Bill & Larry's Revenge....
The Hangtown, Volcano and Whiskey Flats Resistance Band
Woody Duke and his Rhythm Riders
Quack and the Pneumatic Ducks -- Mach 7 -- Cinnimon
Haze -- Membrane
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Larry Minton and Bill Lawrence were founding members
of the "Pneumatic Ducks" and their successor bands. After they both
had left Cinnimon Haze (Larry in early 1968 while it was still Mach
7, and Bill in late 68 or early 1969), they organized The Hangtown,
Volcano and Whiskey Flats Resistance Band. This group later (1972)
morphed into Woody Duke and his Rhythm Riders. This page is
dedicated to their story.
Band members and friends! Please mail me any corrections, additions,
objections, taunts or kudos.
-- Chip Chapin. |
 Visitors
since July 3, 2000 |
Updated July 22, 2000
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| New! Now you can hear and sing along to the MIDI
arrangement of Larry's magnum opus, Cruisin'
In My Mustang. Just click. |
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Hangtown, Volcano and Whiskey Flats Resistance Band
(1970 - 1972)
Larry Minton: After becoming the Pete Best of Cinnimon Haze, I played
for a short time with Rudy's Band; about three practices, with Rudy on
drums and vocals (he was a very good singer) David Graciano on lead guitar,
and Bobby Magana on bass. We did things like "Expressway" and "Groovin'";
I tried to get them interested in "Sunshine of your Love" and "For What
it's Worth" but the gulf in taste was too wide and that fizzled out.
I don't remember the circumstances of Bill's departure from Cinnimon Haze;
it may be that he was getting more into Poco and Neil Young and not the
Doors-Iron Butterfly type groove Membrane wound up in. I do remember
pissing him off royally one day by calling him and Brad [Brewer] "Country
Bill and his Dead Fish." We soon hooked up and by sophomore year
at San Dieguito
[1969-70] found Jim Jack (kicked out of Charter
Oak High in Covina and exiled to his brother's in Del Mar - I thought it
was so cool to have a friend who was a REBEL) - and Steve Perl to form
The Hangtown, Volcano and Whiskey Flats Resistance Band, which name we
took off an old stagecoach at the Del Mar Fair. Our first gig was
at Oak Crest JH - we absolutely killed with our Creedence covers and long
jam on "Magic Bus." My favorite gig was a freebie - the "Festival
of Life" at San Dieguito Park in spring of senior year organized by the
APE crowd, that we tried to get Phil Ochs to play, but couldn't.
Did Membrane play that day? [yes. -- c.] I seem to recall that.
Larry: Hangtown lasted from 10th grade [1969-70] through the
first year of Palomar [1972]; Bill, JJ and I were in the Concert
Choir, because we knew our harmonies sucked. Bill left the band I
think midway through that year, and Carl joined, and we became Woody Duke
and his Rhythm Riders, after JJ's Dad's country swing band from the forties
- JJ has a great photo that we were going to use for the cover of our first
album. I don't think anybody has pix of the black and gold satin
Cowboy shirt, or the red white and blue pants that I wore (together!) to
play some late gigs in. We didn't work consistently until we hooked up
with John Cesena, an Encinitas barber who had managed Ray's Blue Band.
Hangtown, Volcano and Whiskey Flats Resistance Band
at "Festival of Life" in San Dieguito County Park, Spring 1971
images courtesy of Jim Jack.
(Cinnimon Haze also played that day, probably as Membrane) |
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(l) Larry Minton
(r) Bill Lawrence |
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Hangtown:
(l-r) Jim Jack,
Steve Perl,
Larry Minton,
Bill Lawrence |
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Mr. James Jack! |
Nancy: Do you remember that guy who lived next door to you (Brad
something?) who had the singing Chihuahua named Taco? Did he ever
get involved in the band?
Larry: Brad [Brewer] was involved initially in Hangtown, playing
3rd guitar. His musicianship was.... not up to the lofty standards
the rest of us maintained, shall we say.
Bill: Brad's dog Taco was definitely the most talented singer
in our circle. Unfortunately, as a Chihuahua, he did not have the
option of growing his hair long, so we couldn't let him in the band.
