From what I remember is the guy that managed the Palace Guard managed this band . I think they might have opened for The Greatful dead. They were from Los Angeles circa 1966-67.
Children ask
http://www.box.net/shared/4hnjotkdhs
She is the color
http://www.box.net/shared/l5q8trcl3a
2 comments:
Mr Ed you are the man. This 45 is as rare as hens teeth. I did see them twice in 1967. They came to Biloxi, Ms., where they put on one of the loudest, fuzziest rockinest shows i've ever seen. They were bruised and bloodied after each set lol. I thank you so very much for sharing this record.
Wow! When I saw this it blew my mind! My name is Robin Johnston and I was in ‘Power’ back in the day. We were a 5 piece band with 2 guitars, bass, drums, and keyboards. We played for about two years as one of the house bands along with The Yellow Payges and The East Side Kids. The headliner house band was The Palace Guard, and we were all managed by Gary Bookasta. And the name of the band was ‘Power’, not ‘The Power”.
The members of the band were John Romero, lead singer and guitar, his brother Joe Romero on vocals and bass, Jim Sanchez on keyboards, and Joe Rodriguez on drums and vocals. Joe Romero and I originally started out in a South Bay Surf band called The Wild Ones, and several years and iterations later, with another singer named Gary Soloman, worked our way into The Hullabaloo as a house band.
We played mostly top 40 hits of the time, and eventually brought in two song writers named Bernie Swartz and Morgan Cavett who wrote the two songs here, ‘Children Ask’ and ‘She Is The Color Of’. We went into Paramount Studios on Santa Monica Blvd. in the summer of 1967 and recorded both of the songs. The original words to ‘Children Ask’ were “Children ask if God is dead”. The radio stations refused to play the song because of the word ‘God’ so we had to go back in and redo the lyrics to say “Children ask if He is dead”.
We did a lot of local TV shows like ‘Groovy’ and such, and we even played on the ‘Last Train To Clarksville’ promotion of the Monkees which was a real train to Del Mar where we picked up The Monkees and they played on the way back. Then we went to Biloxi, Mississippi to promote the record that had started to play on an Armed Forces radio station there. We also played in New Orleans and did a TV show there.
We came back from there in December of 1967 and after the first of the year several of us were in danger of being drafted, and the band was starting to fall apart. I went into the army in March of 1968 and Joe went in later that year.
Where are they now? John Romero lives in Santa Cruz and works for a car dealer in the parts department. Jim Sanchez lives somewhere in the New England States. Joe Rodriguez lives in Torrance with his wife and children. Joe Romero came back from Viet Nam and after 36 years retired as a Captain from the Los Angeles County Fire Department. Myself, I live in San Pedro with my wife and son and work for LAUSD in electronic repair.
Also, I have never stopped playing music, having been in several dozen bands over the years playing every style of music. And the kicker? Joe Romero and I came full circle and are now playing again in an oldies band called ‘The Soundwaves’. We have been together for eight years now, still going strong and having a ball, playing two or three times a month with two great guys, John Metcalf, retired LAPD, and bobby K, the drummer in my country band, ‘The Golden State Cowboys’ for ten years. Our website is http://www.thesoundwavesband.net/. And our specialty, is, of course, SURF MUSIC!
I look back on very fond memories of the times we had, we were so young but blessed to experience the things we did. This is an overview, there is a lot more, maybe I’ll post more someday.
Robin Johnston
By the way, I still have several copies of this record, and have digitized and processed it to sound pretty good.
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