Hey y'all~
One day over 25 years ago I looked down on my little 70 lb. Mother in her death bed & she said,
"Bob, there's never been a po' boy from South Alabama seen or done what you've done."
"Yes, ma'am." I replied.
Boy, I sure felt that way this weekend at the Krewe of Mystics Show.
Got to talk to Big Ben during two breaks.
He told me a lot but these stories are the best.
He was the opening act for Jerry Lee back in about '72 at a party. Big Ben's band played for about an hour. No problemo.
THE KILLER gets out there with that rented baby grand and even though the half inch plywood was good enough for the stage, they'd shorted on the floor joists so Jerry Lee starts rockin'; a piano leg collapses the stage; The Killer & his road manager grab the baby grand and flip it over into Big Ben's equipment doing over $3000 worth of damage.
Jerry Lee's manager walked up to the microphone and said,"That's the end of the show, folks."
Jerry Lee's people ponied up for the damage.
The other story he told me was that he thought Dean Daughtry was the musical "GUIDING LIGHT" for the Atlanta Rhythm Section because the reason was
Dean's F.F.A. Band from Kinston beat Big Ben's F.F.A. Band from Vernon at Auburn in 1960 because Dean could play music and everybody else could play about three chords.
When I first started blogging in Zero, Northwest Florida, 2643 posts ago, I misspelled Big Ben's name. It's Big Ben Atkins. http://www.bigbenatkins.com/MusicMenu.html
But if you're googling Big Ben, always try:
"ben adkins" robertoreg
Friday, August 27, 2004
Seven Bridges Road:
Steve Young
There are stars in the Southern sky.
Southward as you go.
There's moonlight an' moss in the trees,
Down the Seven Bridges Road.
Now, I have loved you like a baby;
Like some lonesome child.
And I have loved you in a tame way,
And I have loved you wild.
Sometimes there is a part of me,
Has to turn away and go.
Running like a child beneath warm stars,
Down the Seven Bridges Road.
Now there are stars in the Southern skies,
And if ever you decide you should go,
There is a taste of time-sweetened honey,
Down the Seven Bridges Road.
Written by Steve Young.
( © Irving Music.)
From "Seven Bridges Road", © 1972, Rounder Records
Dear Ka$H,
On Big Ben's LP the credits should have me listed as the writer of
ON THE BRIGHTER SIDE of IT ALL...they have my name misspelled and some other folks credited.
One thang I love about this LP is that it was soaked in Patchouly oil....you could walk in a record shop and find it by the smell !
Please say HELLO to Alex at The Locker Room for me !
wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwyker
MIGHTY FIELD of VISION
Thursday, August 26, 2004
http://www.bigbenatkins.com/index.html
Recorded at Muscle Shoals Sound Studios
Ben Atkins: Vocals
Barry Beckett: Keyboards
Joe Correro: Drums
Donald "Duck" Dunn: Guitar (Bass)
John Gaston: Guitar (Bass)
Larry Hamby: Engineer
Roger Hawkins: Drums
David Hood: Guitar (Bass)
Al Jackson: Drums
Jimmy Johnson: Guitar
Bobby Manuel: Guitar, Producer
Wayne Perkins: Guitar
Marvell Thomas: Piano
I Love This Song (Jimmy M. Johnson, Dan Penn, Leon Renfro) - 2:26
Cross My Mind (Dennis Lambert, Brian Potter) - 4:35
Shine On (Eric Mercury, Carson Whitsett) - 2:31
Holding on to Friends (McRee, Thomas) - 3:19
Smokestack Lightin'/Brighter Side of it All (C. Burnett, C.Feldman, T.Smith, S.Smith, J.Wiker) - 4:04
Solid Ground (McRee, Thomas) - 2:52
That Brings Me Down (Jerry Puckett) - 3:32
Long Way to Go ( Bettye Crutcher, Bobby Manuel) - 4:06
Would I Be Better Gone? (W.Brown, D. Carter, Bobby Manuel) - 3:07
Good Times Are Coming (Bobby Manuel) - 3:15
The list really got people going which is terrific even though it didn't mention
Delbert http://www.cmt.com/artists/az/mcclinton_delbert/artist.jhtml
or Leon http://www.leonrussellrecords.com/news.shtml
or Tony Joe White http://www.tonyjoewhite.com/
{along wid Mylon,http://www.mylon.org/homePage.php
Big Ben Atkins http://www.bigbenatkins.com/
& Billy Gibbons. http://www.zztop.com/
Jerry: So you have experienced the music changes in Tuscaloosa since 1968. What do you remember from those early days?
