I had a chance to see Rotary Connection twice. The first time was Homecoming Weekend at Davidson College in 1967. I had a blind date from Converse College in Spartanburg, SC, for the weekend; our date was set up for me by my friend Dee, an old friend from home who was also a freshman at Converse.
A disaster. My date arrived by bus, and I realized that I’d forgotten her name. Dee had told me over the phone, but still — it took her about two minutes for her to realize that I didn’t know her name. She told me, I apologized, and we moved on.
We had sandwiches at a nearby cafe. Ten minutes later she realized I’d forgotten her name again.
After the Varsity football game we were invited to a frat party at the Kappa Alpha house on campus. I was being “rushed” by them (yes, racists. I didn’t know, honest, though the huge Confederate flag hanging over the front door should have tipped me off).
No alcohol, of course, since Davidson was a dry campus. But there was a ton of delicious green bean casserole to be had, so the two of us filled our plates and sat down to eat. A fraternity brother wandered over with his own date and introduced her to me; I’d have politely returned the gesture, but I’d forgotten my date's name again. Exasperated, she identified herself and told them that I’d already forgotten her name several times that day. Which was true.
That night Rotary Connection was opening for Chuck Jackson on the Davidson stage. Chuck had been a favorite of mine in high school; I’d even once taken out an ad in our high school newspaper that read, “Chuck Jackson STILL Doesn’t Want To Cry!” And he was great, of course; but Rotary Connection's first song was so fantastic that the entire audience gave them a standing ovation. It put my date and I in such a good mood that the rest of the evening was perfection.
After the show she and I attended a party our freshman class put together somewhere, and we drank beer and made out for an hour. Then the band came onstage (ha, there was no stage) — The Showmen! Their song “39-24-46” was a high school favorite of mine (Dee's too). The singer told us that the song was actually entitled “39-24-40 Shape,” but it was labeled wrong. The Showmen didn’t have much of a set — they sang it and “It Will Stand,” their other hit, twice.
We didn’t care. We were drunk. We danced and made out some more, then I walked her to the school's guest quarters. The next day I escorted her to the bus stop for her ride home. She’d had a great time, she said, despite the fact that I kept forgetting her name.
The next time I saw Rotary Connection was right after Thanksgiving 1969 at the Palm Beach Rock Festival. At some sort of racetrack. Tickets were $20 for all three days, so my friend Rick and I swam across a swamp to get inside. Rotary Connection played the second day, following Grand Funk Railroad. During the break after GFR's set, Minnie Riperton walked out onstage by herself, clearly stoned, turned on the mic, and said, “I want to thank everyone here for electing me queen!” The audience cheered, and she laughed and walked offstage.
Of course they were great. Everyone was fantastic that day — The Byrds, Jefferson Airplane, Johnny Winter, Janis Joplin. It was fucking freezing at night, there were bonfires everywhere. Vanilla Fudge played a set around midnight, then Janis and Johnny Winter jammed with them. It was crazy.
The Stones were scheduled to close the festival Sunday night. They flew in by helicopter, but wouldn’t go onstage because of the cold. There were only about 200 audience members left, but we were all chanting, “We want the Stones” repeatedly. Wavy Gravy was the MC and told the crowd that Terry Reid wanted to perform, though he wasn’t scheduled. That pissed us off even more. Finally, the Stones came out onstage and sang “Gimme Shelter”; immediately after Jagger told the crowd that that was all they could give us — Keith Richard’s fingers were numb from the cold.
I ran into Wavy Gravy at a party one night in Austin in the late 1980s, and we talked about the festival. He was still pissed off at the Stones — he said they’d sat backstage for hours before finally going onstage at 4am.
Chuck Jackson was the sole performer for “Mid-Winters,” another social weekend, in 1968. Sorry yet again. One of my best friends in school, who was a year ahead of me, was an enthusiastic fan of Chuck's and was allowed to pick him up at Douglas Airport and drive him to the campus.
