areuonsomething.com

Down at Joe's Garage
An Interview with George Napolitano
and Joe Sirico of Ox Bow Incident
by Ray D'Ariano

Anyway since I have seen Aerosmith year after year their current look seemed fine. If I hadn't seen them in two decades . . . who knows what my reaction might be?

The very first time I ever saw Tyler we were both a lot younger. I'm talking about '65 -'66, somewhere in there. To help set the scene, my neighborhood looked like the one in the film "Bronx Tale."

It was a lazy summer afternoon I was walking by The Lighthouse Tavern. I heard some live rock music and looked in the window. I couldn't believe my eyes. I was looking at the backs of a live rock band playing "Time Is On My Side." This wasn't the typical high school group with a Vox organ and amps from Sears. These guys had long hair, fur jackets, striped shirts, and professional equipment . . . it was The Stones!

I ran to my friend's house and gave him the news. He was, understandably, skeptical, but when we arrived at the window he too saw the Stones . . . in our neighborhood at 4:30 on a Sunday afternoon!!!

Underage and uninvited we crashed what turned out to be a sweet sixteen party. The band was incredible, more professional than any group we'd ever seen at a school dance or battle of the bands.

They weren't The Stones. They were Thee Strangers. They went on to become Chain Reaction, and then still later their lead singer, a kid from Yonkers, became Steven Tyler, the lead singer of Aerosmith.

Point is, since that summer day, I've seen Tyler age for over 40 years . . . I think he looks pretty damn good.

Almost every successful band started out in bars, The Beatles did it in Germany, The E Street Band were on the Jersey shore, The Rascals out on Long Island, but for every group who made the big time there were hundreds who paid their dues, had great followings, but never got to the big show.

A local group that I followed when I was in college was The Orphans, a band that hailed from the suburbs of New York City. A childhood friend of mine, George Sotomayor played bass, and a guy named Bob Mayo, who had a taste of success when he played keyboards on "Frampton Comes Alive," played Hammond B3. Unfortunately, both guys are gone now done way too soon but The Orphans packed 'em in at bars like The Fore 'n Aft, The 42 Club, and Foley & O'Brien's. They were one of many sensational rock groups with names like: Moving Violation, Rat Race Choir, The Town Cryers, Soul Company, Saints & Sinners, The Bag, The Pilgrims, and The Gas House Kids, who entertained hundreds of fans but, for any of a million different reasons never broke through to the big time. Often it wasn't lack of talent, but other variables such as bad business deals, the draft, or just plain lack of a break.

My good buddy, George Napolitano, was a member of one of these bands called Oxbow Incident. Through the courtesy of 60sgaragebands.com we present an interview with George and one of the ex-members of the band, Joe Sirico. It offers a first hand look at what it was like to be a member of one of the great 60's bands who could have been a contender.

An Interview with George Napolitano and Joe Sirico of Ox Bow Incident

Ox Bow Incident was one of the more popular New York area groups of the 1960's. Performing throughout the five boroughs of New York and into New Jersey, Connecticut and as far away as the Caribbean, the band frequently experienced adulation on par with "Beatlemania" and parlayed their success into several high profile gigs. The original band recorded two singles and several demos, and perhaps just missed scoring a hit when their version of "Beg Borrow & Steal" was beat to national release by the Ohio Express version. Lead guitarist George Napolitano and bassist Joe Sirico provide all the info in this exclusive interview for 60sgaragebands.com.

60sgaragebands.com (60s): How did you first get interested in music?

Joe Sirico (JS): I the early '60's I was in an off-Broadway play and we used to sit around during breaks in rehearsals and listen to some of the people who knew how to play. I slowly got involved - besides trying to learn guitar with George and the rest of the guys (I couldn't hack playing guitar).

George Napolitano (GN): I always enjoyed music but the turning point was seeing the reaction that The Beatles received when they arrived in America. After watching them perform on The Ed Sullivan Show, we were hooked. I remember watching the performance with Freddie DeRubeis and after hearing them and seeing the stir that they caused I knew that I wanted to do that, too. The week after the performance all we could talk about was The Beatles. As fate would have it, on a Saturday night before The Beatles second performance on The Ed Sullivan Show I was at a party with Freddie and two other friends, Jerry Scotti and Dominic Coppola. It was a birthday party for a girl named Michelle and they kept on playing the Beatles' album over and over again. I remember clear as day that during the party we mimicked or pantomimed the songs from the album playing air guitars with Freddie banging on coffee cans. A week later when Beatles-fever was still at a fever pitch my father mentioned that he there was a guy in his office who was a guitar player. He then asked me if I wanted to take lessons from him. My father figured that I would say no but to his surprised I said, "of course". The guys name was Pete Frias and he played in a group called Jimmy & The Jesters. They were the second group in the Peppermint Lounge when Joey Dee and The Starliters became big.

