This page contains excerpts from the book, “You’re a Nice guy, but.. (The true story of a garage band)
Bellevue, Nebraska-
Bellevue, or “beautiful view” translated from French, is situated on the eastern
bluffs of Nebraska overlooking the Missouri River and the state of Iowa to the east.
It was a quiet suburb of Omaha to the north and Offutt AFB, which was the headquarters
of the USAF Strategic Air Command (SAC), to the southwest. There was a large population
of retired and active-
The neighborhood in which Dana and I lived was on the southeast side of town where
the modest homes were built mainly during the 1950’s. Each home was about 1000 square
feet in size with 2-
Only a few hundred yards away, was the flight line for Offutt which in the height
of the Cold War was busy 24 hours a day. Aircraft could be heard at all hours either
taking off, landing or idling on the pad. Home to “Operation Looking Glass”, the
flying command post which was in the air at all times and an assortment of KC-
It was while walking the streets of this little neighborhood that Dana and I became the best of friends. Sharing thoughts about school, friends, girls and most of all, music, and especially all things Beatles. Our boundaries typically ended at the “Kwik Shop” on Mission Avenue, where we would stop in for a candy bar or a soda. Dana’s candy bar of choice was the long “Charleston Chew” while I preferred “Snickers,” but anything was suitable. Occasionally, we might frequent “Burger Chef” which was also on Mission Avenue for a cheap 25 cent hamburger. Cassette player in hand with fresh batteries meant an hour or two of walking and conversation about the band and dreams of becoming like our idols, The Beatles. We would be out every night, making our rounds unless adverse weather conditions or family commitments prohibited. Never had I had a friend that I could speak with so freely about anything and everything, something that every teenager needed. We dreamt big things for our little band made up of school friends. Everything seemed possible on those evening excursions.
Friends
As Summer approached, we talked about putting a band together. How do you go about
doing that? I did not know. I did not know any other musicians let alone anyone that
would want to play with us. I eventually earned enough money to purchase an electric
guitar from a pawn shop in south Omaha that cost about $30. Some no-
We were four guitars, two amps, one chord organ and a microphone. We called ourselves “US.” We would get together almost daily at Craig’s house down in the basement to practice. We learned all kinds of songs: “Get Down Tonight” by KC & the Sunshine Band, “Taking Care of Business” by Bachman Turner Overdrive, and anything and everything by the Beatles including the medley on side two of the album Abbey Road.
The air conditioning in Craig’s basement was a great escape from the hot humid summer of eastern Nebraska. Occasionally, we would grace the neighborhood with an impromptu concert on Craig’s back porch. I used to love these little concerts and we were always on the lookout to try and impress any neighborhood girl who might be wandering around. Typically, no one was impressed. The sound we made could hardly be described as music but more like a freight train barreling at 100mph. What we lacked in quality we made up for in pure grit and determination. We rarely changed the strings on our guitars unless one broke and having real guitar picks was a rarity. For guitar picks, we used to go to Baker’s, the local grocery store and “acquire” the plastic fasteners for the produce bags. They were made of a thin, orange plastic but flexible enough to do the trick. The one downside to these “picks” was that they disintegrated quickly and left a white residue all over our guitars. We were too naïve to know that buying picks was a realistic option, probably no more than 25 cents.
Even at this early stage, original compositions were always a part of the plan and
the first song written for “US” was “Flying Reptiles.” It was a three-
One of our favorite things to do when we were hanging around in Craig’s basement was to turn the lights off and plug in a light organ to the stereo and watch the colors change as we listened to KQKQ FM. FM radio in the 70’s could only be described as rebellious. The DJ’s played lots of album tracks and not the singles like the AM pop stations. They all seemed to have deep voices and we figured they were all probably stoned. It was common to not hear a DJ for long periods of time on FM radio. We used to joke that they would put on side two of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon and then disappear for the day. When we were not being rebellious and cool by listening to FM radio, we would listen to “Cheech and Chong” records. Craig and his brother had all of them and we would lay there in the dark and laugh for hours. Some of it may have gone over our heads, but we thought it was just the best. As the summer faded away and we prepared to enter our sophomore year at Bellevue High School, “US” gave way to the next great adventure.
Phase II begins
In the fall of 1976, we were a three-
We were still just a basement band with no direction, but we did change our name to “Phase II.” Dana was still writing songs like “Midway Town”, “Lovethirsty Mutts” and “Who Loves You?” Dana had previously been in a band of sorts with another school friend, Tim Pullen. They had called themselves “Humptymix” and had written a few songs together including “Midway Town” and “Forever.” Dana recounts a story of how after they had written “Forever,” Tim said they needed to copyright the song. Neither of them knew how to go about it but they figured that they could ask a lawyer. They got up early one Saturday morning and walked to the closest lawyer’s office which happened to be on Mission Ave. and knocked on the guy’s door. It was early in the morning and the lawyer eventually answered looking a little irritated at the prospect of having two kids banging on his door so early in the morning. Dana and Tim proceeded to tell the story of how they needed to copyright their song. The lawyer began to smile, and his demeanor changed. He listened to their story and politely told them that he was not able to help them but thanked them for asking.
(Dana on early songwriting) Flying Reptiles, Midway Town, Lovethirsty Mutts, Who Loves You, and It's You are all really good examples of the type of songs that kids write when they are really young. What I mean is that for the most part they are songs that have chord patterns, but they really do not have a unique melody. The melodies are just notes that get sung that match with the chord you are playing on the guitar. They are still particularly important songs, in that I was learning how to write songs, with a definite verse, chorus, and perhaps a bridge, but I know I was not developing melodies with those types of songs. That's why when we finally got to record our first 45, Another of my Mistakes and Let's Be Friends were head and shoulders above the other songs I was writing because they were much more developed musically and melodically. There are still songs which came after those two, where melody wasn't particularly prominent, but for the most part I was trying to be a lot more conscious of writing better melodies with stronger hooks.
We still did not have good equipment. Kirby had no proper drum kit and to make up
for that, we tied the snare to a chair and used the chrome plated base of a microphone
stand as a cymbal. Once when we were recording, we used a Chinese Checkers set to
try and emulate the sound of a true snare drum. We did come up with enough money
to purchase a small P.A. system that somebody was selling at a garage sale. It was
a Silvertone amplifier/mixer with two twelve-
Once we even auditioned a female singer to see if that was a direction for us. Her name was Connie, and she was a year younger than we were. We picked her up in Craig’s Jeep and we had a rehearsal in my garage where we tried a version of “Venus” by Shocking Blue. Her voice was a positive but, in the end, it was not going to be right for the band, so we did not pursue it any further because we knew enough that she would be a distraction for teenage boys.
Entering 1977, the musical landscape was dominated by two bands from California. The Eagles had released Hotel California in December of 1976 and Fleetwood Mac released Rumours in February. Both albums would dominate the charts for the first half of the year. By the mid to late 70’s music had really evolved into two large segments. Supergroups like Fleetwood Mac, Eagles, Boston, Kansas, Styx and the up and coming disco movement led by The Bee Gees, KC & the Sunshine Band and a host of others. We didn’t fit into either of those two genres. There didn’t seem to be any artists who spoke to us like The Beatles did for their generation. Dana was a big fan of Peter Frampton and I was a Steve Miller fan but there was nobody new and fresh for our age group. We still hadn’t heard any of the punk phenomenon that was taking place in England or New York. We had heard of the Sex Pistols through newspaper and magazines, but those articles only focused on their antics and not their music. Based on what the media showed us, we did not want any part of punk music.