Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Playing the Frats: A Rock'n'Roll Odyssey
    Playing the Frats: A Rock'n'Roll Odyssey
    Playing the Frats: A Rock'n'Roll Odyssey
    Ebook186 pages2 hours

    Playing the Frats: A Rock'n'Roll Odyssey

    By James Robert Taris

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Playing the Frats - A Rock'n'Roll Odyssey is a story about a resourceful kid who enters the brand new world of rock'n'roll, forms a band, and leads them through the quirky atmosphere of Rock'n'Roll.

    Humorous situations and hilarity follow these intrepid novice musicians while they begin 'paying their dues", sharpening their musical chops, and playing record hops, crummy nightclubs, biker bars, and the King of the Music Scene - The Fraternity Party!

    Playing The Frats - A Rock'n"Roll Odyssey gives and insiders view of the young musicians chasing their "muse" forging their interpretation of the sounds of their generation. With a serious nod to that iconic "Frat Party" film this work opens the reader to a fascinating and often raucous story of Rock'n'Roll.

    Anyone who is interested in sixties and seventies rock or just loves reading a fun story will enjoy this work about a kid who loved Rock'n'Roll and did something about it!

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherJames Robert Taris
    Release dateSep 9, 2020
    Playing the Frats: A Rock'n'Roll Odyssey
    Author

    James Robert Taris

    An accomplished author, science teacher, and rock'n'roll musician who's inspirations and adventures are chronicled in his works. James was born and raised in Boston Ma, where he has found inspiration for many of his works, both fiction and nonfiction, sci-fi and fantasy, short story and novel. He is now happily retired in South Carolina with his wife JoAnne, and his dog, Pookie.

    Read more from James Robert Taris

    Related to Playing the Frats

    Related ebooks

    Music For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Hey Joe

      Jun 11, 2019

      Hey Joe
      9 min read

    • Article

      Jason Newsted

      Apr 28, 2022

      Given he’s avoided the spotlight for the last decade, there’s an awful lot of love and respect in our scene for Jason Newsted.He was the young, bass-playing hopeful from Flotsam And Jetsam who found himself in the enviable yet daunting position of fi

      9 min read

    • Article

      Karma Chameleon

      Jul 27, 2021

      Karma Chameleon
      5 min read

    • Article

      Big-time Rush Fan

      Aug 11, 2020

      Big-time Rush Fan
      8 min read

    • Article

      American Bandstand

      Apr 28, 2023

      American Bandstand
      7 min read

    • Article

      Ice-t

      Apr 4, 2023

      Tracy Marrow is one of life’s high achievers. “Good luck!” the man now known as Ice-T says when we inform him we’re going to try to cover as much of his career as we can over our allotted hour together, before shooting us a grin, rocking his head bac

      7 min read

    • Article

      Branford Marsalis’ Secret

      May 10, 2019

      Branford Marsalis’ Secret
      10 min read

    • Article

      Walt Disco

      Aug 28, 2020

      Walt Disco
      7 min read

    • Article

      High Five

      Nov 19, 2019

      “This came out when I was in junior high school — PS 194 in Whitestone, Queens. It was a three-song EP my band Heart Attack cut at a studio in Long Island City. We were a power trio, and our manager was a guy named Mojo who the Beastie Boys later wro

      4 min read

    • Article

      Marshall Jefferson

      Jul 14, 2021

      Marshall Jefferson’s early influences are going to surprise you. The pioneering house music legend spent his teenage years listening to Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple and Rush! “Yeah, man. I was a heavy metal kid,” laughs Jefferson. “That’

      8 min read

    • Article

      Pop Art

      Jan 28, 2020

      Pop Art
      8 min read

    • Article

      Free Radical

      Aug 20, 2021

      Free Radical
      7 min read

    • Article

      The Soundtrack Of My Life

      Sep 15, 2020

      The Soundtrack Of My Life
      3 min read

    • Article

      SKATE ROCK Stolen Nova

      Nov 4, 2022

      The first guitar to knock me for six was Funkadelic’s 10-minute, LSD-induced, mind-melting masterpiece ‘Maggot Brain.ʼ I heard it in my friendʼs basement when I was 14 years old, kissing a skateboarder crush at a Halloween party. The kiss wasn’t memo

