ALLIGATOR-MUSIC-IN-A-SMALL-TOWN-MARTY-JOURARD

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the players
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“Gimme Gimme Good Lovin'”
Crazy Elephant
1969 — A crowd favorite at the Rathskeller, UF’s on-campus bar, by Road Turkey, a popular Gainesville band.
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alligator file
“Gainesville” b/ Tom Petty (Official)

Tom Petty’s family produced “Gainesville” (video) to honor Tom and the small North Florida town he grew up in.

By Marty Jourard*

The summer of 1972, I was in a three-piece power trio called Road Turkey. I played bass and sang, with a 15-year-old, powerhouse drummer named Stan Lynch (who even back then had major chops), and Steve Soar, an unusually fine guitarist. Together we played early rock ‘n’ roll hits like “Ready Teddy” and “Tutti Frutti,” and I would sing Grand Funk songs. The Doors, Allman Brothers (challenging as a three piece), and many more.

We became friends with the band Mudcrutch,* featuring a very long-haired Tom Petty, an already-great Mike Campbell. We played local clubs (really just beer bars with a tiny stage at one end) — Mad Monk’s Inn, The Keg, The Rathskeller, and (of course) Dub’s Steer Room.*

“But first, Trader Tom’s.”

Tom Henderson was unique. He was basically a real Southern down home fellow, but he understood the psychology of running a roadside club in the deep South with topless dancers, live music (Road Turkey) on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday nights. The converted one room store offered topless table dancing for $1 a dance (“Keep the songs short” we were told by dancers and Tom alike), $3 pitchers of tepid, watered down Old Milwaukee beer. Tom insisted that at the moment he opened the doors, promptly at 9pm, the lights were flashing, the band was ready, and “Fire and Water” by Wilson Pickett was playing on the jukebox. Pickup trucks filled the parking lot, and business was brisk on Friday and Saturday night. His wife Lill, a sweet, patient and sharp woman, had a quarter with an X painted on both sides in red fingernail polish to start the night, marked for later retrieval from the jukebox operator.

Dance contest was Wednesday. The dancers would each get one song, and they would ask us to play their favorites. The band would be playing, the crowd lusting in response to every hip twitch and pelvic thrust, as each dance contestant would be thinking of the prize money. All this and getting paid too! Living at home, no bills, family car, and dad’s Shell credit card. Gas was 33.9/gallon back then anyway, and a Krystal Burger (Take Home Sack) was 12 cents.

“Waterhole/Outskirts of Town”
Outlaws
1975 — Outlaws
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MTV

For an MTV “Homecoming” feature, Tom narrated a drive through Gainesville and the UF campus, stopping at Lake Alice, looking for gators, Devil’s Millhopper, a lovers’ lane sinkhole, WGGG radio, and Dub’s (Steer House) where Mudcrutch, for a time was the five-night-a-week house band, playing alongside the bar’s topless GoGo dancers. Driving along Fraternity Row, reminded Tom of the night friend Don Felder saved him from getting his ass kicked by a group of brothers. A Gainesville story reminiscent of Don Felder‘s “The Greeks Don’t Want No Freaks,” a song on the Eagles‘ 1979 Long Run album.

• DUB’S STEER HOUSE
MUDCRUTCH (TOM PETTY BEFORE THE HEARTBREAKERS)

 

“Rats In The Cellar”
Aerosmith
1976 — Rocks
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 Marty Jourard (1971) 

(Above) Steve Soar, Marty Jourard, and Stan Lynch (Road Turkey) onstage at the Rathskeller, the UF’s on-campus bar.

UF’s Rat On Campus
The Rathskeller was a small, bare-floor, cafeteria-style, on campus beer bar, that served as a bread and butter venue for the many local Rock N Roll bands. In the early ’70s that could have been Road Turkey, Mudcrutch, Tom Petty, Don Felder, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Blackfoot. There were many locals, but the Rat had its fair share of traveling bands, not the least being U2, May 2, 1981. Tickets, $2 at the door.

By Marty Jourard*

When the Beatles launched into fame in 1963, they inspired a generation to pick up an instrument and start a band. Rock and roll took the world by storm, but one small town in particular seemed to pump out prominent musicians and popular bands at factory pace.

Many American college towns have their own story to tell when it comes to their rock and roll roots, but the story of Gainesville, Florida, is unique: dozens of resident musicians launched into national prominence, eight inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and a steady stream of major acts rolled through on a regular basis. From Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers to Stephen Stills and the Eagles’ Don Felder and Bernie Leadon, Gainesville cultivated some of the most celebrated musicians and songwriters of the time.

Marty Jourard, a member of the chart-topping band The Motels, delves into the individual stories of the musicians, businesses, and promoters that helped foster innovative, professional music and a vibrant creative atmosphere during the mid-sixties and seventies. The laid-back southern town was also host to a clash of cultures. It was home to intellectuals and rednecks, liberals and conservatives, racists and civil rights activists, farmers, businessmen, students, and hippies. Although sometimes violent and chaotic, these diverse forces brought wild rock and roll energy to the music scene and nourished it with an abundance of musical fare that included folk, gospel, soul, country, blues, and Top Forty hits. Gainesville musicians developed a sound all their own and a music scene that, decades later, is still launching musicians to the top of the charts.

Music Everywhere brings to light a key chapter in the history of American rock and roll―a time when music was a way of life and bands popped up by the dozen, some falling by the wayside but others leaving an indelible mark. Here is the story of the people, the town, and a culture that nurtured a wellspring of talent.

“You could sense the excitement as Steve and I demonstrate early synchronized choreography, and Stan Lynch, temporarily stunned, stops playing drums and looks on in awe. Note the silver tape I stuck all over my Telecaster bass. We were probably playing the MC5’s “Tonight,” a crowd favorite.”

— Marty Jourard

“Toys In The Attic'”
Aerosmith
1975 — Toys In The Attic
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