Teen Town (3)
We Heard About Music and Decided To Try Some dept.
Teen Town signaled a new era at the Iowa State Fair of 1964. It didn’t last that long but it’s influence on Iowa musical cultural, especially as it related to the youth music scene, was pivotal.
Telling this week’s episode is easier thanks to a happy accident of coincidence. Check out Chuck Offenburger’s story of his ‘hometown heros’ The Everly Bros. His great writing serves as a contextual bridge between the youth music of the 50’s and the youth music that I write about from that Teen Town Summer of 1964. The major element at either end of that bridge was excitement. Whether the worldwide influence of the Everly Bros. or the buzz generated by any one of a dozen local bands of the Teen Town era, intense excitement, was the order of the day.
Thanks Chuck for teasing out the essential elements of a direct precursor of the music which drove the scene at Teen Town and in scores of Ballrooms and small venues across the State of Iowa.
Let’s settle back now to hear brief excerpts from interviews and conversations I’ve had over the past year with musicians Russ Morgan, James “Jimmy” Brown and Bernie Fogel. All three musicians played at Teen Town and all three were leaders of important bands at this important juncture in Iowa youth music history.
What I thought could be a nice one-issue story has become a series of episodes revealing what happened when Des Moines in 1964 decided to catch a wave, support its youth and nurture a scene that sustained itself for a quarter of a century.
We begin interviewing Bernie Fogel, A 1963 Roosevelt High School student and a proto-guitar hero from the Cottage Grove neighborhood. He relates being with Jimmy Brown and the Rhythm Masters as the first band to play at the opening of Teen Town.
Let’s hear about this from Jimmy…
Russ, Jimmy and Bernie all remember our E.14th and Walker Street neighborhood where there was a lot of musical action. It was the neighborhood where we (guitarist Russ Morgan, drummer Jimmy Brown, bass guitar player Wally Ackerson and organist, vocalist George T. Clinton) first encountered each other)
Russ Morgan a 1966 graduate of East High School and the leader of the Princemen band, relates how he was taught how to play music with family members.
Listen as he relates his early experience starting a band at East High School, finding a booking agent and going on the road with longtime friend and collaborator the late Wally Ackerson.
In 1964, Jimmy Brown was a drummer and leader of The Rhythm Masters. He lived on Maple Street, a few blocks from our house at 1434 Walker St. His influence on me was immense because of his talent and his presence on stage. He describes his beginnings…..
Stay Tuned, there’s more to come as Russ Morgan takes us on a Rock’n Roll journey through his personal archives, Jimmy talks about developing his style on drums and we run down more local music lore at the dawn of modern Rock era. Who knows, we might even have a jam session.
Waiting for the jam session!