Mooseboy Alfonzo and His Prairie Troubadours proudly presentThe Bingers
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As noted in my manifesto, in college I started playing with
some guys who worked with me at Publix. It was a
lot of fun for me, as this was my real first group
of guys I played with just for fun. We played rock
and stuff, which was also different than what I'd
been doing with The Tim Tew Four.
This is where I really started writing songs. Some stuff we wrote together, the songs I wrote were mostly about other people that worked at Publix. Our store manager was getting promoted, and as part of his farewell party (held in the back of the store, Pubs spared no expense) we were asked to play. When asked for a name, I suggested Mooseboy Alfonzo and His Prairie Troubadours, which we actually used for that gig. The other guys eventually changed our name to The Bingers. |
It was raw, but so very funIt started with just the
three of us from Publix, me on bass, plus drums and
guitar. We practiced in the drummer's house (his
parents were very nice, patient people because we were
loud and not that talented). I was the only one of us
who had any formal musical training, plus I'd been in
a successful working band for 3-4 years, so I kinda
became the de-facto leader. Our guitarist had the best
voice so he sang most of our covers and I sang most of
the originals (having wrote them). As a power trio, I
had lots of opportunity to showcase my bass playing,
and the "little Chris Squire" in me had a ball. For
some songs (Secret
Agent Man, for example), we had a bass solo
instead of a guitar solo. Eventually, we added a
fourth, a guitar player the drummer knew. That let our
front/guitarist switch occasionally to keyboards. This
guitarist was also self-taught, one of those idiot
savants who can pick a piece out by listening to
it. His problems were twofold: 1) He really only knew
"bits" of songs. He'd play the riff from some song,
you'd say "hey, that's cool, we should play that" and
he'd say that was the only part he knew. 2) The boy
could not stay in tune to save his life. I distinctly
remember one gig, it was in an actual bar so it
important for us, I took his guitar beforehand and
tuned it for him. Handed it back, said here you go. We
start playing. He's out of tune. After the set, I ask
what happened. "Oh, I noticed my whammy bar was a
little tight, so I took it down some." I said "Oh, you
adjusted the whammy bar." Yes. "Which changed the
tension on the strings, yes?" Yep. "So HOW IN THE
@$#@@%@ DID YOU THINK THAT WOULDN'T AFFECT THE
TUNING?" Grrrrrr...and thus begins, my love-hate
relationship with lead guitarists. They're all really
a bunch of wankers, when you get down to it. I wish I had more material
from this era. We recorded ourselves a lot, but this
is all I have. Power trio, no idiot savant wanker lead
guitarist in sight... |
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Let's Go to Doug'sSo, as I said, many times my songs were about people
we worked with at Publix. In this case, Doug was a few
years old than me, somewhat larger-than-life, a big
drinker, and a friend. The main song I wrote about
him, "Doug", was a showcase piece for the band, with
each member getting a solo. I don't have it, but I
found this improvised piece from some rehearsal. It's
not so bad. My writing style then was very influenced
by early Talking
Heads. |
Let's Go to Doug's
<--Click here to listen |
DeannaDeanna was this cashier at Publix the drummer had a
huge crush on. So I said "Hey, let's write a song
about her and you can use that to get to know her."
Again, very Talking
Heads: 77 here. Unfortunately, this isn't the
whole song, just a selection. Later another Deanna started as a cashier at the same
store, and we added verses about her too just to keep
his options open... |
Deanna <--Click here to
listen |
Evil WaysOur "big number", the one we thought we did best was
Santana's Evil
Ways. This isn't our best take on it, but it is
a take. You can hear our guitarist/keyboard/front's
golden throat instead of mine... |
Evil
Ways <--Click here to listen |
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