Charlie Tysklind had a look. I think he was born in St. James Infirmary with a beer in one hand and a cigarette in the other. Imagine a composite photograph of Tom Waits, David Johansen, and Jack Palance. This image would still fail to approximate the authentic blues-raunch look Charlie affected. To my knowledge, Charlie played in The Blue Front Persuaders, Killer Trout, and Los Chickens. I’m talking here about the heyday of Mr. Flood’s Party in the late 70s and early 80s. As I recall, and my memories from this period are fuzzy at best, outrageous debabauchery and profligate decadence defined the short tenure of the Chickens. Charlie had no formal training. He played with what I would describe as an A.D.D. high octane adrenaline style. Think of Albert Ayler, Red Prysock, and Pharoah Sanders on amphetamines, and you’ve got some idea of his approach. His playing had three gears: hard, harder, and hardest. Couple Charlie’s weathered countenance with Brophy Dale’s (Brophy now lives in L.A. where he plays guitar for Lee Rocker, former bass player for the Stray Cats) Tex-Brit Ronnie Wood look and you’ve got a mental snapshot of Los Chicken’s front grill. “My Gal Is Red Hot,” “Flying Saucer Rock and Roll,” and other such gut-growling jump psychobilly numbers had to have been written with a future Charlie Tysklind in mind. The photo above, taken by Miss Wendy Smith in front of Floods, includes, from left to right: Johnny Morgan in the foreground (younger brother of the Rationals' Scott Morgan), Brophy Dale, with the black Silvertone guitar, Dr. Dave Cavender (trumpet and harmonica), yours truly, in the stripes with the Music Man Sabre Bass, and Charlie.
The Killer Trout shot is, left to right, Brophy Dale, Charlie, and Doug Koernke. In the background is Andy Boller on the piano.
The Blue Front Persuaders shot is, left to right, Steve Wethy, Carl Hildebrandt, Mark Russell, Charlie, and Bob Cantu.I haven’t posted much lately because I spend most of my time reading and evaluating horrid student writing. Sorry. Last night, George Bedard and the Kingpins played the Lansing Blues Festival. It was way cool and there were many photographers. I’m thinking some pictures will surface somewhere on the net (go to youtube.com, search term George Bedard and the Kingpins, scroll down to New Hawaian Boogie, posted by Scot Allman). One of my new students is Ben Cronin, center for U-Ms basketball team. He is 7 foot tall! He’s asked me to be photographed with him in the 2008 media guide. The shoot is this Friday. Other than that, I have no profound wisdom to impart except this: wouldn’t it be nice if the government bailed us out of our debt, rather than throwing a life line to the fattest of fat cats, who have already received the most outrageous tax breaks this country has ever seen?
SAVE OUR COUNTRY, VOTE OBAMA!
3 comments:
Randy--
Very nice tribute to Charlie. He was a really cool guy and a kick ass sax player.
Are Steve Wethy and/or the Blue Fronts still around/performing. I remember following them from ann arbor (even in high school auditoriums) to the soup kitchen saloon in detroit in the 80s. I was a huge fan. There has never been another band like them. They were very unique and I loved them.
I shared a house with Charlie for 2 years around 1980. First time I heard him play, I thought he had the nastiest scratchiest meanest sax sound I'd ever heard. Not like that's a bad thing!
The BFP practiced in our basement & used my CP70 piano. I was a skinny young too-white guy and played like that at the time. Hearing them a lot gave me serious clues I needed at the time.
And occasionally we'd play together. I was astonished at first to hear Charlie tear off fluid, clean-as-a-whistle Tom Scott licks like it was nothing. He was no one trick pony.
Sorry to hear Charlie's gone. Last I heard, Steve is playing in LA area as Steve Lucky, and doing well. Sure wish I had his chops!
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