Bittervetch At about the same time as Centerville, Ohio rock group Ivan and the Sabres was enjoying their first taste of success with the release of their popular regional song “Just Let Her Go”, the Chandells – another local band from Centerville – was forming. Although they were together for approximately two short years, the Chandells would indisputably become the top combo in the Dayton area. In addition to being named the # 1 band (out of about 800 total) in Southern Ohio, they recorded ten fantastic demos that remained unreleased but that showed the true promise the group had. After a name change to Bittervetch and the release of an irresistible single that would represent their sole vinyl output, the band’s run at the big time would be cut short. While Ivan Browne would leave the Sabres to replace Tony Brazis in Tony & The Bandits – and therefore find greater success after a name change to the Lemon Pipers (of “Green Tambourine” fame) - the members of Bittervetch instead headed for college and, with the exception of Hegel, life plans that unfortunately did not include rock and roll. By Mike Dugo While it’s well known that the Beatles’ first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show was responsible for an unprecedented period of musical activity across the United States, Centerville High School sophomores Mike Reed and Tim Daum ctually formed the Chandells in the winter of 1963 – months before the Fab Four would forever change the face of popular culture. Reed had initially taken up drums in unior high school and was part of a “no name” basement group that played together for about three or four years, while Daum had been playing the guitar as far back as 1959. “My older cousin showed up in '59 with a Les Paul Jr. and an amp and I realized on the spot that that is what I wanted to do – to play electric guitar,” recalls Daum. “And that is what I did. I (later) bought an electric guitar in '62 from some kid in high school that won it at a local music store. I had no amp but Mike (Reed) had drums and his parents had a tape recorder. Mike and I got together in '62 and jammed. His big brother and his friend wanted in so we formed the Duprees. That lasted a few years until they graduated and went off to college to Ohio State. That left Mike and me.” But not for very long. “I had been hanging with Craig and playing some guitar,” Daum continues. “I met (Rob) Hegel in the ninth grade when his family moved from Kettering to Centerville. We spoke some and somehow he, Craig (Carlson), Dale (Graham) and Geoff (Hearsum) - all in my class - entered the scene in ‘64 when the big kids left for school (leaving Mike and me without a band).” Each member of the newly formed combo had previously had somewhat lengthy musical experiences. Graham had earlier sung in the choir in grade school and had even performed solo on some pieces. This experience paid dividends later on when Reed approached about him joining the band because, according to Graham, “for some reason (he) thought I could sing. We knew Geoff played string bass in the orchestra and figured he could play a bass guitar,” he continues. “He bought one and we were right.” In fact, Hearsum had started playing the tuba for the school band in seventh grade, learned to read music for the bass line and then moved to the orchestra to play a stand-up bass fiddle. During the intermission of a high school basketball game, while playing the fiddle, he was approached by Daum and Carlson and asked to play bass guitar in the new band they were forming. “Tim said (playing bass guitar) was the same as (playing) the fiddle - only horizontal vs. vertical,” Hearsum recalls. He agreed…and after purchasing his bass guitar from a local pawn shop, 4/5ths of the line-up was in place. Shortly thereafter, Rob joined because he could sing and play keyboards,” Graham notes.Hegel has memories of creating songs, mostly religious themes, as early as age four. “According to my parents I used to make up songs when I was an infant in a crib,” Hegel reflects. He gave his first public singing performance at the age of six by singing "The Friendly Beasts" to the congregation of The First Lutheran Church in Dayton. His mom had played the piano and his dad had exposed him to many different musical styles. All this, naturally, had a profound effect in the development of his songwriting abilities. From their inception, each member of the band was well aware of their collective parents’ desires that they’d each have to quit as a group once they were old enough to attend college.But with their primary composer in tow, the group – now christened the Chandells - started practicing and rehearsing in Daum’s garage and basement, as well as in the houses of Carlson and Reed, and quickly started to mesh. It soon became apparent that Hegel was a virtual reservoir of untapped songwriting potential, and once he started presenting his compositions, the group began to create some truly memorable music. According to Daum, “Hegel seemed interested in writing songs. I went to his house and he (played) his songs on the piano or ukulele. I figured out the guitar part from that and reviewed the material with the band at rehearsals. That's how we ended up with original material.” Hegel provided the words and music and for the most part also wrote the signature riff if there was one in the song. “Tim would usually make up his guitar solos unless I had written a specific musical passage in which case he would play what I wrote,” Hegel elaborates. “Back then when I wrote a song it was usually Tim who would learn it first and then the rest of the band would pick up from Tim and me.” Daum also played an integral role in assisting Hearsum with his conversion