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Nashville Teen John Hawken Celebrates A Birthday at South
Amboys' Blue Moon
John Hawken Birthday Bash - The Blue Moon, South
Amboy, NJ - May 17,2012
By Phil Rainone
Revisiting past glories and pleasures can sometimes be an
unrewarding experience. The glitter of any golden age tarnishes
all too easily if it’s not kept in perspective and handed
down properly. The treasures of youth can appear dated if
they’re not kept fresh and constinatly updated. Those
who were swept up in the latest trends may not embrace anything
with real substance and staying power.
Back in the late 50’s and early 60’s The British
Invasion bands like The Beatles, The Dave Clark Five, The
Rolling Stones, The Nashville Teens, and The Animals had more
than their share of hype and hysteria; all the trappings and
excesses of pop music stardom. They didn’t have to play
a note to send audiences into raptures, and once the audience
was in rapture, the notes, as well as the vocals were hard
to hear above all the pandemonium. The delirious screams of
teens swamped the sound coming from the tiny amplifiers, and
microphones that couldn’t handle the tide wave of teens
throwing their bras, as well as themselves at the band members.
Having gotten their music mainly from America, via sailors
bringing over Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Bill Haley and
the Comets records, the Brits also formed progressive rock
bands like Yes, Renaissance, The Strawbs, and a multitude
of others that both caught your ears as well as your eyes
with elaborate costumes, and music that not only captured
your imagination, but actually “blew it” time
and time again with inventive musical ideas that left the
Pat Boone’s and Sinatra’s of the day in the dust.
The core band of Alan Lefton on bass, Mike Lefton on guitar,
and Vinnie Capodice on drums invited John Hawken to sit in
on keyboards about halfway through Open Mic Night this past
Thursday at The Blue Moon. The trio (Mike, Alan, and Vinnie),
had been practicing “Tobacco Road,” a song that
the Nashville Teens had recorded and made famous back in the
60’s, for about a week. Without knowing that John’s
friends had set up a surprise birthday party for him (many
thanks to Carol who supplied the cake, and good cheer), they
were about to launch into one of best blues/rock numbers this
side of The Pond. Alan only mentioned to John that that song
was, “Something that he was familiar with, and is in
the key of D.”
Without hesitation John amped up his keyboard, and proceed
to punch out the opening riff to “Tobacco Road!”
Looking around I saw dropped-jaw gasps as John played the
song like it was a new tune, rather than a song that was more
than 50 years old. Then the rest of the band amped up their
game, and gave the garage rocker a new coat of paint, blasting
out a Neanderthal cadence that not only kept faithful to the
original, but also added their “own thing,” to
it. By the end, the song sounded as fierce as the original,
but also new and exciting.
But they weren’t finished just yet. A bit later John’s
good friend Bill Turner (he played with Bill Haley & The
Comets, and currently fronts his own band, Blue Smoke), came
up, and with the original foursome dove headlong into classics
like Chuck Berry’s “You Never Can Tell,”
“Great Balls of Fire,” and a few other cool rock
‘n’ roll numbers that just amped up the band and
the crowd. Yeah, as the song goes, “The joint was jumpin’/
going round and round… they never stopped jumpin’
‘til the moon went down!”
John Hawken and Bill Turner
Then they brought out a birthday cake for John, and we all
sang “Happy Birthday.” A splendid time was had
by all!
Besides The Nashville Teens, John Hawken has played keyboards
with the original Renaissance, The Strawbs, World War Three
(a punk band from the 70’s), locally with The Rocket
Men, and has been touring with a new configuration of The
Yardbirds. Over the years you get to see what trends really
are, and what real music is. John just goes to prove that
even though there are many twists and turns in your life (
I did two interviews with John, Bill Turner, and Mike Lefton
for Jersey Beat within the last year- John had a great story
from back in the day when The Nashville Teens were trying
to get paid for a show, and the promoter had John hanging
out a window of a hotel by the ankles because John had the
nerve to ask to get paid), if you practice your butt off,
and a little luck shines down on you, anything is possible!
JerseyBeat.com
is an independently published music fanzine
covering punk, alternative, ska, techno and garage
music, focusing on New Jersey and the Tri-State
area. For the past 25 years, the Jersey Beat music
fanzine has been the authority on the latest upcoming
bands and a resource for all those interested in
rock and roll.
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