The Penetrations

The members.

At the beginning of 1971, Michael Duby and I were looking to put together another band.  My memory is pretty hazy about the exact sequence of events, but I'll try to make some sense of it.

The idea was for Michael to play bass; I would play rhythm guitar; we would find a drummer, keyboard player, lead guitarist, and "chick singer."  We were to be a "show band."  We weren't really too focused on exactly what styles we were going for, as we figured the style would be determined by whom we found to play with us.

In the Spring and Summer of 1971, Michael made friends with Melanie Oldfather, whose father, Charles, was dean of the law school at K.U.  Melanie had grown up in Lawrence and her family had a farm - an estate, really - south of town, in the Wakarusa valley.  Melanie allowed Michael and me to use that house for musical purposes during that time.  We also hauled some hay while we were there.  Hauling hay is hard work.

With more spare time than sense, Michael and I put together a "demo" of what we thought might be good.  It included "Gimme Shelter" by the Rolling Stones, "Every Day" by Buddy Holly, and an original or two.  I think I played all the instruments on that tape, except for we paid a kid from central Kansas (Dawayne Bailey) to play lead guitar on a couple of numbers.  With only a cheap two-track reel-to-reel recorder, I made heavy use of sound-on-sound and bouncing tracks.

Melanie also invested some money in the venture, which, I suppose, is how we came to have some decent equipment.

Darrell Katz I had played one gig, on bass, in Topeka with Lee McBee (singer & blues harpist) and Darrell Katz on guitar.  Those guys both lived in what was then called the CIA (Campus Improvement Association) House, just south of 14th and Indiana in Lawrence.  I believe Darrell, a fellow fan of Robert Crumb and B.B. King, was the first musician to "sign on" for our new band.  Here's how Darrell remembers it: "I auditioned for the new band, but didn't make the cut when it was first started. Shortly after, though, either you guys changed your mind, or whoever you got instead split, and I was in. But you'd already been rehearsing with Brad and Bud for awhile." I don't know who's right... Darrell generally underestimated his own playing.  In a time when many guitarists were using effects, trickery, and wankage, Darrell used only his brain, fingers, Gibson ES-345 and Fender Twin Reverb.  He always got a great sound and propelled our music to greater heights.  He was also a student of roots music, turning us on to some great stuff. The photo to the left shows Darrell in 1973 at a gig at Potter's Lake on the K.U. campus.  In the background is our 1960 International Harvester converted school bus.

Becky Reed I believe that Melanie Oldfather was attending K.U. at the time and knew a guy (John Reed) who had a sister who sang and was interested in joining a band.  Her name was Becky Reed.  She'd gone to high school in Independence, Kansas.  Prior to joining us, Becky had had a short stint singing with a band called "Ice" in Ottawa, KS. That band comprised Randy Platt, Stan Bass, and the Everette brothers. We got Becky out to Melanie's house for an audition.  I think it was Darrell, Michael, and I, at that point.  The songs Becky did that just knocked us out were Janis Joplin's "Down on Me" and Aretha Franklin's "Chain of Fools."  And... she was just stunningly beautiful.  It was hard to believe that all that sound was coming from that beautiful little person.  We knew we'd found our singer! Becky Reed.

Brad Reynolds I believe we found Brad Reynolds through a want ad, perhaps posted at Richardson's Music.  He grew up in Ottawa, Kansas, the son of a hardware-store owner.  Brad was really smart, a pretty wholesome guy with a subversive side.  He became our keyboardist.  He also played acoustic guitar, but not on stage with the Penetrations.  At first, he wanted to play folky stuff like Tim Hardin's "Reason to Believe," but he also liked the Beatles (and who doesn't?). Here's what Darrell said about Brad: "Brad told me, when he was here last year, that what he was into when he joined the band, was 'hard rock.'  Though your descriptions seems more like what I pictured. He wasn't into what the rest of us were, though (but he sure learned it well:  Brad was really a talented sum'bitch)." Here's a cut of us doing Hey, Bulldog, the Beatles song, with Brad taking the lead vocal and Becky singing harmony... don't know where it was recorded.  I don't believe this song lasted long in our repertoire, but we did it justice, I think!  Dark and intense. The photo at left shows Brad playing at a gig in Omaha in 1973.  The spots are on the photograph, not his shirt...

