(Updated June 2016)
It’s been more than four years now since Marist Father John Bryson passed away at the age of 87. But his legacy with the Notre Dame community and notably with Detroit rock and roll glitterati from the 60s and 70s lives on. In fact, one leading Detroit musician who used to play at dances and concerts at Notre Dame High School in Harper Woods, Mich., said recently that Bryson should be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
We couldn’t agree more.
In the fall 2014 edition of IRISH magazine, which is published for Notre Dame alumni, we profile a few of the many bands and musicians who were regulars of Friday nights in the NDHS cafeteria. They remembered Bryson and the Notre Dame “gigs” with great fondness.
(Many thanks to the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends organization for providing much of the background for this article.)
Bryson’s bands
Alice Cooper and Frost guitarist Dick Wagner performs a solo at a benefit concert a few years ago. He remembered Notre Dame High School and Fr. Bryson very fondly in an interview in the spring of 2014. Wagner died July 30, 2014, of respiratory failure at the age of 71
In March of 2014, a panoply of legendary Detroit rock musicians gathered at the Premiere Center in Chesterfield Township to celebrate the life of rock poster artist Gary Grimshaw and the music of the 60s and 70s. Members of the bands SRC, the Rationals, the Frost and Savage Grace among many others performed songs from that era to benefit the family of Grimshaw, who died in January at the age of 67.
What was remarkable about that night, along with the pleasure for those in attendance of once again hearing such musicians as Gary Quackenbush, Scott Morgan and Dick Wagner, was that it could very well have been a reunion of bands that at one time graced Fr. John Bryson’s cafeteria stage at Notre Dame High School.
Fr. John Bryson, s.m., was called alternately the DJ priest or the rock and roll priest for hosting many dances and concerts at Notre Dame in the 1960s and 70s.
In the documentary “Louder Than Love: The Grande Ballroom Story,” an award-winning 2012 documentary that featured the gritty, raw sound of Detroit music from 1966 to 1972, the Motor City was heralded as the world’s epicenter of creative, edgy rock with bands such as the Amboy Dukes, Frijid Pink and the Frost.
The movie focused on the Grande, but there was a huge scene elsewhere in Detroit and its suburbs that allowed both the “long hairs” and the clean-cut, high-school boys and girls experience the dynamic Detroit music scene.
Fr. Bryson, the “DJ priest” from Notre Dame, who died in 2012 at the age of 87, certainly did his part. So let’s allow Chuck Miller, lead guitarist and founder of the band Holy Smoke, to sum up Bryson’s efforts back in the day: “Fr. Bryson should be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame!”
Miller and a couple of other Detroit rock luminaries, including Frost frontman Wagner, who died July 30, 2014, were interviewed in early summer 2014 by IRISH magazine about their memories of those early years and playing at teen clubs and schools like Notre Dame.
What follows is a summary of a handful of the bands that played regular dates for Bryson at Notre Dame in the late 60s and early 70s. We are skipping most of the more nationally renowned groups that played occasionally at NDHS.
Through Bryson’s influence and reputation, he managed to book appearances by the likes of the Supremes, Stevie Wonder, Bob Seger and Marvin Gaye. But the bread and butter of Notre Dame’s Friday or Saturday night teen scene were the groups playing for the few bucks they were paid and looking for their own big break.
LEGENDARY GUITARIST REMEMBERS NOTRE DAME HIGH SCHOOL
The Frost was one of the most popular Michigan bands of the late 1960s. Led by guitarist, singer, and songwriter extraordinaire Dick Wagner, the group seemed poised to achieve national recognition with a collection of songs that were both heavy and tuneful. But the group was saddled with a record company that undercut its recordings with inadequate distribution and a lack of promotion that severely hampered the Frost’s attempts to break big outside Michigan.
Frost founder Dick Wagner, front, with members of the band in 1969.
Dick Wagner was born in Oelwein, Iowa, in 1942. After his family moved to Michigan, Wagner grew up in the musical hotbed of southeastern Michigan. Like many teens in the 50s, he was turned on by the new sound of rock and roll. His love of Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and other early greats inspired him to pick up the guitar.
Completely self-taught, Wagner first played guitar in a Waterford, Mich., band called the Invictas. The band achieved local success, and was considered good enough to back Jerry Lee Lewis at a roller rink in Ortonville and Roy Orbison at the Devil’s Lake Pavilion near Adrian in 1960. Wagner next joined a popular Detroit-area club band called the Eldorados as their lead guitarist and later formed the Playboys after moving to Saginaw.
