Well, cats and kitties, I do believe I have found a recording of the first official gathering of “T. Scot Bottom & the Rockabilly Funhouse” line-up, which came to made up of Mark Houseal on keyboards, Tom Drew on drums, and Todd (last name currently lost to the annals of history) on bass. Listening to this recording, maybe that’s for the best. Ha Ha Ha, Todd--just kidding. You turned into a fine bass man. I hope you read this someday.
In an earlier blog entry, I mentioned that when Scot and I returned the U.S. in 1981 after a six month art pilgrimage across Europe, Scot began warming up to the idea of putting a Rockabilly band together. When family considerations brew a big cup of tea, we decided to hang out in Iowa and see if we could fall in, family-wise for a while.
Scot bought this toy drum set for me (one of the most romantic gifts he ever gave me). See the earlier blog entry about drumming up the band. Well, we all got together one fine day at our little barn house on ‘G’ Street. We didn’t know each other. This was kind of an ice breaker. Beer was consumed. Instruments were woefully screwed out of tune. Strangers got into ‘it’—together. What is remarkable is that in about a week, maybe ten days later, the band took the stage at the Rosebud, the largest venue in Iowa City at the time--complete with a grand piano on stage and disco lights (this was 1980)--and rocked the Casbah. Another remarkable feature of the evening was the dime beers. Do the math!
On the tape, we mostly hear Scot. How the ensemble started out on such a horrible note, is hard to imagine. Anyway, because the kazoo knows no keys, the whole thing progresses. It turns into a tribute to many a beer drinking moment and closes with the familiar to some chant “Sha-hah-heh.” I’d like to dedicate this song to a dear friend of Scot’s named Kerry Moore, who comes mind for no particular reason at this time.
The drawing is an ‘Art by the Ream’ piece—ball-point pen on buff typing paper, done a.d. (after diagnosis) in 2005.
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