Bud Pettit Michael and I had played with Bud before and he was simply the best.  Some drummers are musicians and some are not.  Bud was and is a musician of genius. He grew up in Winfield, Kansas.  As a young boy, he saw Lionel Hampton on TV and knew immediately that he wanted to do that (one night, the band went to the Colony Steakhouse and caught Lionel Hampton live).  Prior to joining the Penetrations, Bud played with Jerry and the Jukes, fronted by Jerry Wood of "Finnegan and Wood" fame. Bud was formally trained, so he had a solid facility with the rudiments, but he also played with power and creativity. Bud also sang all our high harmony parts.

Wormwood ...  for a little while.

The first name of the band was Wormwood - definitely a Duby idea.  Remember that, at this point, Michael Duby was the bass player.  We started practicing several nights a week.  We played a gig or two at Edith's Beer Place on Mass. Street  as Wormwood.  We were not particularly well received.

The Loft - 706-1/2 Massachusetts Michael had rented a loft above Burk Awning at 706-1/2 Massachusetts Street, and I had a tiny apartment in the same building.  The loft was huge, and it became our practice space.   When the Penetrations started, I gave up my little apartment; Becky and I took part of the loft to live in, and Michael took another part.  Brad lived there too, for a while.  I remember that, during this time, I ingested a lot of white crosses and swept the floor a lot.  We ate what I would call "glop du jour," something cheap with beans or rice or canned mackerel, or home-baked bread, or fried potatoes.  There were cockroaches a-plenty.  We were all living in poverty, self-imposed by reason of our commitment to our music. The photo at left, reproduced from a damaged negative, shows us in the alley behind Burk Awning, in early 1972.  From left, Bud, Andy, Brad in bathtub, Darrell, and Becky.

Changes.

All of us - except for Michael - were listening mostly to music created by great black performers:  Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Big Joe Turner, James Brown, Etta James, Sam and Dave, Otis Redding, etc... so, of course, we wanted to play that music.  Once Brad discovered Otis Spann, he jumped on the bandwagon as well and learned to play the blues in an amazingly short time.

It soon became obvious that Michael's bass playing a) was a hindrance, and b) that his stylistic aspirations didn't jibe with those of the rest of us.  We didn't want to do his original songs,and he didn't share the rhythm-and-blues gestalt.  We convinced him to bow out, but we would be under his management - "Persuasion Productions."  We also changed the band's name to The Penetrations.

This change allowed me to take up playing bass full time, which was good, as I had never been very facile on the 6-string guitar.  Some people are particularly-well-suited to a specific instrument, and bass was my bag.  At first, I could only play bass with a pick; you can hear that in  the Penetrations' early recordings.  Over time I learned to play with my fingers, and my tone - and note selection - improved.  I can't think of any bassists in the rhythm-and-blues field who play with a pick.  Okay, there's Carol Kaye... but she was so good she could do it however she wanted.

Buddy was such a good drummer that it was easy for me to "lock in" with him; solid rhythm was definitely a forte of the band.

The Red Baron In 1972, one of our favorite places to play was a "3.2%" bar* called the Red Baron.  A simpatico guy named Jim Smith owned the bar and he treated the bands well.  He also brought in some big names to play there. (Years later I would spend four nights a week in that same building, when the place was the "Billy Spears Country Playhouse.") Notice that the venue's name does not appear in the ad to the left.  The Red Baron was in arrears to the Lawrence Journal World, and the paper would not print an ad with the bar's name. Recorded at the Red Baron: Ray Charles's I Don't Need No Doctor A 15-minute dance medley of Tell the Truth, You Got Me Hummin', I Thank You, and I'll Go Crazy.  The "beating" sound is the Leslie tweeter almost touching the microphone. B.B. King's Woke Up This Morning The Supremes' Back in My Arms Again A medley of Aretha Franklin's Rock Steady with Booker T. and the MG's Chickenpox * At that time, 18-year-olds in Kansas could purchase and drink beer as long as its alcohol content didn't exceed 3.2%.

Pitching a wang dang doodle...

