Butch Whacks postcard Mar08

Butch Whacks & the Glass Packs  U.S.  n.  < fr. butch wax, 1950s hair pomade sometimes used as bondo to repair car dents + glass pack, car muffler which reduces engine exhaust pressure while increasing engine power and noise, and, more importantly. rhymes with butch wax.  1.  San Francisco area music group, 1971-1976, composed of slackers from St. Mary's College looking for unique ways to avoid classes.  2.  1983-2008:  San Francisco Bay Area music group composed of seemingly responsible adults, looking for unique ways to avoid real work, who get together once a year and amazingly play before enthusiastic, sell-out crowds in San Francisco.  Long-time members include Rob Birsinger, DeeDee Crockett, Morey Goldstein, Mike Hagerty, Bill Lazzaretti, Bruce Lopez, Julio Lopez, Mike Moore, Gary Murphy, Jerry Murphy, Walt Quinn, Dan Ritzo, Bob Sarlatte, Larry Strawther, Tom Tomasello and Karl Young.  At various times, other members have included John Buick, Jeff Carino, Davey Gonzales, Peter Gordon, Craig Martin and Bob Stambaugh. 


Tickets now on sale for Butch Whacks' 25th annual farewell performance

BWGP - Julios 1980sTickets are now officially on sale for Butch Whacks & the Glass Packs' 25th annual Farewell Performance to be held at Bimbos' 365 Club in San Francisco on June 26, 27 and 28.
    We had a couple technical snafus with our normal web sales programming code, but we rigged up some workarounds, so you can still order tickets via credit card online, or if you want to avoid those bank and credit card processing fees, then you can pay by check and get your tickets by snail mail.
    Details are available at our butchwhacks.com website.
    Ticket prices are $45 for Thursday night, $50 for Friday and Saturday nights.



One of the best things about doing the show at Bimbo's in North Beach every year is that the surrounding area offers some of the best dining in San Francisco. As some of the Glass Packs sport long-standing credentials as true city boys with the real low-down on high quality dining in the North Beach area, we thought you might be interested in some of our suggested pre-show dining possibilities (that is, if you don't tailgate.)  Click here to see where Butch and the boys meet to eat. 

We haven't quit our day jobs!

People are often amazed that we don't do this full-time.  We are often equally amazed that people actually would ever think we do this full-time-- especially after they've heard us.

The bald truth is yes, this is a part-time (in some cases, a once a year) gig for us and the Glass Packs all have other jobs - well, at least some of us do ... most of the time.  So we thought we'd let you peek into the closet of our real lives. (more)


John Fogerty poster
The Big Fella reviews John Fogerty in concert
The multi-talented Big Fella (Bob Sarlatte) is not content to rest on his laurels of being the grandest poobah of platter-pushin papas.  On a whim, he and Mrs. Big Fella decided to check out  John Fogerty in concert at the Nugget in Reno last weekend.  The former Creedence Clearwater great knocked the Big Fella's socks off.  Check out the review at the Big Fella's Music Machine: Insights from a Humble Genius.

Glass Packs help put shine on Morey G Cavalcade of Stars fundraiser
 
Last Sunday at San Francisco Bayside brewpub near AT &T Park a groundswell of local musicians came together to help raise funds for Morey Goldstein, the tenor saxman for BWGP (and many other local groups) who has been stricken with brain cancer.    
   Morey was able to attend the event and enjoy old friends from pretty much every group Morey has played with over the years going back to his Long Island High School State championship jazz band. 
    After the serious musicians played rum soaked samba music, four Glass Packs stormed the stage and, backed by the house band, knocked out a few hard-rocking palate cleansers -- "Runaway" by Butch (Jerry Murphy), followed by Bill Lazzaretti crooning "Love Potion #9." Dee Dee Crockett then hit the beach with "One Fine Day" (featuring some blazin' tenor sax by Armen Boyd, a longtime compadre of Morey who will play with BWGP next month at Bimbo's) and then the Big Fella finished it off with "Burnin' Love." 
   Over $13,000 was raised that day, but unfortunately, Morey's needs are still many and expensive.  If you are able to join the effort, you may reach out to Morey by clicking here or going to the link below.