Robert: O.K. '68 and '69. The number one thing I remember is that I was lucky I didn't flunk out because I was under the bad influence of some of my older friends from Dothan, the notorious Blue C. Squad. They had already flunked out of Montevallo along with their girlfriends and were making another attempt at academia at Alabama. All of their girlfriends had transferred to MSCW in Columbus so I spent the year commuting to Columbus every weekend with that gang of drunks from my old neighborhood in Dothan. In Columbus, I got to know and love BIG BEN ATKINS AND THE NOMADS. Oh man, they were my kind of band, just like the Rockin' Gibraltars and Wilbur Walton Jr.
"There's a party going on, come on over!"
We'd get started at Gateway or Wild Turkey's or Bob's Place or The Crossroads or Len Lew's but by the end of the night we'd all be down front at The Southeraire hollering at Big Ben.
Here is a neat picture of Joe Rudd (front), Tippy Armstrong (back),www.myspace.com/tippyarmstrong
and Charlie Hayward (bass) on the Quad in Oct 68, taken with a Polaroid camera. Charlie has been the bass player with the Charlie Daniels Band, forever (25 yrs maybe). This picture is also somewhere on the Tippy MySpace site.
Keep up the good work.
GREG HUGHEY
Joe Rudd & THE DISTORTIONS at Tuscaloosa's Ft. Brandon Armory courtesy of http://wtbc1230.com/
Will Rudd, Joe's brother, called to tell me Joe passed away last night about 10:30 P.M. at the V.A. Hospital.
Will said that Joe appeared to suffer very little and just went to sleep and didn't wake up. Joe required very little pain medication during his hospital stay and every visit or phone call from his old gang really brought back his mental powers. Joe shared memories and joked with visitors till the very end.
Will is finalizing plans for a memorial service which will probably occur next Saturday. I feel that all the details will be worked out by this time tomorrow. Joe is survived by his 99 year old mother and her condition will dictate that the service be short.
Will told me that one of the things that he will carry away from the ordeal of the past three weeks will be an undying love for the preservation of Southern music.
I replied that we have two options:
We can let all our memories dissolve into oblivion or we can preserve all that we have left.
Will is not the only one who is making a commitment to remember our musical heritage. Many of the people who came to The Heeey Baby Days of Beach Music http://heybabydays.com/
book signing with Greg Haynes last night will take a little more time to preserve that old concert poster or to scan those old photos or email us about their memories of the music and the men and women who entertain us.
I know Joe's ears were burning last night about 7 o'clock because everyone in the old Tuscaloosa crowd at Chuck's Fish http://www.chucksfish.com/
were talking about Joe Rudd as we hustled autographs from Greg Haynes, Nora Haynes, Tiger Jack Garrett, Bill Connell and Bennie Deer.
Connell had a really cool portrait of Gregg Allman and him taken recently when Bill and his wife, Laura, stayed at Gregg and his wife's house on a bayou near Savannah. Gregg was wearing a Chuck's Fish cap so maybe Bill can get him over to T-town for a little jam session at the restaurant. Gregg also told Bill that he had contacted Polydor to have them send Bill the four gold records that he is owed.
Thanks to everyone who had a hand in making last night's event a success and I'm sure I'll
see some of you at Joe Rudd's memorial service next Saturday.
Best,
Robert Register http://rockpilgrimage.blogspot.com/
P.S. I'll send out more details on the Old Musician's Reunion and Super Jam Thursday night at Rhythm & Brews but I received this email from Jerry Henry:
Robert,
I want you to help me get the word out about Thursday night. The Musicians Reunion and Super Jam at Rhythm and Brews http://www.rhythmnbrews.com/
beginning at 8:00. Us old guys still know how to party. Great seeing everybody at Chuck's last weekend. Bill Connell coming in while I was there was a God send.
Thanks,
Jerry
after hearing the awful story
about the recent chimp attack in Conn., i was recalling the chimp that lived somewhere near 12th & 13th avenue back in the 70s. anyone else remember him? i remember his owner used to walk down 12th ave holding him by the arm like a child and sometimes carry him in his arms like a child. i remember him coming into the posey's restaurant on 12th avenue. i was told back then that he was an old retired chimp TV actor from various commercials. i stopped at the intersection of 12th and 6th street and talked to the guy and chimp one time and a little crowd gathered, as they would, to see and touch the chimp and to see him do a few routines. anybody know any more about the chimp, or have their own story?
boy this is some zany place huh? chimp in the little haight and then we had a guy here in the 80s/90s with a tiger who used to ride around with him in the car, sometimes parking on the strip and the tiger sitting on the passenger side. good friend from marshal's hair salon on the strip went out to the car and put his hand in the tiger's mouth to feel his tongue (upon invitation by the owner). he said you only had to press your thumb on the tiger's gum to make him release your hand. ah . . . Okay. guy stayed out at gale johnson's near me and dogwood lodge briefly one summer and would walk him down to the mailbox on a leash. not to mention the KING COBRA that escaped in holt several years ago, never to be seen again.
William Alford
GI Motility Medical Research Page
http://alford.grimtrojan.com/
