Til The Cows Come Home: Rock 'n' Roll Nebraska
By Bart Becker 1985
5. The Viscounts to Zager and Evans
In 1963 the Viscounts and the Chandells merged and named themselves the Coachmen. When bands got bored with trying to wring inspiration out of "Louie Louie" they turned to writing tunes themselves and the Coachmen were no different. Their first recording success came with "Mr. Moon which hit big in 1965, selling 13,000 copies for MCM Records in Lincoln and Omaha, then going national (sort of) on the Bear label. Produced by Scott Cameron, it peaked at No. 3 in San Francisco, No. 8 in Minneapolis and No. 104 on the Billboard national charts. The song was written by 123-year-old Red Freeman who left to join the Mods and was replaced by vocalist Frank Elia. Freeman was known for his below-the-shoulder length red hair, extremely long for that time and place. A later Coachmen release, "Tyme Won't Change," made it to No. 95. Members of the Coachmen went on to other groups such as Professor Morrison's Lollipop, which made No. 96 on the national charts in 1968 with "You Got the Love" on the White Whale label.
The Dynamics out of Scottsbluff were the top western Nebraska band, featuring the vocal talents of future-Eagle Randy Meisner. A popular western venue was the Crescent Ballroom at Grant, the long night highways traveled by kids from all over the Panhandle and the southwest on their way to dances there.
Omaha's main teen club was Sandy's Escape, a mecca for eastern Nebraska kids, with bands playing on two levels. But Sandy's was by no means the only outlet for that loud teen music. Over the years, Omaha also claimed the Music Box, DJs, the Peppermint Cave at 16th and Howard, the Way Out, the Louie Louie, Out of Sight and the Side Door. "Seven Swings," an Omaha version of "Bandstand," was a popular Saturday afternoon show hosted by George Murphy beginning June 3, 1967 and the Coachmen had their own show for several months.
In Lincoln: Club A Go Go(what else?), Club Casino, High Chapparal, The Scene, The Market, Pemberly Inn, Saber Club (at 1126 P from 1964-66, it featured local and regional bands every Friday and Saturday) and the Royal Grove (booked local and national acts; the zenith was a Wayne Cochran and the CC Riders show in the late '60s), Robbie's Happy Corner at 1024 Grand, the Zoo Bar in the '70s.
Out in greater Nebraska, spots like Oscar's Palladium at Sargent drew teens like moths for miles across the Plains. Seneca, Kansas, on a major truck route before the Interstate system bypassed it, was a jumping vortex for kids from Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri who wanted to drink 3.2 beer and test their cars against all comers.
In the fall, indigo nimbus breezes fill the night. Black walnuts fill the lairs of anxious squirrels. The punt of faded footballs fills the air. Songs change to scarlet, burnt-orange and yellow, then shrivel and drift from their branches to fill the streets and front yards, where music lovers shuffle through them to the sound of crackling chords. A couple of months later, a chilling ice-rain spatters against the windowpane, the warm glimmer of the revolving turntable beckons. Time to go out and chop another cord of records to stoke the stereo. An amber brandy, faithful Spot curled up at the feet, hibernation is the clear course.
There's an attitude derived from the lay of the land, as well as the weather. On the Big Plains, says Bob Seger, "you can see storms coming from probably a hundred miles away, wondering if they'll swoop down on you or drift on by. The sun seems hotter, the cold seems sharper, the night seems deeper.
It's hard to imagine, in light of radio's decline in the '70s and '80s, but in the mid-'60s it was a vibrant and essential part of the teen music experience. An Omaha Sun teen poll in August, 1966, for instance, showed KOIL to be the overwhelming choice of discerning youth with KOIL deejay Todd Chase the top jock. Chicago's WLS was second, with KOMA in Oklahoma City mopping up the third spot.
Local groups could get regular airplay, too. In Lincoln alone, the KLMS Nifty Fifty shows chart action for Rich Clayton and the Rumbles' "Flip Side," the Eccentrics and Denny LaMarr and the Echoes as early as 1963 and '64. Nifty Fifty charts for 1967 are dotted with listings for local releases by the Flippers, the Coachmen, the Rumbles, Ltd., the Smoke Ring, the Mods and Alexander's Rocktime Band.
The leading Omaha group was the Fabulous Rumbles Ltd. (many groups attached immodest adjectives to their name; thus Omaha also had the Dynamic Impacts, Lincoln the Tremendous Thanes), acknowledged as the best at copying the Beatles, Hollies, Four Seasons, Beach Boys or whatever else was current. The Rumbles also recorded quite a few original tunes with some regional success. Their best-selling disc, in 1967, was a remake of the Frankie Laine hit, "Jezebel." It sold 85,000 copies.
Things were happening fast everywhere. By the middle of 1966 comedian Lenny Bruce was dead, John Lennon had said the Beatles were more popular than Jesus Christ and Bob Dylan's "Like A Rolling Stone" broke the pop recording four-minute length barrier with a meshing of medium and message in which the lengthy repetition itself became an incantatory litany.
A mid-60s Lincoln band, the Eccentrics, provided the meeting ground for one of the best one-shot groups in rock history. Denny Zager, Rick Evans, Denny Mills and Dave Trupp toured the Midwest and recorded several times. In 1966 one of their tunes, "Share Me" was beginning to move locally when a car wreck left Evans with both legs and an arm broken.
Zager dropped out for a brief stint with the DeVilles and when Evans left the Eccentrics the two got together to play background lounge music. In 1968 they traveled to Odessa, Texas to record an Evans song called "In The Year 2525." Dave Trupp was the drummer for the recording. "Let's give credit where it's due," Evans would say modestly 10 years later. "The rhythm and the basic tracks, all the good stuff, were Trupp's ideas." Originally released on the local Truth label, Zager and Evans' "2525" blasted off like a rocket ship. RCA Records picked it up and the record reached the No. 1 spot on Billboard's Hot 100 on July 12, 1969. It stayed on top for six weeks, while Neil Armstrong strolled on the moon, until the Rolling Stones' "Honky Tonk Women" dethroned it. "2525" went on to sell millions of copies worldwide but Zager and Evans never had another successful record. Denny Zager now teaches guitar lessons in Lincoln and declines to talk about Zager and Evans. Rick Evans performs as a one-man show in Lake Tahoe, continues to write songs and has plans for more recording.