The Threepenny Opera (a band name that I used off and on for several years)

Guy and I started singing folk music together. I also had met a young woman at the Hut, a bar in the front part of the Lorain Roller Rink on Route 6 out near Beaver Park. Her name was Jane (Janie) S., a friend of Ted A., whom I also met there. I was there with Linda L., the leader of the band that was playing there at the time, Lady and the Tramps. She was gorgeous, with fairly short black hair, and even with long fingernails, could play rings around any of the guitarists that played in the area. She used to pick me up in her T-Bird to go hear her band play. She was in her late twenties, a bit older than me. Dad was so jealous; you could see it in his eyes whenever she picked me up in that turquoise Thunderbird. But nothing romantic ever materialized, even though I’d have been up for it. I also became friends with their organ player, George H., who’s organ sounded like that in the Animals, and his voice was similar to Eric Burdon’s. This was the era of The Buffalo Springfield and ‘For What It’s Worth’…”Something happening here – What it is ain’t exactly clear – There’s a man with a gun over there – Telling me I got to beware…”, which I frequently played on the jukebox between their sets.

Linda’s dayjob was at Driscoll’s Music Store in Elyria. She sold me a Martin D35 Guitar there that I played for years. When she told me that she was the leader of her own band, Lady and the Tramps, I was eager to see them play. So she invited me to ride with her, since I was between cars at the time, and was using one of Dad’s whenever he saw fit to let me.

My car was totaled by a drunk guy who turned into me at an intersection in Lakewood. I was on my way to IDPI for my evening programming class. I rode the bus to Cleveland after that until I got another car, my ‘65 GTO. This account belongs just after the IDPI section.

Getting back to Janie. She was a singer and, for a while, sang with Guy and me as the Threepenny Opera, mostly Peter Paul and Mary type songs. She even looked a bit like Mary Travers. She introduced me to the music of Phil Oches and Buffy Saint Marie. And yes, I had a crush on her, but she was after George and only marginally interested in me. There’s an interesting story about the last time I saw her, but that’s much later in the narrative, several years out. Ted A. also sat in with us from time to time. He played a classical Goya guitar. When Guy was working in other bands and Janie was not available, Ted and I did a few gigs as a duo.

PS: I’ve already written a poem about this, which is linked below. Click on the heading ‘For What Its Worth – the background?’ to see it.

To be Continued

–LE’