      7 min read

    • Article

      Beggin’ For More

      Nov 1, 2022

      Beggin’ For More
      10 min read

    • Article

      Ambassador Of Bass

      Oct 12, 2021

      Ambassador Of Bass
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Soundtrack Of My Life

      Sep 14, 2021

      The Soundtrack Of My Life
      3 min read

    • Article

      Randy Meisner

      Sep 30, 2023

      Randy Meisner
      22 min read

    • Article

      Bandwidth

      Dec 31, 2019

      Bandwidth
      8 min read

    • Article

      John Shanks

      Oct 14, 2022

      John Shanks
      12 min read

    • Article

      Wild Ones

      Aug 20, 2019

      Wild Ones
      9 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Playing the Frats

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Playing the Frats - James Robert Taris

      The heater of the Ford was on full and frost crept up from the bottom of all the widows on this frigid winter Friday night as the four of us sped along the highway towards our first gig! Big Russ, a good friend, drove while Roger Danis, the drummer, and Chuck McNeil, the rhythm guitarist, tried to survive in the rear seat amid drums amplifiers and guitars. I rode shotgun up front with Big Russ. Our band was a bare bones (a good band name) trio – two guitars and drums with myself, Jimmy Taris also doing the vocals.

      A tense atmosphere pervaded the inside of the car. Nervous chatter filled the air as we four high-schoolers talked about classes, teachers, and eventually our music.

      Suddenly, Chuck said, Jimmy, I think I forget the chords to the first song!

      McNeil, Always the joker – Roger groaned and I replied, Very funny. Chuck don’t screw around. We know the material cold. We can play this stuff in our sleep.

      We were a new rock’n’roll band and just about to embark on the Boston record hop circuit for teens. The local radio station disc jockeys were hired to run these dances by schools and churches in the Boston area. At these dances (the big ones) local rock’n’roll bands would play four or five songs during intermission to get their name out to the public and build a fan base for their recordings if they were lucky enough to land a recording contract. It all sounded great for the bands but the Deejay was the one that was really making out on the deal. The more popular radio hosts could field several bands at a dance and I am sure the money that was made was commensurate with this fact.

      Of course, we were just starting out and this was all lost on us. We just wanted to play.

      Russ broke into our nervous banter and said, Have you guys thought of a name yet?

      Chuck had set this gig up with the radio station and I turned to him and asked, "What name did you give the Disc Jockey?

      Huh, he answered, Uh – The Royalls.

      What? I replied. We didn’t talk about that one. Jeesh. I shook my head.

      Roger piped up, I hate it

      Oh great, an argument on the way to the gig! Roger and Chuck were always getting into it. They liked each other, but they both liked a little drama to get me upset. I could see them both grinning amid the equipment stuffed with them in the back seat. I shook my head in frustration and then it was solved!

      Roger said, I got it! We’re the essentials of a band, drums, singer, and two guitars, so why not The Essentials? I like it.

      Russ said, I think its great! And I did too. McNeil thankfully agreed. Problem solved -- The Essentials were born.

      We exited off the highway and entered the town of Stoughton, a suburb - a little south of Boston. We drove into the center of the town with its ubiquitous white church and roundabout and followed signs to Stoughton Junior High School that was close to the center of town.

      Shortly, we pulled into the jammed school parking lot near the gymnasium door, which was awash with lights. From inside, I could hear music and the sound of hundreds of excited kids. I could feel a thrumming up my spine. I was starting to really get nervous. The three of us had never done this. Before I could get too worked up Chuck and Roger opened their doors and squeezed out of the car. McNeil made his way inside to talk to the Disc Jockey while the rest of us unloaded equipment and piled it up on the curb behind the ubiquitous cop car that was assigned to all school functions.

      In a few minutes, Chuck returned with a crestfallen look. He said, We’ve got a problem the asshole DJ in there doesn’t remember me!

      What! You said it was all set two days ago.

      It was. I talked to him on the phone – he said we were good to play. Now he tells me he has a well-known band, The Corvettes, slated to play tonight. He said he only has time for one band.

      Just as he said that a full size station wagon pulled up in back of us and we could see it was the Corvettes. I recognized them from other record hops I had attended. They were quite well known in the Boston area.

