Cast Iron Soul

Cast Iron Soul is more than a childhood memory, it was a living breathing part of my life. Like most kids growing up in the 60's I was enamored with music and, rock and roll at an early age. My first real memories of having aspirations to to perform were when I was about 10 years old. I remember playing "rock star" with Gary Bourdon in my parents basement "lip syncing" to the Righteous Brothers singing "Soul and Inspiration". I remember wanting to sound like both Bill Medley and Bobby Hatfield, and Gary and I would argue over who's turn it was to sing. Not long after we started, my best friend Matt Spears joined in with us.

Matt and I had known each other since I was about 5. We met one warm February day when he and his paternal twin brother, Randy, were standing by the creek that ran behind their house. I walked up and asked them what they were doing, as they were staring at the ice, then I asked is the ice still solid (as we were in a traditional February thaw)? Matt said "I don't know" then Randy came up behind me and shoved me onto the ice saying"Why don't you find out". Of course I went right through but thankfully it was shallow and I stood there pissed as hell up to my knees in ice water as they laughed hysterically. Somehow, from that auspicious beginning, Matt and I became friends for life.

We both shared a love of music however Matt was 10 times more talented that I. During 4th grade he took up the Trumpet and I played the Coronet. In 5th grade we both started playing guitar but my interest waned by the time 6th grade had rolled around. Matt on the other hand continued to play the Trumpet and Guitar, plus he started to teach himself how to play the piano, organ and French Horn. He had them all mastered by the time we were in the 7th grade.

Like most young guys in the 60's we decided to form a "garage" band (hereafter called the group because "Cast Iron Soul" wouldn't come on the scene until we were in the 10th grade).

The original group members were George on lead guitar, Matt Spears on rhythm guitar, Kevin Thompson on the organ, Dick Healy on drums Rodney Shear on bass guitar and Me on vocals. I did play guitar but I only knew enough chords to be dangerous as a rhythm player. That incarnation was probably around 1964. Along the way members came and went. Rick Page came on board as a rhythm player and John Simpson replaced Dick Healy on the drums. Matt, Rodney and I left the group to form our own band in early 1965 because Matt wanted his brother Randy to play drums. So off we went and those guys we left behind would remain our rivals throughout the rest of the time we played.

For the "new" group we were joined by Randy Spears on the drum and Curt (Chico) Mark on the lead guitar. Randy wasn't the best drummer in the world but he could keep a beat and play forever, the guy never got tired! Curt was one of the most amazing lead guitarist I had ever heard. A Chuck Berry disciple he was a chameleon and could make that Rickenbacker sound like anyone he wanted. Eventually Rodney decided he wasn't all that serious about it, and besides he wanted to play with Rick Page, so he left the group. So there we were, Matt, Randy, Curt and I with this group but we needed a bass player, and there was nobody around. Then out of nowhere this kid named Darrell Younger moves to town. He's nice guy, good looking (great wing man), kinda quiet, and he plays the bass guitar! Darrell wasn't flashy but he was solid and you could hear the influence of the Allman Brothers and the Doors in his bass runs. Born in Texas, he came from California when his Dad was transferred to Detroit by Fords. For those of you over 50, Darrell was one of the two little kids having a snowball fight with Paul Revere and the Raiders (Cherokee Nation) in the opening of the afternoon tv show called "Where The Action Is".

Now the line up was set: Curt, Matt, Darrell, Randy and me. We would practice daily at the Spears house. Thank God his folks were so cool. It was like a daily party in the neighborhood. Kids throughout the area would stop by and dance, and party while we practiced. I lived about a half mile from Matt and Randy, and when I'd get home my Mom would say I heard you this afternoon, don't his parents mind? We did covers plus eventually, Matt and I moved into composing some of our own material. I think in the end we had written about 30 songs and some were pretty damn good. Typically a 3-hour gig would consist of 50 minutes of cover songs, 50 minutes of cover and original songs, and 50 minutes of cover songs. By 1968 we were playing at least one and sometime two gigs a month, and making decent money. Back in those days it was $300 for a 3-hour set and you could buy a lot of french fries for your $60 share. Along with those of us playing there were the guys behind the scene that were our friends and supporters. Guys like James (Jimbo) R. Dunigan, who actually gave us the name Cast Iron Soul in 1969, Gary Maloney, Marty Maw, Kyle Ziegler, Mike Mero, Bill Kangas, Jim Kidd, Randy Rolls, Terry Zischerk, and others. Birthdays were easy though, Dunigan was Ground Hogs Day (2/2), the Spears Boys were (2/13), Younger was valentines day, and Zischerk was (2/15) only maloney and i were the odd men out.