Pete was an accomplished musician and he came over to my house and began to teach me chords. After a few weeks I told my "Beatle" friends (Jerry Scottti, Dominic Coppola, and Freddie DeRubeis) what I was doing. They were amazed and immediately asked if they could come over and get lessons too. I (asked) Pete and he said (he would) teach all of them. Well, they showed up the following week along with two other friends - Joe Liotta and Joe Sirico - and Pete methodically taught all of us how to play. After a few months of practicing "Guitar Boogie Shuffle" and the Beatles' song "All I've Got To Do" Pete picked out parts for each of us. He told Freddie," You're the drummer". He said to Joe Liotta, "You have long fingers you should play keyboards". Before you knew we had become a band&albeit a poor sounding one - but a band nonetheless.

60s: So that was the start of The Ox Bow Incident?

JS: I stared out playing with The Ox Bow Incident since we all grew up together. I picked up the bass and started playing with a band call The Penetrations (local guys) but I started getting a grip on what I was doing with them. I stayed with The Penetrations about a year if my memory is right and then went back to The Ox Bow Incident, known as The Creations at the time. We all knew each other from the neighborhood more or less. We formed in George's basement with the help of some older players who showed us what to do. The year had to be, at a guess, 1965.

GN: When we started we actually called ourselves The Creations. We all lived in Brooklyn, New York. Jerry Scotti, Fred DeRubeis and I even lived on the same block, 65th street in Bensonhurst. The others - Dominic Coppola, Joe Liotta and Joe Sirico - lived only a few short blocks away and we had been friends all our lives. We used (the Creations name) in 1964 and 1965. In 1966 we changed the name to The Ox Bow Incident and we stayed together with a few changes in line up until 1972.

The original band line up consisted of me on lead guitar; Jerry Scotti on bass guitar and vocals; Dominic Coppola on rhythm guitar; Joe Liotta on organ and lead vocals; and Fred DeRubeis on drums. Less than a year later our good friend Joe Sirico, who actually started with us and was playing with another group, rejoined The Creations and replaced Jerry Scotti on bass. Jerry Scotti then rejoined the group and became the lead guitarist a few months later when Dominic left. I then switched to rhythm guitar. A few years later we added Billy Sheenan to be our lead singer, and it's his voice that you hear on our version of "Reach Out". After Billy Sheenan got drafted in the Army, Albino Tessitore replaced him. Al sang on "Harmonica Man" and on the second single "She's Gone". By the time the second song was released we also had a second singer named Luis Pagan, who went by the name of Lurch. Lurch and Bino (Albino Tessitore) sang together on "You Can't Make Love By Yourself".

JS: Jerry and Dom were interchangeable. Jerry played bass when I was with The Penetrations.

60s: How and why did you decide on the name The Ox Bow Incident?

GN: We originally came up with the name "The Creations" together. I actually don't know who thought of it first, but The Creations sounded good for 1964. A couple of years later the name sounded outdated and we had a meeting to change the name. I remember that there was a lot of bickering, arguing and fighting over what the name should be. Eventually someone blurted out "The Ox Bow Incident". We took a vote and that was it. While it wasn't the overwhelming majority, it became our new name. With our new name we made Freddie get his bass drum painted with a cool design. The front of the bass drum had a hangman's noose depicting a hanging like in the (movie) Ox Bow Incident and that became our symbol.

JS: We came up with the name at a meeting with our producers.

60s: Where did the band typically play?

JS: We played at school dances, local bars, etc.

GN: We played anywhere and everywhere we could. In the beginning it was mostly parties and church dances but our favorite was a place called the Teenage Cabaret. Of all the places we played that was the first place where people started to really notice us. By this time our organ player, Joe Liotta had become an accomplished organist (he was the first guy in the neighborhood to have a Vox Continental Organ - the same organ that Mike Smith of The Dave Clark 5 used). After Joe got the Vox organ we went from an okay band to one that sounded very good. You can't believe the difference that the Vox made with our "sound". We now sounded very professional and this made us stand out from the other groups that were springing up in the neighborhoods. We played all of the songs by The Animals and The Dave Clark 5 and our renditions sounded "just like the record". Soon we were being asked to play at the Teenage Cabaret all the time and from this gig we got many other jobs thro ughout the area as our name began to spread all over Brooklyn. We also played another teen club, which we called the "No Name" club that was on 60th street and 14th avenue.

