I think my first concert was The Association (could have been The Kingsmen - it was a long time ago). Rock concerts were brand new, and we were the opening act. "Cherish" was number one on Billboard back then.

My impression. Their vocals and harmonies were incredible. The pitches were right on, phrasing was tight, and you could tell they were really listening to each other and singing as a unit.

Their instrumental prowess was adequate, but not as great. I think we blew them away in that department. I don't want to seem to critical here, I suppose The Wrecking Crew did the instrument track on their recordings. IMHO their vocal prowess was more than enough to make up for the weaker instrumental chops.

As I said, rock concerts were new. Before that it was always "teen dances" where we opened for "The Coasters" played backup to Freddie 'Boom-Boom' Cannon (I played bass for Freddie because he liked my bass playing better than our bass player), and so on.

In the teen dances most danced but there were always those who crowded the stage for the headliners. For the warm-up band they didn't crowd the stage so the business at hand was dancing.

My impression? Having people sit up, listen, and pay attention was great. I liked this concert stuff. We had been a show band before playing dance and show sets, so the show set part of our act came out. We played a few 45 minute sets per week and got paid $400/week. (According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics consumer price index, $400 in the year 1965 is equivalent in purchasing power to $3,108.39 in 2017).

I had money, women (sorry gals that was the day and I hope the women were as happy about it as I was), and the musicians I heard on records treated me as an equal peer. In other words, I liked it.

Later we went on to be the opening act for quite a few others like The Four Seasons and eventually for many of the Motown acts when they were in their prime.

Then one day, due to talks about money (the record company didn't want to pay, and they wanted to take recording, distribution, and promotion out of our $0.02/record royalties) the bottom fell out, the band broke up, and I went back to playing night clubs for about $100/week ($677 in 2017 dollars). Still better than a day job, but not as good as what it was before.

Regrets? None. I was a child and couldn't have negotiated with Motown any better, we had the great times, and experienced more of a taste of fame than most other musicians.

Still if we did the record thing, even though we wouldn't have made money on the recording, it would have been great on my resume.

Now I'm past retirement age, still gigging, and the thrill isn't gone. I'm leading a charmed life.

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Bob "Notes" Norton smile Norton Music
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