Last year I wrote about my search for information on the mysterious drummer/composer Gary "Spider" Webb. He was a musician on the L.A music scene back in the fifties and sixties who put out one of my all time favorite records, "The Cave Pt. 1&2" . Not much is known about this guy and I have been searching for more information on him for the past year or so. (If you want to check out "The Mystery Of Gary "Spider" Webb, Part 1"--go HERE.)
I recently received an e-mail from Jeppe Green (who describes himself as a major CCR nerd from Denmark) who filled me in on a Spider Webb-Creedence Clearwater Revival Connection. Apparently back in 1959 or 1960, Tom Fogerty ( John's brother and future CCR member) spent some time in L.A with a band called, Spider Webb & The Insects. The band also included Jeremy Levine later of The Seeds.
The band did release one single (Maggie/Big Noise From Winnetka) on Lugar Records. It is not known how long Tom Fogerty was in the band or if he played on the record. It appears that the 45 is pretty rare and I have not been able to track down a copy and there is nothing on YouTube. Still, it is great to know their is another Spider Webb recording out there somewhere and perhaps we can learn more about him through his connection to Tom Fogerty.
Thanks to Jeppe Green for contacting me and if anyone else has any information on either Gary "Spider"Webb or The Insects you can e-mail me at, rnrcasey@gmail.com.
Remember as a kid watching The Flintstones and wishing that Fred and Barney would form a rock n roll band? Sadly, that never happened (Although, Fred did have a brief solo career). Well dreams really do come true boys and girls, as we present to you, The Neanderthals.
Okay, so it's not Fred and Barney and it's not animated, it's actually better. The Neanderthals play a mix of garage rock, surf, frat rock and rockabilly music doing both originals and covers. They dress as caveman and wear lone ranger masks to hide their true identities.
They are lead by Los Straitjackets guitarist Eddie Angel and are not just a novelty act, they are an incredible band and write great songs like, "Werewolves From Outer Space" and "I Go Ape". The Neanderthals are well worth checking out if they ever come to your town. Probably the most fun band on earth.
Wow, the world's greatest songwriter covers the world's greatest rock n roll song. Who would have thunk it? This was filmed probably around 1986 or 1987 when Dylan toured with Tom Petty and The Grateful Dead. You can see Tom Petty in the video and I assume the band is The Heartbreakers. I am wondering if this is a sound check as opposed to a live performance. It's pretty off the cuff.
Dylan seems to be having fun and I think he is playing lead guitar. It is interesting to note, that when The Kingsmen released Louie, Louie back in 1963, Dylan was still writing and recording ultra serious socially conscious folk music. To quote the man himself, "I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now."
In 1962, Bobby Pickett was an aspiring actor in Los Angeles who also sang with a local rock n roll band called the Corsairs. One night while goofing around on stage, Pickett sang a couple of songs imitating Boris Karloff. The audience loved it and soon after Pickett and band member, Len Capizzi wrote ba song called, the Monster Mash, which would hit #1 Halloween weekend 1962 and become a horror music standard.
The Monster Mash was recorded and released by Garpax records, a southern California label owned by the legendary, Gary S. Paxton. Paxton had earlier produced a big hit with another legendary novelty record called, Alley Oop.
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In addition to the single, Garpax released a whole album of horror rock tunes sung by Pickett called, The Original Monster Mash. Among the various studio musicians who allegedly can be heard on the record are Leon Russell and Mel Taylor, The Ventures longtime drummer.
The single not only hit #1 on the U.S Billboard Chart in 1962 but charted again in 1970 and hit #10 in 1973. Although it was banned in Britan when it was first released in '62, for being "too morbid", it went to #3 in '73 and, amazingly, charted again in 2008. To date, Monster Mash has sold over 4 million copies.
Bobby "Boris" Pickett went on to release more horror related singles to little notice. He appeared in small roles in several tv shows and movies and wrote and produced two musicals, The Bridge Is Out, You'll Have To Spend The Night and Frankenstein Unbound. The former was made into the 1994 film, Monster Mash: The Movie.
Pickett made appearances throughout the years, sometimes performing the song live. He remembers singing the song once at an event back in the seventies backed by a then unknown rock band named, Van Halen.
He passed away in 2007 but his song lives on every Octiber. Take a listen and have some fun, it's Halloween, for crying out loud.
If you are looking to watch a groovy (ie stupid) Halloween movie, The Ghost And Mr. Chicken will definitely fill the bill. The movie stars Don Knotts and only runs about an hour and ten minutes. I streamed it the other night on Amazon and it is a great way to waste an hour of your life. To help you enjoy your cinematic experience here are,
Eight Fun Facts About "The Ghost & Mr. Chicken
--This movie was the first Don Knotts made after he signed a lucrative contract with Universal Pictures after five seasons on The Andy Griffith Show.