60s: How would you describe the band's sound? What bands influenced you?

JS: We more or less tried to copy the English sound and dress. Our influences, I guess, were the usual: Beatles, Animals, Stones, etc.

GN: First I would have to say we had a '60's "English" sound. (Since we had the) Vox Continental organ we did all of The Animals songs, The Dave Clark 5 tunes and every other English group of the day. We later changed with the times and because we had the organ playing through a Leslie speaker we had a soulful sound much like The Rascals. Our repertoire consisted of R&B and dance songs and we were more of a "show" group than a group who stood around with their backs to the audience and played guitar riffs. We were a favorite in many local clubs in Brooklyn and throughout New York because we played music that you could dance to.

60s: How did you hook up with Jack Spector of the WMCA "Good Guy" shows?

GN: We hooked up with Jack Spector after winning a competition at St. Anthesius, a local church. There must have been a dozen or so bands that auditioned for the spot but we really sounded great that day. The reason for this is that on the day of the audition we had performed earlier that morning at a press conference held by Murray the K, the famous deejay, at the famed Brooklyn Fox Theatre. Growing up we use to go see the Christmas and Easter Shows at the Brooklyn Fox every year, and now we were performing on the same stage as the legendary performers that we had watched as kids. Walking out on the stage of the Brooklyn Fox was truly a phenomenal feeling. We were real nervous before we went on hoping that our drummer Freddie wouldn't mess up the intro for "Get Off My Cloud" - but as soon as he hit it and we heard the girls scream we were flying high. We also played "Keep on Dancing", "96 Tears" and others in that set and each song sounded better than the one before it. Ther e were literally hundreds of girls waiting to see us and wanting to get our autographs when we went out to the street after the show ended. And as we stood there in awe signing away, they were tearing at us as if we were The Beatles! It was amazing. That was the first time that we had ever experienced anything like that and we loved every minute of it. As Dominic and I went to get our cars - his a GTO convertible and mine a Ford Thunderbird convertible - the girls began to follow us. Seeing this unbelievable sight, Dominic looked and me and me at him, and in one of those moments that you never forget, he yelled, "Can't Buy Me Love". At the same instant we remembered watching the scene in the Beatles' Hard Day's Night movie when the girls were chasing after The Beatles and their song "Can't Buy Me Love" was playing in the background. In a flash we began running down Flatbush Avenue with the girls in pursuit just the way it happened to The Beatles. It remains one of those moments that you never forget.

After we drove to the front of the theatre we put down the convertible tops and began to pack the cars with our instruments. As we did the girls were throwing their phone numbers into our cars! It was truly amazing! From there we went to the audition at St. A's and we were flying high. As soon as we hit the first note of the song you could see and hear that we were really on. We sounded great and the other bands were looking at us in awe. Needless to say we "won" the job and afterwards began to play with Jack Spector and the Good Guys on a regular basis. We played the Good Guy shows practically ever Friday night and when we didn't we would get jobs at churches and parties. As good as we sounded that day at the Brooklyn Fox and afterwards having the girls screaming and chasing us down the street, that night all of us just sat in Freddie's house by ourselves reliving that unbelievable day and just wishing that someone, anyone, out of the numerous numbers that we fou nd scribbled on scraps of paper would answer their telephone.

60s: You performed with many national acts during the Good Guy gigs, correct?

GN: We played with many national acts during our WMCA days. All of them were trying to get their new record played on the radio and they would come to the Hops to promote their song. Some of the stars that we backed up or used our equipment were Neil Sedaka, Chubby Checker, JJ Jackson, The Shirelles, The Chiffons, Brian Hyland, Jimmy Jones, The Jive Five, The 1910 Fruit Gum Company, The Ohio Express, The Pigeons (who later became Vanilla Fudge), The Hassles (with organ player Billy Joel), Tommy James and numerous others.

