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#Post#: 1731--------------------------------------------------
Let's Take a Journey To The Stars!
By: Bruce D Date: March 22, 2013, 6:53 pm
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Hi all,
This is Bruce D. This is the honest truth. I was, at 8,
considered something of a musical prodigy. My parents got me
started on Classical Piano at age 3. By age 6 I was giving
recitals. At age 7, I decided I really liked what I had seen
and heard of violinists such as Jascha Heifetz, Fritz Kreisler,
David Oistrakh, etc, and switched to taking violin lessons on a
full scholarship at Hart College of Music in Hartford,
Connecticut. My folks bought me a German Stradivrious
reproduction, and by age 9 I was giving violin recitals. My
musical knowledge, at that time, was strictly and exclusively
Classical symphonic and Chamber music. My parents were
successful in keeping my brother and me entirely isolated from
that "monkey music" being played on Top 40 radio. I had no idea
who Elvis, or Dion, or Chuck Berry were.
In September 1960, we had just moved into a new house in West
Hartford. My dad had recently dumped his rusted-out '48 Olds,
and had bought a demo '59 Olds 98. Initially he was quite taken
with that car, before the manufacturing defects began to make
themselves all to obvious. But the weekend after he'd purchased
the car, like a kid with a new bicycle, he suggested taking a
ride for no particular reason, (and of course, back then,
gasoline was only about 25 cents a gallon for premium). So, we
all piled in and went exploring the rural outskirts of Hartford.
Dad decided to see how the radio sounded, and turned it on. I
suspect the last person to drive the car before him, had
probably been one of the young lot boys, who had tuned the radio
into 1340 KDRC AM, Hartford's #1 Top 40 station. Before he
realized this, Skip Moore's immortal drum roll kicked off Walk
Don't Run. As Dad was reaching over toward the tuner, Don
Wilson's incredible opening chords rang out. By the time Dad's
fingers were wrapped around the tuner, Bob Bogle's awesome tone
(that I have NEVER been able to obtain on any Fender guitar)
started the melody. I was mesmerized, to say the least.
I begged my dad not to change the station. With a sick,
defeated look on his face, he removed his hand and allowed me to
listen to the 2:03 length of the song. This is one of those
moments in one's early life, that one never forgets. That
moment in time, sealed my destiny to become a lifelong Ventures
fan, and aficionado of Instrumental Rock, in general. By my
sophomore year in High School, I already owned eight Ventures
LP's, and I bought every one I could get my hands on. When all
my friends and associates were listening to The Doors, Cream,
Traffic, etc, I was grooving to songs like Shanghied, Bulldog,
Yellow Jacket, Driving Guitars, Walk Don't Run, Journey To The
Stars, etc. It was incredibly validating among my circle of
friends, when, in early '69 (as I recall) Hawaii Five-0 went Top
10. I never saw that coming, but what a wonderful moment that
was for a dyed-in-the-wool Ventures fan.
Since those days, of course, came college, marriage, career,
divorce, etc. But, in 1980, I realized a long-held dream when I
was able to see Bob, Don, Nokie, and Mel, all rock the house, at
The Starwood, in West Hollywood, playing to a super-appreciative
Punker audience. (I was 27 years old at the time, but being in
that crowd, made me feel old). Since then, I caught 3 or 4 of
their live appearances at their old stomping ground, The
Palomino, in North Hollywood. It was at one of those shows, (I
believe in 1985) that Gerry McGee flubbed a couple of notes
while playing Apache. If Mel's eyes had been laser beams, McGee
woulda had two holes burned through his back.
In 1994 I met a professional musician and we started an
oldies/casuals band. We played about 8 classic instro numbers,
including Walk Don't Run and Hawaii Five-0. I'll never forget a
gig we played, with Preston Ritter on drums. For those who
don't know, Preston was the power-house drummer on the 1967 #11
hit, Too Much To Dream, by The Electric Prunes. Very cool.
That band broke up in 1997, and in late '98, I met another
drummer, Doug Appleton, a major surf music fan, and a big fan of
The Ventures. We decided to start an instrumental
Ventures-influenced band, and called it "Longboard Ranch". I
wrote about 25 original songs which ended up on two commercial
CD's we produced, in 2002 and 2005. Although I tend to use a
lot more reverb than Nokie ever did, when I play a Ventures
tune, I strive to replicate as closely as possible, the original
tones and nuances of the song. A few of my originals, have
spurred those who purchased our CD's to remark that in some
ways, it was like listening to The Ventures playing several
never-heard-before songs. Those kinds of comments fill me with
pride, a pride of accomplishment that no other activity has ever
brought me.
In 2013, my songwriting partner, Loyd Davis and I, are now
working with Sergio Vigilato, an original member of the
Brazilian instro band "The Jet Blacks" from 1962-67. We are now
being exposed to THEIR big musical influence, The Shadows, and
are learning a bunch of Shadows tunes, so ultimately we'll have
two tribute bands in one, with me playing lead on Ventures tunes
and Sergio playing lead on Shadows tunes. In addition, I'll
finally have a band of players willing and able to do vocals, so
we'll do a major amount of Rockabilly-flavored Oldies and a few
similar originals. I'm attaching the doc file of our likely
repertoire, at least what we've set out to do, from now. Should
be a total blast. The best of all worlds.