Larry: I do remember the dog; yes, it did sing, and much better than
Brad. His favorite band was "Bread" and he kept lobbying to do their
songs, which we resisted. (Maybe that was the "Resistance" part of the
name?) Nancy, I also remember your dog Cyrano, and his unspeakable activities
(you'd think a dog living in Monticello would be more refined.)
Bill: Our weirdest gig in the Hangtown days was being invited by
a guy who was a milkman to play at a party out in the hills near Valley
Center. We were met in downtown Escondido by two guys wearing combat
fatigues who led us through some winding roads to a huge estate in the
middle of nowhere. There was a small lake equipped with a water slide
(not bad on a milkman's income). For the attendees, the booze and
drugs were circulating freely, and a well lubricated party goer helped
himself to the mike and had a vocal style not unlike Janis Joplin.
I also recall that the check we received from the milkman bounced.
Woody Duke and His Rhythm Riders (1972 - 1974)
When Bill left Hangtown in 1972, he was replaced by old buddy Carl Geiberger,
who was now available due to the demise of Cinnimon Haze/Membrane.
To commemorate the event, or perhaps for other reasons lost to history,
the band changed its name to Woody Duke ? His Rhythm Riders, the
name of a real band of the 1940s in which Jim Jack's father had played.
"Woody Duke" lasted until 1974, when the departure of drummer Steve Perl
signalled the end of this group.
All the following images supplied by the kindness of Mr. Jim Jack.
Larry: [Hangtown] eventually morphed into Woody Duke and his
Rhythm Riders (on our business card - "You Pay, We Play") after [someone]
stole our amps [from Brad Brewer's garage], Bill left (Jenny was
our Yoko), and Carl joined about 1972 or so. Steve got mad at us
one day in late '74 and split, which was the effective end of the group.
I later played in a band at Palomar called "The Rats."
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The original
Woody Duke
and his
Rhythm Riders
1947
Guess which member is related to Jim Jack. |
The new
Woody Duke
and his
Rhythm Riders
1972 |
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Above: (l-r) Carl Geiberger, Jim Jack, Steve Perl, Larry Minton
Below: (l-r) Steve Perl, Jim Jack, Carl Geiberger, Larry Minton |
Both pix at the
American Legion Hall |
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Hangtown / Woody Duke Songlist
Larry Minton has compiled this annotated lifetime songlist for Hangtown
and Woody Duke. I'll beautify it some more when I get a chance --
chip.
Would You Go All the Way for the USA/Zappa/WD (too hard for us but
we did it anyway - couldn't dance to it)
Knifeedge/ELP/WD (ditto)
Dinah/Bing Crosby w/the Mills Brothers/WD (Carl and JJ scat-singing,
audiences baffled, but I loved it)
Ob-La-Di/Beatles/WD (this got huge response in performance, much
to our surprise)
Get Back/Beatles/WD (intricate, great piano and guitar licks, and
a real hoot to play)
Good Day Sunshine/Beatles/WD
Cruisin' in My Mustang/my
lone original/H & WD (Unfortunately, my brain has retained all the
lyrics, if wanted)
Chip: Cruisin' In My
Mustang is a surprisingly catchy song. I managed to remember
most of the lyrics, some incorrectly, for 30 years, just from hearing Larry
sing it a few times (I never played it). I sometimes sing it to my
children when they've been naughty (just kidding. That is, I really
do sing it to them, but they love it).
Click here for all the lyrics,
as supplied by Larry, plus MIDI arrangement by me.
Roadhouse Blues/Doors/WD (I never felt soulful enough to sing this very
well, but loved the guitar part. We should have done more Doors and maybe
did; I know we didn't do Light my Fire because it was a bit passe by 1972,
when WD formed, and because I could never get my
fingers quite around the guitar solo, and I didn't want to take
the chance that Kim, who played it very well, might ever hear me butcher
it.)
Rock Around the Clock/Bill Haley/H & WD (also good audience
response)
Hook, Line ? Sinker/Bill Haley/H (I think) and WD (JJ sang this
- he had a good rockabilly feel for this, and may have written something
called "Soda Shop Sally" but I'm fuzzy on that.)
