“Let Your Freak Flag Fly” – Episode Two

Music, Music, Music & The Power of Flowers

(Part 2 of 5)

A big part of saving the planet revolved around the revolutionary music of our times. “They” had Don Messer’s Jubilee, Sgt. Barry Sadler, and his Viet Nam War anthem, “Battle of the Green Berets”, country music radio, and the Edson Leader Marching Band & Bugle Corp, replete with a wide-smiled majorette, three hula hoopers and a family of square dancers doing do-si-dos on a hay wagon. And on “our” side? Well…. Well, we had, Lloyd.

Lloyd was an accomplished self-taught singer and guitarist who sometimes played with the Muddy Street band for dances at the Moose Hall, the High School and other venues. Lloyd and Bill Borzel were also mainstays at the Someplace coffee house, where Hinton youth held monthly happenings in the Anglican Church basement on Hardisty Avenue.

Marie Melvin, aka Mom, built the psychedelic light-show box and giant flowers that hung over the concession stand at Someplace. She also supplied hundreds of doughnuts to feed the subterranean patrons of someplace we could call our own. This was one of the great successes of the Hinton Op-Teen Club that was the center of the social life of young people in Hinton for many years. A major shout out is long overdue for Father Shaw who provided the space and the support for Someplace. I’m quite sure not all of his parishioners were comfortable about the hippies invading the church basement and he would have had to win them over to make it happen. He was a true champion of young people in Hinton and I know of several people who took refuge in his church, myself included. Thank you! And thanks to Marie and to everyone else who volunteered, attended or supported the Friday night happenings at Someplace! Very cool!!!

Music for all of us long-haired freaky types was central to our exciting vision of a brave new world. Having local musicians tell our stories was hugely important. The ideas, adventures, and intense emotions that we shared helped create friendships that have lasted a lifetime. Despite our naïve, often misguided efforts, we sincerely believed we could change the world for the better.

Conveniently, our core hippie philosophies could readily fit on a poster, bumper sticker, or T-shirt: Peace and Love; Make Love Not War; Flower Power; Dawning of the Age of Aquarius; Save the Whales; No More Nukes; Ban the Bomb; Tune In, Turn On, Drop Out; Power to the People; F*** the Establishment; Give Peace a Chance; Keep on the Grass; Hell No We Won’t go; Hail Atlantis; Be Here Now; Keep on Truckin’; Frodo Lives; Never Trust the Man, Man. But for this hippie utopia to rise from the brimstone and ashes of Mordor we absolutely needed “the music” to bring all these diverse messages together.

For the record, this is what we had for music in Hinton in the 50s and 60s, besides our wobbly turntables at home: In the Valley, there was the ever-popular juke box at the Mar-Kit Pizza, known to one and all as the “pizza joint”. It was owned by Dennis & Kathy Kitaguchi and Bill & Mary Marlow, who were ably assisted by Joe Laughy and Doni Maurik.

(SEE: Wayne’s Wandering’s for future Blog post tributes to Dennis Kitaguchi and Doni Maurik.)

Also in the Valley were juke boxes at the Hi-Way Café (Bliss) and Athabasca Hotel restaurant. The Blue Bird Café, and the restaurants at the Timberland and Hinton Hotels were hangouts on the Hill and they too had their juke boxes. Occasionally, these establishment even changed the 45s, but I still recall Roger Miller’s, You Can’t Roller Skate in a Buffalo Herd, playing non-stop for about 100 years straight at the Blue Bird Café. The Hudson’s Bay store would give out free charts of the latest top 10 or top 40 hits. They also sold a few LPs and 45s, between the mood rings and the ashtrays, so we weren’t totally lost in the musical dark ages.

Riding rock-n’roll’s early waves was the hugely popular Hinton band the Dominoes. The line-up changed from time to time, but players included: Dennis Kitagouchi, Paul Welsby, Larry Roth, Don Brown, Terry Rosenthal, Bob Wittow, and Teresa (Terry) Boryschuk.  A bit later, came the Nobles with Dennis Chawrun, Ray Gauthier, Albert Gauthier, Richard Meek and Richard Krawcysk. Then there was Muddy Street, a sometimes-rival to the Nobles. Muddy Street featured Ted Osborne (lead guitar), Phil L’HIrondelle (drums), Richard Krawczyk (bass), Lloyd Litke (guitar), and Bill Borzel (keyboard). Muddy Street played at the Moose Hall on Saturday nights, and on a good night made a whopping $10 (each!).

On Saturday nights, the Moose Hall was the happening place to be, and everyone from young teens to old codgers came to dance and socialize. In the late 1960s, Muddy Street’s musical offerings ranged from old time waltzes, polkas, butterflies, and two steps to the latest hit parade songs – after the old codgers had gone back home! The band’s rock repertoire included classics such as Light My Fire (Doors), To Sir With Love (Lulu), Jezebel (Herman’s Hermits), Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da (Beatles), and White Rabbit (Jefferson Airplane), with some ageless tunes such as Mustang Sally, Gloria, Louis Louis, and Wipeout thrown in for good measure.

