Always always get somebody a lot better …
By George Johns
Long before I started my career in radio and moved to America I had some other dreams. I dreamt about becoming a star running back for THE WINNIPEG BLUE BOMBERS and I also was dreaming about becoming a big rock star.
These were the kind of things I thought about most of the time instead of studying while going to high school at TCI in Transcona.
One fall while I was playing football for THE TRANSCONA NATIONALS and struggling with the 9th grade because I was too busy writing songs instead of paying attention to what was going on in class, I was invited to join a singing group called SHAYNE & THE DEVINES. I kinda suspected all along why I was invited to join this group but I didn’t care that it might be because I had just traded in my trumpet and bought a spiffy brand new guitar with amplifier and was just in the midst of learning how to play it when I got the call.
Shayne who was the singer/leader of the group, didn’t have an amp at the time so lo and behold he got to plug into mine when I joined THE DEVINES. So it turned out that by me joining the group … SHAYNE & THE DEVINES like DYLAN went electric.
Shortly after I joined them we began playing some small gigs around town and in fact I made $15 dollars my first night.
Man I thought I’m on my way, I don’t even know how to play my guitar yet but I have to have it on stage with me just fakin’ it, because we all figured it looked real good. Some of my non musical friends claimed the group sounded a lot better with two guitars I now laugh about my musical career because It started with me fakin’ it and It ended for good with me fakin’ it.
A few years ago John Einarson wrote a book about the WINNIPEG SIXTIES ROCK SCENE.
The book must have done quite well because the next thing I know I get a very excited call from Terry Kenny our lead guitar player in THE JURY.
He tells me that they are doing a big reunion with all the Winnipeg rock bands from the sixties at the convention center and he is putting THE JURY back together again to play at it.
I was very pleased to hear about the reunion and excited to once again after all these years have the opportunity to hook up with my old band whom I hadn’t seen in some twenty years or more.
It should also be great fun I figured to get together with some old band buds like Randy Bachman, Burton Cummings and Neil Young.
But I was definitely not excited enough to consider playing again. I had lost my guitar chops many radio years ago so I had no interest in that part of the reunion.
I had put my guitar down when my daughter Candis was born and I had also had discovered my new love, RADIO.
At the time I had done this, we had the #1 Canadian record in Canada; PLEASE FORGET HER / WHO DAT and the record company wanted us to go on the road and promote it, because we had just gotten an American release.
I figured I wasn’t a good enough musician to be heading out on the road what with a brand new baby girl at home and what ever, so I left THE JURY and went into radio full blast and I’m still at it after all these years.
I was almost tempted to come back once when Randy Bachman called to recruit me for THE GUESS WHO. I laughed and told him I wasn’t near good enough to play with them. But he said; George I can teach you all the musical stuff it’s all those other things you do that THE GUESS WHO need.
I guess it was all those other things I do that even better served me in my new chosen career path, RADIO.
As I headed back home for the big reunion I thought about how quickly the years went by, wow where did they go.
I guess the old saying, time goes by fast when your having fun was very true. But as super quickly time has gone by for me I thought I must have been well over served on the fun part.
When I finally get to the reunion after a long plane flight from San Diego, I’m surprised to find out it’s spread over a couple of days so we got to just hang out and catch up with each other before the big concert.
It was sure fun seeing everyone from all the old bands and checking out what they were all doing now.
Back in the day we all weren’t so friendly with each other because the band scene was very competitive for those good gigs. Winnipeg for a lot of reasons had a lot of bands but there were just not enough good ones to go around.
But all that was forgotten and now it was like old home week as we went around hugging each other and catching up.
They even brought back some of the old Jox that were kind enough to help us all out a way back then. Great guys like Ron Legge, Harry Taylor, Doc Steen, Boyd Kozak, and Bob Burns just to name a few.
So it was double cool for me because I turned out to be a band guy and a radio guy, and I was back where it all started for me.
I will tell you about this though, you haven’t lived until you have seen and heard a live 20 minute version of American Woman with Randy Bachman on lead, Neil Young on rhythm, and Burton Cummings on piano, just wailin’ along with with various members of some of the other bands that were on stage helping out.
Man oh man oh man, the hairs on the back of my neck still stick up just re living it right now.
A little earlier when I was standing out front waiting for THE JURY to be introduced, Randy and Burton grabbed me and pushed me towards the stage saying George you’ve got to get up there, THE JURY was your band man! Billy Jaques of THE GALAXIES handed me his guitar as I was being kind of herded on stage with the rest of the guys.
Wow, talk about old band days flashing before my eyes. I looked around at all the people, the bright lights and TV cameras that were already rolling because they were going to make a big TV special out of this very special night.
I was kind of in a fog looking around and trying to will my legs into stop shaking when one of the equipment crew guys said to me … Hey I’m plugging your guitar into this amp right behind you, is there anything else you need.
