6/30/07
PSPOT INTERVIEW WITH MAX ALLAN COLLINS (THE DAYBREAKERS/ROX/CRUSIN)
1-How did you guys get together?
I was very active in vocal music at Muscatine High School, where I graduated in '66. My father had been a high school music teacher and directed the national champion Elks choral group, the Chanters. I'd played trumpet in band, as well, and loved music. Bobby Darin was my obsession until the Beatles. I was completely in the thrall of the British Invasion, and I was envious of the various local bands that were cropping up -- the Rogues, the Roustabouts, and especially the XLs. A classmate, Jim Hoffmann, and I rounded up a handful of friends and started a band called the Barons (probably should have been spelled Barrens). I was going to be the bass player, but my uncle Mahlon Collins was a salesman with Gibson, and he knew I'd had some piano lessons and recommended I get a combo organ. Through him, I got a Farfisa. Initially I was an idiot and bought sheet music, till my cousin Kris Polvsen from Dekalb, Illinios, a garage band veteran, told me about C-F-G. And I've never looked back. The Barons imploded in a matter of weeks, and I went to a local music teacher, the guy who taught guitar to every kid in town, and asked him who was available. We had, I kid you not, around 30 bands in this town of 27,000. Most experience players were taken; so were most inexperienced players. So he directed me to some junior high kids. I was 18, and they were all 14. We started the Daybreakers, adding in Chuck Bunn, who was 19 and an experienced local garage band guy.
2-What other local Iowa bands did you perform with or know about (e.g. Tyde, GONN, We Who Are, Al's Untouchables)?
We knew dozens and dozens of bands. I saw and/or performed in concerts or "battles" with both versions of the Untouchables, and we were very tight with the XLs -- they were the big band in Eastern Iowa. I filled in for their organ player now and then, and their drummer played with us for six months, right after the XLs (then called Fire and Ice) disbanded. By the way, when the guitarists and key board players for the XLs were drafted into the army, Bruce Peters and I were asked to leave the Daybreakers and replace them -- a great honor, but we declined. Right at the beginning, fall 1966, we had a big break, winning a 30-band battle of the bands at the Col Ballroom in Davenport. We were up against some top bands, including show bands from Chicago. Everybody but us played "Under My Thumb." We played Paul Revere stuff, steps and all, and "Mr. Spaceman" and our own arrangement of "Summertime" with a Melodica solo. We were big on matching shirts at first, notably some gold sparkle shirts that would have blinded Liberace.
3-What was your most memorable performance? Best? Worst?
Most memorable was opening for the Rascals when our single "Psychedelic Siren" was out nationally. We used a crude electronic device that created the siren, and on the first concert, at Davenport's Masonic Temple in early '68, we were playing the song and I glanced over and all of the Rascals were in the wings, dancing around and loving the siren song, so to speak. Also memorable was a gig in Iowa City where we were one of several bands appearing with the Strawberry Alarm Clock. A band that was very popular that we disliked intensely, Weeping Water, closed their set with a limp "Crossroads" -- we followed them and opened with a killer version that guitarist Bruce Peters really tore up. Rivalry between bands was fierce in those days -- there were even fist fights. Worst experience was a Crusin' gig around '79 when Bruce Peters, our genius guitarist, had a mental breakdown on the way to the gig; he was known as an incredible showman, but that night he stood, catatonic, and sang and played brilliantly, but frozen. Paul Thomas and I jumped around like we had St. Vitus's Dance to distract the audience. Duiring the breaks we stood suicide watch with Bruce, and after the gig we took him to the psyche hospital in Iowa City. Those were the days.
4-What was the bands biggest musical influences?
The Beatles, obviously, but because of the Farfisa (and later Vox Supercontinental) that I played, we leaned toward Paul Revere, the Zombies, the Animals, the Kingsmen and other bands with keyboards. The band existed in various mutations for many years -- still does exist -- so during different periods we were under various spells -- we were among the first around here to do Doors, Hendrix and Deep Purple, for example. And the very first to do Vanilla Fudge, which was a speciality for some time.
5-What are the lyrics to "Psychedelic Siren"? LYRICS to "Psychedelic Siren"
I don't go in for crazy stuff, I don't pretend I'm hip
I don't smoke weeds for dreams, I never took a trip
Banana's just a fruit to me, the peel's thrown on the ground
But somethin's screaming deep in me, a nightmare kinda sound
CHORUS:
There's a psychedelic siren, wailin' in the night
Psychedelic siren, it's clean (clean) it's true (true) it's right
lead
CHORUS
There's a long haired girl I'm dancin' with, the lights flash red then blue
She smiles at me, I smile at her, I know she hears it, too
CHORUS
Scat out
I was the sole songwriter, by the way. "Afterthoughts," the flip side, was by Mike Bridges, Buddy Busch and myself...mostly Bridges.
6-What is the story behind the song "Psychedelic Siren"?
