Growing Up Bass Player

Apple Jack

Let the good times roll. We needed a new name for the new band. We didn’t want anyone to think they were going to hear Sundown, so a new name was essential. Bob and I never attached a name to the duo. Gary came up with the name Apple Jack. Gary also used his artistic talents to create and draw a logo. It was a mule’s head with an apple in its mouth. We put it up on the wall behind us while we played. Pretty cool huh? Well we thought so.

On the road again, hum, sounds like a good name for a song (oh, wait a minute that's a Willy Nelson song). We were still playing small venues (bars). Though Disco was losing favor, it took the better part of 2 years before live music came back to the larger venues. My feeling is that disco brought in a different group of people who didn't have the spendable cash that the rock patrons did. The clubs saved money not having to pay a band, but the patron did not spend enough cash to pay the expenses.

Working a three piece worked well in the smaller clubs. Stages are small and sometime we played on the floor. Protecting your equipment from wild dancers, keeps you on your toes. It sounds bad, but most people were very careful. In all my time playing, in all those rowdy bars, I never had any equipment damage or destroyed.

I have no real vivid memories of this period of my musical career. I do remember that I was getting tired. I had been doing this for close to 9 years. That is, working a day job 5 days a week and playing 2 nights on the weekend. As I said before there were times when I played 6 nights a week and worked a day job. This meant that I started my day job at 7:00 in the morning, worked until 4:00 in the afternoon, then played music from 9:00 PM to 2:00 AM. It was hard to unwind after playing so most nights it was 3:00 AM before I got to sleep. That wears on you after a while.

This caused me to quit playing and I didn’t leave easily. I left screaming and yelling.

The End of Apple Jack