to bass guitar, shouting out the chords for him as the group practiced. The Chandells’ resultant sound became, in Hegel’s words, "utterly and completely pop with a wink and a smile! The Beatles, of course, were the influence. We liked other bands but didn't emulate them; we just played their songs.” If a band had a hit pop record then the Chandells very likely might have performed it - but they also played their own compositions as well as instrumentals that Daum and Reed mostly wrote (Hegel recalls one titled “Rat Fink” that featured Reed and he trading drum riffs with Mike on the kit and Rob on bongos). Songs by the Dave Clark Five, Rascals, Zombies, Herman's Hermits, Kinks, Byrds and the Beach Boys (or “quality top 40” songs in Graham’s estimation) factored heavily in the set list. The Chandells started out playing at parties as well as at school sock-hops after football games.By 1965 and 1966, as they continued to progress, they had graduated to playing mostly at large dance halls and eventually performed at all the top locales surrounding the Dayton area (along with Greenville, Xenia and Cincinnati – or approximately 100 miles in any direction) including Forest Park Arena, the Kettering Skating Rink, LeSourdsville Lake and the Greenville and Union City Armories. Reed recalls that the band became so in demand that they were booked every weekend from the summer of '64 until the fall of '66; during this time they also squeezed in a performance for their after prom party on a river boat cruise in Cincinnati – as well as at the local summer festival Ox Roast. A distinguishing trademark of the band was that they dressed in matching plaid jackets, black pants, and skinny black ties.“We went to a used tux shop and found these great plaid jackets,” notes Hegel. “We had gone with the idea of getting matching jackets because that is what the bands of that day did. After we wore the plaid for a while we got matching blue jackets - just for a change of style – and we rarely wore the plaid after that. Every Chandells performance was according to dress code and we all either wore plaid or we all wore blue.” Dressed to kill, the band’s popularity soared and the level of adulation that they were able to achieve in such a short time was staggering. David Young, who was responsible for hooking up the band’s equipment, carrying instruments and “holding back the throngs of screaming girls”, recounts that the Chandells were “a legend at the time. What was great about the band (was that) not only were they ahead of the music curve at the time but they had the flavor of the times in their music style. They were all very talented.” Talented enough, for example, to compete in and win several local “battle of the bands” events. Although Reed recalls the group winning at about a 50/50 clip, Hegel believes that they won more than they lost. Perhaps the highlight of these competitions came during one event in Forest Park, where the Chandells earned top honors over the Rick Z. Combo.But despite the Chandells’ placing first in the battle, it was the Rick Z. Combo – soon to become nationally famous as the McCoys (“Hang On Sloopy”) - that shortly thereafter secured a record deal. The Chandells, however, had earlier decided to take matters in their own hands and in the winter of 1964 recorded several songs that Hegel had written. One of his earliest compositions, “I Wanna Love You”, was written in June and by the time of the recording session Hegel was able to provide the group with nine additional original compositions. Although details are hazy, the ten songs were recorded somewhere in the outskirts of Dayton, in the basement of a man named Mr. Kent. “I have no idea who (Mr. Kent was) or what association he had with the band,” Hegel states. “My best guess is he was one of the other guy's neighbors who had a tape recorder.” The songs, incredibly, were recorded in one take – yet the quality of all ten songs was amazingly strong. Layered with harmonies, confident playing and hooks, hooks, and more hooks, the resulting demos touched many bases, from Merseybeat (the nod to “From Me To You” in “I Wanna Love You” was unintentional and not realized by Hegel until years after the song was written), through early garage rock (“Laughing At You” and “I Told You”) to surf rock (“Keep Surfin’”) and spirited rock and roll. Armed with the ten demos in hand, Hegel traveled alone to New York City in the spring of 1965 to peddle the tape to various record companies and publishers.Among the companies he visited was Kama Sutra, Mills Music, Roulette Records and a couple more that he can no longer recall. According to Hegel, “Everyone was very nice and said they liked what they had heard (in the demos). Remember that I was a 15-year old kid from Centerville, Ohio who had flown on his own to Manhattan with a tape of his band, so my guess in looking back is that the professionals I met with would naturally be nice to me. I had no idea what to expect. Morris Levy (of Roulette) told me that if he weren’t working so hard breaking the Hullabaloos that he would sign the Chandells in an instant. He asked me to keep in touch. I did not keep in touch.” Undaunted by their inability to sign a recording contract, the Chandells continued their steady string of performances throughout the Dayton area.Almost uniformly, however, the band decided sometime in the middle of 1965 that it was time for a change or, as Graham terms it, “a new direction and a new identity.” Tired of the matching plaid coats, the Chandells’ scheduled a live concert specifically to complete the changeover. According to Graham, “the first half of the concert we performed as the Chandells and at intermission we changed outfits. Then with