| The Savvy Stories by Steve Jones (continued) |
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Chapter Seven – Made In Texas Q102 was putting a lot of muscle behind their Crude album. On April 11, 1980 we did a radio interview with Eric Randolph, a Q102 jock, in which we promoted our cut on that album, as well as plugging Savvy's Nightclub. A few nights later a premiere album party was held at the Bijou in Dallas. Several of the bands from the More Texas Crude album, including Savvy, played. Dallas was uncharted territory for us. Dallas band "Lightning" seemed to be the darlings of Dallas, and rightly so. Their guitarist, Rocky Athas, was one of the best around, and they had a lot of fans. Coming from Ft. Worth, we felt like the poor cousins of the Beverly Hillbillies! We didn’t realize just how tight we sounded and were incredibly humbled by every compliment we received. We assumed that Lightning, and perhaps any other band on that album was probably better and more experienced than us. We didn't know it at the time but we were underestimating ourselves. We first realized that we were contenders when we played the premier party at the Bijou that night. It was one of those magic moments that can hardly be explained, but we all felt it. We were used to playing at Savvy’s, on our own turf, with our own setup and our own fans. On that night we had to bring it to the table and see what happened. Would we would be accepted - or laughed out of the club? The answer was clear by the end of the first song. Dallas was digging us! We stepped up to the plate and played a set of our original stuff like we’d never played it before. I think everyone was surprised. Nobody was more surprised than we were. That night we discovered that we we were in a new league, and didn’t have to take a back seat to any other local band that didn't have a record deal. It wasn’t a feud - but rather an awakening. Lightning, and all the other bands on the album were quality groups. We were all in it together. We wanted to be friends with all of them, but some were a little more territorial than others. We started hearing rumors by way of busybody fans about what one band or another was saying about us. And in kind, they heard rumors about what we supposedly were saying about them. I was disappointed to learn how backbiting some musicians can be when the game is on, but all in all, everyone was cordial – at least in the beginning. Also appearing at the Bijou on the night of the premier album party was another hot local band, Joe City. We knew their guitarist Mike Sauce from a previous band, First Rush, back in the Hungry I days. We also noticed that the drummer playing with Lightning had previously been with Double Ace. That night I met Skip, the vocalist from Lightning. He was a nice, down-to-earth personable guy. I never thought about it until now, but that old Q102 album project brought a lot of local musicians together into a sort of fraternity. Rusty Burns came over and partied all night long at my apartment. His band Point Blank was going on the road with REO Speedwagon. Not only was Rusty Burns already considered to be a legendary Texas guitar player, but he was one great guy as well. I've always considered myself lucky to have him as a friend. I finally got around to buying a Marshall amp. I figured since I was third guitar, and my parts rarely made it into the mix anyway, at least I’d have a respectable rig on stage to look at. After working in the studio, we went to Ma Blues one night for a Q102 jam session. Again, we came, we played – and we came away not believing how well we were received. It was one thing to play for the same house every night and have our regular homer fans cheer us on out of loyalty and a sense of being part of our family. But to go to another town and get a great reception from an audience who wasn't familiar with our material – that was golden. We met the guys from Refugee, Big D Stuff and also ran into previous acquaintances from Joe City. I hit it off pretty early with bassist Steve Wilson. He was a wild and wacky guy with a lot of energy and talent. Tim Spencer, the program director for Q102 was also at Ma Blues that night. We had a long visit with him in the upstairs dressing room. He was very complimentary and confided that he was quickly becoming a big fan or our music. Things were happening faster than we could savor them. The night at Ma Blues was memorable for another reason. A stage roadie for Lightning looked very familiar to me. Finally I asked the guy who he was. It turns out that he was Mark Karolevich, a neighbor and friend from my childhood. Mark lived off and on with his dad, only 3 houses away from me. He was about 4 years older than me, but we’d played together as kids. In fact, I have a photo of me on my first day of elementary school standing next to none other Mark Karolevich! We had a good visit and if my head hadn’t already been spinning enough, that really topped off an interesting night.