Comin' into Los Angeles/Arlo Guthrie/H & WD (I think our only
overt drug song, and I made sure we never played it if my folks were around)
Black Satin Kid/John Sebastian/WD (a pretty hard rocker for him)
How Have You Been, My Darling Children/John Sebastian/H (an undanceable
slow ballad in 3, it was a real loser in performance, and we dumped it
quickly)
Brown Sugar/Stones/WD (Steve sang this - he had that great gritty
sound, and should have sung more. I loved the guitar part.)
Shake That Fat/JoJo Gunne/WD (I sang it, appropriately enough, but
I think I deliberately slurred the lyrics; it gave me a chance to play
slide guitar, which I did badly. We did another JoJo Gunne song but i can't
remember it - help?)
The Fake J Geils Song/Us/WD (Our manager, John Cesena, had a great
Altec Lansing PA, and he got us fairly consistent
work as well. He wanted us to do some J Geils Band stuff, which we
resisted, but finally made up a 12-bar blues and pretended it was one -
I don't know if we fooled him, and I don't think we ever did it in performance.)
Nobody Loves me but my Mother, and She Could be Jivin' too/BB King/WD
(we
worked on this briefly, but I was way too white and adolescent to sing
it)
Grand Junction/Poco/H (I LOVED playing double guitar stuff with
Bill, and we traded the choruses on this instrumental - he did Rusty Young,
slide stuff, and I did Jim Messina.)
Bluebird/Buffalo Springfield/H (see above - he always got to be
Neil Young, but I was content.)
Mr. Soul/Buffalo Springfield/H (more of the same - Bill also did
an uncanny vocal impression of NY. I know we did a lot more Buffalo Springfield
but I'm unsure of what we actually did and what we just worked on.)
Heart of Gold/Neil Young/WD (this came out after Bill left the band,
so I got to sing it, and we did the 3-part harmony really well. I also
played the harmonica part - used one of those neck harnesses and everything.
I was never any good at blues harmonica, though.)
Cinnamon Girl/Neil Young/H & WD (turn it UP!!! this sounded
better on our matching Tremoluxes, which had real nice natural distortion;
the Carvins we got after the Fenders were stolen from Brad's were too clean
although much louder.)
Everybody Knows This is Nowhere/Neil Young/H (too country for WD.)
Ohio/CSNY/H & WD (the protest anthem of a generation.)
Almost Cut My Hair/CSNY/H & WD (I hated this song, but after
we got kicked out of Up with People for wearing our hair too long, it was
obligatory.)
Proud Mary, Suzie Q, Green River, Born on the Bayou, and much other
CCR/H and WD as needed to fill out a set (Creedence was so easy, even
for us, that I'm not sure exactly which band did what)
Walk Away/James Gang/WD
Won't Get Fooled Again/the Who/WD (we didn't do it well but it was
fun anyway)
Magic Bus/the Who/H (I think we had tired of this by WD but it was
basically an excuse for a jam anyway so we may have trotted it out to use
for the rubber chicken/tahitian dancer extravaganza we closed our show
with toward the end - thanks, Barbara)
Gone Dead Train/Crazy Horse/H & WD (another 2 guitar lead thing
that lost effectiveness after Bill left. Crazy Horse reputedly hung
around at that pizza place in Encinitas near Singing Strings, so we went
there a lot, but never saw them. We must have done others by them but I
don't remember what.)
Jets Vs. the Gutter Cats/Leonard Bernstein-Alice Cooper/WD (Spike
Jones never murdered a classic more efficiently than we did on this. I
didn't even know West Side Story then - or Janacek's Sinfonietta, dismembered
by ELP to become Knifeedge.)
Goin' up the Country/Canned Heat/H & WD (I was a vocal ringer
for the whiny guy in Canned Heat on this, and I did the flute part on guitar,
harmonized for added value.)
Addenda
Neil Young - The Loner, Southern Man, Down by the River, Cowgirl in
the Sand, Sea of Madness (all HT)
The Band - The Weight/WD
Buffalo Springfield - Special Care/HT;
Santana - Evil Ways/HT. (I bought a Vox continental in the Hangtown
Days and played a few things, like that, on it. I even learned the solo
of Light my fire - played it better than I played the guitar solo - but
we never did it.)
Copyright (c) 2000, All Rights Reserved
Chip Chapin / cchapin AT cs.stanford.edu