curtains closed and the auditorium dark...Tim started playing the opening riff from the Stone’s ‘Paint It Black’ and when Mike began pounding the drums, the curtains opened - the lights came on - and we were Bittervetch. In Hegel’s assessment, while agreeing with Graham’s memory of their first appearance as Bittervetch, recalls, “We all were tired of being the Chandells. All the Battle of the Band challenges coming from all directions, just because someone of influence had dubbed us #1, was getting old. We were thinking of putting out a record and wanted a new image and a new name. We narrowed our choices to either Lobo & the Wolf Pack or Bittervetch. Bittervetch won when we could not decide who would be Lobo.” As Bittervetch (for those wondering, a Bittervetch is a flower that grows in the desert), and with the changeover complete, it was time again to attempt another stab at recording. Fortuitously, during one of their appearances at a teen club, they attracted the attention of WING deejay Bob Holliday. Holliday, who would later act as an emcee at a number of Bittervetch gigs as well as their promoter, approached the band and inquired whether they’d like his help in cutting a record to be played in the Midwest. Hegel had for a long while been encouraging the band to record again. In addition to the 10 basement demos recorded with the assistance of Mr. Kent, Hegel had recorded a number of his other original compositions, including organ and voice only demos titled “Little Blue-Eyed Angel”, “I’ll Stay”, “A Girl Like You”, “Without You”, “Let You Be”, “I’m In Love With You”, “I Really Like You”, “When You Wake Up In The Morning”, and “Bigger Fool”. All told, the group now had a number of options from which to choose from for the single.In the spring of 1966, the group picked two songs that they had introduced at the concert that officially announced the band’s new image and agreed to record them. Both the session and the pressings were paid for out of band earnings. Hegel’s father had worked for a local ad agency and at his suggestion the band decided to head to City Sound Studios in Dayton, a place used mostly by local businesses for radio and TV advertisements, to record the single. As with the demos, the resultant single, “A Girl Like You” b/w “Bigger Fool” (Pixie 0081), was recorded in one take and without any overdubs. Daum recalls, “I borrowed a 12-string guitar from some kid in school and ended up using it on both songs. The 12-string sound defined the songs but I never played it before or since those sessions. The recording quality sucked so the local station refused to play it except at 2:00 in the morning.” Recording quality not withstanding, “A Girl Like You” is a pleasing Beatles-inspired pop number, while “Bigger Fool” is a “Beatles Meet the Byrds” folk rock song of the highest order. In order to promote the single, Bittervetch appeared on a local Dayton TV station's weekly "Pool Party" segment to perform “Bigger Fool". The odd playing times and lack of radio exposure, however, prevented the single from becoming the success Bittervetch had hoped for.And only a few short months after the single had been released, the bandwould unceremoniously break up. Daum’s contention that the band’s future had been programmed from the start by a group of parents’ eager to see their sons attend college is supported by both Graham and Hegel. Graham somewhat regretted his parent’s decision. “I think we all did in some fashion,” he states. “Our parents had already imparted their wisdom on our future. Parents can be heartless sometimes.” Hegel, however, views it differently. "Regret is a word that I attempt to ignore. Regret I may, but I am not sorry for any choices I have made. My life is and has been my singular journey, and I've had the privilege to share intervals of it with a great many wonderful people. The Chandells/Bittervetch are five of them. I loved them then and I love them now.” Reed also did not regret the decision to break up - even though he would eventually flunk out of college and end up going to Vietnam as a Navy Seabee where he played in a small band with other members of his battalion. Hearsum, on the other hand, shared the views of many of his peers faced with similar predicaments."Avoiding the draft with a college deferment made the most sense to me!” he quips. Despite the wishes of the band’s parents, Holliday encouraged the group not to break up and to instead put off college for a year to see how far they still might be able to go. According to Graham, “Rob had already gone to New York and given it his all, and I think the result discouraged us from trying again.” This factored greatly into the final decision and ultimately, to a man, the members of Bittervetch honored their parent’s wishes. In July 23, 1966 Bittervetch played its last concert, headlining with the McCoys at Dayton’s Forest Park Arena. Daum, Graham, and Hegel all enrolled at the University of Cincinnati, and while Bittervetch may have been no more, the individual members still continued their musical endeavors. In fact, “Hegel lived four doors down the hall in my dorm in freshman year at the University of Cincinnati,” Daum recalls. “Dale was my roommate. Two months into freshman year Hegel told me that Freddie Meyers, drummer of Ivan and the Sabers, was putting a band together at UC. I auditioned and was hired. We worked as Salvation and the Army. The band was rhythm and blues and I loved it. The Lemon Pipers came over from Miami University to jam at the bar we played at. We had a ball in those days - open jam sessions and every one played with every one on stage.” With three former members at the same university it might have seemed tempting to once again perform as