After changing the band name to the Bossmen, the group recorded and distributed its first single, “Take a Look (My Friend),” on its own record label. The catchy Beatles-inspired song was played regularly on Saginaw-area radio stations, and the Bossmen became a local hit.
As a result of recording and appearances on the emerging teen club circuit, the Bossmen began to rapidly develop a fan base around the state. Wagner did most of the songwriting for the Bossmen, and he produced a batch of popular radio-friendly singles including, “Here’s Congratulations,” “Help Me Baby,” “Bad Girl,” “Wait and See,” and “On the Road” during the next three years on a variety of self-owned labels.
A couple of changes to the band in terms of personnel and names led to it finally being called the Frost in 1968.
The first big splash for the Frost in the Detroit area came at an outdoor concert in front of a crowd of over 10,000 at the Meadow Brook Theatre. The concert also featured the MC5 and the Stooges, but the Frost stole the show with its combination of heavy guitars, melodic songs and great vocals.
The Frost also played local Detroit-area clubs and high schools, including Notre Dame High School in Harper Woods. IRISH magazine interviewed Wagner on June 13 from his home in Arizona, perhaps one of his last interviews before he died July 30. He said he definitely recalls playing Notre Dame.
“It was fantastic. The kids loved us and the crowds were energetic,” Wagner said. “We also were playing at places like the Grande Ballroom during that time. We were playing all original music and the people loved it. There was nothing better than that.”
When asked if he thought the crowds at high schools were better behaved than those at the Grande, he said, “Well you know, kids will be kids. What they did outside I wouldn’t know, but inside they were very energetic, well-behaved.”
The band was at the peak of its popularity in Michigan during 1969 after releasing the album “Frost Music” on Vanguard Records, and they served as an opening act for many major artists playing in Detroit including Blind Faith, John Mayall and Three Dog Night. The album’s centerpiece, a combination of “Take My Hand/Mystery Man,” was a staple on Detroit’s FM stations for months. Unfortunately, when the musicians played outside Michigan, they found they were getting virtually no promotion from Vanguard Records, which was not doing a very good job of getting their album into record stores.
The Frost ultimately broke up in 1972 and Wagner went on to form a number of other bands with limited success. He later signed on with Alice Cooper and Lou Reed, providing both songwriting and guitar playing for the internationally recognized musicians as well as with Aerosmith, Peter Gabriel, Etta James, Rod Stewart, Tina Turner, Ringo Starr, Guns & Roses, Tori Amos and, yes, even Frank Sinatra.
Wagner died on July 30, 2014m in Scottsdale, Ariz., succumbing to respiratory failure after two weeks in intensive care following a cardiac procedure.
BAND ALSO PLAYED AT VFW HALL IN HARPER WOODS
SRC, another mainstay in southeast Michigan’s garage band scene and an occasional Notre Dame stage presence in the 1960s, had roots in Motown, the soul music blasting out of Detroit, and the British Invasion bands led by the Beatles. Billy Lee and the Rivieras (soon to be renamed Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels) was one of the first successful garage bands in the Motor City to feature a lead singer. The band first gained a name for itself at The Village, one of Detroit’s early music clubs located on Woodward Avenue.
One of the few bands on the scene in 1963 that highlighted a singer was the Tremelos, out of Birmingham, Mich. With John Boyles on lead vocals and bass, E. G. Clawson on drums, 14-year-old Gary Quackenbush on lead guitar, and his brother Glenn on keyboards, the Tremelos did very well playing high school dances, weddings and University of Michigan fraternity parties.
It was at a U-M party when the musicians met a student named Ed “Punch” Andrews. Andrews was impressed with the Tremelos, and he hired them to play at a New Year’s Eve party in Grosse Pointe where he introduced them to Dave Leone. Andrews and Leone were longtime friends who shared a dream of becoming record executives.
The Tremelos soon released a single that was met with some local popularity. They then changed their name to the Fugitives, and when Leone and Andrews opened a new teen club in a VFW hall in Harper Woods called the Hideout in 1964, the Fugitives were hired as the venue’s house band.
SRC was fronted by lead singer Scott Richardson.
Looking to take another step forward in establishing a career in music, the new Fugitives hooked up with rock-and-roll visionary Hugh “Jeep” Holland in Ann Arbor. Holland had come to Ann Arbor to attend U-M but found his true calling when he started running the campus branch of Discount Records, got into local band management and started making recordings on his newly formed A-Square label.