As mentioned above, our practice space was a loft over Burk Awning at 706-1/2 Massachusetts, where Michael Duby, Becky Reed, and I also lived.
One night in our early days we decided to have a party in the loft and play for our own party.  There was a keg or two, and hundreds of people showed up.
With the dancing, you could feel the floor shake - a lot - but it did not fail, thank God. Burk would have been upset the next day had his ceiling fallen into his shop!.

We began to get gigs here and there.  We played at the Red Baron, the Red Dog, the Mad Hatter, and the Zodiac Club, which was downstairs from the Red Dog and later became the Seventh Spirit.  Of course, we also played for dances, outdoor gigs, and bars out of town.

Warming up for Muddy Waters   Above:  An excerpt of a review of Muddy Waters from the Insider Magazine, Fall 1972. Below:  Muddy Waters, with George "Mojo" Buford on harp, at the Red Baron.

A real highlight of the Autumn of 1972 was warming up for Muddy Waters and his band at the Red Baron.  Three nights in a row, we sat in the front row after we were done playing and watched Muddy, Joe Willie "Pinetop" Perkins, Calvin "Fuzz" Jones, Luther Tucker, Carey Bell, and Willie "Big Eyes" Smith - all now dead - play the blues. Muddy invited Becky up to sing "I Got My Mojo Working" with him.  We presented Pinetop Perkins with a bottle of his favorite beverage, mint gin, and I was able to procure a little weed for Muddy (at his request).  I still have  my Muddy Waters Chess compilation album, with Muddy's autograph on it. Muddy gave me the name of the A&R man at Chess and said we should send him a demo.  We never did.

Busted.
On the not-so-good side of the ledger, a true story:

We were booked to play a club in Hutchinson one Friday night during the Summer.  We arrived to find another band setting up.  It was Kansas - yes, THAT Kansas, who later achieved stardom with "Dust in the Wind."  But at that time they were just another band, formerly called "White Clover," from Topeka, with whom I we shared the sandbox of live music in the state.  It turns out that both bands had been booked for that night.  Well, guess which band went home?

There is a lot of material on the band(s) Kansas to be found on the web.  Two of the better pages IMO are here and this Russian site.

Busted. On our way back home, we were riding through Newton in our rental van.  In the van we had some Boone's Farm wine and some "ditch weed," which yielded more headache than high.  Becky "small bladder" Reed had to relieve herself, so we stopped at the side of the road when it seemed no one was around.  So, all of us got except for Brad got out to urinate, and a few moments later a police car pulled up behind us.  The officer read us the riot act and was about to let us go when Brad - still in the van - became nervous and dropped the Boone's Farm out of the van.  The officer heard the bottle hit the ground and shone his flashlight on it, giving him cause to search the van.  He found the pot.   We spent the weekend in the Harvey County Jail.  We got out on bail due to the kindness of Deanne Hochstetler's parents, who lived in Harvey County and put up their property as surety for the bail.  All of us, that is, except for Darrell.  Somehow his father, a prominent psychiatrist at Menninger's in Topeka, found out about the bust.  He went to Newton to bail out his "wayward son," and Darrell rode home with an irate parent... Deanne Hochstetler, pictured at left at 1317 Rhode Island, was Michael Duby's girlfriend AND Becky's best friend at the time.

We were all charged with possession, but we were world-wise enough to keep our mouths shut.  The case was ultimately resolved when Becky, who was under 21 and didn't even like reefer that much, took the rap for us and pled guilty.  As I recall, her sentence was a $150 fine and six months of probation.

What's more soulful than a saxophone?

Later that year, for a few months, we added an 18-year-old saxophonist from Hays, named Jim Martin.  Unfortunately, we never developed a personal or musical chemistry with him.  A good sax would have been a great addition, but we were spoiled:  The guy who ran the Zodiac Club, Bobby Watson (no, not the well-known jazz guy) kept his tenor sax behind the bar and would sit in with us sometimes when we played there.  He'd obviously been around and knew how to blow the blues.  As I recall, Jim Martin was technically proficient but not well-schooled in R&B, and we were not into schooling anyone.  We had all "picked it up" on our own, and we expected him to do the same.

