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Never to old to rock 'n' roll Or: Is there a defibrillator in the house ?
by Bill Stieger (a re-type from the St. Croix Valley Press August 23, 2001)
"A lotta water under the bridge; a lot of other things, too." -Bob Dylan
"We have sustained damages, but we can still maneuver." -Spock to Captain Kirk
I discovered last Saturday that you're never too old to rock and roll. I also discovered that playing the damn music can bring you to the brink of a heart attack if you're a 49-year-old drummer who's played only jazz the past 20 years. I also discovered that playing the rock and soul music with the first band I ever played with was one of the biggest thrills I've had in years.
The Beau Monde' reunion was conjured last winter; at a Perkins restaurant in West St. Paul, where a few of us gathered to reminisce, survey our damage(both physical and spiritual), our successes, and hear stories from the ensuing 30 years. Considering that all of us came of age during the advent of "Woodstock Nation," we were rather happy-despite drugs, combat in Vietnam, divorce, depression and illness - to have survived with souls intact.
I'm not sure who booked the idea of the reunion. At its mention I just said, "Yeah, sure. That'd be nice." But I filed the proposal in my mind's files, under Things that won't happen. A reunion of Beau Monde' had simply too many details to organize. Anyway, we'd probably sound terrible. Add in the fact that none of us knew where to find Dave Kinney, our bass player, who was rumored to live somewhere in Wisconsin. And "Mojo" , our lead singer, lived in Chicago. Organist Dick Baumgartner said that his arthritis would make playing the organ an impossibility. Simply put, too much time had past. (To put in in perspective, Beau Monde' broke up the same year as did the Beatles: 1970).
A lotta water under the bridge, indeed.
But Craig Brunschon, one of the non-musician friends that night at Perkins, took it upon himself to organize this Beau Monde' reunion. Brunschon's original plan was have us play at our weirdly-timed 31-year class reunion. The Sibley alumni had, however, planned a quiet evening at a country club, a candle-lit affair that didn't lend itself to a rock band. They suggested we play the night after reunion, at another location. So, Brunschon arranged to rent a ballroom at the Wells Fargo Lanes in South St. Paul. The date was set for Aug. 11.
During this period of organizing the reunion, my computer caught a virus; my e-mail crashed, along with the rest of my programs. So I didn't hear anything more about the proposed Beau Monde' reunion until a few weeks ago, when rhythm-guitarist Gregg Temple told me the gig was set.
He had reached Dave Kinney, the missing bassist, and he had promised to come. Even Beau Monde's original drummer, Steve Brenna, whom I had replaced, would fly in for the date - we'd have double drummers. Everyone playing this gig was an original band member : Except me, who joined in 1968. Or was it'69'?
Saturday's crowd numbered over 100 of our classmates, along with another 100 relatives and friends. Brunschon had hung a large banner with " Beau Monde'" draped along the wall. Someone - I can't remember who - had the band members assemble in the kitchen, just off the ballroom. We waited while Craig made his introduction.
The all-day rehearsal had had its ups and downs. It was wonderful to see all the guys together: And Baumgartner, with medication, had elected to play the keyboards after all. Gregg Temple had brought tapes of the original tunes we would attempt to re-create. That helped. Another thing in our favor was that four out of the six of us had gone on to play music professionally. The downside of the rehearsal lay in co-ordinating the two drummers. Some of the grooves went askew, which is fatal to rock and roll. Brenna hadn't played a gig since high school, and wasn't exactly in top Ginger Baker drumming condition.
But something else became evident to me during our rehearsal. Our interactions with each other, even the disagreements, seemed familiar: For the life of me, I can't remember Beau Monde's rehearsals from the '60's. But something translated across that span of years. Because we adopted roles that seemed familiar.
From the kitchen, we heard Craig's introduction. Someone had rigged the the sound system with a recording of the introduction to Strauss's "Also Sprach Zarathustra." and unbelievably maudlin entrance, if you were serious; rather hilarious, if not. I remember the crowd cheering us as we made our entrance. I felt a tingling in my scalp. Goose bumps rose on my forearms.
We kicked off with the Rolling Stone's "Satisfaction," and I dare say, we "done smoked it." The crowd ate it up. They clapped in time, bobbed their heads, and some got up to dance. And hot-shot guitarist, Steve Carney, tore into those gun-slinging guitar solos that reminded us of Jeff Beck with the Yardbirds. To our great relief, the music sounded very good, despite the raggedy endings and numerous mistakes. We took those folks at Wells Fargo Lanes through a musical span of time that bridged from 1965 through 1970 - from the age of soul to the advent of psychedelia.
Beau Monde' was no "oldies" band that Saturday evening. We had learned the music of James Brown, Wilson Pickett, The Yardbirds, Jimi Hendrix, The Doors when it was new and fresh. We played the music from that perspective, with the right amount of energy. There was nothing dead about our music. It seemed as if Lazarus himself had busted into the joint and started dancing the Shing-a-ling.
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