FEATURED IN THIS ISSUE
1. THE PONY INTERVIEW WITH LANCE LARSON
2. THURSDAY NIGHTS AT THE STONE PONY: LADIES NIGHT DANCE PARTY
3. CALENDAR OF EVENTS
This Week at The Stone Pony: Stone Pony Anniversary Series with Soozie Tyrell, Lance Larson and April Smith (Saturday), The Break Contest Week 5 (Sunday), Black 47 (Friday)
Visit The Stone Pony on MySpace.com at: http://www.myspace.com/ponyrock
LANCE LARSON CELEBRATES THE STONE PONY'S ANNIVERSARY ON THE STAGE HE HELPED MAKE FAMOUS
He has been called the "most talented singer/songwriter that this area produced," and has performed with and befriended many of the greatest musicians, and most famous names, to ever come out of the rich New Jersey music community. Starting his career with a band called the Spartans in the 1960s, his early career mirrored the establishment of the storied Asbury Park music scene. Jon Bongiovi and the Wild Ones opened for him at the Fastlane and broke nationally after Lance's drummer, Tico Torres, decided to take a shot with Bon Jovi. Lance's most successful band, Lord Gunner Group, themselves broke out of the Asbury Park area to perform across the East Coast touted as the next big thing. His last CD, "To Make A Long Story Short," includes guest appearances by such luminaries as Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora, Billy Hector, Tommy LaBella, Tico Torres, David Bryan and Bobby Bandiera. And the guy with the hat; well, we'll tell that story later.
Lance returns to the legendary Stone Pony stage on Saturday evening, February 18, to help celebrate the club's anniversary, along with Soozie Tyrell and April Smith. While Larson's long, strange ride is just as storied and eventful as the Pony's itself, he has shared in some of its greatest moments, especially during his run as part of the Pony's house band Cold Blast and Steel.
Today, Larson is still active in the music business, and in the Asbury scene itself. He has several music publishing contacts that have resulted in the placement of his music in movies and television projects. He helped establish The Wonder Bar, just down the road from here, as another great live venue in Asbury Park. He continues to perform and write and, as his interview with the Newsletter will attest, is a wealth of wonderful stories about this area's musical legacy, and lessons to be learned by those who would follow in his path.
The Newsletter was very fortunate to catch up with Lance as he prepared for his latest return to the beaches of Ocean Avenue to talk about all of this and more. While we just barely touched upon his history and his music, we hope that you'll feel compelled to come down to Asbury Park and see, and hear, more of this charismatic and talented performer.
The Stone Pony: You’ll be performing at the Stone Pony on February 18 as part of our Anniversary Series. Can you share some of your earliest memories of the Stone Pony and the first time you performed at the club? Does it amaze you that the club is still alive and rocking these years later?
Lance Larson: During the early part of the '70s I had been performing solo at the Stone Pony as a singer/songwriter along with being soundman for the band Cahoots, which I later joined. Occasionally I would sit in with different bands. Butch Pielka, owner and manager of the Pony, suggested that we have a night where I would come out with a band. We decided on the band The Shots. Rather than have a coming out party with a band and a singer, which was the norm, we decided to add a different dimension to the act. So, off to New York we went to look for costumes; thus began “The Chicken Legs Review”. Each band member was a barnyard animal. The piano player, David Nunez, was an owl, guitar player, Billy Hector, was a cow, and bass guitarist, Steve Raun, saddled up as a horse. (Years later Steve played with me again in the Lord Gunner Group.) I forget the rest of the band right now, but I’m sure you get the idea. Now, take this motley crue of barnyard denizens and add yours truly as a chicken, complete with chicken head, very big body, feet made of rubber, and my skinny, leotard-covered legs and you have “The Chicken Legs Review”. Now, the head of this chicken costume had a beak that extended a couple of feet out from the papier-mâché head and my actual voice was coming out of the chicken’s neck. The whole apparatus was secured to my body by stuffing towels around my shoulders and neck to keep the head from moving around, never realizing we were cutting off any flow of fresh air. Well, we had come out and were doing a song called “Going Down”, the Jeff Beck version. Now, picture me throwing chicken feed, cracked corn, and sunflower seeds, which I had tied to my waist in paper bags, at the audience from the stage. At this point I realize I can’t hear any monitors, the microphone was inserted into the bird’s beak which was actually a foot above my head, and I’m screaming for monitors. As the show progressed I began to get real hot inside this feathered coffin I had allowed myself to be encased in, and with no fresh air I started to get real, real sick. I started getting paranoid and felt like I was suffocating. I was dying, I mean DYING on the stage of the Stone Pony in front of all those people. I’m down to my last seconds, trying to pull this chicken head off, but it’s stuck. I’m welded in this feathered bag wrapped in wet, steaming towels and then the lights go out and I hit the floor. Man, talk about nightmares; to this day I cringe when I think about it. During all of this the crowd is rolling, I mean, they think it's part of the show. I’m dying and everybody’s cracking up; what a way to go. Finally, some roadman started breaking into the head, thank God, and got me some air. They remove this huge chicken head and revealed the funniest part of this “act”; my tiny, pea-sized head, drenched in sweat, sticking out of this huge chicken body. The audience rolled and rolled. Welcome to rock and roll, Lance. I retired “The Chicken Legs Review” that night.