Here are a couple of songs we recorded in the loft with Jim Martin.
You've Got a Great Big Problem - a Ray Charles number, from his ABC-Records era.  Bud's high harmony makes it sound kinda  like the Raelettes... Everything goes alright until the sax solo.
Take Me in Your Arms (Rock Me a Little While) - we didn't give Jim much to do on this one.

Shakin' that Thing, recorded live at the Richards-Gebaur Air Force Base NCO Club, outside of Belton, Missouri.

We played a few military venues, the most memorable being Fort Riley, where the entire audience was men ... and they were dancing half-way through our gig.   Remember, our troops were still in Vietnam!

The following images are of an article written by Steve Wilson and appearing in "The Insider Magazine, King Harvest Review" for the Fall of 1972.  Perhaps I should simply have put this article on the web page and left it at that... It makes reference to our impending addition of Jim Martin on sax.  That lasted for all of about two months.

                                  Darrell breaks his leg.

                                In October of '72, Darrell was driving his car on Iowa Street when a drunk driver crossed the center line and plowed into him. 
                                Darrell's leg was broken badly and he spent 65 days in traction in a Topeka hospital. 

Darrell's replacement During Darrell's hospital stay, we used Jody Spotts on lead guitar.  Jody was a Lawrence native who worked at Richardson's Music.  Jody was a fine guitarist but had not been exposed to nearly as much "roots" music as we had, so he didn't really know how to play R&B, but we gave him credit for trying. Jody went on to become the road manager and guitarist  in Neil Sedaka's band before dying  in an automobile accident. This photo was taken at a junior college dance in Western Kansas.

Darrell Returns Here's Darrell's story of his return to the Penetrations: "I figured I was out of the band for sure.  Spotts could play better than I could, so I didn't think I'd be back.  But then you guys called me... I was really way too messed up to travel to Lawrence and play a gig (and man! Becky picked me up in Topeka, in some wretched car that Duby owned, and drove me to Lawrence for a gig.  She was a scary driver!).  We were playing at the Red Dog.  I had to sit in a chair, with my broken leg (which was in a cast!) propped up on pillows on another chair.  I nearly passed out from the effort: I regard it as being the most unpleasant gig I ever played.  I was on crutches, and new to them; it was almost impossible to get up on the stage... There was no way I could get to the bathrooms, and [I] had to piss in a beer pitcher at the back of the stage.  I hated traveling to gigs while I was in [that] condition, but I really wanted to be back in the band." Here's Darrell at the Mad Hatter, crutches leaning against a speaker cabinet.

These selections were recorded live at the Red Dog in late '72 or early '73. Tell the Truth - the Ray Charles song. Slow Down - Larry Williams, the Beatles; I like our version better than the Beatles'. (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction - we kinda had our own version, a little like Aretha Franklin's, but with a little surprise at the end. Cry to Me - the Solomon Burke ballad.  I've always liked this song, and we did it nicely. Shakin' That Thing - don't remember who the original performer was, but it's a Bessie-Smith-like number, with a nice rhythm pattern by us. I Got My Mojo Workin' - Muddy Waters. I Just Want to Make Love to You - Jim Martin on sax.  We based our arrangement on Etta James's version.

The Red Dog Inn. The Red Dog Inn was opened in an old theater on the 600 block of Massachusetts by John Brown and Mike Murfin in 1965, and in the sixties featured a host of bands managed by Mid Continent Entertainment:  The Fabulous Flippers, The Red Dogs, The Rising Sons, the Blue Things, the Young Raiders, and more.  Currently known as Liberty Hall, It continues to be a popular venue for live music.  The hall has also been known as The Opera House, the Free State Opera House, and for a mercifully-short time, a disco club called Bugsy's. The first time I went there was in about 1969, with Michael Duby.  We talked to John Brown, whose office was upstairs on the south side, about booking whatever lame band we had at the time.  He was courteous but promised nothing! Even though bass players generally dislike the acoustics on stage there, it's a great place to play because of its size, shape, history, and gestalt.  The big stage really makes you feel like you've hit the big time, and it is the top venue in Lawrence. On stage at the Red Dog ----------------------------->>

1317 Rhode Island.

Michael Duby had started his own band, Polio, and he wanted to share our practice space in the loft at 706-1/2 Massachusetts. 
As a result, the band members moved out of the loft and into a rental house at 1317 Rhode Island. 
Buddy shared the upstairs with three people, and Brad, Darrell, Becky, Deanne Hochstetler, and I lived downstairs. 
Three memories I have of that place: 
1) Making homemade ice cream,
2) Playing extreme Spin-the-Bottle with residents and guests, and
3) trying to teach Deanne how to ride my Honda Dream under the influence of controlled substances
    and watching her plow slowly into the Lawrence Jr. High School fence at the end of the block.  No one was hurt.