JS: We played with Lenny Welch, The Pigeons, The Chambers Brothers, Reparata and The Delrons (who I joined in 1969 as a backup player when they were local and we weren't doing a gig. We shared the same producers, The Jeromes, who also had The Left Banke). I stayed with The Delrons putting together various players to do gigs up and down the east coast. I was with them from about 1969 till about ten years ago when we said that's it. I married one of The Delrons). And the list could go on&

60s: How far was the band's "touring" territory?

GN: Our area included the five boroughs of New York, parts of New Jersey, Connecticut and the Caribbean Island on our cruises.

JS: Other than the cruise we stayed pretty local: The New York City area and some parts of New Jersey.

60s: That was with the Italian Line cruise ships. How often and how long did you perform on the ships?

GN: We got the job with the Italian Lines by sheer accident through Joe Sirico. He was standing in line at the local dry cleaners and in the store at the same time talking with the owner of the dry cleaners was the Cruise Director for the Italian Lines. He was telling the owner of the dry cleaners that he was looking for a young group to perform on the ships during the Christmas holidays. The owner said, "well&your search is over" and introduced him to Joey. That was it! After that chance meeting we played on the Italian Lines aboard the Leonardo DaVinci or the Rafaello during the Christmas and Easter vacation at least ten different times; to say that we had fun on those cruises would be an understatement.

JS: I was at a local drycleaner and the owner asked if our band would like to play on a boat because one of his other customers was the cruise director for the Italian line. His name was Jack Scordley. I met with him and said, "Let me talk to the guys and get back to you." I think we had two or three days notice and George was already in Puerto Rico so he flew back to New York City after we checked it out. We played for a few years - twice a year, as well as nine days over Easter break and fourteen day over Christmas and New Year's.

60s: Did the Ox Bow Incident participate in any battle of the bands?

GN: We played in quite a few "battles" but most of these were either in Manhattan or the Bronx and honestly we won all the time. Even though we were not the local group we would entertain the crowd with our song selections and invariably we would win the contest. Every time we played in a contest like this we would practice a different song to do at the contest that no one else would think of doing. Once we won a contest because of the way we performed the Royal Guardsmens' song "Snoopy vs. The Red Baron". Joe dressed up in an old army uniform and wore a helmet and this is what swayed the crowd in our favor even though we were not the local favorites. Another time we won because of our rendition of "Yellow Submarine". Then there was the time that we performed "My Generation" by The Who using instruments that we bought just to destroy at the end of the song. We always enjoyed what we did and it showed.

JS: There was a church in the Bronx that had band battles. It was either Good Sheppard or Tallentine. We faired very well; we won all of them.

60s: Did the band make any local TV appearances?

GN: We never made any TV appearances but somewhere there are old movies of us performing at the New York's World's Fair in 1964 and later at dances in Highland Lakes, New Jersey.

60s: How did you land the World's Fair gig?

GN: Either Joe Loitta's mother or my father got us to play at the '64 World's fair New York Pavilion. That was the first time we played on a real big stage. We had been on "stages" but the World's Fair stage was huge in comparison to the others that we played on at that time. After the World's Fair show we were invited to participate in a battle of the bands in Pennsylvania (that I almost forgot about). We fared okay as I remember, moving into the semi-finals but we didn't win the competition. At that time we had only been playing less than a year and we did very good considering that we hadn't played together for that long.

JS: We did have a manager for a while. His name was Bob Herin. Joe Liotta and I ran into him at a record store in the city. He said he knew Murray the K and could get us on with him&and he did.

