My life in rock and roll

Larry's Substack ^ | 3/22/2026 | LS

[LS]

https://larrys.substack.com/p/a-short-musical-bio

Sometime in the late 1970s I abruptly became a history professor. Prior to that, I was a rocker who was "almost famous." Here is a little of my drumming bio, experiences, and influences.

[LS]

I saw Hendrix a second time at the PHX Coliseum. Vanilla Fudge opened and killed it. People were chanting for Fudge 10 min into Jimi’s set. He was totally drugged out that time and couldn’t tune his guitar. (”We tune because we care for your ears.”)

[LS]

Here’s your “Inna-Gadda-da-Vida” story. I met George “Shadow” Morton-—no musician, couldn’t play or sing, but was challenged to write a song so he wrote “Remember (Walkin’ in the Sand”) by the Shangri-las (big hit). When his challenger said he couldn’t do it twice, he wrote “Leader of the Pack.”

Anyway, he produced Vanilla Fudge and Iron Butterfly, and in his interview said that they just couldn’t get it right. He tried everything to loosen them up, weed, booze. Finally he told them that there was a problem with the board, and to rehearse the song all the way through. (He secretly turned on the tape). It was so good that when it came to the solos he gave them the “keep going” sign as if he hadn’t yet found the problem. They were great. When it was done, they said, “We’re ready to record now.” He said, “I got it. On to the next song.”

[LS]

And, according to all experts, came up with totally weird beats. Think “Tomorrow Never Comes.”

[going hot]

“Gotta be rock and roll music, if you wanna dance with me”

[plain talk]

“Vanilla Fudge opened and killed it.”

Vanilla Fudge is pretty much a forgotten band these days but had a huge influence on other bands and the music scene in general.

[Shoefus]

Listen to Joe Morello’s solo on Dave Brubeck live.

It’s Moby dick.

[FreedomPoster]

Off topic - I saw you got your old X account back, followed you there. Congrats on getting a repost from @DataRepublican! She’s great, and highly respected, as you know.

All - follow Larry here:

https://x.com/LarrySchweikart

[LS]

Yes. Out of nowhere. Thanks.

[LS]

Deep Purple said VF was their model, but VF said the Rascals were their model.

[LS]

Cha cha cha.

Odd they ended a rock song with cha cha cha

[aspasia]

I almost always liked good rock music. But not always.

My managing mother said if I didn't turn it down she would go deaf. As soon as she was gone we turned it up anyway and we did that again and again and again.

That was when I liked it. Before that, I played in fifth-grade string orchestra. And I bought my very first LP, Herbert von Karajan, Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. This one:

Although I was really in love with Beethoven's Fifth Piano Concerto (Solti/Ashkenazy) which I had copied on cassette from a public library loan.

I soon realized music styles clashed. To be good at one, you had to somehow sideline the other, in more ways than one. I knew this while Olivia Newton John's voice poured into my ear from a transistor radio with this tool:

I can still feel magic. I will need an exorcist.

Someday, maybe I'll conclude a final chapter for History of Music, from Hendrix to Hilary, not because it's already been written, but to see if I can show that freedom and style is not content neutral but expresses a general orientation. Sometimes downward, sometimes upward, but always moving and in motion.

As I heard someone say recently, "You may, but I may not."