http://www.bigbangbeat.com/moreyg.html
 




band partial 2001 When a band has 37 years of history and bad jokes, you have to store it somewhere.  And a lot of it is at www.butchwhacks.com.  Learn a little bit about band members, a skewed history of the band, see some old photos which we probably should burn, and even see some of our old bits.  We're actually learning how to do much of this ourselves, so we'll even do a better job of keeping you posted on what's happening (although bear with us - sometimes we have to have our teen-age kids shows us all these internet tricks).  

Links of the Week - Some of the best from "Shindig," and then some

One of the best things about Youtube.com is that a lot of people with way too much time on their hands have posted some great stuff up there for us all to enjoy.  Among our favorites are great clips from Shindig, ABC's mid-60s', mid-week rock and roll soiree, hosted by way slick Jimmy O'Neill.  "Groovy Gals" showcases the talents of The Shangri-Las, a great version of "It's in His Kiss" by Aretha Franklin, Lesley Gore doing "Judy's Turn to Cry," and Love Letters Straight From Your Heart (which was originally sung by Ketty Lester.)

Righteous Brothers - ShindigShindig producer Jack Good hired a great house band and hot back up singers, who often included the Blossoms and the Righteous Brothers.  (Check out these quite righteous versions of Little Latin Lupe Lu and You've Lost That Lovin Feelin'.)

The latter had some cool lighting by Shindig 's Emmy winning lighting director Vince Cilurzo (who worked with Elvis and Sinatra, and (almost equally impressive) BWGP's Gary Murphy and Larry Strawther during their years with the Merv Griffin Show in the late 1970s.  Cilurzo went on to start Cilurzo Wines in Temecula and his son Vinnie now operates the Russian River Brewing Company in Santa Rosa.  (If you go there, tell them you saw it mentioned here, and maybe they'll give us one of their t-shirts and hats).

Darlene Love - ShindigThe Blossoms featured Darlene Love - who sang most of the famous Phil Spector Christmas classics - which still sound great, as witnessed by Darlene's 2006 version of Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) performed on David Letterman.  Darlene's 6 Degrees of Butch Whacks connection to us travels through Letterman to BWGP's own Big Fella, Bob Sarlatte, who was Dave's very first on-air sidekick (back in 1980) and has made numerous appearances on Letterman's NBC and CBS shows since then. 

Back to Shindig, check out Darlene and Joe Tex doing "Yes Indeed."  Joe shows some great dancing until his foot disconnects Darlene's mic.  The rest of the song demonstrates that some white men for sure can't dance (e.g., host Jimmy O'Neill and Jay and the Americans).  There's so many great other clips -- including a classic soul compilation (led off by a lame Bobby Sherman commercial, then leads into Major Lance, Joe Tex again, and a duet from Tina Turner and Marvin Gaye), Jackie Wilson doing "Baby Workout."  and some classic 60's hits by The Kingsmen ("Louie, Louie"), Sir Douglas Quintet ("She's About a Mover"), The Olympics (the original version of "Good Lovin") and one white guy who could definitely dance -- rubber-legged Roy Head.




Odds and Ends
We want to thank the crew at the Saint Mary's College Alumni Association for the nice write-up in their latest alumni bulletin.

It seems that while we were the first (and certainly most unique), we are not the only group to utilize Butch Whacks (or a variation thereof) in their name.   So jyst remember, we are not to be confused with the Missouri rock and roll revival group Butch Wax and the Hollywoods (who seems to have borrowed much from our website), the San Diego group the Butch Wax Duo (who seems to have borrowed our tendency to get loud) or the Kentucky rock group The GlassPack (who seems to have borrowed only our surly demeanor).

See you at Bimbo's.

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March 7, 2008 email


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