GN: We actually had several managers over the years and each promised the world but was never able to deliver as they had promised. The only manager who ever kept his promise was a guy named Bob Herin. If we weren't practicing on a Saturday, we would take the subway to the city and go to the Colony Record shop to memorize the chords that were written on the sheet music. Bob knew that we were in a band by looking at us and watching us trying to study the chords so that we wouldn't have to spend the 75 cents that the sheets cost to buy in those days. Eventually he introduced himself to us and in the course of conversation asked if we had a manager. As we didn't at the time we told him that we were looking for one. He said that he wanted to come and hear us. After he came to one of our practices in my basement where we religiously practiced every Tuesday and Thursday night, he said he wanted to sign us. He claimed that he was "very close" with Murray the K and that with Murray's help he was going to make us into stars. Of course we didn't believer him as we had managers before and each one had made one claim or another and never produced. After being with Bob for about a month he told us he booked us to appear at the Brooklyn Fox on a show promoted by Murray the K. Of course we figured it was just another lie by a scheming manager. As the time drew closer for the show at the Fox, we figured that sooner or later he was going to tell us that it was canceled. However, he never did. On the morning of the show we actually drove to the Brooklyn Fox half expecting that it wasn't going to come off for one reason or another. When we got there and saw that the place was packed and met Murray the K face to face for the first time, we started to get really nervous. Performing on the show with us that day were The Chambers Brothers. Before we went on we learned that another group called The Young Rascals had just cancelled since they couldn't get their equipment out of a club called the Barge in the Hamptons. With this Murray asked us to do an extra song or two to fill up the time. That night we performed first, and as I said earlier we were really on. Hearing the girls scream for us as we played was something that we had never experienced before. It was simply unbelievable. In fact we were so good that night that a year or so later when we ran into The Chambers Brother at a Good Guy show in the Bronx, Willie Chambers came up to me after our performance and asked where he had seen us before. When I told him we played with them at the Murray the K show he was astonished. He said, "You were the guys that those girls went wild over! What happened to you guys? I figured that you were stars by now." We explained that we had manager problems etc., and he said, "We'll sign you to our label today". But at that time we had just signed a new deal with Smash, and couldn't do anything about it

We were very popular. We played everywhere and the people loved us. They really did. Actually we were the only group in the area that signed a record deal but that eventually lead to our demise as later a few of the guys in the group didn't want to play in clubs anymore. Their thinking was that since we were a signed act we were degrading ourselves by playing in the same places that we did before we were "recording artists".

60s: What were some of those other groups that you especially recall?

GN: There was a group called The Intruders and their lead singer was phenomenal. His name was Billy Sheenan. They played at the Teenage Cabaret the same time we did and when we heard they had broken up I got in touch with Billy and asked if he would like to join our group. He agreed and once we got Billy we became even stronger than before. Billy was the lead singer on our first song," Reach Out". Unfortunately it was 1968, the height of the draft, and he got drafted the week the song was released on Smash Records. That was a real bummer as we felt that we were finally ready to take off.

JS: We were pretty popular in the area, considering there were plenty of local bands around. Since we had a record being played on the air we stood out a little more than the rest.

60s: What led to the opportunity to record for Smash Records?

GN: Our managers at that time were Billy and Steve Jerome. We were introduced to them through Bob Herin in 1965 right after playing with Murray the K at the Brooklyn Fox. They were independent producers who were involved with The Left Banke and several other groups. In fact we recorded the song "Beg, Borrow or Steal" for their production house and it was mastered and ready to go to press. However at the time Mercury Records was having their problems and took their time in releasing it. One day while we were waiting our release date, as we sat in my car listening to WMCA, we heard a song that sounded very familiar. I raised the volume and we were floored to hear our song "Beg, Borrow or Steal", being played on the radio. But it wasn't our recording. It was by a group called The Ohio Express. We were devastated! We later found out that Bang Records had rush released The Ohio Express version of "Beg, Borrow or Steal" so that it would be issued before ours. Looking back (I wonder) how things may have changed if our version of "Beg, Borrow or Steal" had been released. As it turned out it took almost two more years before our first record, "Reach Out" b/w " Harmonica Man" was released on Smash Records.

JS: Our producers, Bill and Steve Jerome, did all the legwork for the recording.

60s: Are you familiar at all with another pre-Ohio Express "Beg, Borrow or Steal" version by a somewhat mystery group known as The Rare Breed?

GN: I'm not sure about The Rare Breed. The song was a demo that apparently quite a few independent producers had copies of and were trying to record. The story behind that song is that it was originally written for The McCoys. It used the same three-chord progression as "Hang On Sloopy" and it was going to be their follow up song. However, The McCoys turned it down because the song was directly opposite in meaning to "Hang On Sloopy". In "Sloopy" they sang that they were going to do anything to get the girl but in "Beg, Borrow or Steal" the chorus says "I'd rather beg, borrow or steal than go back to you." The McCoys then did a remake of "Fever" as their follow up to "Sloopy".

We had rehearsed "Beg, Borrow or Steal" for a few weeks and then our managers/producers Billy and Steve Jerome decided that it was time to master the recording. We had been in the studio for a few hours and were just about finished when The McCoys barged into the studio. They demanded that we leave as they had the time booked. An argument ensued and it became loud and physical when they tried to unplug our guitars from the amplifiers. Billy and Steve were flabbergasted and tried to break up the confrontation by yelling over the microphone from the control room into the studio telling the McCoys that we were almost finished. But everyone ignored them and soon punches were thrown. We did manage to finish the session with The McCoys waiting in the waiting room area.

