Carl's Scrapbook: The 1960s: My Garage Bands
I was approached
by Ron Dillman in 1968 about the possibility of joining with the
group "We The People" who worked out of the Orlando/Winter
Park, Florida area. Dillman was their manager in the truest sense
of the word. He had each member under individual contract and was
at every rehearsal, every job, and ran every aspect of the bands
business. It was a well run and efficient organization and I was
excited to have been asked to play with them. If my memory serves
me - I joined up with the group in latter 1968 and played with them
for about a year.
Problem
was -- I came in just a little too late. We The People was
a locally prestegious musical organization that had achieved strong
regional success (see the band's
bio) but had always managed a near miss in national recognition.
Much of their successes were due largely to two former members,
Wayne Proctor and Tommy Talton, who wrote and sang much of the
groups original material. Proctor left the group in early 1967
and I would eventually become the replacement for Talton who left
the group in 1968.
I
think the guys were a bit bummed out by the time I came along
and as best as I remember, we never performed any of the groups "hits".
The lead vocals had been done by the former members and although
we discussed reworking the songs -- it just never happened. Also,
the music business was in a turmoil by that time -- drugs were
becoming a bigger and bigger part of the local music scene and
the music itself was starting to get a little wierd. RCA had
lost interest in the band and Tommy Talton had left to form the
group "Cowboy".
But
all that aside, the band was really good. We did mostly cover
tunes of Top 40 hits of the day and we did them well. The band
usually dressed in uniform fashion and was a class act from
the word go. We The People consisted of David Duff on
bass, Randy Boyte on the B3 organ and RMI electric piano, Terry
Cox on drums, and Carl Chambers (that's me) on guitar. Those
guys were great musicians and worked together like a well oiled
machine. No arrangement was too big for the quartet to work
out and the material was well rehearsed. Everybody sang lead,
although David probably carried the bulk of the load. One thing
they did for me, that I am very thankful for, was -- they made
me sing -- I didn't want to, but they insisted I carry my part
of the load.
We The People "Live" - 1969
Auburndale Youth Center - Auburndale, FL
I
left the group basically because the almost daily commute
between Auburndale and Orlando was both mentally and financially
draining. We considered moving to that area but there just
wasn't enough money.
[ We
The People - Band Bio ]
