PRAIRIE DUST, Chapter 8

An Ocean, A World, A Universe (MUSIC, part 5)

I Lose My Concert-Virginity

An older guy, my brother’s age, called out of the blue one day. “Hey Steve, do you want to go to see Three Dog Night with me?” I was in my junior year at high school.

Of COURSE.

Turned out he had an extra ticket- which as I think about it now probably meant some young lady had turned him down, or he lost his nerve and never asked…hmm…sounds familiar.

At any rate, it was my first true major rock concert, at the Levitt Arena on the Wichita State University campus.

It was used for basketball games and other sporting events, and had its seating in the round, which meant a good view, even in the nose-bleed section.

Sights and Smells

It took awhile for the arena to start filling up. Lots of long-haired guys, lots of ladies, lots of haze- people passing around doobies, wine flasks, whatever.

Doug and I sat there entranced, watching the spectacle. This was indeed far from the Mennonite stronghold of Hesston, Kansas.

And then the place went dark, one spotlight shone, and a commanding voice boomed out:

“Ladies and Gentlemen- one of the heaviest bands in America today: THREE DOG NIGHT!”

And I was hooked!

I loved the pre-concert music before the bands came on. I loved the energy being given and received between musicians and crowd. I loved the venues large and small. I loved people watching- an eye opener for a small town boy.

I loved the music, and watched the vocalists, the guitarists and keyboard player, the drummer and the bassist.

And I knew I wanted to get good enough to do some performing, and make money doing it.

Rebirth

Rebirth was a band composed of students from Eastern Mennonite College (now University).

They were touring Mennonite hotspots, and that same year played a concert in the Hesston High School auditorium.

Mennonite college students playing decent rock music decently well and looking good doing it!

It was a revelation- perhaps somehow I can combine my spiritual faith and my creativity into the kind of musical expression that grabs me by the throat.

Shades of Gray

Shades of Gray

No, not the porn-books disguised as some kind of fiction.

Shades of Gray were a band in which new student Jim Elliot (pictured on left with guitar) performed for one of the homecoming events that same year.

No, we couldn’t dance- not yet anyhow. Apparently it was still a sin- but later, after my cohort had graduated, high school dances became common.

Maybe God changed his/her mind?

Shades of Gray did a great variety of music, including some brass rock like Chicago and Blood Sweat and Tears.

I knew Jim only because he was a new student from a nearby town, and catnip for the ladies- good looking guy, charming.

I hadn’t realized he was a performing musician- and it was clear this band had been performing together before this event.

Sometimes New is Best

About that same time, I got to know another new guy who’d moved into town. Total music fanatic, loved Fender guitars and equipment- and had a lot of it, adored Paul McCartney and the Beatles.

Mel Strait.

He loaned me a guitar similar to the one pictured and a gizmo that attached to the guitar which made it fuzzed-out and nasty.

We formed my first rock band- Mel and me on guitar and vocals, Dale on drums, and I think it was Mike on bass guitar.

We did “Something” by the Beatles (of course), “Summertime Blues”, and even one of my tunes, a slow, bluesy lament about lost love, and it earned mocking howls from the ten or fifteen kids who showed up at the Fox Theater in Newton, where we had our first and only gig.

I got a taste of the hard work of practicing and refining tunes, getting the rehearsals set up, using equipment that was still pretty new to me- like amplifiers, cords, microphones and microphone stands, setting up and tearing down the equipment- all that, and maybe making $20 if we were lucky.

But all of that was incidental- I thought, Finally, I’m on my way!

Lake Junaluska Retreat and Conference Center

1,500 Mennonite Youth

Every so often the Mennonite Church would plan and host a festival for Mennonite youth from the USA and Canada.

In the summer of 1970 (I was 16), it was held at Lake Junaluska Retreat & Conference Center in North Carolina mountains.

A Greyhound bus was chartered and maybe 45 or 50 local students boarded, with great excitement.

There were girls! I’d never been to North Carolina! A bus ride!

The place was idyllic, simply stunning, set in the Blue Ridge and Great Smoky mountains and with that huge lake nearby.

I’d brought my trusty acoustic guitar along on that long bus trip, and after we arrived, some of us guys got settled in our cabin, and I started strumming.

Somehow I fell in with some musicians from Lawndale Mennonite Church in Chicago, Rick and Tony Ventura, and another guy, all of whom were talented, and were singing what sounded to me like a spot-on rendition of the Crosby, Stills & Nash hit, “Judy Blue Eyes”- the entire song a clinic in acoustic guitar-playing, stitching together different pieces to create a knockout whole song, and harmonizing voices.

These guys from Chicago had the guitars covered, and the vocals too. They invited me to join- on the bass guitar.

I’d played some bass guitar before, mostly rudimentary stuff with Transient Souls, for example.

But this was another level.

Some of the Mennonite hordes at the Convention

Died and Went to Heaven?

We worked it through over and over. I was urged to sing on certain sections.

And then it happened:

We were invited to perform Judy Blue Eyes for the entire convention-attenders.

Rick and Tony were cool and professional. It went off with no major goofs, and it was dynamite!

I thought maybe I had indeed died and gone to heaven- it felt close to it right then!

There’s just nothing like playing and performing, and having appreciative listeners, and you never know who might be listening.

And what kinds of opportunities may present themselves…

Much More to Come: For now, I’m Mose Lee Gropin’, AKA Steve Conrad.