      Roger recognized them and said, Just stay here guys, I’m gonna see if I can fix this. He immediately walked up to the car, knocked on the front side window, and stuck his head into the car, and began shaking his head and talking at the same time.

      Chuck, Russ and myself watched slack-jawed as the station wagon backed up did a U-turn and sped out of the lot!

      Roger approached us with a huge grin. Rubbing his hands together and saying, Well that takes care of that.

      I said, What the hell did you say to make them leave?

      Roger replied, I just told them that the cops just shut the dance down because they caught a couple of kids drinking beers. I told them we just got here and unloaded our stuff and now we have to load up and get out of here before the cops start checking us out looking for alcohol. I had noticed that they had a six pack on the floor when I stuck my head in through the door window. Laughingly he added, They boogied out of here like – Roaches Out of a Hot Toaster!

      We were all laughing at his clever metaphor when it donned on me – I said, Now what? We can’t tell the DJ any of this.

      Roger held up his hand and said, Just wait. You’ll soon see.

      No sooner than he closed his mouth when the DJ popped his head out of the gymnasium door, looked at his watch, shook his head and walked over to us.

      Hey – Look - the other group hasn’t shown and I need someone on stage now. Can you get your stuff into the gym and set up pronto?

      I said while looking at the other guys, Sure, let’s do it.

      We immediately picked up our amps and guitars and drums and headed into the dance still laughing about the situation. The kids at the dance looked at us in awe (mostly the girls – the boys stood in the back of the hall, watching us like hawks). The dance was packed and the kids parted like Moses going across the Red Sea to let us pass.

      We set up our stuff behind a closed curtain on the stage as the girls started to scream

      for the band. I know my heart was pounding and I felt I was getting goose bumps. Jeesh. This was great. I had never been so pumped!

      We turned on the amps and did a quick tune up. Roger adjusted his drum set and gave me a nod that he was all set. I had no idea how Chuck or Rog were reacting to this but I was ready.

      The girls in front of the stage started to actually tear down the maroon colored curtain. The DJ quickly ran to the curtain, pulling it away from scrabbling hands. He turned to us and asked, Okay, what’s your name? You guys better start before these girls start storming the stage."

      Chuck said, The Essentials and the DJ spoke into the stage microphone - Here’s The Essentials and cued a male teacher who pulled the heavy curtain open amid tumultuous screaming from the girls. We The Essentials broke into a Link Ray instrumental called Rawhide. The kids in the gym were going wild! The girl groupies up front were screaming and the rest of the kids were dancing including the boys. I felt like I was a real Rock’n’Roll Star"!

      As soon as we finished Rawhide I stepped to the mike and we immediately went into Susie Q by Dale Hawkins. The level of screaming increased as we finished that song and started playing a tune called Felicia by Bobby and the Orbits. I glanced at the other members of the band and I could see that we all were sharing the same Euphoria. The fourth and last song of our only set (the only songs we had worked out) was Dion and the Belmonts – Teenager in Love. During the break where I sang, Why must I be a teenager in love - I pointed to a girl in the front of the stage and she fainted dead away amid more screams from the girls around her!

      Upon finishing this last song, we unplugged our instruments and made our way off stage while the DJ asked for another round of applause and started spinning records to get the dance back on track. While watching this I didn’t notice the other guys disappear I walked deeper into the backstage wings to find Chuck and Roger pinned to the back wall by a bevy of girls. Both were in the process of having their shirts torn off their bodies. It was obvious that they loved every second of the assault. I immediately did an about face and went back out on the stage to the safety of the disc jockey.

      At that moment two dazed and completely happy Essentials appeared. Both in T- shirts and were holding what was left of their band shirts and smiling. Roger exclaimed, If the cop hadn’t rescued us they would have gotten our pants too!

      McNeil looked a little disappointed at this and said, Ya, you’re right. I wish he had come a few minutes later.

      I just shook my head and said, Come on let’s get this equipment to the back of the stage. There is a door back there. We can load up the instruments through that. I’ll go out front and rounds up Russ.

      As luck would have it, Russ had already scoped out the back door to the stage and parked the car near the door. He came through that door just as I was going to brave going out into the audience, saving me from the possibly of being defrocked by overly

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1