If you know anything at all about organizing and running a small rock and roll band back in the early sixties, then you know it was pretty common knowledge that most bands couldn’t carry a ‘lead singer’ who didn’t play an instrument. The pay a band got was so low you just couldn’t afford it if anyone was gonna make a buck or two. And if the instrument you played was an accordion, well then you were better off signing up for the priesthood. And my greatest desire at the time was to be a lead singer in a rock & roll group. Of course that was most everyone else’s desire too!
In 1964 I left my air base in Oklahoma after getting orders for a base in Okinawa, Japan. It was my turn to contribute to the Vietnam conflict by supporting the KC-135’s and the B-52’s that were killing off all the monkeys in the jungles of Vietnam.
After a two or three months of being there in Okinawa, one day I was talking to a couple of guys in my barracks who were musicians thinking about starting a small band. One played lead guitar and the other bass. Now it was about this time that ‘organs’ were making themselves known in some of the more mainstream music groups. Especially groups like the Animals. As we were talking and I was sitting there expressing my frustrated desires to play in a band, the bass guitar player, whose name was Paul, noted to me that an organ was not all that different from an accordion in one sense. He asked, “Do you know your chords? You can chord can’t you?” A day or so later we had gone down to the local town there outside of the base and I purchased a small portable electronic organ for a little over $100 bucks as I recall. In those days electronic merchandise was extremely cheap in Japan and surrounding countries. Well, that was it…..I was on my way!
After much brainstorming over who knows how many beers, we finally landed on a name for the band. It was to be “The Incites”! Within weeks we were playing at local clubs downtown. I was in hog-heaven and having a blast while realizing a life-long dream at that point. The photo below of our group is one of my most cherished photos, needless to say. I’m there on the right with my little organ (no pun intended) and that’s Paul second from the left. I should mention that there really was no lead singer because we all sang – so we shared that responsibility.
We ended up playing the longest at a club called “The Blue Light”. Don’t have a clue why I can remember that. Thank God it wasn’t called “The Red Light”. Actually had a photo taken by someone at that club – see below….
At some point later on when a couple of the guys had been transferred back to the States I started my own group named “The Deep Six” inferring to the old “6-feet below” phrase. Am clueless at this point on where that name came from. And then it came my time to come home to the States!
My orders received in early 1966 sent me to an air base near Macon, Georgia where I eventually put together my own small three-piece band to include guitar, drums and organ. There I assumed the lead singer role in the small group. I also named the group “The Incites” in memory of the group that started it all for me. We played mostly on the air base at the Non-Commissioned Officers Club. At one point we had a gig at the Disabled Veterans Club but that only lasted a month or so. Three old photos from those days follow…..
Then in November of 1968 I left the Air Force and moved to Atlanta where I worked a brief time for a small electronics firm. Early in 1969 after a serious attack of “homesickness”, I packed up and headed for home here in Arkansas. Little did I know it but my beloved days as a band member were to be over and I would choose a new path to follow with regard to my music endeavors.