It was Holland’s idea to have Scott Richardson, the dynamic lead singer of the Chosen Few, join the Fugitives in late 1966. The Chosen Few had recently opened the Grande Ballroom along with the MC5, but the band, which also included future Stooges Ron Asheton and James Williamson, was on the verge of breaking up.
Richardson was a good fit for the Fugitives since both bands loved the British groups of the day and played covers of songs by the Stones, Yardbirds and the Who. The new combination, now called the Scot Richard Case, would quickly become one of the hottest groups in southeast Michigan and the most classically “mod” of all the Michigan bands.
Soon the band’s sound became more psychedelic, influenced by the likes of Procol Harum, for whom the band would later open, and it released three well-received albums on Capitol Records.
The group's fortune and fame would soon wane, and the early success of SRC could not be sustained. According to Gary Quackenbush, “SRC was about as far from a bar band as you could ever imagine, but we found ourselves playing in them, so we knew it was sliding at that point. The band was also suffering from poor management. The whole last year we were without a manager. We did it all ourselves, and we were deep in debt.” Discouraged and out of funds, SRC played its last gig in January of 1973.
In the years after the break up of SRC, Scott Richardson relocated to Los Angeles and got involved in the film business. Richardson served as a writer for “Hearts of Fire,” which featured Bob Dylan, and also worked on the sets of two of the “Lord of the Rings” films. Gary Quackenbush did session work, taught guitar and multitrack recording, and established SRC Records. Richard Haddad died in a car accident in 1977, E. G. Clawson died of cancer in 2003 and Al Wilmot passed away in 2005.
SRC was voted into the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame in 2010.
LEAD SINGER REMEMBERS DJ PRIEST
The beginnings of Savage Grace were on the east side of Detroit in the late 1960s. Session guitarist Ron Koss, a self-taught musician who paid his dues in the local bar scene and who had recorded sessions with Wilson Pickett, Marv Johnson, and Hank Marvin and the Midnighters, joined forces with classically trained keyboardist John Seanor and rock drummer/percussionist Larry Zack to form the core of “The Scarlet Letter.” The group recorded two albums for Mainstream Records before the musicians realized they were not your average rock band. The band decided to hire a bass player who could sing and Ann Arbor native Al Jacquez was added on lead vocals and bass.
The new band spent three months in daily rehearsal, writing and stretching the boundaries of their music before performing throughout the Midwest in clubs, ballrooms, colleges, high schools, and pop festivals.
Former Savage Grace lead singer and bass player Al Jacquez is music director at Northridge Church in Howell.
Savage Grace created quite a buzz at the time as a unique band known for its performances and musicianship. The band earned opening gigs for Three Dog Night, Procol Harum, Sha Na Na, the Moody Blues, Small Faces and many others. At one festival, Yes, Soft Machine and Alice Cooper opened for Savage Grace.
An opening set for Creedence Clearwater Revival resulted in a contract with Reprise Records. The band's first album, simply titled “Savage Grace,” was released in 1969. Standout tracks were “Come on Down,” “Lady Rain,” and an impressive reworking of Bob Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower.” The group continued to work the road, wowing audiences at the Goose Lake International and Atlanta Pop Festivals.
With such success behind them, the band still found time to play the local Detroit-area music scene. Notre Dame was one such stop when Savage Grace was in town.
Bass player and lead singer Al Jacquez was interviewed by IRISH magazine in June of 2014. He recalled Notre Dame and its “DJ priest.” He said that sometimes at Notre Dame there would also be another band playing the same night.
“I loved doing those shows,” he said. “The kids were enthusiastic and better behaved than most of our other gigs.” But it didn’t really matter where Savage Grace played, he said. “We were just happy to get a show and get paid! Back in those days, we were working all the time, from the Grande to the Eastown to Notre Dame. It was all about the music!”
In the fall of 1970, Savage Grace relocated to Los Angeles. “Savage Grace 2” was released in May of 1971 and the group resumed touring with the likes of Jimi Hendrix and John Sebastian. But performance opportunities soon began to dwindle. The band's delicate balance of musical styles and personal differences eventually unraveled due to months of inactivity, and the musical partnership finally ended.