Bittervetch but the trio resisted the temptation to do so. “It would have not been as much fun for us to perform as Bittervetch without all the original members,” Hegel states. “Tim and I never performed together after that last show in July. Thinking back on that it seems odd because we were pretty good friends, and it was also odd since I performed a lot around campus both solo and as a duet with a guy who sang a lot like Gordon Lightfoot, and in a trio called the North American Knitting Company (as a joke) and Trinity (for real) with two wonderful guitarists and background singers, Larry Stinson and John Kinkel. That was a good group that had a nice following for the time we played together.” Hegel’s collegiate musical experiences also included a short stint with another local group of the era, Me & The Other Guys. As he explains, “It was my freshman year at college. I was playing piano in the lobby of my dormitory when a man who said he needed both a singer and a song for a band he was producing approached me. I didn't think that a band without a singer or original material sounded like much of a band, but I always tended to go wherever I felt wanted, so I accepted the guy's offer.” The result of the offer was a Me & The Other Guys 45 release of two of Hegel’s demos written during his Chandells days, “I Don’t Care” b/w “When You Wake Up In The Morning.” The single was recorded at the famous King Studios in Cincinnati, the same studio where James Brown and the Famous Flames recorded. Hegel provided vocals but otherwise did not play on the songs. "I Don't Care" is relatively faithful to the Chandells’original, but "When You Wake Up In The Morning" – which in Hegel’s demo is an excellent John Sebastian-like ballad - was sped up and really suffered in comparison to the original. Unfortunately, Hegel had little to no input in how the songs were arranged. He stayed with the group long enough to record that one lone single and to play one concert. “My memory of the concert is that we were actually quite good for never practicing,” he recalls. “The drummer was awesome and the lead guitarist, though mostly an imitator of others, had some decent chops.” After graduation, Hegel was the only member of the Chandells/Bittervetch to remain in the music business (although Daum currently has several projects on tap). He recorded throughout the early to mid-‘70’s and even received assistance from some good friends when needed. “When I was about to release my first single with RCA in the spring of ‘73, Tim and Craig came over to my house in Cincinnati with their guitars and played some riffs from Stephen Stills songs - among others,” he elaborates. “I always thought that Tim was an untapped and awesome guitar talent and it was nice to see and hear Craig had become a good player in his own right since rhythm guitarists were really afforded the opportunity to show off their chops.” In 1980, Hegel scored a minor hit with “Tommy, Judy and Me” which led to an appearance on American Bandstand. Among his other successes is writing “Do It For Our Country” for the movie GREASE 2 and co-writing Air Supply’s top twenty hit, “Just As I Am.” He has also co-written a novel, the fictional adventures of “TUXEDO BOB.” With the new CD release of the near complete recorded output of the Chandells/Bittervetch, Hegel and gang have all gotten back in communication with each other. Doing so has allowed the group to reflect on what might have been.“I believe we would have had at least one hit (top ten Billboard) record had we stayed together. But we didn't stay together, so it is just my belief; my vision of what might have been,” Hegel states. The communication has also, naturally, sparked some wonderful memories of their time together as Dayton’s top rock and roll combo. According to Reed, “the time I spent playing with the band was a blast and an experience I will cherish forever.” Daum concurs - “I wouldn't trade the experience of doing music in the mid-‘60's for anything”. And Hearsum agrees. “I thoroughly enjoyed the band, friends, and the music. It was a great, fun activity for all of us. I can't think of anything else about high school that brings back more fond memories than our group.” “It’s something I've been able to take with me my whole life. It was (a period of) great friends and great fun. It was my 15 minutes of fame,” relates Graham. But perhaps the most eloquent summation of their time together is provided by the band’s wordsmith, Rob Hegel. “We were six high school guys who were flabbergasted by the adoration bestowed on us by fans who loved to come hear us play songs. I had five band mates of differing personalities agreeing and disagreeing and arguing and pushing each other to do his best. So now, 41 years after our first band practice, we have the opportunity to look back from the present and hold in our hands a CD of what we all did together. That we are allowed this is really quite a completion. How cool is that?” Chandells / Bittervetch: Craig Carlson – Rhythm Guitar Rob Hegel – Vocals / Keyboards Dale Graham – Vocals Geoff Hearsum – Bass Mike Reed – Drums Tim Daum – Lead Guitar 1964 Chandells Demos: I Wanna Love You Since You’ve Gone I Don’t Care I’ve Told You I Will Follow You I Don’t Know Laughing At You Why? Who Are You? Keep Surfin’ 1964-1968 Solo Hegel Demos (organ and voice) or *(guitar and voice): Let You Be I’m In Love With You A Girl Like You Bigger Fool When You Wake Up In The Morning* I Really Like You* Little Blue-Eyed Angel I’ll Stay 1966 Bittervetch Single: A Girl Like You b/w Bigger Fool (Pixie 0081) 1967 Me & The Other Guys Single: I Don’t Care b/w When You Wake Up In The Morning (Hinda 7052) You can order the Bittervetch CD from Gear Fab Records.