60s: Where did the Ox Bow Incident record your songs?

JS: They were recorded at Mercury Studios in New York City.

GN: We recorded "Reach Out" in a studio in the Brill Building. What I remember most about the session is that Billy and Steve wanted the lead singers' voice to come through a Leslie speaker. At the time Kenny Rogers had a hit with the song "What Condition My Condition Is In" and the voices were recorded through a Leslie speaker. It was our producers' hope that we would have a hit with the vocal coming through the Leslie also. Another thing that I recall about the session is that the original song was too long for radio and the producers cut out an entire verse to get the song under three minutes.

We recorded "Harmonica Man" in a large studio on 57th Street that Mercury used for big bands. Actually we liked the smaller studio better, but the larger studio on 57th Street was a state of the art studio for its day with 24-track capabilities. Our second single was called "You Can't Make Love By Yourself" and a studio musician named Vinny Bell played the instrumental break. He played an electric sitar and it was his solo that you hear on the Box Tops songs "Cry Like A Baby" and the B.J. Thomas hit "Hooked On A Feeling". With Vinny having two recent hits under his belt we felt confident that his same sounding solo would help our record sell millions of copies too. But unfortunately his streak of hits ended with our record!

60s: Did the Ox Bow Incident write many original songs or did you primarily rely on outside songwriters?

GN: We actually didn't write many original songs at all. The producers really wanted us to record their own songs so that they would be able to reap the profits if the song became a hit. Fred DeRubeis and I wrote the flip side of our second single "She's Gone" and we received writing credit on the disc.

JS: We wrote one song ("She's Gone"); the other ones were demos sent by other writers. I had no part in the writing - only the arrangement.

60s: Apparently you recorded "Love, Sweet Love" and "I'll Stumble and Fall" as The Ox Bow Incident even though three members had left at the time. How did that recording session come about?

JS: I more or less kept in contact with Bill and Steve. George and I were still around. They had a couple of songs they wanted to do. I was still around playing with one band or another when I met the other guys and we put it together.

GN: It was1970 and by then the original group had broken up. That summer I meet a few musicians at Manhattan Beach in Brooklyn. They were friends of the group Alive N' Kicking, who had a hit with the song "Higher and Higher". It seemed that every time I went there I would run into the same guys strumming their guitars and having a good time. We became friendly and since they needed a bass player and a drummer to round out their group I suggested that we get together. I got in touch with Joe Sirico and a drummer named Vinny Lozopone and we began rehearsing with them in Long Island. For Brooklyn guys like us the trip to the Island every week was a real pain. We really weren't having that much fun going there, but still we were playing music and that was all that mattered anyway. Although we sounded pretty good, it just wasn't the same for us without the other guys. However, one day while talking to Billy and Steve Jerome I told them what Joe and I were up to. They immediately a sked if it sounded commercial. I said that it was a different sound that what we had done before. A month or so later Steve Jerome called again asked if we were still together. When I told them we were, he said that he wanted to come and give us a listen. He came to our rehearsal, listened to a few songs and left. Before leaving he asked me to call him the next day. I did and than he said that he had a song for us to record. That song was "I'll Stumble and Fall". We practiced it for a few weeks and then they gave us "Love, Sweet Love". By this time Billy and Steve Jerome were working as A&R men for Avco-Embassy Records. We recorded the songs at a big, beautiful, modern studio in New Jersey with Hugo and Luigi and Van McCoy, later of "Do the Hustle" fame in attendance under the name The Ox Bow Incident. Joey and I actually wanted to use a different name for this group, but Billy and Steve Jerome insisted that it to be The Ox Bow Incident as they felt it was easier to push a group that had recorded before than to push a new group.

60s: Why did the band splinter at this time, and what were the names of the replacement members?

JS: The reasons escape me, as do the names of the other members. I don't remember their last names, but it was Jack on lead vocals; Ken on guitar; and Vinny on drums. We did have a keyboard player whose name I don't remember (at all). Our time together wasn't long; I would say less than a year.

