I guess I could say my love for the Ventures began when I first found "Walk Don't Run" in my dad's stack of old 45s. Or I could say it began when I first got into surf music and heard a few more Ventures tracks along the way. But honestly, I'd have to say the big turning point which officially put me on the path to becoming so profoundly inspired and influenced by the Ventures was when Tommy Koprowski and I began swapping punk records in high school, and one day he brought in something a little different: a Ventures album called "Wild Things!"
I've spoken of Tommy here before. It was through him that I first heard the Misfits... in 1979. He was also nothing less than the James Williamson of my hometown, later playing in legendary '80s NJ hardcore bands Mourning Noise and Bedlam. So much of my afterschool time was spent at Tommy's house, where I would just sit on his bed and watch him play his Gibson Les Paul for hours, transfixed and fascinated by his skills the entire time. That's how I eventually learned to play guitar myself -- "You can do this too!" he'd often tell me -- and my approach to playing it still bears much of his influence to this very day. But he wasn't my only guitar influence!
Anyway, I was very impressed that Tommy would bring a Ventures album into our ongoing vinyl swaps, and I was even more impressed when I took "Wild Things" home and played it, and it turned out to be just as fuzzy, nasty and punky sounding as any of the modern punk groups we'd been listening to at the time. Heck, the back cover even carried an endorsement of the distortion pedal used on the album, the Fuzzrite -- a product of the Ventures' immortal guitar designers Mosrite. (Original Fuzzrites in good working order sell for up to $600 today!) But it really was no surprise that the Ventures would sound so punky to our ears, for they were being rediscovered by punk rockers the world over at the same time Tommy and I were groovin' to "Wild Things." And when they reciprocated the love the punks were showing them by playing places like the Mudd Club and covering "Surfin' and Spyin'" by the Go-Go's on a triumphant comeback single, it was officially on.
Not long after that memorable trade, I found "(The) Ventures In Space" in a dollar bin somewhere. Wow. That album really turned me upside down. Released in 1964, it could very well have been the first psychedelic rock album, in fact -- spacey and spooky, it took surf music to a whole new level. I was now a believer. And as I branched out from beginner to intermediate level guitar, I went into a Ventures feeding frenzy, scouring thrift stores and record fairs to find as many of their dozens of albums as I could find, and trying to learn as many songs as I could play. Along the way another school friend of mine named Dante DeStefano, who wasn't a punk but loved the Ventures just as much as Tommy and I, taped me all the albums he had by them. Man, I learned so much from those albums, and I would soon apply that knowledge to my own music. And in time, I would ultimately get to thank the very gentlemen who gave me that knowledge through their music... right to their very faces.
The night of April 25, 1988 was absolutely one of the greatest nights of my entire life, EVER. I set out to the Lone Star Roadhouse in lower Manhattan to meet up with my date that evening from radio station WFMU, Ericka a.k.a Wildgirl. I was excited not only because I had a big crush on her (believe me, I wasn't the only boy) but even more so because of who we were going to see. And there we were, sitting at the front bar, when suddenly four men walked past us, all carrying guitar cases. Instantly we knew they were the Ventures and I do not exaggerate when I say it literally felt like four total rock legends were walking past us at that moment. The moment gave us goosebumps and chills. I was too stunned to even call out like a fool to them, but I needn't have worried, for that ultimately wouldn't matter later on.
Shortly after this brief, shining moment, Wildgirl suddenly had to go to the ladies' room... or so she told me. But when she returned, I could tell she'd been somewhere else, for she was glowing like a Christmas tree. "Guess what?" she exclaimed. "I GOT BACKSTAGE PASSES!!" Time stood still. Holy shit. We were actually going to meet The Ventures after the show! I was already on cloud nine and they hadn't even played yet.
But of course they did finally play, and they kicked right into "Walk Don't Run" (and later they even did "Walk Don't Run '64"), and they did all the songs you'd expect and a few surprises and they climaxed it all with ten glorious minutes of the very best version of "Caravan" I've ever heard in my life with Mel Taylor performing part of a long and breathtaking drum solo on the strings of Don Wilson's bass. My only wishes were that they'd still played Mosrites instead of Fenders and that their original lead shredder Nokie Edwards had been there instead of Gerry McGee, but they made those Fenders fly and Gerry's totally awesome in his own right! I was bouncing up and down like a little kid through the whole set... and they noticed it. And yes, soon the Ventures themselves were giving me glances and approving smiles from the stage at the way I was just losing my mind dancing to my favorite band in the entire world. They were just fantastic.
The Ventures finally left the stage after a performance that went all too fast and then... the moment of truth arrived. I was excited, but nervous. I was about to meet a group of musicians I'd absolutely worshipped up to that point. How would it play out? Wildgirl and I flashed our backstage passes and were waved past security. We rooted around a bit and eventually found all four of the Ventures sitting around, just relaxing. We poked our heads in and sheepishly introduced ourselves.
Suddenly I couldn't have felt more comfortable. Here were four of the biggest musicians in the whole biz, who influenced me and so many others, made millions of albums, and were complete and total royalty to us... acting like not a single speck of all that fame had gone to their heads. And all of a sudden I was sitting on a couch with Bob Bogle, and the next thing I knew we were deep into a one-on-one conversation which lasted for a good 20 minutes! (I so wish I'd brought my boombox along to capture it all, for as I remember, it was quite a revealing chat.) As I was enjoying our talk, I looked across the room and there was Wildgirl, deep in her own chat with Gerry McGee! I looked back just in time to see Mel Taylor suddenly walk over to me and Bob -- "Hey, there's that kid who was dancing in the front row! Man, you were really bouncing around out there... " Needless to say, by that point I was just... losing my mind.
The Ventures generously allowed us to hang out with them for almost an hour and were the absolute coolest cats you'd ever want to meet. I only wish I'd known in advance what was in store for me that night and brought along my albums to sign. I settled for their autographs in my very cheap ball point pen on the back of a Lone Star Roadhouse flyer, which in retrospect was mighty stupid of me since they have since badly deteriorated. If anyone can make the above scan of their scrawls (signed in order of appearance by Bob, Mel, Don and Gerry) look better than it does here, please feel free to! The message "Keep up the great music" is a reminder of my mentioning to them that I was doing music myself and that they were a huge influence. The Ventures had nothing but encouraging words for me in return, and I can attest the whole affair really rubbed off on me: just six months later I would finally put Living Guitars together with Mark DeAngelis and make original sounds inspired in large part by them.
Much though I wanted to just hang out with them forever, this most memorable meeting finally had to come to an end. But I floated on air all the way home. The Ventures became even bigger and greater heroes to me that night than they ever were before. And to me, they will always be the greatest.
(By the way, if anyone out there knows whatever happened to either Ericka Dana (Wildgirl) or Dante DeStefano, please get in touch ASAP. I'd greatly appreciate the info. I have been in recent contact with Tommy K, who these days leads a surf-rock cover band called... wait for it... The Dentures. And he's still playing that guitar of his as fiercely as ever. Maybe someday I'll write about the homemade "splatter films" we made together. Anyway, to conclude this post, here's the Ventures playing a few songs live in Japan just a few months after I saw 'em...)
