Philly Style

By Jack Coll

     Thanksgiving seems to be a time when local bands really thrive, the club scene throughout the city and surrounding areas are hopping with holiday get-to-gethers, reunions, and just good old spirits.  Some of these bands are cover bands, and really sound good.  (A cover band is a band that covers other artists songs, like playing Beatles or Springsteen.)  Most of these bands are made up with some very talented musicians and many of these bands are playing original material.

     On the eve of Thanksgiving my mind drifted off and I started thinking about a few of the locally rooted bands that I have enjoyed over the years, some you heard of, perhaps a few you never heard of.  There was this guy they called “The Human Percolator,” they dubbed his music “blue-eyed soul,” much like the Righteous Brothers.  Billy Harner was a guy born in Camden and raised in Philly.  Billy bounced around with a few different Philly record labels in the mid 1960’s before recording a song called “Sally’s Sayin’ Somethin’.”  “Sally” was a regional hit in Philadelphia, New York and Los Angeles in the summer of 1967 but never hit the National charts.  By 1970 Billy got out of the music business, bounced around a bit before opening up a barbershop in Camden N.J. Billy resurfaced for a short period with the oldies circuit in the 1990’s, and even showed up in Conshohocken on a couple of occasions.

     There was this Philly band who surfaced in the mid 1960’s called “The Kit Kats.”  I remember listening to these guys on the radio, (of course it was “WIBG,” or “WFIL,”) and they had a sound that was unbelievable.  They had this song called “That’s The Way” and if you closed your eyes you didn’t know if it was the Four Seasons, the Beach Boys, The Happenings, or The Tokens, man it really sounded good.  They followed it up with “Let’s Get Lost On A Country Road,” why this song wasn’t a number one hit nationally I never know.  The high harmonies displayed in this song make the hairs on my arm stand up.  Somewhere in the middle of this song it goes “Just think all the sights we’ll see, if you will go with me, it’ll just be you and me tonight.” Then these guys break out into this heavenly sound, I only remember two of the guys named Kit and Karl, but man did they have a sound.  The band later changed their name to something like New Hope and scored another minor hit with “Won’t Find Better Than Me,” but by the early 1970’s they were gone.  The Kit Kats Philly sound gave us some really nice music and provided me with a few good memories.

     One of the more successful Philly bands was, and is Marah. The core members of the band are Conshohocken natives Dave and Serge Bielanko.  Back in their Conshohocken days Dave and Serge played with guys like Kevin Duda and John DiPetro in the late 1980’s and I think early 1990’s.  When Dave formed the group Marah  Danny Metz and Ronnie Vance, along with Serge laid down the tracks for the first two albums “Let’s Cut The Crap & Hook Up Later Tonight,” which I consider some of their best work, and “Kids In Philly.”  As I recall their first two albums were recorded in South Philly above an auto repair shop called Frank’s Auto Body.  I got an invite to visit their studio and listen to the first album “Lets Cut The Crap”  long before it was released and I remember sitting cross legged on the floor listening in amazement, this was one of the better bodies of work that I’ve ever heard.

     The opening song is called “Fever,” that song alone sells you on the album, the band, and the sound.  A song on the album titled “Rain Delay” I found refreshing, the band injecting their love of baseball, when the song opens a very familiar voice says “Good Evening Ladies and Gentleman,” it’s the voice of the late, great Harry Kalas.  Since their first album “Let’s Cut The Crap” released in 1998, Marah, with different line-ups over the past 15 years have released about a dozen albums with a new album out called “Mountain Minstrelsy.”

     On Marah’s second album “Kid’s In Philly” there’s a number of local flavored songs including “Christian Street,” and “Point Breeze.”  The song “Faraway You” will have your foot tappin and your hand slappin’, it’s  a very catchy tune.  “Kids In Philly” also has a great song called “Round Eye Blues” the song depicts the fears and truth about the Viet Nam war.  The song opens with the lines “Last night I closed my eyes & watched the tracers fly, thru the jungle trees like fireflies on a windy night.”  If you listen to the song, it’s a very chilling tale.

     Dave and Serge have recorded music in studios around the world, and have recorded and played with some very influential musicians including Steve Earle and Bruce Springsteen.  A couple of their later albums have been very solid works of art in the music world including “Angles of Destruction,” and “Life is a Problem.”  While I haven’t listened to their latest release yet “Mountain Minstrelsy” I’m looking forward to it and will take time over the holidays to do so.

     Before closing out a little bit of my favorite Philly sound I have to mention my all-time favorite Marah song called “Formula, Cola, Dollar Draft,” following is a few of the opening lines of the song, but I really suggest you check out Marah, Conshy boys who made good, and over the years have produced some pretty damn good music.

Formula, Cola, Dollar Draft

There was a time when I didn’t talk

I’d look away or I’d shrug it off

Tune it out or turn it off

Or say something short and soft

Out of school I took a J-O-B

Makin’ buttons in a factory

Thinking what does life got in for me?

And I didn’t wanna know

 

In a city full of double deals

My boss would yawn and roll back on his heels

Like anyone could cop a feel of Lady Luck         

     Over the years there have been thousands of local bands make good, a few of them rise to the top of their profession, the Soul Survivors, The Trampps, The Hooters, Hall and Oates, Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes, and Marah.  If you purchase a Marah CD you’ll like them, if you were to see the band live in concert, you’ll love them.  I first saw Marah live at J. C. Dobbs  at Third and South Street.  I’ve since seen them at the TLA on South Street with Steve Earle, I’ve seen them at World Café’ Live and traveled to Asbury Park New Jersey to see them play the Stone Pony.  That night at the Stone Pony Marah was on stage when Bruce Springsteen walked in, stood not far from Donna, Marian Bielanko, Dave and Serge’s mother and I, and then joined Marah on stage just before midnight.  As Tom Petty once said, “It’s obvious to me that Bruce has nothing to do after the show because he just keeps playing.”  That quote was never truer on this night as Bruce and the band didn’t leave the stage if I remember correctly until after 3:30 AM.  As the sun rose, we had a three and a half hour drive ahead of us, it was a beautiful night.

  Answer to Last Week’s Trivia Questions

 #1  A group by the name of LOBO recorded and performed the song “Me and You and A Dog Named Boo.”

 #2  Jackson Browne had two songs reach the top ten Billboard Hits Chart, “Running on Empty” wasn’t one of them.  “Somebody’s Baby” reached Number 7, while “Doctor My Eyes” reached number 8.  “Running on Empty” did make it to number 11.

 #3  The 1970’s group Orleans had two smash hits, “Still The One” went to number 5, and “Dance With Me” hit number 6 on the charts.

This Week’s Trivia

 #1   We mentioned Bruce Springsteen, which of the following songs was not a Top Ten Billboards Hit, WAS NOT, “Born To Run,” “Cover Me,” “My Hometown,” “Born In The USA,” “Glory Days,” or “I’m on Fire.”

 #2  We mentioned the Philly group Soul Survivors, they had two songs hit the Billboard charts in the late 1960’s, can you name one of their songs?

 #3   We also mentioned Harold Melvin and The Blue Notes, throughout their hit making years, the early to mid 1970’s, who was their lead singer?  I’ll give you a hint, it wasn’t Harold Melvin.