THE BEAT GOES ON

Rerun

Gary E. Geraci — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 21:30:00 GMT

During these early years, my brothers and I did one more high school talent show and I think a kid name Greg Jones sat in with us on the drums. Where were you Marc? Another kid, Hardy Lipscomb joined in on the lead vocals. Our entry: Rerun by the Judy's.

My hats off to all of the other cool musicians that I met during high school. In particular I remember Chris Kercho and his love for Dire Straits and the guitar styling of the Knopfler brothers. You passed away way to early my friend and to this day, you are in my prayers. There's Eric Bilingsley and his Gretsch Country Gentleman guitar. There's Roger and his brother; we always looked up to Roger and considered his skill on the guitar to be a cut above all the rest. I got to run sound for Roger's band a decade or so later - I think they were playing in San Antonio at Tycoon Flats. And there are others too - I hope to get some collaborative help here, from Marc, Ken, and Daniel, and fill in some more names.

Back in the day, Greg Jones (the drummer) and I were sitting in high school class one day, I'm sure dreaming of making it big with the band, and we came up with a new name for the band - "The Titans".

Full Force

Gary E. Geraci — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 05:12:00 GMT

Sometime during my ninth or tenth grade of high school, my brothers and I entered ourselves into the school talent show under the band name of "Full Force." I don't think we knew very much about micing our amps or the drums nor did we own any type of effect pedal for say distorting our electric guitar sound. This would be our first big show.

A few weeks earlier, during the audition, I had the unfortunate experience of freezing up while trying to sing "Beer Drinkers and Hell Raisers" by ZZ Top (here covered by Van Halen-2006). Alas, I had a new lifelong nemesis, stage fright, anxiety, and fear of anything public! None-the-less the band was still allowed to enter the contest. And so instead of doing a piece with lyrics we did an instrumental piece that we had written ourselves. We played it with our amps and guitars turned up as loud as we could go but with zero effect pedals on the guitars.

I remember being totally blown away by the other band, led by a kid named Sanji, and the totally FAT, distortion pedaled guitar sound, during the opening riff of their rendition of Smoke on The Water by Deep Purple. My brothers and I just looked at each other and committed then and there that we needed to find out how to replicate that sound for ourselves.

Interestingly, instead of my brother Marc on the drums, a neighborhood friend of ours and fellow classmate, Andy Grube sat in on the kit. Speaking of Andy, he could play, practically beat by beat, note by note, the drum-centric piece "YYZ" by Rush. In fact, in the following year, Andy Grube entered the talent show by-himself, as a solo drummer, and performed "YYZ" to perfection.

Early Gear

Gary E. Geraci — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 03:29:00 GMT

My first significant amplified gear was a Music Man 412 head and speaker cabinet combination. I purchased it from Strait Music when Strait was still downtown Austin and just a few months before the big Memorial Day flood of 1981.

As far as I can remember Strait had always been cool to my family. Several times my mother would accompany us into the store and I'm sure, co-sign for equipment that we couldn't afford straight out.  We liked and bought gear from Ray Hennig's Heart of Texas Music too.

A few days after I bought the Music Man rig Strait called with a remarkable request. Chuck Berry was coming to town to play a gig with Joe Ely. They were scheduled to play at the Paramount, March 14, 1981. The way it was explained, at the time, Chuck Berry only played through Music Man amps and typically, rented the gear in whatever city he was booked to perform in.  Mr. Berry's people contacted Strait Music only to find Strait had sold the last one to me. Would I be willing to lend my equipment to Mr. Berry for his Austin, TX gig on the 14th of March?

Now I was a huge fan of Mr. Chuck Berry. My brothers and I covered "Johnny Be Good" at the time and I could both play it on guitar and at the time, sing it too. Sure, it would be an honor!

Next thing I recall, I was in contact with Mr. Michael Dunham of Fantasy Productions. He typed a letter on Paramount letterhead guaranteeing the safe return of my new gear and provided my entire family and I with tickets to the show! So that my new gear wouldn't get mixed up with other gear on the set, I chalked "GERACI" all over the cabinet and head prior to delivering it.

Sure enough, when we got to the show, there was my new Music Man gear, emblazoned with "GERACI" and on stage with Mr. Chuck Berry himself. It was out of this world! Afterwards, my entire family and I were escorted backstage and we got to meet Mr. Berry. Although exhausted from the show, Mr. Berry thanked me and autographed the Paramount guarantee letter from Michael Dunham.

To this day, I treasure this piece of my music collection.

Throwing Picks from the Garage

Gary E. Geraci — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 19:49:00 GMT

Early on we were just four brothers having fun playing music in the garage. If we were playing too loud - a Williamson County patrol car would show up and ask us to ramp it down. Otherwise, we would play Stones and Beatles cover tunes for all of the kids, friends and neighbors that would be lured over by the sound of electric instruments and drums.

Once, some younger kids and their parents came over to watch us play. They so got into what we were doing that for a moment, we felt like famous stars and threw out guitar picks for the kids to take as souvenirs.

By then, Ken was old enough to go downtown Austin and check out the live music scene. He would go to places like Raul's ( Raul's (night club)) and come back with 45 records from bands like the Skunks and Ty Gavin (the Next) that he would see live. He envisioned that we too would play downtown someday and this lit a fire in us all for music and stardom.

First Electric Guitar

Gary E. Geraci — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 18:42:00 GMT

I was 16 years old and had landed a full-time job working at a nearby fast food restaurant. Soon thereafter, I could afford to purchase my first electric guitar, an Aria Pro. I used it to play in the 9th grade jazz band (Round Rock ISD-1979). I auditioned with a simple rock and roll chord progression put together by the Rolling Stones called "Miss You." I performed well enough to get the spot although I can't be certain whether anyone else auditioned. Though I played a performance or two, I was so bad with jazz chords that a few of the other kids ended up removing the tubes from the school amplifier telling me that it was broken and that I wasn't required to play anymore. Pretty soon, I just stopped showing up to class. Besides, it was known that the class awarded an automatic "B" whether one showed up or not.

The Beat Goes On

Gary E. Geraci — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 17:40:00 GMT

It all started some 30 plus years ago when my oldest brother Ken, bitten by the music of the Beatles and Rolling Stones, divvied up instrument assignments between the rest of us - me (Gary), Daniel, and even our little brother Marc.   I think I was about 10 years old at the time which meant Marc was about 4 -and so yes, indeed he was "little."

It seems that my father had brought along an old suffering acoustic guitar into the fray of things from his bachelor days past. My father might have known a thing or two on the guitar but I don't remember him ever playing anything on it.  Ken sure picked up on it -self taught of course. Before long, Ken was singing, playing and giving me and Danny guitar and singing lessons.   He showed us how to slow down recorded music and learn our parts by ear.   Meanwhile, Marc owned a toy drum kit and got his very first drum lesson from the kid next next door whom owned a motorcycle and a "real" drum kit.

Some time later, with the financial and moral support of our parents, Ken and I received a couple of acoustic guitars.   Ken converted my dad's old guitar into an 4 string acoustic bass guitar. I was tasked with rhythm guitar duties while Danny was given the converted bass guitar to play bass. Ken picked up the lead guitar and lead vocals. Danny and I sang mostly background harmony although like the Beatles, each of us learned a song or two where we each sang the lead.

The four of us brothers never did think to include our sister Marianne in our newly formed band. Unlike now, back then - it just wouldn't have been cool to have a girl in the band. The Partridge Family had girls in the band my mother would argue but we DID NOT want to be like the Partridge Family. Sorry Marianne and thanks for being our biggest fan for all of these years!