ED FLADGER REMEMBERS .......

Enter Eddy and the mulestall, redux ......

"It was during the rage of rock-n-roll fever of the sixties that it was cool enough to simply own an electric guitar or drumset and make horrible noises in the garage with other wannabes. My drumming had expanded beyond the formal education of school to include building a veritable temple of a drumset and play every night for hours (my poor mother!) accompanied by a crummy little portable stack 45RPM record player (remember those?). In this fashion, I physically pounded out teenage angst while hoping for the day when I could play with REAL musicians. In this process, I was able to fully prepare for the day I might get "my calling." I even had a VW microbus for hauling equipment around. I was ready! ("Have drums, will travel: call Ed!") I finally was lucky enough to get that call one day by The Centurys, a band I had admired for their technical precision, professionalism, and sheer joy of playing. I probably surprised them by arriving so quickly for their practice session, but! hell, I was ready to play!

I knew all the songs they liked to play, so it didn't take me but the necessary setup time to get on with making real music. I found very quickly that these fellas were a LOT better accompaniment than my stupid little record player, and their talent and enthusiasm inspired me to play at new levels. I don't think there was a tune the group couldn't handle, and being a dance band, we were very adept at getting the kids out on the dance floor (we spread "happy hips" all over town). My first gig with them was at the "Mulestall," a small building on the Alamo Heights high school campus that was dedicated to the students for dances and other nice, little, polite social gatherings. I had the catbird seat, perched on my drum stool and watched the kids dancing to our music, while we raised and lowered the fever pitch of the music, which had the direct effect of altering their levels of excitement. It was my intention to blow down the walls of that little building, while the kids sto! mped through the floor. One particular image remains of the girls doing the "run-in-place" dance to the Rolling Stones' "Get off my cloud." We certainly stirred up the jigglies that night. As if the music wasn't good enough, we had several techniques to further stir up the crowds. As an example, Our incredible lead guitar, Pat Wellberg would get down on his haunches, Chuck Berry style, and cruise through the dancers tying up the cuties with his guitar cord, while somehow never missing a lick. I thought I was in heaven. That nice, little, Mulestall became one hell-raising place."

_Ed Fladger, April 2002