--Don Knotts stated that he signed the movie deal only after Andy Griffith said he was discontinuing the series following the 1964-1965 season. Soon after signing the contract, Griffith changed his mind and The Andy Griffith Show ran for four more seasons. --The movie's plot was based on an Andy Griffith episode called, "The Haunted House". --The haunted Simmons' Mansion where Luther spends the night was located on the Universal Pictures lot. It is also served as The Munster's House, Jimmy Stewart's home in the movie "Harvey" and was featured in the TV series, "Desperate Housewives". --Vic Mizzy composed the music for the movie. He also wrote the theme songs for The Adams Family and Green Acres. He would go on to write the music for five additional Don Knotts movies.
--One of the most enjoyable aspects of the film is the abundance of sixties tv stars who appear on screen. In addition to Don Knotts, three other actors from The Andy Griffith Show make an appearance including, Hal Smith (Otis Campbell), Hope Summers (Clara Edwards) and Burt Mustin (who played Judd Fletcher on the first few seasons of the show). In fact the movies director, Alan Rafkin, directed 27 episodes of The Andy Griffith Show while the screenwriting team of Everette Greenbaum and Jim Fritzell wrote 29 "Andy" episodes along with The Ghost And Mr. Chicken" script. --Other sixties television stars who make an appearance include, Dick Sargent (the second Darren in Bewitched), Sandra Gould (The second Gladys Kravitz on Bewitched), Ellen Corby (Grandma Walton) and Charles Lane and James Millhollin. (Two actors whose names you won't recognize but they appeared in dozens of sitcoms back in the day) --Screenwriter Everette Greenbaum was the voice that yelled, "That a boy, Luther", throughout the movie. --Enjoy the movie, folks...
--They dress as mummies when they play live and drive around in a hearse. I don't know what they dress like off stage but I like to think they dress like mummies all the time.
--They call their music "Budget Rock" because they play used, outdated and often broken equipment. They recorded their first singles on a cassette four track. They recorded everything live and mixed as they recorded. In other words, one of the band members ran the board as they played.
-They recorded their early tunes on their own, "Pre-B.S" record label.
--Their music was influenced by sixties garage bands like The Wailers and The Sonics.
--For years they refused to release any of their albums on CD. They have since relented.
--The Mummies broke up around 1994 but re-group a few times a year to play festivals.
--They have a website now but hate social media, so no Facebook, Twitter etc...
I first ran across "The Cave" by Gary "Spider" Webb a few years ago on a digital compilation called, "Beats From Badsville". The album consisted of a bunch of rare and strange 45s from The Cramp's (Lux Interior and Poison Ivy's) record collection.
Having always had a penchant for cheesy low budget records from the early sixties, I instantly fell in love with this recording.
The record came out on Bamboo Records back in 1961. Bamboo was one of the dozens of small independent record labels that popped up around Los Angeles as rock n roll was taking off. Unlike most of the major labels at the time, the Indy labels seemed to put out just about anything they could in hopes of making the charts or, at the very least, making the record company a couple of quick bucks.
I am not sure what exactly Bamboo's motive was by releasing this record but I am sure happy they did. Basically, "The Cave" is a combination of a Disney storybook record gone bad and The Sufaris' "Wipeout".
Gary "Spider" Webb (far left) with The
Hollywood Argyles.
The 45 acts out the story of two teenagers stuck inside of a cave. How they got in there no one knows, but they sure are having trouble getting out. To make matters worse, they have been separated and can't find each other in the dark. And there's bats.
While the kids call for each other and scream, the musical accompaniment rocks in fine sixties fashion with a cool guitar lick and crazed drumming. The crazed drummer just happens to be, our hero, Gary "Spider" Webb.
Who exactly was Gary Webb? To tell the truth, I haven't been able to find much information.. From what I can find, he was a touring member of The Hollywood Argyles of "Alley Oop" fame. Althoug he toured to support the song, he apparently was not on the recording.
In addition to "The Cave", he also released a single called, "Drum City" on Donna Records a couple of years later. A very cool surfesque instrumental, it is a much more mainstream recording than his first release.
"Drum City" (1963) Donna Records
And that is pretty much all I know about the mysterious Gary "Spider" Webb. I ran across some comments about him on YouTube from a guy who claims to be his nephew. I tried to make contact but never received a reply.
Did Mr. Webb release more recordings? Did he do any session drumming on any records?. Who came up with the crazy idea for "The Cave"?
One of the stranger things I ran across recently was a recording called, "Science Friction Parts 1&2" by The Sci-Fis. It was released in 1964 on Era Records and is pretty much your standard early sixties instrumental. Except, about half way through part 1 of the recording, the guitarist and the drummer briefly go into a note for note ripoff of the riff that was played on "The Cave". Could the Sci-Fis drummer be you know who?
If you know Gary "Spider" Webb, please tell him how much I like his record. If you have any information on any of his recordings or anything else he was involved in, let me know. You can drop me a line at, rnrcasey@gmail.com
In the meantime, take a listen to, "The Cave". If you like the sound of a couple of distressed spelunkers backed by So-Cals answer to Gene Krupa, you're gonna dig this record.