Local youth clubs often organized sock hops during daytime hours and dances in the evening someone spinning records or local or out of town bands playing. The earliest such club was called Teen Town. This was followed by the Optimist Club sponsored Hin-Teen Club which morphed into the Op-Teen Club. Supporting these clubs were home town heroes, such as Tets Kitaguchi, Marcel Franche, Cory Maurik, Marie Melvin, and many others.

SEE: Wayne’s Wandering’s future blog posts for tributes to Dennis Kitaguchi & The Dominos & Teresa Boryschuk.

Hinton also invited bands from Edmonton to play at various events in town. These included The Warp Factor, Martha Strange, and The Graeme  Waifer*. After these popular events, city freaks and country freaks all crowded together in Joe Laughy’s house for his legendary after parties. (His parents, Jack and Doreen were very cool, well, you know, for parents. Ask Joe all about it.) We all felt pretty damned hip hanging out with these big city freaks. Joe took things a step further by actually living and hanging with some of these musicians when he went on to work in music management in Edmonton. These musical offerings – both local and imported – helped quench our thirst for the latest and greatest music – both live and recorded. But we always wanted more.

A few of the other bands from the Edmonton scene included: The Nomads, The King Beezz, James and the Bondsmen, The Lords, Willie and the Walkers, Sons of Adam, Barry Allen and Purple Haze, The Young Ones, Shame Tree, The Heat, St. James Infirmary, Brinkman Brothers, International Dateline, The Circus, and the Harrad Experiment. See: Edmonton60sbands.blogspot.com for great images and photos, a comprehensive list of Edmonton bands, music related stories as well as band and fan memories as well as other information and fun stuff. Another wonderful source is: Edmonton Concert History: www.concertarchives.org.

On road trips to Edmonton the Hinton gang often crashed at Don Cook’s pad on Bellamy Hill, on the steep riverbank near the MacDonald Hotel and overlooking the North Saskatchewan River. Don painted one of the livingroom walls midnight black. He then used this wall as a canvas for a floor to ceiling rendering, in white, of the horse and rider from the cover art for Quick Silver Messenger Service’s, Happy Trails album. Totally awesome! (I wonder sometimes whatever happened to that masterpiece of his. Perhaps its waiting to be rediscovered, a half century later, hidden under layers of wallpaper and then auctioned off for millions like a long-lost Banksy.)

From Don’s place we would make forays to various events around the city and forage in funky little record stores looking for albums by Dylan, Joan Baez, Donovan, and the like. Although we were often out and about just for a good time. But we were also acutely aware of the big issues of the day – The Vietnam War, the threat of nuclear weapons, pollution and the many social injustices existing in Canada, the USA and the larger world. Even in conservative old Edmonton people were marching to protest the Viet Nam War and making their voices heard. Maybe we could really change the world?

On our return to Hinton, we would gather in Herm’s basement room, or some other subterranean hang out, to crank up the tunes. Some albums, such as those by the Moody Blues or the Doors, were replayed repeatedly as we tried to decode the lyrics looking for esoteric meanings and coded messages from our people. Even the album art and any inserts were scrupulously deciphered like some secret Tibetan manuscript, Russian spy ciphers or newly unearthed Dead Sea Scroll. Heavy!

Some music was just for fun, like Bob Saucier’s hilarious rendition of Monster Mash performed every Halloween, or whenever we could cajole him into playing it “just one more time.” I especially recall replaying Arlo Guthrie’s, Alice’s Restaurant at least a million times so we could memorize the words to try and impress the hippie chicks. Surprisingly, that particular dating/mating strategy was never very effective, at least it wasn’t for me, but then I only learned the first 40 or 50 verses, and not necessarily in consecutive order.

Our friends and relatives in Edmonton, Calgary or Vancouver had a big advantage in staying on top of live music. In Edmonton, back in 60s, there were reportedly no fewer than 15 live music venues on Jasper Avenue between 100th and 109th streets, so close, it is said, that musicians would walk across the street between sets to watch each other play.

Many of these acts did not play “our music”, but there were certainly others that did: the Rainbow Ballroom on Whyte Avenue; Zorba’s on the University of Alberta campus (There was also a related Zorba’s in Jasper, before it was mysteriously burned down), Sugar Shack a-Go-Go, Outer Limits, the Forum, and various community centres and high schools. Plus, of course, the legendary Middle Earth, which acted as a go-to-place for all things hippie, food, shelter, social services, as well as music and just hanging out. Rock and blues concerts pulled in large audiences at the Jubilee Auditorium, Edmonton Gardens and the Fieldhouse, and impromptu folk sessions were held around the city.

