"True Story - Part One" - Ken Aparicio (bassist of California bands 60s and 70s: Shane, The Morgan Blackwood Group)

"True Story - Part One"  -  Ken Aparicio  (bassist of California bands 60s and 70s: Shane, The Morgan Blackwood Group)

Kalifornia lat 60-tych, od strony muzycznej to "ziemia obiecana" dla wielu artystów, a talent i szczęście  (i to nie zawsze)  były podstawowym progiem zrobienia kariery.

Zbierając materiały o grupie Shane miałem szczęście, a zarazem wielką przyjemność nawiązania

kontaktu i poznania (komunikatory internetowe)  basisty tego zespołu :

- Ken Aparicio  (Kenneth James Aparicio z Menlo Park, CA, ur. 30.10. 1947r., obecnie

   zamieszkały w północnym rejonie US, blisko granicy z Kanadą).

Przesympatyczny człowiek, który podzielił się ze mną swoimi wspomnieniami, a także udostępnił

nagrania - w tym zupełnie mi nieznanej, znakomitej formacji  Morgan Blackwood Group.

W tej publikacji postanowiłem zaprezentować pierwszą część przygotowanej  (napisanej)  przez niego : "My Music History" - w wersji oryginalnej.

"...

My Music History Ken Aparicio

I would like to share with you this story of a moment in modern rock & roll

music that was just one part of the San Francisco Music Scene of the

1960’s and 1970’s. Throughout the world you would find many parallel

stories as this was moment of change for a new generation.

In America, 50’s Rock gave birth to the Beach Boys, the Beatles and the

British Invasion. Sparked by this new music, many of the young people of

the day started garage bands dreaming of fame and possible fortune. This

particular story takes place 30 miles south of San Francisco in towns of

Menlo Park and Palo Alto. It is worth to mentioning that although this will

cover just the music scene which began in the mid 60’s, there were those

young people as equally enthralled with electronics and they were the first

wave of designers and programmers that gave birth to Silicone Valley and

companies like Apple, FaceBook, HP, IBM & Google which are all located

within 20 miles of each other. It was a heady time and a quantum leap for

civilization.

I went to Menlo Atherton High School, beginning in 1961. By 1963 I had

met a friend who played guitar and who convinced me to learn bass guitar

so we could start a band. The Dana Morgan Music Studio in Palo Alto,

about 5 miles from my parents’ home, was where I started guitar lessons.

After two lessons, my music teacher left and I was turned over to another

teacher. This guy was about 5 years older. Although a nice guy, he and

his companions who hung around the music store were all a bit rough

looking in comparison to preppy look of the day. The teacher’s name was

Jerry Garcia and those friends were his bandmates. Dana Morgan himself

was their bass player in the beginning which gave them easy access to

music equipment. Dana was replaced by Phil Lesh when the band

became the Warlocks. More about this is readily available in a search of

Jerry Garcia on Wikipedia.

At our high school, the #1 band was the New Invaders, a rhythm & blues

band. Larry Field, who was in my same grade, was the leader. A popular

kid, Larry was most known for being the only kid with an operating turn

table in the glove box of his 1964 Chevy Impala. Eventually Larry

convinced our lead singer, Lydia Pence, to join his band and, after

graduation, they went to the East Bay Area town of Oakland and formed

the musical group Cold Blood

Also in our class was Jim Boro who had recently transferred from a high

school in South San Francisco. A boisterous kid, Jim played saxophone in

the high school band. I did not know him personally, but that would

change two years later.

In our senior class was another kid who had transferred in from San

Francisco. Best recognized for his long hair and far off stare, Bob Weir

was very quiet and kept to himself. He was also taking music lessons

from Jerry Garcia as he was interested in banjo and eventually was added

to the Warlocks and eventually they formed the Grateful Dead.

Two years younger that all of us, was the younger brother of Greg

Buckingham, a Gold Medal winner at the ’64 Summer Olympics in Japan.

Lyndsey was also a great swimmer but as equally excited about learning

guitar. He would eventually forge a musical relationship with a new

freshman at our school whose parents had moved from Arizona. Stevie

Nicks was popular and, as time would tell, a pretty decent singer. After

graduation her and Lyndsey Buckingham would join Mick Fleetwood and

John McVie to collaborate to create some pretty fabulous music as the

newest rendition of Fleetwood Mac.

That takes us back to Jim Boro and the eventual creation of Shane. I had

gone away to college in Arizona to study Architecture. After one year, I

was homesick and more interested in playing music. I still don’t know how

Jim had met Freddy O’quinn, since Freddy was from Oroville, California, a

small Central Valley town about 150 miles north. Jim and Freddy were

living in San Carlos, a town 5 miles from Menlo Park, and they were

starting a band. I also don’t know how Jim found me, but I got a call from

him one day inviting me to come jam with him and Freddy and a drummer

who to this day I can’t remember. We rehearsed for a few months and

then Jim met a new drummer who was looking for musicians to form a

night club act. This drummer had contacts in Southern California around

LA and off we went for a summer tour of night clubs. One club gig, in

Lynwood, lasted a couple of months and gave us our greatest boost as we

played 5 nights a week from 9:00 to 1:30am with a half hour break and a

second time of 2:00 to 5:00am. 7 1/2 hours of playing an instrument, 5

days a week made each of us pretty good musicians and we formed a

sound. 

Our stint with that drummer came to an end and After a couple of weeks

Freddy, Jim and I found a new drummer named Sheldon Miller and

officially started Shane. We worked clubs as well, mainly playing copy

songs with a heavy lean towards James Brown, Motown and Rhythm &

Blues. We found a manager named Bunny and she booked us at clubs

around Compton, Watts & West Hollywood. They were clubs with a

majority of black clientele and often times Jim & I were the only white guys

in the club. We eventually became known as Black & White Shane. It

was at this time that Jim wrote “Woman Don’t You Go”. With the help of

our manager, Bunny, the song (with Road Runner on the B side) was

recorded. This would have been the summer of 1967.

The relationship with Bunny along with the dwindling revenue we were

getting from playing clubs brought us to a crossroads. It was Freddy who

suggested we move up to his home town of Oroville in Northern California.

Freddy knew of booking agent named Harry Arnold, who managed groups

from Redding, Chico and all parts of Northern California & Southern

Oregon. Harry said he could get us good paying concert gigs and with

that, we packed are gear and off we went to Oroville and the Chico Music

Scene. 

..."

...ciąg dalszy wkrótce.

Band Shane (1967 - 1969) :

- Freddy O'Quinn  -  organ, piano, vocals  (Freddy Lee O'Quinn, Jr z Oroville, CA, born 1947, died

   2002r.)

- Ken Aparicio  -  bass

- Jim Burroughs  -  lead guitar

- Sheldon Miller - drums  (z New York)

    (Shane, circa 1968, from left : Jim Burroughs, Freddy O'Quinn, Ken Aparicio, Sheldon Miller)

Singiel :

- "Woman (Don't You Go)"

- "Road Runner"

(1968, Top Catt Records, TC - 154 / 155, US)