It doesn’t amaze me that the Pony is still rocking all these years later because, back then, there weren’t too many original music clubs that you could play at. Most clubs in this area only employed copy bands and clubs like the Pony gave original bands a place to perform and to this day that seems to have always been the format. Even today, with other clubs accepting original music, the Stone Pony is without a doubt the Granddaddy of that idea and has been successful because of that, and they deserve it. No doubt about it.
The Stone Pony: The Stone Pony, and the Asbury Park music scene in general, has developed quite a mythology over the years, and you were around most of the famous people and stories personally. Is there a big misconception about the history of the area, or a little known fact that often gets overlooked, that you think music fans should know?
LL: There are so many stories out there that have come out of this area, you could never hear all of them. And so did some of them get overlooked? Yeah, definitely, but I think that a lot of stories were giving credit when it was due. I really would like to hear more about the Sunshine Inn [and] the Student Prince, because that was where we all grew up, us including Bill Chinook, Bruce, myself, and the other bands from that area.
I mean, Asbury seemed to be the basic training camp. If you could make it you could probably be accepted anywhere. It was a tough audience, and I think people should be aware that the club The Alamo, which was on Kingsley between 2nd and 3rd Avenues, was where the Talking Heads rehearsed a lot. They played there a couple of times a week to pay for the space. That was cool! I mean stories like that are what people get a kick out of. I also remember Danny DeVito hanging out at the pizza stand next to the Wonderbar all the time in his red Camaro. All you could see was the top of his head above the door. Danny was out there all the time, on the circuit that is. Not only did the area draw musicians and entertainers, but also brought the “classics” (as I call them). These were the guys that came with the turf. They deserve a book all by themselves. I really believe that guys like Jack Nicholson and Danny DeVito got ideas just from hanging around here. Just watching and learning and concentrating on some of the classics that were around back then. One guy, in particular, Sarge. He would lead a parade around the circuit, raising his arms up and down, counting off and everything, every day. You could almost set your watch to it. There was also Tom Kazoo, who would play with all the bands at the Pony. This guy was 90-years-old, no teeth, and just as happy as he could be. As a matter of fact we - Cold Blast and Steel - took him on the road with us. People loved him everywhere we played.
The point I’m trying to make is: this area brought everyone together, There was not a night that you went out that you didn’t learn something or find a story to tell. How can you beat that!?
The Stone Pony: Do you have any idea of how often you’ve played the Pony stage over the years? What was it like during the period when you took over the Asbury Jukes’ two nights a week slot at the Pony, and how did playing such a tough schedule prepare you for the touring schedule and being on the road?
LL: I’ve been playing the Pony for over 25 years. But, going back to when we took over the Jukes' spot, which was every Thursday and Sunday, the band was named Cold Blast and Steel. Cold Blast started from a band called Cahoots and drafted John Luraschi, bass, Rick DeSarno, lead guitar, Steve Schrangne, drums, John Oser, vocals, Michael Scialfa - Patty Scialfa's brother - keyboards, Tony Amato, Hammond B3 organ, Earnest “Boom” Carter, percussion, Tom Lambrella, sax, Tony Pallagrosi - [Concerts East] promoter - trumpet, Peter Maur, trombone, and myself, guitar and vocals. We were playing seven nights a week: Wildwood-Playpen South five nights and two nights at the Pony, driving back and forth on the Parkway. That’s when we had gotten the Jukes' slots at the Pony. That’s when I wrote the beginning songs of the Lord Gunner Group. It was during that time that we formed Lord Gunner Group with Rick DeSarno, Ricki Den, Steve Raun [and] Tico Torres of Bon Jovi fame. Now, that was the band.