Jacquez said that when Savage Grace signed with Warner Brothers’ Reprise Records, the band members were all 17 or 18 years old. “It was unbelievable,” he said. He thinks Savage Grace was the last band that Warner Brothers worked with and really nurtured along.
“The music quickly changed after that and now it’s to the point where you have the likes of Justin Bieber selling out arenas,” he said with exasperation.
Jacquez moved on and created a blues, soul and rock-and-roll band called Measured Chaos with bandmate bassist Mark Gougeon (the new Savage Grace, Mitch Ryder), guitarist Mark Tomorsky (Mark Lindsay, the Grass Roots), and drummer Frank Charboneaux (Eric Burdon, Mick Taylor). He also serves as the music director for NorthRidge Church in Howell, Mich.
BAND FOUNDER AND GUITARIST GETS BIRTHDAY CAKE FROM BRYSON
The roots of the band Holy Smoke, which was a regular feature at Notre Dame on Friday and Saturday nights in the early to mid-70s, can be found at Grosse Pointe South High School (actually, back then it was the only high school in Grosse Pointe). That was where classmates and musicians James Montgomery and Chuck Miller got together to form the Montgomery-Miller Blues Band.
Chuck Miller re-formed Holy Smoke in 2006 and currently plays in clubs around metro Detroit.
Montgomery, who would eventually become one the best blues harpists (harmonica) in the world, was, even in high school, a real student of the blues. He introduced his friend Miller to the likes of the Butterfield Blues Band, Junior Wells, Buddy Guy, Muddy Waters, John Hammond and John Mayall, with Eric Clapton and the Blues Breakers.
Now 67, Miller said their small blues outfit played everywhere on the east side. “We even played at a place called the Euphoria Coffee House, which was located at a church on Kercheval and Lakepointe,” he said. “We played Chicago-style blues. We played at our high school talent show and played the song 'Born in Chicago.' We brought the house down. Can you imagine?! In 1966 white suburbia—playing the blues?”
Besides coffee houses and their high school, the Montgomery-Miller Blues Band played at the Grande Ballroom under the pseudonym Cosmic Expanding.
After high school, Miller played in a number of other bands, including the March Brothers, Shakey Jake and the Mutants, but it was with the band Holy Smoke, which he formed in 1973 with Gary Gowman, Steve Starks, John Fonti and Rick Craven, that Miller saw the success and relative longevity that most young musicians craved.
Holy Smoke and Miller were regulars at NDHS during the 70s.
Notre Dame was a favorite place to play, according to Miller. “There was a huge high school thing going on in Detroit in the 60s and 70s,” he said. “When I was in high school, there would just be a DJ and the place would be packed. Then they would have bands and DJs and then mostly bands. And the places would still be packed. It really was a great time to grow up!”
Miller said that during the 80s, he began to notice a deterioration of high school dances. “But in the early days, we would have 1,800 people at Notre Dame for dances,” he said. “And Fr. Bryson—he was great! He really should be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame! All the major bands played at Notre Dame.”
Miller recalled that on one of Holy Smoke’s gigs at Notre Dame, Bryson somehow found out it was his 21st birthday. “Father had a birthday cake for me. He was awesome. Occasionally he would say we were too loud. But we had two lead guitarists in the band and we had two stacks of Marshall amps. And Father always had an incredible stage set up for us with our logo blown up on a big sheet of Lexan plastic.” Miller noted that artist Gary Grimshaw, a famous designer of rock posters in the 60s and 70s, designed the Holy Smoke logo.
Holy Smoke eventually broke up in 1978, but Miller, who also works at Guitar Center (21 years), reunited the band in 2006 and is now playing occasional shows in the area. “I think it’s great that we’re now playing again,” he said, “although it’s not quite the schedule that we had back in the heyday. Back then, our booking agency would sometimes have us playing 27 days in a row in 14 different venues. Crazy times!”
(Michigan Rock and Roll Legends contributed to this report.)
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About Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy
Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy is a private, Catholic, independent, coeducational day school located in Oakland County. The school's upper division enrolls students in grades nine through twelve and has been named one of the nation's best 50 Catholic high schools (Acton Institute) four times since 2005. Notre Dame's middle and lower divisions enroll students in jr. kindergarten through grade eight. All three divisions are International Baccalaureate "World Schools." NDPMA is conducted by the Marist Fathers and Brothers and is accredited by the Independent Schools Association of the Central States and the North Central Association Commission on Accreditation and School Improvement. For more on Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy, visit the school's home page at www.ndpma.org.