An uber nerd friend of mine at Muscatine Community College brought his black box gizmo to a class and demonstrated its oscillating pitches and so forth. I thought it could be played as an instrument and wrote the song around it. (Denny Maxwell, rhythm guitarist, played it, however.) The band was very young, remember -- I was a college freshman at this point, but the other guys were in, like, the ninth grade or something. So the parents of the other members were keen about keeping us clean-cut. I was never into drugs myself, so the song was meant to tap into psychedelia -- the flashing lights, the high feelings, the wild fashion and short skirts and free love and so on -- but minus the drugs. The classic absurd line "Banana's just a fruit to me" was a response to the rumor (see Donovan's "Mellow Yellow") that ground-up smoked banana peel got you high.
7-Where are the other members today?
There were many, many members of the Daybreakers under its various names. First, we were called the Daybreakers because our first gig was an after-prom party at five a.m. in 1966. We were the Daybreakers till around '70, when we changed the name to Rox. Around '73 there was a performing lay-off of about a year during which we wrote songs. We returned as Crusin', with a modified line-up (three of the four members had been in Rox), and that group performed from '74 into the early '80s, at which time the band became the Ones. The Ones broke up, mid-'80s, but we began doing yearly reunions, playing as the Ones in the college town venues where that version of the band had been big, and as Crusin' in Muscatine and Burlington, where that version had been huge. Then we began performing regularly again as Crusin'. And we still do perform, in a limited way. A number of our members are deceased. The brilliant guitar player and songwriter (and the best showman I ever shared a stage with), Bruce Peters, died of over-medication due to his mental problems (not recreational). Terry Beckey, who was a lead singer and bass player with Daybreakers/Rox was murdered on the road with another band. Larry Barrett, who played only with the Rox version, committed suicide, I've been told. My longtime (since '67) musical partner Paul Thomas -- bassist turned lead guitarist, and strong songwriter -- died two years ago of sleep apnea. The original Daybreakers bassists Chuck Bunn and Thom Hetzler both still live in Muscatine. Mike Bridges, original Daybreakers guitarist, is in Des Moines. Buddy Busch, Daybreakers drummer, is in Arkansas, I believe -- I see him now and then. I think Daybreakers (and later Crusin') guitarist Denny Maxwell is in Colorado. Other Crusin' members include drummers DeWayne Hopkins and, later, his son Jaimie; and drummer Steve Kundel. These three drummers sort of alternated over the last 20 years or so.
Crusin' (1975)
8-Have you heard of the Iowa Rock And Roll Music Association Hall Of Fame And Museum? If so, what would you think of The Daybreakers being nominated?
I've heard of it, and I really wish we'd be nominated. I don't know of any garage band that has essentially performed and written songs (albeit with name and member changes) from 1966 to 2007. We had a national record out in 1967 -- "Psychedelic Siren" backed with "Afterthoughts" -- and were under a five year-exclusive contract to Dial Records (Atlantic subidiary) and Tree Music Publishing. Buddy Killen, Joe Tex's producer, signed us. A Joe Tex session came in after ours (at RCA in Nashville), and next door the the Newbeats were recording a new single. As the Daybreakers we opened for the Rascals, Gary Puckett and the Union Gap, the Buckinghams and the Strawberry Alarm Clock. As Crusin' we opened for Peter Noone, Flo and Eddie (the Turtles), the Grass Roots and many others. An album of our unreleased demos for Dial came out about twenty years ago, THE DAYBREAKERS, followed by a companion album Paul Thomas and I compiled, DIRTY WATER, of other Eastern Iowa bands, mostly with Daybreakers members. The Ones issued an album in the early '80s, and there was a Crusin' EP (GOLD RECORD) in the later '80s and a CD (BULLETS) in the early '90s. We contributed a song to a nationally released Monkees tribute, HERE NO EVIL, "Little Bit Me, Little Bit You." A few years ago, Paul and I put together a limited release CD called THIRTY YEAR PLAN. The band also wrote and sang eight songs for indie films I directed: MOMMY, MOMMY'S DAY and REAL TIME: SIEGE AT LUCAS STREET MARKET (all released nationally). One-time teen idol Paul Petersen sang with Crusin' on the song "Little Ice Princess" for MOMMY'S DAY. We played hundreds of gigs over the years. The major songwriters in the group were Bruce Peters, Paul Thomas and myself. The records and CDs above are mostly original material. (I have also played with a band in California, Seduction of the Innocent, made up of comics professionals and actors -- playing exclusively at comics conventions. We did one CD, GOLDEN AGE, with a song, "Pussy Whipped," that got played a lot nationally and especially in the midwest. This was in the early '90s -- Weird Al Yankovich played on the CD! Other members included Bill Mumy from LOST IN SPACE and Miguel Ferrer from CROSSING JORDAN.) I believe the Crusin' incarnation was one of -- if not the first -- '60s bands anywhere. We hated disco, so we just did the old list and called it nostalgia.
9-If nominated, would the members be willing to get together and perform again (at least at the concert)?
I know that would happen. We might need to perform as both Daybreakers and Crusin', if possible, with original members reassembled for the former and the current band for the latter.
Thanks Max!
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