The Stone Pony: You’ve been a part of the local scene in the past few years as a co-owner of the Wonder Bar, down the road on Ocean Avenue. How did you become involved with that venue and what lessons have you learned in your years in the scene that you’ve brought to how the bar is operated?
LL: My girlfriend, Debbie DeLisa, and I had known the owner, George DeNardo. The place was up for grabs and we thought it was time to start putting together a place where we could have bands, dancers, and concerts. The only problem was that there was no liquor license, but we went ahead anyway. We served water, soda, coffee, hot dogs, etc. We were actually paying the rent and had it afloat when we were approached by AA to have dances and they did very well. Then we did concerts in which we were convinced by a Spanish promoter and they took off. See, the Spanish people are off on Sundays after nine p.m. and scheduling concerts then was very good. Eventually we did weddings and private parties. At this point we were doing bands and were approached by a very good friend of ours, Pat Schiavino. Pat has over 18 years experience booking clubs like Club Bene and brings in the real estate business. So, to make a long story short, we, along with Pat Fasano, building contractor and Pat S.’ partner, the club was purchased. Now with their building experience they began to make renovations and then brought in Carmine’s restaurant to do the food. We’ve recently hired a chef from New Orleans to help with the food as well. We now have an operation run by people with experience in every facet of the business. What started out as an idea, with hard work and partners that know the business, is a reality. Debbie and I couldn’t be happier. We’ve just started a Sunday Jazz brunch which runs every week from 11 am to 3 pm. It’s an all-you-can-eat brunch with top jazz acts. We just had Grammy-nominated The Reese Project and the Buddy Savino Quartet. It’s been a full house every week with nothing but happy customers. In the spring and summer months we will be doing indie bands. The club has come a long way in a very short time.
The most important lesson I’ve learned is to go with your gut feeling and I believe that applies in any business. I’m very, very fortunate because not only is Debbie one of the hardest-working people I know, I also have Pat's experience and friendship, along with Carmine's reputation in a city like Asbury Park, which is no doubt on its way back. All of these things combined can only succeed. I thank God to be surrounded by such a positive group of people. Man, tell me that ain’t the workings of a good song!
The Stone Pony: At the 2005 Asbury Music Awards in November, you were honored with the Jim McDonald Musician Lifetime Achievement award. How did it feel to be so honored and recognized by the local musicians after so many years?
LL: I was much honored. That was a real nice compliment. Man, there are a lot of people out there that deserved to be chosen and certainly made me feel that after all these years I did get noticed and that means a lot. Also, on top of everything else, Jimmy McDonald was a good friend of mine and I like to think that he’s in the afterlife getting a big kick out of this.
The Stone Pony: What do you feel is your place in the history of this area’s scene and do you feel positive about the future of live music in Asbury Park.
LL: I’ve been very fortunate to live and play all these years here in Asbury with some of the best musicians in the world. Some of them were successful and some of them not, but then again, what’s a success? I mean, it’s surely not monetary. So, what it comes down to is that I’m very thankful for being part of the history of Asbury and I know that being in a town where there are at least 10 venues still in operation within walking distance of each other, and with people rediscovering Asbury, the future of Asbury Park as an entertainment Mecca is very good.
The Stone Pony: Can you give us an idea of what your set will be like at your next Pony appearance? Are you playing material from the Lord Gunner days, newer songs that you’ve written, covers or other material from throughout your career? Do you feel that most of your early material holds up, or you still tend to rewrite that material or perform it differently?
LL: I do a lot of the older songs as far as original stuff. I mean, why fix what ain’t broken? Even with the copy songs, I try to keep them more of what I really like, sort of cult tunes, songs I feel I can give justice to.
The Stone Pony: Is it still exciting for you to perform on stage? Have you ever had stage fright or was it always easy for you to perform in front of people? Are there any pre-show rituals that you go through to get ready to go onstage?