Monday was our night off from playing Savvy’s each week. During the recording of our album, however, Monday nights were spent at the studio. On one particular Monday night I arrived at the studio after everyone else. It was dark outside and the door to the studio was standing open. In contrast to the darkness outside, the lights coming from inside made the glass door invisible and I walked right into it at a brisk pace. My nose slammed into the glass and I went down as if Mike Tyson had punched me in the face! It was really funny to all the guys, but I was in a lot of pain. I was lucky it didn’t break my nose. [In later years I would discover that I have a propensity for walking into glass doors. I average one about every 4 years.] We got a call from Tim Spencer notifying us that "I Wonder Why" was the radio station’s most requested song from the More Texas Crude album. That was cause for celebration. [As if we needed cause in those days.] RJ threw a party at his new place, a big house on Green Acres in North Richland Hills that he shared with Kenny Stocks, my brother Chris, and Ricky Lynn. But this place had something the others hadn’t – a swimming pool! This would end up being the place to party for a while to come. We also had cause to celebrate the completion of our fifth song for our MIT album. So far we had recorded “I Wonder Why,” “I’ve Got a Pistol,” “Love Technique,” “Midnight” and “This Makes Three.” The band decided to put out a 45 record to tease the coming of our album. It would feature “This Makes Three” and “When the Lights Go Out At Midnight”. We were short $325 needed to pay for the duplication so my Dad offered to front us the money. I did another celebrity telethon event for McDonald's. This time I met Dennis James, Tom Landry, Jeff Conway from Taxi and a Jimmy Carter look alike. Marcella started coming around, flirting with me as if interested, but then quickly pulled away again. Calico was scheduled to play Savvy’s on a future date. Their guitar player, Danny Rowlett, had been with Montage back at the Hungry I. Danny was a really talented singer / guitar player. Calico was a very reputable band. My brother Chris bought a Toyota. Lilly’s grandmother was put into the hospital with hernia problems. I’d taken up teaching myself a little Spanish so I could attempt communicating with her. I found a Spanish Course on audio tape at the local book store. Perhaps I should have been looking for a book on how to communicate with her granddaughter instead. (That seemed like a clever line to write at the time, but our failed relationship was every bit as much my fault as it was hers.) In other news, Alfred Hitchcock died, a secret military mission to free the hostages from Iran failed, Ed Muskie replaced Cyrus Vance as secretary of state, and RJ and I finally got to jam onstage at Spencer’s Corner! RIO was playing and they invited us out to set in. Spencer's Corner was going to be shutting down in two weeks. It would be the end of an era on the West Side of town. Sad for them, but it meant more people to pack into Savvy’s for us. Tim Spencer (no relation to the Corner) called to tell us that Q102 was going to announce a contest in which the band from the More Texas Crude album that got the most requests for their song to be played on the air over the coming two-week period would get to open the 1980 World Texas Music Festival in June. This was monster news! That lineup was going to consist of the Eagles (just kicking off their LONG RUN tour), Cheap Trick, Foreigner, Sammy Hagar, April Wine, and Christopher Cross. And we had a decent chance of winning! We didn’t care that we probably had no business opening that show with our limited concert experience, but we were ready to accept the challenge should it arise. Tim also told us that he knew a talent agent interested in working with us. Calico played Savvy’s, and we made friends with another jock from Q102 named Mark West. That was his on air name, anyway. His real last name was Myamoto. RJ dubbed him "Mark West from the Far East.” Mark loved hanging out with the band; he was a big supporter. He became our man on the inside at Q102 and kept us filled in on who said what about our song. Mark made it clear that he was pulling for us to win the opening spot at the Jam. Still, Mark West was just a guy who drove the Q102 van to promotions, and was allowed to say a few things on air during the early morning hours on Sundays. He was not a power broker by any means. If we were going to win, we'd have to do it fairly and squarely. |
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SAVVY STORY INDEX
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