I attended a regional high school in Passaic County, NJ.
Two boroughs and one township fed into Passaic Valley High School and one funny thing about it was even though we were geographically adjacent with all three towns touching the others, each place had its own character. Nearly defiantly so. Hell, there were even divides within our tiny towns.
These differences showed up in our haircuts, clothes, boots, and music. My neighborhood as far as boys went was short shags, Levi’s, work boots, and bands like The Doors, Jimi Hendrix, and Led Zeppelin while the next town over, just over the Passaic River, which was called West Paterson at that time was mostly longer hair, beards, Wranglers, cowboy boots, cowboy hats, and Southern Rock. We called them “The Cowboys” and one New Year’s Eve the Cowboys threw a big party and my best friend, Anthony, suggested we show up dressed as Indians (we still get together and laugh).
Of course these are generalizations as there were crew cuts, mullets, just plain long hair, mustaches (bow chicka wow wow), khakis, sneakers, and even the occasional loafer but that was a risk not worth taking. I remember when our high school decided to crack down on behavior problems by implemented a no bare feet policy they failed to enforce while smoking outside the ‘smoking area’ was strictly prohibited and as long as you fought in ‘the cage’ during lunch break you wouldn’t get suspended.
Even I crossed over at some point—a brief flirtation with a pair of pointy-toed Fryes and some country rock. This was the early 1970s and my very favorite band that fell into this genre was the Ozark Mountain Daredevils, formed in Springfield, Missouri in 1971 and more specifically to the point here is their self-tiled debut album from 1973 that contained the No. 25 hit single “If You Wanna Get to Heaven.” The song goes on to say, “you gotta raise a little Hell” which was music to my ears as a then 13-year old with an attitude (already). The Daredevils other big hit came with their song “Jackie Blue” from 1975’s It’ll Shine When It Shines, a record that didn’t capture my attention as fully as the first.
But boy oh boy that self-titled debut, also known as “The Quilt Album”, was and remains a funhouse ride from beginning to end from great players and pickers with truly lovely stuff including “Colorado Song” and “Within Without” (heart-melting harmonies), rock stompers, bluegrass bits, spaceships, and even a Jew’s harp led song about chickens (and trains) all helped along with the magic touch of engineer/producer Glyn Johns.
“Chicken Train” lyrics:
Chicken Train
Runnin all day
Chicken Train
Runnin all day
Chicken Train
Runnin all day
Can’t get on
Can’t get off
Chicken Train take the chickens away
Lazer beam
In my dream
Lazer beam
In my dream
Lazer beam
In my dream
Lazer beam like a sawed off dream
If they gave awards for inventiveness and pure boot stompin’ fun (no matter the boot) The Ozark Mountain Daredevils would be among the top 10. A classic album if ever there was one.
Personnel:
Steve Cash – vocals, harmonica, percussion
Randle Chowning – lead electric and acoustic guitars, harmonica, steel guitar, vocals
John Dillon – electric and acoustic guitars, fiddle, Jew’s harp, mandolin, autoharp, dulcimer, vocals
Buddy Brayfield – piano, harpsichord, organ, percussion, vocals
Michael Granda – bass, percussion, vocals
Larry Lee – vocals, drums, percussion, acoustic guitar, saw
Jack Black – backing vocals
Elizabeth Anderson – backing vocals
Sidney Cash – backing vocals
Janet Lee – backing vocals
Donald Bromage – backing vocals
Producer: Glyn Johns/David Anderle
Recording Engineer: Glyn Johns
Band Website: www.theozarkmountaindaredevils.com