I left home about that time to attend a small boys school. I was placed in a dorm room with a drummer from my home town. It was only a short while before a band was born. We found a bass man from Virginia, a guitarist from California and a singer from Alabama. At that time we were well equipped, I was playing my Farfisa through a Leslie cabinet. Our bass man had a sunburst Fender Jazz Bass. The drummer was sporting a set of red sparkle Ludwigs with Zildjians. Our lead guitarist, get this, had a Vox Super Beatle and played a cherry red ES335. Our lead singer had a ton o soul so we were good to go. The school was a bit run down, so we located a remote abandoned room and turned it into a practice hall. Rehearsals were easy and became frequent, for we never had to tear down until showtime. We got pretty good, pretty quick and became the house band for the school. One of the teachers there took an interest in us, so by year three he would drive us around regionally to perform at other schools.

Musically I had grown from the “Delinquents” coming from little rondos like Money and Louie Louie to now the old dance numbers like “I’ve been Hurt”, “Tighten Up”, “ Cold Sweat”  and other soul hits. However, we wanted to go with the new psychedelic sounds like Hendricks, Cream, Iron Butterfly and Vanilla Fudge to name a few. By year two we became more that way. playing the music, wearing Nehru jackets and changing sometimes between sets, At one regional performance we even had a light show. It was run by a guy with long white hair that wore a black cape swishing around in the shadows as he did his thing with the overheads and the Kaleidoscopic projector. In all the Realms were great, but no big shakes, just a bunch of high school kids having fun.

The big thing for me during the seventies, was hearing the new LP’s as they came out. CSNY, Led Zeppelin, Big Brother, Yes, Floyd, Joe Cocker. The list went on and on. It all seemed like crazy cool music and I wanted to be a part of it.

Today's Reality Note:  The lead guitarist and lead singer for the Realms have died. The bass player is today fighting cancer as I am. Please say a prayer for us.