknamed “Whale Watch Park”.
One reason why it’s such an ideal location for whale watching is because the ocean floor drops to 960 feet just a mere 25 feet off shore. This gives the whales plenty of room, yet at the same time, puts them very close to the shore resulting in ideal whale watching. The area is also rich in cod and salmon which the whales feed on.
Besides being a killer whale research hub, the site also includes a hydrophone node (an underwater microphone). The sounds from the microphone are streamed live, 24/7, over the Lime Kiln Hydrophone Internet station. Yes, this is an Internet radio station that plays nothing but sounds from an underwater microphone. No hits, none of the time.
Submerged in twenty-three feet of water southwest of the Lime Kiln Lighthouse, the hydrophone was installed 8 years ago and is maintained by The Whale Museum and SMRU (Sea Mammal Research Unit). Tune in and at any given time you’ll hear what sounds like either water running furiously in a bathtub or white noise (it’s very low 32 kbps streaming bit rate doesn’t help). However, the sub-aquatic stereo microphone has, on occasion, picked up whale calls and sounds of Orcas crunching fish bones. Yum.
“Yes, this is an Internet radio station that plays nothing but sounds from an underwater microphone.”
Lime Kiln was recently “off the air” for a week due to Internet equipment failures, but they fixed the problems and it’s back on. Those of you who need your underwater fix can rejoice again.
If you want to get closer to nature, or you would like to be under the sea in an octopus’s garden in the shade, tune Lime Kiln Hydrophone…a Hitchhiker Station that’s underwater.
Trivia (from lighthousepreservation.org/history/):“One of the first known lighthouses was also the greatest and most famous of all lighthouses. It was built in 285 BC at Alexandria, Egypt, on an island at the entrance to the city’s harbor. This lighthouse, called the Pharos of Alexandria, was one of the Seven Wonders of the World. It was over 440 ft tall and stood for 1500 years, until it was destroyed by an earthquake.”
Radio Rewind is a random “pop-up” series that looks back at a Hitchhiker Station (a strange radio station) from the past. It’s been 2 years since my last Radio Rewind, so I’m long overdue for another edition, and this one’s a doozy.
One beautiful section of Wave Farm. Photo from Wave Farm’s Instagram page.
In September of 2021, I wrote about a bizarre Internet radio station with an equally bizarre name: Weather Warlock Quintronics. The Weather Warlock device is connected to outdoor sensors located at a place called Wave Farm in New York’s Upper Hudson Valley. The sensors measure wind, precipitation, temperature, and sunlight. Makes sense. So, what’s the Weather Warlock and why is it bizarre?
The sensors and the Weather Warlock. Photo from wavefarm.org
The Weather Warlock is a custom-built analog synthesizer…a musical instrument of sorts, that’s “played” by the weather. It doesn’t display readings from the sensors like a traditional weather base station. Instead, it converts the weather data it receives from the sensors into electronic sounds and streams them live over Wave Farm’s Internet station. It’s a musical instrument and Mother Nature is the musician.
Weather = sound.Image from weatherfortheblind.org
The more complicated Mother Nature gets, the more complex the sounds. The Weather Warlock is most active at sunrise and sunset, though a lightning storm or a very bright moon would also trigger dramatic sounds. Tune this Internet station and you’ll essentially hear the weather. “Quintron” (Robert Rolston), the inventor of the Weather Warlock, would love to have Weather Warlocks installed all over the world “so that listeners may experience musical interpretations of a variety of different climates and time zones – from Iceland to the Amazon.” In addition to the Weather Warlock at Wave Farm in New York, there’s a second Weather Warlock located in New Orleans where Quintron makes his home.
Constantly Vibrating
Why craft music from weather? As Quintron explains on bandcamp.com, “the resulting music was designed for self-hypnosis and healing. I wanted something with movement and changes, but completely devoid of human organization – like a fire, or a lake reflecting moonlight. Constantly vibrating with change but also very still.” Okay.