For a brief time, the Ryce Street Fysh Market acted as the Edmonton’s “underground newspaper”, helping publicize both local and imported events and musical talent. Copies of the Georgia Straight were in great demand and whenever Denis Delisle came back to town after his sojourns in Vancouver he would bring along a stash of the latest issues. Because this local boy was such a successful hawker he was given a monopoly on the coveted corner on Georgia and Granville Streets, outside the Hudson’s Bay store on Georgia. His trans-mountain paper route – as well his own adventure stories – gave us a much needed link to Canada’s hippie capital on the West Coast.

Big cities also had big radio, a big deal if you wanted to stay on top of the music scene. In Edmonton, 630 CHED played popular music, as did CJCA, and CFRN, but for me and my friends these commercial AM stations were noise traps largely dominated by cringe worthy advertisements and jingles. But at least some “real” music was being played in between the vexing commercials. Radio reception in Hinton totally sucked. All the great music of 1968 – The Beatles (Revolution, Hey Jude), Otis Redding (Sittin’ On The Dock of the Bay), the Doors (Hello, I love you), Cream (White Room), Steppenwolf (Magic Carpet Ride), Janis Joplin & Big Brother and the Holding Company (Peace of My Heart), the Stones (Jumping Jack Flash) – were almost impossible to pick up except for teasing snatches of song that leaked through the late night static coming over the mountains from Seattle or Vancouver. Just enough music leaked through the wavering hiss, crackle and pop to let you know what you were missing. A lot! We clung to every word, every note that our tiny, pastel-coloured transistor radios could suck out of the ether.

Many a night was also spent cruising the streets, highway, bush roads and cut lines with Graham Glass, Doni Maurik, Doug Radloff, Phil L’Hirondelle and Gary Tomusiak, and others, trying to chase some elusive radio waves that weren’t playing the likes of Snoopy vs The Red Baron. Then there were the radio evangelists from Spokane, who would often give us hippies a vivid multi-sensory vision of the special hell that was in store for us. (Perhaps, this was a highly realistic travel and career possibility I hadn’t fully considered yet.) Talk about radio reception, though. Those airwave preachers had broadcast towers that reached to the heavens, so they always came in loud and clear. And when they spoke of hell and damnation, you could not only hear the wailing and gnashing of teeth, but you could also smell the sulphur and brimstone and feel the heat blasting out of the speakers. Bad trip!

Meanwhile, out on the mythical, mystical West Coast fantastic things were happening. Fourth Avenue in Kitsilano vied with Toronto’s Yorkville District as Canada’s Haight Ashbury. There were many live music venues along “Rainbow Avenue”, including the Naam restaurant, likely the country’s first vegetarian restaurant (still going strong in 2021). My favorite hangout on Fourth, however was a small place called the Love Café, located in a two-story clapboard house at the far end of the strip. I would frequent the cafe with Herm Steingrube, Bill Borzel, Jay McCraw from Hinton, and Roger Dale a musician friend from Jasper (and now a celebrated artist living in France). I came to this place after meeting an enchantress named Trish on a train ride from Edmonton to Hinton. She worked at the café and lived with her boyfriend upstairs. [SEE: Wayne’s Wanderings Blog, for upcoming story: Tumbling Stones on a Night Train to the Love Café – via Hinton]

In those days, we usually crashed in Stanley Park, on English Bay or Third Beach and sometimes at Kool-Aid, a kind of hippie freak flop house and hang out. I also recall imposing on the hospitality of the Vlaar family, formerly from Entrance. Mary and Nancy were friends, and their parents were cool, but we were way too many and we kinda overstayed our welcome. Still feel the need to say sorry. Sorry!

Out on the streets and on the logs strewn on English Bay people, at the Court House fountain downtown and at Third Beach in Stanley Park, there would be guitars strumming and drums drumming all day and then around bonfires late into the night. The spirit of the times was picked up in Vancouver’s magical radioland. CKLG-FM 99.3 had begun experimenting with late night album rock in late 1967 and, in 1968, became Canada’s first full-time rock station. Way cool! But not available for us backwoods hippies. FM radio was unheard of in our part of the shire so we were stuck with those few snatches of AM wavering and hissing and crackling over the air waves [you already used this expression above]. On the other hand, other stuff, great gobs of syrupy, soul slamming pop glop was being pumped into town from Edmonton radio stations.

The most repellant and persistent of these tunes was undoubtedly Yummy Yummy Yummy, by Ohio Express. We absolutely hated it! “Aaaaaaggggghhhhh!!!, as Herm would say, every time that ear worm hit the airwaves. Other tunes we loved to hate were  Honey, by Bobby Goldsboro; Simon Says, by 1910 Fruitgum Company; and Little Green Apples, by O.C. Smith. Oh, my offended ears, my aching teeth; my tortured hippie soul. Pity me. Something must be done, we all agreed. We couldn’t take Yummy, Yummy, Yummy one more time! “And sweet thing, that ain’t no lie.”

We were tired with living on the fringes of the hippie revolution – we needed to bring it home – right here, to the streets of Hinton. “So, Mannnnn, what the hell you going to do???”

To Be Continued

 in

EPISODE THREE

(Of Five)

Vexatious Vexillology and Vexillography