I had a chance to see Rotary Connection twice. The first time was Homecoming Weekend at Davidson College in 1967. I had a blind date from Converse College in Spartanburg, SC, for the weekend; our date was set up for me by my friend Dee, an old friend from home who was also a freshman at Converse.
A disaster. My date arrived by bus, and I realized that I’d forgotten her name. Dee had told me over the phone, but still — it took her about two minutes for her to realize that I didn’t know her name. She told me, I apologized, and we moved on.
We had sandwiches at a nearby cafe. Ten minutes later she realized I’d forgotten her name again.
After the Varsity football game we were invited to a frat party at the Kappa Alpha house on campus. I was being “rushed” by them (yes, racists. I didn’t know, honest, though the huge Confederate flag hanging over the front door should have tipped me off).
No alcohol, of course, since Davidson was a dry campus. But there was a ton of delicious green bean casserole to be had, so the two of us filled our plates and sat down to eat. A fraternity brother wandered over with his own date and introduced her to me; I’d have politely returned the gesture, but I’d forgotten my date's name again. Exasperated, she identified herself and told them that I’d already forgotten her name several times that day. Which was true.
That night Rotary Connection was opening for Chuck Jackson on the Davidson stage. Chuck had been a favorite of mine in high school; I’d even once taken out an ad in our high school newspaper that read, “Chuck Jackson STILL Doesn’t Want To Cry!” And he was great, of course; but Rotary Connection's first song was so fantastic that the entire audience gave them a standing ovation. It put my date and I in such a good mood that the rest of the evening was perfection.
After the show she and I attended a party our freshman class put together somewhere, and we drank beer and made out for an hour. Then the band came onstage (ha, there was no stage) — The Showmen! Their song “39-24-46” was a high school favorite of mine (Dee's too). The singer told us that the song was actually entitled “39-24-40 Shape,” but it was labeled wrong. The Showmen didn’t have much of a set — they sang it and “It Will Stand,” their other hit, twice.
We didn’t care. We were drunk. We danced and made out some more, then I walked her to the school's guest quarters. The next day I escorted her to the bus stop for her ride home. She’d had a great time, she said, despite the fact that I kept forgetting her name.
The next time I saw Rotary Connection was right after Thanksgiving 1969 at the Palm Beach Rock Festival. At some sort of racetrack. Tickets were $20 for all three days, so my friend Rick and I swam across a swamp to get inside. Rotary Connection played the second day, following Grand Funk Railroad. During the break after GFR's set, Minnie Riperton walked out onstage by herself, clearly stoned, turned on the mic, and said, “I want to thank everyone here for electing me queen!” The audience cheered, and she laughed and walked offstage.
Of course they were great. Everyone was fantastic that day — The Byrds, Jefferson Airplane, Johnny Winter, Janis Joplin. It was fucking freezing at night, there were bonfires everywhere. Vanilla Fudge played a set around midnight, then Janis and Johnny Winter jammed with them. It was crazy.
The Stones were scheduled to close the festival Sunday night. They flew in by helicopter, but wouldn’t go onstage because of the cold. There were only about 200 audience members left, but we were all chanting, “We want the Stones” repeatedly. Wavy Gravy was the MC and told the crowd that Terry Reid wanted to perform, though he wasn’t scheduled. That pissed us off even more. Finally, the Stones came out onstage and sang “Gimme Shelter”; immediately after Jagger told the crowd that that was all they could give us — Keith Richard’s fingers were numb from the cold.
I ran into Wavy Gravy at a party one night in Austin in the late 1980s, and we talked about the festival. He was still pissed off at the Stones — he said they’d sat backstage for hours before finally going onstage at 4am.
Chuck Jackson was the sole performer for “Mid-Winters,” another social weekend, in 1968. Sorry yet again. One of my best friends in school, who was a year ahead of me, was an enthusiastic fan of Chuck's and was allowed to pick him up at Douglas Airport and drive him to the campus.
I made an error omg. Rotary Connection was the ONLY band performing during Homecoming 1967. Sor-reeeee.