New Jersey Stage Issue 43 | Page 26

sound in the distance. It was the sound of my first rock and roll band. I wasn’t even 6 years old. Did you ever see those car- toons from the forties where the mouse smells the cheese and he floats through the air towards the smell? That was me. I’m eat- ing that corn on the cob when I hear that sound. I’m walking towards the sound and the but- ter is dripping on my shirt. I hear this sound and it’s a rock and roll band set up atop a flat bed truck powered by a gas genera- tor in the fields behind St. Bart’s Church in Scotch Plains, New Jersey. Did you ever see the movie, American Graffitti? Remember the band Flash Cadillac and the Continental Kids? This band was just like that. The Beatles hadn’t been heard of yet. This was pre-Beatles… 1961. They had the greatest hair cuts I ever saw. They had black ties, match- ing red blazers with this jaunty red crest. And they had pointy shoes and were chewing gum. Hear The Smithereens every day along with hundreds of artists from New Jersey! AsburyMusic.com NJ STAGE - ISSUE 43 INDEX NEXT ARTICLE 26