[By Roger Liston - Ron's Drummer in The Wild Ones/ Group Therapy 1961-1965]
We named our first band "Morgan's Marauders" and we were simply terrible. So bad that we got fired from almost every bar in the greater Denver area - sometimes during the first set! Worse yet, after we had "played through" every night club around, they remembered way too well how bad we were and would not think of taking a chance on hiring us again.
This was a huge test of our faith in our pact. However, we had apparently learned more from our failures than we realized since we did something fairly inspired and looking back, it was a bold and impressive move. We completely repackaged our "act." We renamed the band, got new suits, took new pictures, learned new songs and sent in a new face to sell the club owners our "new band". This marketing plan worked and since we were a whole lot better, we were able to keep and even thrive on the gigs we got.
Zappa first met Ron when the Wild Ones shared the stage with his band, the Mothers of Invention - for two weeks at L.A.'s Whisky A Go Go, where we alternated hourly sets. I remember Zappa did his best to look uninterested when we were playing, but whenever Ron cut loose with a killer lead, Frank stopped moving - not breathing, blinking or drinking (Coors, of course), until Ron finished his lead.
The phrase "a deep affinity" describes what existed between Ron and his "axe". He simply loved his guitar - he actually slept with it and almost every night, usually playing himself to sleep - even though we made him turn off the amp at bedtime.
In the mornings while still in bed, he would find and then put on his signature black-out sunglasses, find his guitar - usually lost somewhere between the sheets and begin knocking out some way cool Freddy King licks, while still in bed. Ron's playing was so good; he would dazzle us even though he was only half-awake.
Just like Paul Revere used to say in between Raider songs when "selling" his James Brown wristwatch; "On the hour my watch goes "Owww!" and on the half hour - "HEH!" So I start everyday off rockin!" And Thanks to Ron, WE got to "start our days off rockin'."
For two years, six nights a week, four hours a night, the Wild Ones played at two great Colorado clubs; Sam's on Lookout Mountain and Clancy's in Fort Collins. Even playing this often, Ron put in another 2-4 hours of practicing every day. And after only a few thousand hours of practicing, he "suddenly" became master of the instrument and perhaps the genre.
The Wild Ones took every opportunity to showcase Ron. For instance, we arranged a medley of Freddy King classics to feature him, one of which was "San Jose" - There were at least two more songs in the medley, but this is the only one I remember, probably because I still listen to this song on my iPod. As for a side note, white folks of our era had not even heard of Freddy King, and would not for another ten years, However Ron knew every lick of every Freddy King song even in 1965; talk about being ahead of his time!
Ron would establish this medley by first playing the songs just as Freddy would, then, in the subsequent bridges and turnarounds, Ron would take us to a new level of musical experience, with the medley lasting for 12-15 minutes. Typically a hundred or so patrons of the club would move to the foot of the stage to better watch him perform his magic. What they saw was simply unprecedented; They were watching a world-class guitarist performing songs that mainstream America would not hear for another ten years in a small town Colorado night club. He was simply stellar--the rest of us in the band would just try to keep up with him and stay "out of the way".
Next - Part 2
and his Band "TeraBlu" page