What Becky remembers is the worst cockroach infestation of her life.
At some point she moved into her own place, an upstairs apartment on 11th Street, just west of Massachusetts.

The bus, parked in front of 1317 Rhode Island.  My motorcycle is right behind it.

The Bus. We now had a band bus, which we parked on the street in front of the Rhode-Island house.  It was a 1960 International Harvester with a 6-cylinder engine and a two-speed rear axle, purchased from a place in Kansas City which sold - duh - used school buses.  We painted most of it blue, but it was too much effort to paint the top so we left it National School Bus Chrome (yellow).  Unfortunately, the vehicle was never designed for highway travel; we had to have the engine rebuilt at one point.  After the Penetrations broke up, the bus was sold to The Billy Spears Band. Darrell reminded me of the time when the generator bracket on the engine broke during a ride home from central Kansas after a gig.  We were at the top of a hill on a road with no shoulder, so we couldn't pull off the road.  We coasted BACKWARDS until we found a spot with a shoulder and had to wait until morning for someone to come along and stop. No cell phones in the 1970s... Another time, coming home from a gig in Oklahoma City - where we didn't get paid - the bus blew TWO tires.

Three from a professional photo shoot we actually paid for.  I'm not sure what purpose they served, but I like them. Gary Brown was the photographer, and these pictures were taken in his home on 6th Street.

During this time, Michael Duby was arrested and charged with drug sales, narked out by one of Vern Miller's minions. 
  I never knew the specifics.  During 1973 he spent some time in the state penitentiary at Hutchinson, but the Penetrations continued. 

We get a break, of sorts. In the Summer of '73, Michael Duby was in one of Kansas's fine penal institutions, and we didn't really know how, or want to do, the work of booking gigs. Steve Dahl, a successful booking agent and formerly a horn player in the Red Dogs, happened to catch an outdoor gig we did on the K.U. campus.  Perhaps influenced by something he may or may not have smoked, Steve thought we were ready for his increased attention (he told me this a few years later when he was the primary booking agent for the Billy Spears Band). Steve Dahl worked for Mid Continent Entertainment, the "big dog" among booking agencies in Lawrence.  Mid Continent was the agency started by John Brown, who had handled the Fabulous Flippers, the Red Dogs, Rising Suns, the Blue Things, etc., in the late sixties.  Steve knew of us and had heard us before, but for some reason something clicked for him in hearing us at that particular time and place.  He began to get us some gigs, but they were a little different from what we were used to.  He sent us to bars in Omaha and Lincoln, where we were expected to dress up a little more and play a little more contemporary music.  We bought ourselves used tuxedos with pink ruffled shirts! Here's Becky singing outdoors on the K.U. campus, must have been Fall of '73.  I believe this was the gig where Steve Dahl heard us.  Two things to notice:  One is John Lomas in the background, leaning against the bus. John  was playing with Michael Duby's band "Polio" at the  time and would later become one of the Used Parts. The other is Becky's "Big Eat 73" button.  The Big Eat was something of a tradition among  local hippies for a few years, a mini-mini-Woodstock on Robbie Schall's farm.  Substances were consumed.  Becky would later marry Robbie when she came back from Oakland, have a child, and divorce him.  Robbie died in the early 1980s from a gunshot wound.

Buddy, Andy, and Darrell before a gig in our cheesy tuxes.