Image from wavefarm.org
Try and Catch the Wind
I’ve mentioned Wave Farm several times so an explanation is in order. Wave Farm is based in Acra, New York, and was founded in 1997 as a non-profit organization dedicated to experimentation with airwaves and broadcast media. You’ve probably never heard of it before, yet it’s been around for almost 30 years. According to their website, Wave Farm is “an international transmission arts organization driven by experimentation with the electromagnetic spectrum. We cultivate creative practices in radio and support artists and nonprofits in their cultural endeavors.” Their slogan is “Radio for Open Ears”. They feel strongly that airwaves should be used for creative and experimentation purposes and accessible to the public.
Made Possible by Andy Warhol
As I mentioned, the Weather Warlock was invented by Quintron in 2014 and was made possible in part by support from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Exactly who or what is Quintron? I was afraid you’d ask that. Grab my hand and let’s jump down another rabbit hole.
Quintron’s cute little “Bath Buddy”. Image from bathbuddy.space
The Spit Machine
Quintron is a New Orleans-based, one-man band, organ player, music club proprietor, and inventor with several patents to his name. If you think the Weather Warlock is odd, hold on to your umbrella. Building on the theme, Quintron created “Traffic Saxx”. The device transforms the “noise of tire traffic on NY 23 into a signal that can be mutated and manipulated by DJs” on Wave Farm’s radio station.
Another of his inventions is the “Drum Buddy”, a light-activated drum machine that uses a rotating empty tin can with a light inside it. According to Wikipedia, “as the can rotates, its holes pass the Drum Buddy’s photoelectric cells, firing drum-like tones and theremin or Moog synthesizer-like chirps or buzzes.”
“Bath Buddy”, yet another Quintron invention, is described as a “water conservation device” which sold for $65 and came in 3 exciting colors. It had a long, wired sensor that activated an alarm when your bath tub reached the desired level to prevent accidental overflowing.
My favorite invention, however, is Quintron’s “Spit Machine” which uses human saliva as a tuning conductor. Pause for laughter. Quintron described its operation on Wikipedia: “You had to spit on a stick, like a paint stir stick, and you had two metal leads that you would touch to either end of the line of spit and then you would move the leads closer together – higher pitch – and farther apart – lower pitch.” I couldn’t make this stuff up if I tried.
Quintron (left) and Miss Pussycat. Photo from panacherock.com/artists/quintron-and-miss-pussycat
Sleazy Nightclubs
Quintron’s wife, Panacea Pussycat (aka “Miss Pussycat”), is also an inventor. According to their website, she created “an inflatable puppet theater which fits into her purse.” Besides her “technicolor puppet shows”, Miss Pussycat also sings backup vocals and plays the maracas in her husband’s band. They describe their music as “barely controlled electronic chaos, ‘Swamp-Tech’ dance beats, small explosions, incredible clothes, and entertaining puppet stories.” Jane, stop this crazy thing. Quintron has recorded more than 20 albums and performs live using a Weather Warlock and/or several Drum Buddies as musical instruments. The band has performed in clubs all over the world, but according to their agent’s website, is equally at home in “sleazy nightclubs, pizza restaurants, and university lecture halls.” They’re available for private bookings should you feel so inclined.
I know all of this was a lot for you to digest…weather music, spit machines, light activated drum sounds, bath tub alarms, inflatable puppet shows, sleazy nightclubs, etc., but that’s what my Hitchhiker Stations are all about, and you won’t hear about them anywhere else. I love shining a Drum Buddy light on strange stations you never knew existed. Discover more fun and interesting Internet radio stations on my Patreon siteand help support my website blog at the same time. Thanks to my 300+ Patreon members for making this blog possible, and thanks to Quintron and Miss Pussycat for keeping Internet radio interesting.
Trivia (from Wikipedia):“Quintron utilizes a custom-made Hammond organ/Fender Rhodes synthesizer combo which he has had outfitted to resemble the body of a car, complete with working headlights and a Louisiana license plate which reads ‘Quintron’.”
