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| He wrote songs for the talent on top of this... |
The Hit
“Keep on Dancing,” a garage-inspired tune with a “recorded-in-a-box” sound with a notable structure: “The second half of the song, after the false fade, beginning with Wall's drum fill, is the same as the first.” There’s more than one way to get to two minutes fifty…
Inspired by what they’d heard from the UK, The Gentrys wanted to record more songs with that sound. They recorded “Keep on Dancing” for a local label – Youngstown Records, I think – but, sadly, when MGM signed them to sell that hit and whatever came after it, they connected them to the wrong producer. At least that’s how guitarist/lead singer, Larry Strawberry, saw it and that name…a blessing, I tell you.
The Rest of the Story
The Gentrys formed as a group of friends at Memphis, Tennessee’s Treadwell High. To go through the rest of the members, they were: Pat Neal on bass guitar, Larry Butler on keyboards, the drummer Larry Wall (and later Rob Straube), Bobby Fisher on sax and keyboards, Jimmy Johnson on trumpet and, finally, Bruce Bowles and Jimmy Hart as back-up vocals…and hold onto the last name in that list.
They started the band as juniors and, to put some meat on what Strawberry called “our little rise to fame,” they went from playing dances and killing every Battle of the Bands they came across, to getting Youngstown to put out the single “Sometimes,” to steadily touring the mid-South (with chaperones! rock 'n' roll, MFs!), to doing a (possible dodgy) triple on the Ted Mack Amateur Hour, to recording “Keep on Dancing,” to playing on shows like Hullabaloo Shindig! and Where the Action Is (i.e., shows featuring rockers for the teenyboppers). MGM called somewhere in there and, next thing you know they’re touring on Dick Clark caravan tours and playing with The Beach Boys (damn!) and Sonny and Cher (huh).
To skip to the end, after doing the math on what Dick Clark paid and seeing the solid support from family members and girlfriends get a little more complicated, the band’s members played out their careers on, as Strawberry named it, “the red-dirt circuit.” They made, like, 1.5 to four times per show doing that than what Dick Clark paid them, but they also lost the national exposure.
“Keep on Dancing,” a garage-inspired tune with a “recorded-in-a-box” sound with a notable structure: “The second half of the song, after the false fade, beginning with Wall's drum fill, is the same as the first.” There’s more than one way to get to two minutes fifty…
Inspired by what they’d heard from the UK, The Gentrys wanted to record more songs with that sound. They recorded “Keep on Dancing” for a local label – Youngstown Records, I think – but, sadly, when MGM signed them to sell that hit and whatever came after it, they connected them to the wrong producer. At least that’s how guitarist/lead singer, Larry Strawberry, saw it and that name…a blessing, I tell you.
The Rest of the Story
The Gentrys formed as a group of friends at Memphis, Tennessee’s Treadwell High. To go through the rest of the members, they were: Pat Neal on bass guitar, Larry Butler on keyboards, the drummer Larry Wall (and later Rob Straube), Bobby Fisher on sax and keyboards, Jimmy Johnson on trumpet and, finally, Bruce Bowles and Jimmy Hart as back-up vocals…and hold onto the last name in that list.
They started the band as juniors and, to put some meat on what Strawberry called “our little rise to fame,” they went from playing dances and killing every Battle of the Bands they came across, to getting Youngstown to put out the single “Sometimes,” to steadily touring the mid-South (with chaperones! rock 'n' roll, MFs!), to doing a (possible dodgy) triple on the Ted Mack Amateur Hour, to recording “Keep on Dancing,” to playing on shows like Hullabaloo Shindig! and Where the Action Is (i.e., shows featuring rockers for the teenyboppers). MGM called somewhere in there and, next thing you know they’re touring on Dick Clark caravan tours and playing with The Beach Boys (damn!) and Sonny and Cher (huh).
To skip to the end, after doing the math on what Dick Clark paid and seeing the solid support from family members and girlfriends get a little more complicated, the band’s members played out their careers on, as Strawberry named it, “the red-dirt circuit.” They made, like, 1.5 to four times per show doing that than what Dick Clark paid them, but they also lost the national exposure.
The band put out “two albums,” near as I can tell – the one MGM built around “Keep on Dancing” and 1970’s The Gentry. I wouldn’t recommend either of them for anything other than idle curiosity. The fact that their hit was the same short song played twice, it makes you wonder how much the “wrong producer” mattered (his name, by the way: Chips Moman; good names in this episode). I say this with the due humility of someone who has never written even one song, but I also can’t say I found anything I like in their other material, never mind anything worth sharing or memorable. No judgment if you hear this and love ‘em, power to you. In the end, they stuffed Keep on Dancing with a couple covers (e.g., The Contours, “Do You Love Me”; yes, probably bad producer), but anyone familiar enough with mid-60s pop rock won’t hear anything they haven’t already in the rest. It’s when you listen to The Gentry that comes off as a band that chased its time instead of guiding it.
Whatever I think of them, I want to give The Gentrys’ music the last word…by sharing the songs that I think represent them fairly well, and/or that I like (it’s all the former in this case!). AT ANY RATE, beyond the songs already linked to above, I’d call these other songs from The Gentrys a fair taste of them:
“Everybody to Their Own Kick”
“Brown Paper Sick” (a special hit, apparently; my personal fave too)
“Don’t Send Me No Flowers”
Moving on to their 1970 collage of...let's call 'em homages:
“Help Me” (The Stones)
“Cinnamon Girl” (going with Cream/The Byrds; also, Neil Young!)
“I Need Love” (Hendrix, probably; maybe hanging with The Doors)
“He’ll Never Love You” (don’t know, but I hate it)
To loop back to the name I left hanging up above, Jimmy Hart – yes, that is none other than the megaphone-wielding, 80s cliché, the professional wrestling manager subtitled the “Mouth of the South.” Hart stumbled into professional wrestling management through another Treadwell High connection, Jerry “The King” Lawler, who somehow became his enemy…and, first, I say this as I admire the hell out of the athleticism involved, and second with some real respect for its sense of theater, but I’m not built for any sport where an external narrative matters as much as what happens in the ring. This isn’t anti-sports nerd snobbery, either - I watch stupid amounts of soccer – but I can’t commit to sitting through both teams doing theater on top of the, y'know, required viewing.
Regardless, Hart killed in his second act. He’s an icon in that world, he’s managed legends of the semi-surreal theater/sport of professional wrestling and, he still has opportunities in it, and that’s just good stuff. That’s a fun interview – and twice as fun, probably, for any pro wrestling fans. Oh, and he name-drops The Gentrys all over it. He’s still proud of that, but I liked Strawberry’s take on his experience too:
“I'm still friends with every one of those guys. I probably don't have any more in common with them than I did then.”
A couple of their interviews/reviews I read mentioned them hitching a trailer to a car they’d bought for touring. I think it was Bonneville, or something like that, but, even if I fucked up on the make/model of the car, it was the romance of having it and that trailer hitched to it and the red-dirt circuit ahead of them that seems to stick with them - or Strawberry, at least. Seems worth it. And it’s not like those songs will ruin anyone’s day. Give 'em a shot, if you haven't. What the hell?
Signing off…
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