	This photo is one from the professional shoot by Gary Brown in 1973.  I borrowed the duds I'm wearing here - which I subsequently bought - from John Wilhite's clothes boutique.  Plaid bellbottoms, dude!
	Here's the band playing at Potter's Lake on the K.U. campus, in front of our bus.  This must have been Spring or Summer of 1973 because a) Darrell's crutches are visible at the lower right corner, b) Brad's playing a Fender Rhodes, and c) we were using one of the Shure Vocal Master columns as a monitor, meaning we had already acquired our JBL "scoops" as main speakers.
	Becky, Andy, and most of Bud's drums, on stage at the Red Baron in 1972.
	Becky, Bud, and Andy on stage at the Red Dog.  This has to be "late" Penetrations 'cause I had my hair in a shag cut.  I like this photo for the composition, angle, and lighting.

The narrative continues

Becky and I weren't getting along too well.
Brad and Darrell, despite mutual respect, had always had a tendency to squabble, and were getting tired of musical disagreements between them.
The gigs from Steve Dahl were bringing us a little more money, but we weren't having a lot of fun playing them.

Michael Duby, after he got out of prison, spent more time with his band, Polio, which included John Lomas and John Wilhite.
That was okay with us, but it means that his primary energies were not focused on our well-being.

In late '73, we decided to play without Darrell for some reason and look for another guitarist in the meantime.
The band without Darrell played a little more sophisticated and subdued, but having a Fender Rhodes as the only lead instrument was, well, limiting.
We split up shortly thereafter.

Although all good things must come to an end, the decision to fire Darrell was, in retrospect, a mistake which undoubtedly hastened our demise.  Darrell had his limitations, as do we all, and the arguments between him and Brad were maddening; but, his guitar playing was a key component of our energy.  Without it, we were simply not as exciting to our audiences or to ourselves.

Brad, Bud, and I played a couple of gigs as "The La Paloma Trio."

Becky got together with keyboardist Alan Klebanoff (whom I'd gone to religious school with as a kid in Wichita!) and drummer John Rockefeller;
Darrell and I joined them for some rehearsals and a gig at the K.U. Student Union. We called ourselves the Penetrations, but it was in name only. 

Becky went on to sing in Oakland, come back,  join a permutation of Tide, get married to Robbie Schall, and have a son.
Darrell - at the urging of Alan Klebanoff - applied to and was accepted into the Berklee School of Music in Boston, where he is now an instructor, arranger, and composer.
Brad eventually moved to Seattle, where he now tunes pianos and loves playing Irish music on the accordion.
I think Buddy just took a break.

Love for Sale - the Cole Porter song, fast jazzy swing.  Crazy Feeling - an Etta James ballad, done just right.. Chickenpox - Booker T. and the MGs, solid funky once past the beginning.  Darrell shows off his wah-wah and some jazzy playing, seventies style. I Brought It All on Myself - an early Little Richard tune.  Sounds like we're a little fuzzy on the arrangement, but Lee McBee adds blues harp on this one. Right Hand Blues - nice ditty by Brad Reynolds, an ode to masturbation. Mama, He Treats Your Daughter Mean - by Ruth Brown.  It's fast! I Fall to Pieces - Patsy Cline.  Becky does a good job once past the first line. Chain of Fools - Aretha, of course.  This sounds so much more seventies than earlier Penetrations!  Maybe it's the damn Fender Rhodes and wah-wah. Rock My Baby Right - our last song, a jump blues arrangement by Darrell.  Lee McBee sits in. Mushy speech and bumper-sticker giveaway.

The Last gig. The Penetrations reunited for one more gig, at Minsky's, in 1974, before Darrell, Brad, and Becky left for other parts.  Darrell went to Boston to study at Berklee. Becky went to Oakland, CA.  Brad went to Seattle.  Buddy was on the road with the show band he had left the Lee Stover Trio for, so ex-Tide drummer Steve Hall sat in  - with  ONE rehearsal - and did a fine job.  Bud's high harmonies were sorely missed.  Mushy speeches were made, and the Penetrations were history. These recordings show a group of musicians that had lost some youthful energy but were individually much more skilled and seasoned than when they began the Penetrations two and a half years earlier.

Looking back - 50 years ago - I have to laugh at the way we were and a lot of what we did.  
But it's really amazing how much we learned in just a couple of years!
For illustration:  If you listened to "Love for Sale" from the set above, click here to listen to a very early Penetrations recording.
You will hear just how far we progressed in such a short time.

Copyright 2006, 2013, 2023 by Andy Curry