Baby Boomers revel in ‘Rock of Ages’

Once, ‘Rock and Roll’ was the rallying cry of rambunctious youth. Now, it’s the sentimental reverie of new millennium, middle-age musicians and they are coming back to it by the thousands. ”We were just a bunch of kids in junior high school who wanted to have some fun,” laughed guitarist Steve Fisher.Fisher lost the color in his hair some years ago, but not his voice. He, drummer Dave Smothers and fellow guitarist Jim O’Brien handled vocals for their 5-man band, “The Rebels” back in the 1960’s. In July, 2007, Fisher, Smothers, O’Brien, and brothers Ron and Randy Spencer gathered in O’Brien’s Plymouth basement to reconstruct their old group and relive a bit of their youth.Jim Harms of Golden Valley’s, My Music Store, says The Rebels were one of many up and coming Twin Cities bands back in the day. ”Oh, there were hundreds. I remember a magazine article when I was just out of high school in Time Magazine, predicting that Minneapolis was gonna be the new Nashville. They said there were 400 working bands,” Harms remembers. Many Baby Boomers put down their electric guitars and their drum sticks while the Beatles were still together. Through the years, they may have danced to Disco. They may have “thrilled”, for awhile, to Michael Jackson. They may even have tried to get into “grunge”, but after 40 years, they picked up those instruments again to scratch an old musical itch. ”It’s amazing,” Owner Nate Westgor of Willie’s American Guitars marvels, “how many people played music seriously when they were young, got real jobs and moved on from there and now they’re coming back.” The boom in baby boomer bands strikes a major chord for Willie’s. The Saint Paul store walls are lined with colorful and expensive electric guitars. It may look like a music museum, but that exhibit has been ringing up the cash register. The value of vintage guitars is off the charts. Individual instruments sell for tens of thousands of dollars.Who is buying? Financially set and nostalgic baby boomers are not fretting over the price tags. Westgor says if they can’t buy new, “they’ll buy replicas of old ones.” He touches a guitar with a round black and white body. “This here is a replica of a model that John Lennon played when he was with the Beatles. Rickenbackers, right now, are on back order, 2-3 years. So, if you wanted to order one, new, today, it would be a 2 year wait for this model,” says Westgor. The Twin Cities have their share of these affluent old rock aficionados. Both Willie’s and My Music report substantial percentages of their business is now catering to fulfilling the rekindled desires of one-time teen rockers. Consider Lawyer Dan Bresnahan. He “suits up” during the work day, for civil and criminal defense from a high rise office in downtown Minneapolis. When the job is in recess, however, his attorney’s privilege is music. Bresnahan picked his way through adolescence with a couple of garage bands. Now, he has moved the music into the main house. ”I play in a couple of bands,” Bresnahan comments from a living room chair as he strums an Eric Clapton tune on an old Stratocaster. “And I’ve tried to expand what I play, so, I’m learning to play the bass. I play the bass in a band and I play keyboard in a band. I’m picking up drums, so I can try to be as versatile as I possibly can.” Bresnahan knows he is one of many resurrected musical baby boomers. His new band-mates come from many non-musical backgrounds. “Computer people, auto parts salesmen, high tech kind of engineering types,” he says.The same litany of livelihoods describes Nate Westgor’s clientele at Willie’s. (There are) “lots of doctors, lawyers, professional people, real estate people, people that are now in their baby boomers’ age. They’re getting near retirement, have made their money and they’re looking at other things. The kids are out of the house and there are other things to entertain themselves and music is a good way. It’s also, in the wintertime, an indoor sport,” says Bresnahan. Ron Elwood of Minneapolis realizes that most people might find his avocation a bit “off-beat.” It certainly puzzles his one-year-old Bichon, Elvis. The dog barks along to his master’s beat on the full drum set in the basement. Lawyer Elwood spends his days lobbying the legislature for low-income legal aid issues from his Saint Paul office. The Grateful Dead calendar above his desk, however, should give visitors a clue about the other rhythm in his life.At night, he doffs the suit and dons a “doo-rag” for an hour or so of practice on the skins. His musical career began before puberty. “Played with bands, a lot of garage bands back east, but actually I made my living during college playing in wedding bands,” Elwood says. The beat from those drums propelled him through law school. None of the “Rebels” chose the law as a profession, but like Elwood and Bresnahan, they have fallen back in love with the old music. ”This sounds exactly the way it did, 40 years ago,” comments Guitarist Randy Spencer during the Plymouth practice session. “Same sound, same personalities, same five, great guys.” Oddly, since they get along so well together, the men had little connection for many years although they lived and worked in close proximity.But it was a different tune four decades ago. The Rebels were one of the standouts in those 400 Twin Cities groups of the 1960’s. They were a big rock “cover” band in Crystal, duplicating the music of hit groups like the Beatles and Wilson Pickett. My Music Store owner Jim Harms remembers them well. “They were excellent. Yeah, back then, I think it wasn’t so much the musicianship of the player, but the outstanding vocals. You know, really good pipes and that makes for a good band,” says Harms.Those good pipes belonged to drummer Smothers, lead guitarist Fisher and rhythm guitarist O’Brien. Their voices have been deepened by passing time, but the talent is still evident. Smothers, in particular, has not lost much on lead vocals. Randy Spencer says all of the band members carry good memories of those long-ago, more innocent times. “When we were 14 or 15, we had so much band equipment, we actually went out and bought ourselves a van, but unfortunately, we had no driver’s license, so we had to have our folks drive the van or Dave’s older brother would drive the van.”Nowadays, they can all drive, of course. Keyboardist Ron Spencer more than the others. His car is his office as regional sales manager for a Connecticut-based corporate communications publisher. Most days, he drives to clients across Minnesota, the Dakotas and Western Wisconsin. For an old rocker, being on the road has a whole new meaning. Guitarist O’Brien owns a Plymouth auto body shop. Smothers works for a major Twin Cities builder and contractor. They all have “real” jobs, none of which involve or require music. The Rebels “surrendered” their local band celebrity to other interests while still in high school. Forty years after they last took off their matching homemade grey outfits in 1967, the Rebels came back together that summer for only the second time in four decades.The goal was just to have fun at a “Battle of the Bands” reunion show featuring other reconstituted ’60s groups. Fittingly, it took place at a club that once housed the Crystal K of C Hall, a frequent venue for all the groups. They came to find a time warp and to feel like teen rock stars one more time. It worked. The mixed-generation crowd of several hundred crowded the dance floor. Some shared the grey hair of the bands. Others held aloft infants as they bounced to the strong beats. For the Jim O’Brien and the Rebels, it was a fountain of youth.”Sometimes, when you’re playing, the goosebumps and the hairs stand on your arms and look out in the audience and you see these people just in love with the song and dancing around and you get caught up in it,” O’Brien says.Which, after all, is what the old ‘Rock and Roll’ was all about. The impact of the baby boomer musical renaissance goes far beyond playing. Live concert ticket sales by old groups like the Rolling Stones and The Who have been setting the pace in the industry for several years. Some groups, like Styx, have been motivated to go back into the studios to record new songs. 

By Allen Costantini, KARE 11 News