GN: After being together for six years day in and day out, a few of the guys grew tired of the rock & roll scene and decided to quit. However, Joey and I still wanted to play and when I met the guys at Manhattan Beach I convinced him to give it a try. From the start, however, it just didn't feel the same as the old camaraderie that we had with the original guys. While the new band members were nice guys, we never bonded like we did with the original guys who we had grown up with. In fact I honestly don't even remember the names of the guys who we played with on the record nor do I have a copy of the record. I do remember that the lead singer's first name was Kenny, but I have no idea what the names of the guitar player or the organ player were, and I am sure they don't remember my name either. In fact I haven't seen them or thought about them in over thirty years. It's only after I discovered that "I'll Stumble and Fall" and "Love, Sweet Love" was available for sale on a few websites that I even thought about them. I will say that when I discovered that the song was available, I ordered a copy for posterity. But I know I won't put it in a frame on the wall next to my framed plastic copies of "Reach Out" / "Harmonica Man" and "You Can't Make Love By Yourself" / "She's Gone".

This version of the band existed for about eight months and then it was over. We recorded one record together but we never played anywhere as a band. Afterwards I got backed together with a few of the original guys and reformed The Ox Bow Incident with Dominic Coppola, Fred DeRubeis on drums, Jerry Scotti on guitar, Billy Tramarco on lead guitar and Albino Tessitore and Joey Hustage splitting lead vocals. Joe Sirico also played bass with us from time to time depending on the situation and this time we had a lot of fun again. We played every week all over the area and had more fun than we had in years.

We continued to play with different variations of the same nucleus into the Seventies. Then we got together again in the early Eighties for a little while and again in the Nineties. If I had my way we would still be playing today. I never played with another group after The Ox Bow Incident, but Joe Sirico and Jerry Scotti are still playing today and sometimes they even perform together.

60s: Do any other '60's Ox Bow Incident recordings exist? Are there any vintage live recordings, or unreleased tracks?

GN: Actually a few demo recordings still exist. I have a copy of the first actual recording that we did in Rossi Sound Studios in Brooklyn. It was our version of the Animals' hit "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood". We did it in 24 takes! That session lasted for hours. We also recorded a song called "Get Off My Train" which was written by a friend and another entitled "I've Paid My Dues", which actually sounded good for its time with its modulation towards the end.

60s: What keeps you busy today?

GN: For the past 35 years I have been a professional sports photographer specializing in professional wrestling, WWE style, as well as professional baseball. Through the years I have been the editor of numerous wrestling magazines and have had nine books published on Professional Wrestling. I am also the team photographer for the Brooklyn Cyclones since their inception in 2001, and I am also one of the photographers for the New York Mets. This is what keeps me sane or I should say insane today. As far as playing I sometimes get together with Billy Sheenan, the original singer on "Reach Out". In fact Billy and I wrote and recorded five songs that were played in an independent film about the Seventies called Growing Down In Brooklyn, which featured the former Sopranos actor Vincent Pastore.

JS: I am still very active playing in a band named Special Ryder. That band has three members from the Delrons in it, my wife, Frank Franco on guitar and me.

60s: How do you best summarize your experiences with The Ox Bow Incident?

JS: It was the best.

GN: It was a blast. I can't think of anything better that I would have liked to do. I had a great time with my childhood friends playing music and just enjoying each others' company. I also was fortunate enough to meet my future wife while playing at a show at the Cheetah Club in New York and we are still together today. That would not have happened if I were not blessed with the gift of music. I'm also proud to say that my son Joseph has inherited my love of music, but he is a much more prolific musician that I ever was. He has written numerous songs and has produced and recorded several CDs. The memories with the band have lasted a lifetime and I still talk with all of the original guys on a fairly regular basis. I would like to thank you for giving me this chance to reminisce. It's been quite a trip down memory lane.

One Final Note:

Way back in 1967, Charles "Charlie" Dryer, manager of local band The Orphans, had a crazy idea. He hired Jack Spector, one of the WMCA "Good Guys" to bring a big "sock hop" type show to an outdoor football stadium in Mt. Vernon, NY. His idea was that Spector would bring along a bunch of recording acts and The Orphans would headline over them all to close the show. I told you it was crazy.

Well, one of the acts the DJ brought was Tommy James, and on that occasion Ox Bow Incident backed him up appearing as The Shondells (as in Tommy James & The Shondells).

So my friend George Sotomayor's group The Orphans appeared with my then future friend George Napolitano's group Ox Bow Incident on the same bill. One more thing, Sotomayor went on to play in another band called Ox.

Does all this mean anything? No, but it's only rock & roll and I like it.

For more great stuff on 60's garage bands, check out 60sgaragebands.com