We were also fortunate to be joined or to join, from time to time, some really talented guys in the area just to jam. Musicians like Dave Ackroyd, Terry Grow, Carmen Acciaioli, Mike Furton, Steve Farner, Gary Hicks, Dave Pulgini, Brent McArt, Rick Page, and others who's names escape me. It was a great time growing up and playing where we did, and when we did because Detroit was loaded with talent, groups like the SCR, Bob Seger System, Frost, The Rationals, The MC5, Stooges, Alice Cooper, Woolies, Catfish, Brownsville Station, All the Lonely People, Unrelated Segments, Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels were just a few that called this area their home. On any given weekend you could find a party where someone had a connection to someone, and the musicians just jammed for fun. And damn it was fun!

The name Cast Iron Soul came about in 1969 and it was the brainchild of Jim Dunigan, who by now was our official manager. A local talent agency, Gail & Rice, was sponsoring a battle of the bands. The winner got to be a fill in as the opening act for a national band coming to town. The problem was we didn't have a name. For a few days we all kicked it around then finally Jimbo called me with Caste Iron Soul which we shortened to Cast Iron Soul. To make a long story short we never auditioned but that's a story for another time...

We played some awesome parties. One time we played at Independence Green before a group of about 200 people but between the second and third set Randy and GFM (Gary Maloney) got hammered, and were driving around the adjacent golf course on a hot wired golf cart. All night long people were asking for Credence Clearwater and the only song we knew was Proud Mary! Another time we played for this political party in an abandoned bank on the corner of Grand River and Farmington Rd, another party of 200+ people. Matt had this Vox Super Beatle amplifier that hit 120 watts a channel so Chico took a "Y" patch cord and plugged into two channels while Matt played in one, turned the volume up all the way and wrapped a high "E" string bend and blew out a window onto Farmington Rd. About 10:00pm that night the movie theater (Civic) acrossed the street came over and complained people couldn't hear the movie because of our music, and finally we got shut down at midnight when the cops came by (the police station was a block away) and said enough, the overnight prisoners can't sleep. We played private parties, pool parties, school parties, choir parties, you name it.

Our opening covers were Respect (by the Rationals the way it was meant to be played) Cry Just A Little (Beau Brummels) and we'd end with something by the Doors or Hendrix. In between you'd be likely to hear everything from House of The Rising Sun, Don't Let The Sun Catch You Crying, The Angel Song, If I had a Hammer, Tell Her No, I Started A Joke, Incense and Peppermints, Love is All Around, To Proud To Cry, Wild Thing, Tobacco Road, We Ain't Got Nothing Yet, Queen of my Nights, East Side Story, Turn Turn Turn, and the list goes on and on....Someday I'll write it all out.

We last performed as the cast Iron Soul in the early spring of 1971 at a private party. About six weeks after graduation it all came to an end when Matt was killed in Grand Bend, Ontario. While digging 6-foot pits in the beach, it sounded like a good idea to connect them and when they were connected, it was time to go for some beer. Everyone made it out but Matt. His funeral procession was indescribable. He had touched so many in his 18 short years on this earth. The consummate lover, not a fighter (that was my job but again a story for another day) he didn't have an enemy in the world. With about 20 of us on our motorcycles behind the hearse and the rest in cars, we rode without helmets because it was what he would have wanted, and the cops just watched us....the procession stretched over 2 1/2 miles.

None of us really had it in us to perform after Matt was gone. Darrell took off on a 6-week ski trip to lake Tahoe in the fall and didn't come back for two years. The last I heard Darrell is still in Huntington Beach and in the banking business. Curt, Randy and I tried off and on for the next couple years to get it back together but it never would be the same. Curt went off to college somewhere and it's unfortunate but we've lost track of each other. Randy fell deeper into hard drugs, but finally cleaned up his act, got married and had a family, but he committed suicide in 1991 while going through a divorce, I think it just all caught up with him. About a month after Matt died I hit a Firebird in an intersection while doing 60mph on my Triumph Trophy 500, amazingly I didn't break a bone but was on crutches for 3 months as torn tendons healed.

I tried to form another version of the band but it just wasn't the same, and it was then I decided just to honor the memory of a really great friend, and a really great time. It was the time of the Cast Iron Soul.