#Post#: 1732--------------------------------------------------
Re: Let's Take a Journey To The Stars!
By: tabalt11 Date: March 22, 2013, 7:08 pm
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Welcome aboard Bruce. Glad you 'finally' made it
over here. Tom B. here.
Walt & I don't have a prize for you but I can honestly
say 'your intro' is our longest to date & as you can
see, in ONLY 14 months, we've managed to net
150 Ventures & or Shadows fans.
Walt will be along shortly to formally welcome you.
You're gonna 'have a blast' browsing thru all the
wonderful categories & hopefully adding
your expertise in certain areas!
ENJOY!
#Post#: 1733--------------------------------------------------
Re: Let's Take a Journey To The Stars!
By: wstagner Date: March 22, 2013, 9:37 pm
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Welcome, Bruce.
So, where can we see/hear/enjoy some of your music?
#Post#: 1735--------------------------------------------------
Re: Let's Take a Journey To The Stars!
By: Nokie Date: March 23, 2013, 12:50 pm
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It's great to see you over here, Bruce. Do you still play violin
and piano?
-Marty
#Post#: 1883--------------------------------------------------
Re: Let's Take a Journey To The Stars!
By: mlkemper Date: April 22, 2013, 2:20 pm
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yeh we almost all had experiences playing VENTURES tunes ...I
played THE MCCOY AND YELLOW JACKET[ with my new sunburst
MOSRITE] at intermission of our play SOLID GOLD CADILLAC..IN
high school ..my pre amp fell off the top of my amp and rolled
under the curtain ...lol... except for that we recovered and
rocked the gym ..it made some of the teachers mad because we got
more applause than the production they worked a month on ..oh
well that's show business
#Post#: 2074--------------------------------------------------
Re: Let's Take a Journey To The Stars!
By: Bruce D Date: June 12, 2013, 5:14 am
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For those interested in hearing our material, there are 15
originals, with me on lead guitar, at this link:
HTML http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=155273&content=music
I gave up violin about 1970, when I graduated from High School,
and was no longer involved with the High School Orchestra. I
haven't played serious piano since 1962, but can navigate my way
around a keyboard, when I'm arranging an original, and want to
add rhythm and bass.
#Post#: 2076--------------------------------------------------
Re: Let's Take a Journey To The Stars!
By: wstagner Date: June 12, 2013, 8:19 am
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So, who's in your band or do you do these all yourself on the
computer?
#Post#: 2082--------------------------------------------------
Re: Let's Take a Journey To The Stars!
By: Bruce D Date: June 13, 2013, 3:31 am
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Walt, If you go to the link I provided, you will see a thumbnail
photo of five players, who at the time were my band, Longboard
Ranch. One of those players was only with us for a few months.
The "Original Four" as it were, were, Doug Appleton, drummer,
Loyd Davis, Rhythm & some Lead Guitar, Chris Ireland, Bass, and
myself, doing primarily Lead Guitar and some rhythm guitar.
This lineup was our band from early 2000 to mid 2008. More
recently, Loyd and I have joined up with Sergio Vigilato, who
was the Second Guitarist with The Jet Blacks, Brazil's leading
Ventures/Shadows cover band, from 1962 to 1967, when he left
Brazil to come to the U.S.
We were described, in 2003, by The Great Kahuna, Les Perry, a
Surf Music DJ, as one of the FIVE BEST Surf/Instrumental bands
in America. Phil Dirt, the nations #1 Surf Music DJ, at KJFC at
UC Santa Cruz, gave a rating of 4 stars to our first CD,
"Surfin' Out West", in 2002, and 5 stars to our second CD,
"Longboard Ranch Rides Again!", in 2005.
I've been told that when I play a Ventures tune, I sound more
like The Ventures than they do! Especially a song like "Journey
To The Stars". If there was a way I could upload the mp3 file,
I'd be happy to do so, as we did record this one, about 2006.
When we played the International Street Fair at City of Orange,
CA, back in 2007, at the end of our third set, none other than
the co-writer of Mr. Moto, (Eddie Bertrand, lead guitar of The
Bel Airs), came up and told me that we were one of the best
traditional surf bands he'd heard, and that we had the early
60's sound totally nailed. It's much more fun to play with a
full band of musicians, rather than trying to be a solo act.
#Post#: 2083--------------------------------------------------
Re: Let's Take a Journey To The Stars!
By: wstagner Date: June 13, 2013, 8:55 am
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Heer's Bruce's bands version of JTS:
98.220.198.136/bruceD/
HTML http://98.220.198.136/bruceD/
checkit oot
#Post#: 2085--------------------------------------------------
Re: Let's Take a Journey To The Stars!
By: abstamaria Date: June 14, 2013, 10:17 am
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That is quite a story, Bruce. What is not clear to me is whether
you became a full-time professional musician and, if so, at what
point. Is your band with Sergio a fulltime endeavor?
Regards,
Andy
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