Obliquely Intertwining Lives

The Butterfly is Flapping Its Wings

This is adapted from a post I left on Mike Waggoner's Facebook page. Mike was a musician, promoter, and manager of Cowtown Ballroom. I would not describe us as "close friends", but our lives were strangely connected in sometimes surprising ways -- through music.

We were both guitar players in Greater Kansas City -- for the folks that always ask me, "Oh, Kansas City... Missouri or Kansas?" You know, to me and any other Kansas City farmed kids, that's just a nonsensical question. All of us considered the entire metro area our playground -- you could drive down the middle of State Line (a street), cross the center line, and your driver's side tires would be in one state, the passenger side tires, in another. 

The first that I recall meeting Mike was at the 1966 Overland Park Battle of the Bands. His band, "The Outcasts", was pitted against my group, "The Bitter Ends". The event was held in the parking lot behind Sunflower Drug Store, which is just a stone's throw from Shawnee Mission West High School -- where I, and the other Bitter Ends attended. The winner was determined by crowd-noise level, a very precise measurement standard, and, because the audience was heavily stacked in our favor, The Bitter Ends was declared the winner... and we went home with $50! That's $12.50 each, for mathematically challenged readers... sadly, the rough equivalent of $100 in 2023 dollars. Sad, not because it was so little then, which is was, but because $100 is so little NOW!

It's odd, when I think back, how tribal we were with bands. Living in Austin for the last 30 years, I've played with close to 100 bands, either recording or gigging. Not only that, but one of the first lessons one learns as a band leader is that, like a good football or baseball team, you need to have depth. Generally, three or four for each position that can step in a fill the role and still play at an acceptable level, which in a competitive environment such as Austin, better be pretty highly acceptable!

But, in Kansas City of the mid-sixties, and as teenagers, we were in ONE band. It would be an act of treason to perform with another group, punishable by ostracism, at the very least. 

College broke up The Bitter Ends, although three of us went to KU. The fact is, I don't recall many Bitter End gigs, though I know these existed. But during the summer prior to my move to Lawrence, KS, I began playing with a band called The Illusions, consisting of my lifelong friend, Steve Hall, and soon to be bandmate, Jack Manahan, along with Larry Miller on bass -- another obliquely intertwined life with mine, but that's a different story.

Soon after I had established my residence in Lawrence, and the school year was underway, Steve and Jack, along with bassist, Tom Burdine, asked me to join a new tribe. Jack, who grew up in Lawrence, provided a great place to practice in his family's den. I suggested that Bitter End rhythm guitarist, Larry Franklin, would be a good addition, as well. So was born The Upside Dawne. 

We were a good cover band -- at least, I think we were. At least we were good enough to play regularly at Lawrence's legendary Red Dog Inn, and good enough to be booked by equally legendary Mid-Continent Entertainment, owned by the legendary, Mike Murfin, and, most legendary of all, John Brown, who was a master of booking. This intertwinement is yet another story.

But skip forward a bit...

In 1968, three of the Upside Dawne tribe -- myself, Steve Hall, and Burdine (who had flunked out of school) replacement, the incredibly talented Paul Miller -- defected to form a new band which we called "Tide", hoping to avoid the confusion caused by the psychedelic spelling of "Dawn(e)". NOTE: This did not work.

Tide worked a lot, thanks to the efforts of Steve Hall and a variety of others, including John Brown, and then, back to the original premise of this blog -- Mike Waggoner. I'm not sure how the association came to pass, nor really the timeline, but I know Mike worked for Good Karma Productions with, yes, legendary, Stan Plessar -- the driving force behind The Vanguard, Brewer & Shipley, Danny Cox, and Cowtown Ballroom. Mike also worked at Corinth Square Music (BTW, just about 1 mile from the state line... see?) which sold pianos, sheet music, and, most importantly to me, guitars! If only I'd had the money to buy that Mosrite Venture's model! Sigh.

I was immersed in music and somehow never really got the connection between a band and business. Luckily, I had the association with Steve, who was not only an incredibly inventive and talented drummer, but who DID understand the necessity of treating a band as a business. So, I was innocently swept along by the tide (ironic?), innocently pretending it was all about the music and that, if you were good enough, it would all happen somehow. Duh... 

Our association with Good Karma, though not quite "official", brought us onto the concert opener playing field, with Mike Waggoner as our unofficial manager. Mike generally worked with Steve. My job was to write songs, and to show up and play guitar and sing. Between all the guys who seemed to understand the business aspects of band-hood -- Steve, Mike, John Brown, and a few others -- Tide got a lot of work and, since I thought it was all about the music, Tide was artistically satisfying. 

Mike can be seen in the Centron movie, "Fences & Gates", discussing some "plans" with Steve. Mike, wearing a Cowtown Ballroom t-shirt is talking about a "talent-scout" who will be attending a show. This talent-scout is later depicted as a smartly dress woman with a clipboard. In my humble experience, every A&R person at the time, looked a LOT more like Mike than this woman. Still, the role that Mike played was pretty much what he did in real life.

My last contribution to the intertwining is this strange event, that to me, symbolizes the oblique relationship between the two of us. After the filming of "Fences & Gates", I was working at Centron in Lawrence in the early 80s. (This in itself is another story... for now, I'll just leave it at this.) 

I was trying to drum up business in the nascent music video industry. I had visited a few people around KC, a sprawling city even then. My appointments took me to North Kansas City, Raytown, downtown KCMO. I had about an hour before me next appointment in Lenexa. I was thinking about contacting Mike who had an association with several bands. But, I didn't know where he was living at the time, not even north, south, east, west, Kansas, Missouri... or even in still in Greater Kansas City, at all! 

I was driving randomly, and happened down a dead-end side street in Shawnee, KS, a suburb of KC. I was just about to turn around and who should I see, but Mike Waggoner walking out of a house and toward a car!!! REALLY... I just happened to drive randomly to his house!!! I can't even put enough exclamation points there. 

In addition, he said that he was in the process of moving and had only returned for a few minutes to pick up some remaining items. Now, if this had been a movie, then this odd meeting would propel one or both of us to international fame, or put us both in the Rock 'n Roll HoF, or break up a murder plot -- or something. But it was NOT a movie...  it is a just true story and I'm at a loss to explain how things like this happen.

In my opinion, every life on Earth is intertwined and we should be always aware of it. The butterfly is flapping its wings in Brazil.