It is a good thing I can type as I have
all but lost the power of speech this morning. I went to Rock the
Bluff yesterday at Cassville to help celebrate my life long friend
Greg Lenz's birthday. I played and sang with the bands and I talked
and talked until I couldn't hardly whisper. Greg and I go way back.
We first started playing together when were little. I have this
vivid picture of him in my mind of him is of him walking up the hill
from his grandma's place up to my grandma's place before we were in
school. He was one of the few kids I knew when we started first
grade together at the Methodist building with Miss Okey, a former
missionary to China, as our teacher. We got on to riding bikes
together, sledding, exploring, and just hanging out. Greg blames me
for our life long passion for rock and roll; when we saw the Beatles
on Ed Sullivan, I proposed we start a band. I was able to pester my
parents into letting me buy an electric guitar from Eddie Phillips.
It took eons, or so it seemed, to show up. My living room was full
of friends who wanted to strum it and just touch it. It had an
electric short in it, so I had to send it back, and I had to wait for
the refund before I could get another one. Dad took me to Fabre's
Music in Dubuque and after much looking and haggling we settled on an
old, single pickup Gibson with a small beat up Gibson amplifier. (I
wish I still had that guitar.) Greg got a Silvertone guitar with
the amp built in the case. Anyway, the stage was set. Don Schnering
got a bass, and Roy Mosely got a set of drums. We pounded out
enough songs to start playing out. After watching the “hit”
movie, “Rock Around The Clock” about Bill Haley and the Comets at
Greg's one summer afternoon, we named our band “The Livin” End”
from the last words on the credits. I can vividly see us jumping
about and yelling, “that's it!” In high school John Schmidt
became our drummer. Greg and I and the boys played a great deal, we
partied a great deal, and we somehow got through girls and muscle
cars and summer jobs and campouts on the sandbar together. We played
our horns in a dixieland band called the Band with Good Old Time
Flavor, and I strummed a bit with Arnie Junk and Dairyland Ramblers,
but mostly we played rock and roll. The summer of 1970 has become
known as the Mud Band summer in the annals of me and my friends.
Greg and I and Don, Steve Bernhardt, Kirb Toberman, Rob Ploessl, Mike
Schier, and Kim Klauer became the Mississippi Mud Band, complete with
three guitars, bass, brass – two trumpets and two trombones, two
sets of drums and keyboards. We played music from Chicago and
Mountain and Blood Sweat and Tears. We played a lot, but we didn't
make much money because there were too many cuts, but man, we had
fun. I remember Ellen bringing her cousins to watch a practice in
Walt Okey's old cement block slaughterhouse. You should have seen
the bats fly when the first chord was struck to “25 or 6 to 4”!
That fall, Greg and I moved in together up in Madison to attend
school. I often joke that I majored in rock and roll and girls in
college – the first time anyway. I did not get a degree, but Greg
did. A couple years later, he was the one to call me and tell me
that Channel 8 in La Crosse needed a commercial artist – something
I had gone to school for but didn't finish. I got the job and moved
to La Crosse and for a short time Greg and I worked at the same
place. He was an engineer and I was in production, fancy titles but
pretty much he fixed stuff and I broke it. He moved on to a career
in communications with Dairyland Power, and I stayed on for 13 years
in television and we both started raising a family and we drifted
apart. (I finally finished a degree in Education and nearly 25 years
in teaching; without him to fix stuff what else could I do?) By
1972, the Mud Band gradually came apart as all great bands do –
except maybe the Rolling Stones. I went on to play with the GMC, The
Mark IV, The Buffalo County Band, and Just Friends, while Greg played
drums for a number of bands before becoming the main percussionist
for the very popular and successful classic rock band, Shake, Rattle,
and Roll. In the 90's I played bass for Shake, Rattle, and Roll, so
for a time we were back together. In fact, we broke up at Stoddard
after playing for Linda and Wayne Jacobson's 25th
anniversary party after a quarrel in the band at the end of the
night. My friends Linda and Wayne are still together! Anyway, Greg
and I have sat down and strummed our six strings over some Captain's
and Coke a few times, and I played with Greg and Shake, Rattle, and
Roll down at the Miss Marquette last year one night, but last night
was the first time since. I got to play bass while Greg and his
granddaughter McKenzie sang together, and then Greg sang some Rolling
Stones and Beach Boys. People kept telling us it was so good to see
us together again. It was. (The way I feel this morning, it must
have been a great.) Thank you for driving home, Ellen.
Greg is retiring next month as I am. I
hope we can get together to play a lot in this summer. Steve
mentioned a Mud Band reunion of some sort last night. I'm in! Greg
has been battling pancreatic cancer for awhile, and we are all asking
the powers that be to help him. Playing rock and roll may just be
that spark he needs to beat it.
If you have a chance to donate or help
in the fight against Cancer – no matter what kind, please consider
it. There is no greater influence or scourge on who we are today
than this quiet menace; if it has affected you, you know; if it is
affecting you, you know; and if you don't think it has affected you –
it will, in some way. Unfortunately, I know I am sure about this.
Until next time, get out – Ellen
found the mother lode of morels on Friday last. She filled her mesh
bag with 5 pounds of the fabulous fungi. The season may be wrapping
up as the weeds and grasses are getting so tall, the mushrooms are
really hard to spot. She also found deer ticks, so make sure you
cover and spray your boots with some sort of Deet if you go. Enjoy.
Good/interesting Post!!!
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