LL: Yes, I love it, and that brings me to a story because nervousness does set in occasionally. I remember a time we were playing the Pony and I felt like I really had to push that night, so I jumped up on the light bar during a song and it gave way and fell into the audience, lights and all. I had cracked my head open on the corner of the stage and while I was waiting for the ambulance they had me in the back room. While I was laying there with my head wrapped up in towels, Bruce came in. I looked up and said, “Man, Bruce, why didn’t you come up and sit in with us?” Bruce looked at me and said, “No way, Lance, that was a tough act to follow.” You can’t beat nights like that.
The Stone Pony: Talk about your songwriting these days. Do you still write regularly and what are the differences in your creative process now compared to when you were starting out? Is the creative process more fun for you now, more of a challenge, or completely different from the way you’ve done things in the past?
LL: Yeah, I’m still writing of course. I was fortunate enough to get a year’s contract with Paramount Pictures. I did the music for the show "Hack," which was great. It’s still on Saturdays on Channel 2 (CBS) at nine p.m. I’m working with a couple of publishing companies and still getting scripts. But, besides that, I’m just having fun writing some new stuff for an upcoming CD to be released mid-summer. We started the tracks just two weeks ago in January.
The Stone Pony: Most of our readers probably aren’t aware that it’s your red hat in the iconic photo on Bruce Springsteen’s “Born In The U.S.A.” album cover. I’m sure you’ve told the story many times, but could you please share the story of that hat for our readers?
LL: No Problem. In the '80s my father had passed away and I was out to lunch for a few weeks. Now, Father's Day had just passed and him being gone only a week was tearing me apart. I was at the Stone Pony and Bruce came in and asked me to take a ride with him. We went out and while driving around Freehold viewing his old haunts we spoke about our fathers. Bruce was really concerned, I’ll never forget it. We went to his old house, then the High School, and just talked as friends. See, Bruce is really a guy who understands people’s feelings. You would never think this with all that he has going in his life, but believe me, he knew this was affecting me and he wanted to be there, I guess so I could have somebody to talk to. So, anyway, after a few hours we went back to my house. When he was leaving he said “Lance, that’s a nice hat.” See, I had this red hat on with a logo on it reading "Rumbas". Anyway, I could see he liked it and so I gave it to him. Bruce took it, shaking it in his hand, proceeding to put it on his head. After giving me a hug we looked at each other and parted ways.
Six months later I’m at Club Xanadu, 2nd Avenue and Kingsley, and Bruce comes in and comes up to me and said, “Lance, the hat. The hat is history.” I thought to myself, “What’s he talking about?” Then I remembered the red hat. He told me that every time I see that hat to think of my father. Not only was I confused as to what he was talking about, but being caught off guard, I didn’t know what to think. Next, on the T.V. over the bar was an announcement from MTV showing Bruce’s new album cover. Lo and behold, there he was standing there in a white t-shirt, jeans, looking over his shoulder the red hat on his head. "Born in the U.S.A." Bruce did that for me in honor of my Dad. Man, things like that just don’t happen. But then again, it did, because of a person who thought more of someone else’s feelings for their pop than he did for a commercial album cover. I don’t know much, but I know one thing, that’s a caring person. Thanks, Bruce. Rest in peace, Dad.
The Stone Pony: What are some of your career plans in the months ahead? Is there any possibility for new recordings or other musical projects that fans should watch out for? Where do you see yourself directing most of your attention in the coming year?
LL: Yeah, I’m working at Acorn Studios right now on my new CD, due out mid-summer. The last CD had a lot of guest stars and we sold that one out. So, we’ve ordered more, due to friends like Ba Vou and Band, Gary Tallentt, Buddy Cage, and Mary Morn. We’ll be down in Hollywood, Florida again at the end of March, at the Hard Rock Casino. And, we have a Pre-Going Party March 10 at the Wonder Bar. And, of course, back to the Pony. See you there!
Lance Larson's official website can be found at www.lancelarsonmusic.com. The official website of the Wonder Bar is located at www.thewonderbarnj.com.
THURSDAY NIGHTS: LADIES NIGHT DANCE PARTY
18 for girls, 21 for guys - Ladies 21+: Free admission all night!
To enter, ID a must! - Reduced admission for guys 21 & up w/ valid college ID
Dress Code: Dress to impress, no headgear, no baggies, no t-shirts, no
athletic wear, clean sneakers & clean Timbee's OK - Crazy contests at midnight with MC BJ
DJ John Farruggio - $1 Coors Drafts all night - Doors open at 10 pm
Ladies Night on MySpace: www.myspace.com/ponythursday