I said thanks and yes you can you do me a huge favor, please turn the amp down all the way and leave it down until I leave the stage.
He just looked at me strangely, shrugged his shoulders in agreement and soon left.
As I’m standing there thinking what the hell am I doing, I suddenly hear one of the Jox introduce us and a way we go. I remember thinking at the time, this is how I started my musical career, how appropriate that this is how I am now ending it … Fakin’ it!
But then a very strange thing began to happen as we went through our set playing all of our recordings. The chord arrangements all came back to me.
To this day I couldn’t tell you what they are because it has been many many years ago since we recorded and played those tunes together.
But on that very special night, once again I could play them.
When we finally finished up our set and I finally got off the stage where I belonged I was very relieved and happy that it was finally over.
But I’ve got to admit as I headed out front to watch the rest of the bands do their stuff, thinking to myself … Hey that was kinda fun !
What a rush it was seeing all those guys playing again and as I watched and clapped I couldn’t help but think back to my early band years.
As I wrote earlier it all started for me with a group called SHAYNE & THE DEVINES which really was just a vocal group not a band. But I was so excited about being on stage that the band thing didn’t bother me for a little while.
But I was very into bands so before long very I started inviting some musician friends of mine to join the group. Guys like Peter Proskurnik on sax, Roland Blaquiere on Bass, his brother Lawrence on piano and Gordy Duke on drums.
Now that we were a real band I thought the name DEVINES was rather wimpy for a rockin’ band, so we soon became THE REBEL RAIDERS.
Shayne left in a snit I guess because I also decided his name was not needed out front anymore.
Looking back now I think I must of been kinda pushy for a guy just learning how to play guitar. Thank goodness later on in my radio career I got over that kind of nonsense. (-:
As time went on and we rehearsed as much as we could and even played for a few dances I started to think that maybe the name REBEL RAIDERS was becoming a little old hat sounding so we became THE PHANTOMS, and bulked up by adding a singer, Donny Burns, another sax, Jimmy Harrison, and a vocal group, THE CASTAWAYS.
Man what a great great sounding band, but the problem was with all those people it sure sounded good and we quickly became one of the top bands in town but you can forget about making any money.
So as time went by some of the guys fell in love, got married and had to get real jobs so they moved on and we just didn’t replace them.
During this period of my life though I learned a valuable lesson that I have never forgotten. It happened one day when we were playing one of these big shows that had a bunch of bands playing on it.
I spotted a guy named Terry Kenny who was playing lead guitar for another band. Terry I discovered was much better than me.
I loved being lead guitar, but Terry was so much better. I made the life changing decision to hire him to replace me.
Terry brought with him his singer pal Bruce Walker and I moved over to rhythm guitar. We became THE JURY and started cutting records.
Always always get somebody better than you! That lesson has served me well over the years because I was lucky enough to have figured out early in life that the smartest guy in the room was the guy who surrounded himself with people a lot smarter than himself.
Oops wait a minute, hang on, I’ve just got a an e mail here that says they are doing another Winnipeg 60′s bands reunion again in September.
Wow that’s sounds like it could be fun and I’ve already got myself all fired up again just with the writing of this piece. I better get my ’58 Strat out of storage and seriously start practicing.
Man maybe we should consider going on a reunion tour, those things are quite popular now and the bands are making some good bucks for a change.
Bruce has even started to write again so maybe we could do another recording session, plus we still have one more song on the master that we never released yet. And better yet how about a greatest hits package. I wonder who could design some tour t-shirts, big money in that I hear.
I think most of the guys still have their chops and are still playing around a bit. This would be so cool and I think we should get a big old Silver Eagle to tour in because all that driving I used to do back then, dragging the party trailer behind us, almost killed me.
We could have Daryl B MC for us and sing some back up like the old days, no can’t do that he’s gone. How about Chuck Dann helping us produce the recording sessions again. Nope he’s gone too. Do you think CKY would play our new stuff, I guess not it’s gone too. What has happened to CKRC ?
Wait a minute, wait a minute we’ve got other problems too how are we going to sort out all the differences the band had with each other.
Even at the last reunion Rolly (Termite) refused to go on stage because he was still mad at a couple of them for losing his bass or something a hundred years ago.
That’s right and Terry I think is still very upset at Rolly because years ago he used to shout out very loudly before each and every gig … Lets Get Drunk And Be Somebody! And the thing was, he really meant it and even more frightening he did it.
It’s all starting to rush back to me now, and I’m getting all exhausted and nervous again just remembering and thinking about how it all was.
Hey why don’t you guys just go on without me. I’m sticking with radio where we just pretend we’re working.
More @ www.georgejohns.com
George A. Johns
email 1, radiogeo@gmail.com
email 2, george@georgejohns.com
Blog @ www.georgejohns.com
