A Song For You: The Quest Of The Myddle Class ‘I Happen To Love You’. ‘Free As The Wind’. ‘Don’t Let Me Sleep Too Long’.  Despite recording these and other excellent songs, The Myddle Class never scored the breakout hit that would have catapulted them to national stardom.  All solid musicians, the group was affiliated with the topnotch songwriting duo of Gerry Goffin and Carole King and seemingly poised for bigger and better things.  Unlike other multi-talented bands that suffered similar fates, however, it wasn’t girlfriends, higher education or Uncle Sam that ultimately led to the group’s demise—in 1969, lead guitarist Rick Philp was murdered.  Kathy West, Philp's girl friend during his Myddle Class days, has now written a book detailing their romance and the band’s attempts to make it in the recording industry.  A Song For You: The Quest Of The Myddle Class is “a moving story of love and tragedy—and honest revelation.” Kathy West and A Song For You 60sgaragebands.com (60s): Why The Myddle Class? Kathy West (KW): I begin my memoir story in the mid-'60s, and attended high school (WHRHS) in the Watchung Hills of New Jersey with Rick Philp, the lead guitarist of The Myddle Class and David Palmer, lead singer of the group. I was Rick’s girlfriend for five years starting when Rick and Dave formed their band as The King Bees, practicing in their garages tunes they wrote and covers of their idols, The Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan.  The band included drummer, Myke Rosa of Berkeley Heights; organist, Danny Mansolino of Plainfield and Charlie Larkey of Mountainside who quickly learned to play the bass-guitar when he wanted to join the band. While gaining local popularity Al Aronowitz, a well-known music beat writer for the Saturday Evening Post magazine, discovered the suburban group of eighteen year-olds and introduced the boys to Carole King and Gerry Goffin, then married and teamed-up as song-writers being published by Don Kirshner. Having hit pay-dirt with 'Locomotion' by Little Eva and the 1961 number one hit record, by The Shirelles ('Will You Love Me Tomorrow') Goffin and King and their colleagues, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weill (also married), Neil Sedaka, Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, among others worked relentlessly inside the famed Brill Building of New York City pumping out successful, soulful songs for black female groups of the early '60s. In 1965, when The King Bees found Danny "Kootch" Kortchmar had another group by the name The King Bees, the New Jersey group changed their name. The Myddle Class held a highly popular first concert near their home town in Summit, New Jersey.  Their opening act was The Velvet Underground before the esoteric group became an obsession of Andy Warhol. Soon The Myddle Class gained significant notoriety while frequently playing upstate New York and Greenwich Village clubs – the Café Wha?, Café Au Go Go, Café Bizarre and working their way uptown to play at the Ondine discotheque where manager Brad Pierce called the band "the greatest group on the east coast." Three highly regarded recordings had many city and suburban garage-bands excited to mimic the jazzy, bluesy organ and guitar riffs of The Myddle Class. The released and unreleased recordings performed by the group along with numerous demo discs were produced by Goffin and King. Between on and off episodes of attending college, The Myddle Class was enjoying eminent success as pioneers in the development of early pop-rock, playing up and down the east coast, opening for The Animals, and playing along-side The Blues Project, Richie Havens and among the many bands of the Night Owl Café, including Danny Kootch and James Taylor’s Flying Machine throughout '66-'67. Thought of as the greatest New York band "never to make it," the band met with a sorrowful demise as the lead-gutarist, Rick Philp was killed by a disturbed college roommate while attending Emerson College in Boston in the spring of 1969.  60s: When did you first become aware of The Myddle Class' current revered status among collectors of '60s music?  KW: I was advised in 2010 that someone wanted to find her to learn about the lurid death of her boyfriend, Rick Philp. She had long been disengaged from her old friends from the days of her youth, including her then close friend, Carole King.  For several years after Rick’s death, Kathy followed Carole King's solo career well beyond the success of the Tapestry album in 1971 and met up with Carole a few times. I remained a loyal fan of James Taylor as well.  When, in 2010 I sat in the audience at Madison Square Garden for the Carole King/James Taylor Troubadour Reunion Tour, it was as if no time had passed.   I also saw the draw of music fans to the Broadway musicals Jersey Boys, Memphis and Million Dollar Quartet – a story about one night in a recording studio of soon to be music industry icons, and I thought, "I can write that…" I turned to a box of Myddle Class memorabilia and letters I received from Rick and Carole while I also attended college in the late '60s that I had saved for over fifty years; and I began to write my story. It started as a story about a first-love, sadly lost to tragedy and it developed into a tribute to growing up during the greatest decade.    60s: How actively involved was Carole King and Gerry Goffin with The Myddle Class' music? KW: Carole King and Gerry Goffin were intimately involved with the members and friends of The Myddle Class. I was a very close friend with Carole throughout and beyond the years of her tumultuous marriage and the ups and downs of the group's attempt to pursue stardom. Carole pursued her auspicious attraction to Charlie Larkey who became her second husband. The Myddle Class performed on many demos of Carole and Gerry's songs written during the difficult drought of successful hits for other music artists once the British Invasion and Bob Dylan thrust singer-songwriters toward producing their own songs to fill albums. As Carole wrote the music, some of these songs were somewhat edgy and non-commercial, like 'Wasn't Born To Follow,' 'Going Back' and 'Snow Queen' demonstrating Gerry Goffin’s lyrical reflections of his introspective conflicts which were much different from his earlier ability to portray a female's sensibility to uncertainty about ever-lasting love. But, to his credit, Goffin still had the gift of output such as 'Pleasant Valley Sunday,' demoed by The Myddle Class and released by The Monkees.  As their marriage was ending and Carole and Gerry were leaving to live separately on the west coast, they managed to compose the famous '(You Make Me Feel) Like A Natural Woman' which Gerry Wexler quickly took to Aretha Franklin to belt out. The partnership and collaborations were sporadic after 1968 and Carole King pursued a solo singer-songwriter career of her own. 60s: The Myddle Class certainly recorded enough quality material to warrant hit songs.  Why did national success elude the group? KW: The music business was changing in the late '60s. The recording trade had some pretty loose rules of the game of engaging young talent when almost all it took to become "big" was to play steadily to adoring fans and get air-play on a few major radio stations so that teenage girls would buy your 45-rpm records, one at a time. Managers and producers with limited resources took large liberties with young artists who believed they had to pay their dues, for little pay because they just wanted to play their music. The talent of The Myddle Class was raw, unique and embryonic. I am getting a lot of feedback of how much the group was admired, especially the lead-guitarist. Rick Philp was right there along the bleeding edge with Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Stephen Stills, James Taylor, Carole King and more who were creating the sounds that would later be mimicked and admired. His loss sent a small universe into a tailspin and we can only wonder what a career he and the band could have achieved, had he lived. 60s: Being collectors in addition to fans, we're curious to know if the book details The King Bees' appearance in Barbara Rubin's film Suburbs of Heaven...or the Myddle Class' backing of The Bach's Lunch on a single, or their recordings that were never released... KW: No, I do not write about the movie; however, I do write about The Velvet Underground performing as the opening act at The Myddle Class’ inaugural concert at Summit High School in New Jersey, December 11, 1965.  I did know of a play that was supposed to be produced intending to feature The Myddle Class – but the gig never happened… so I left this story out of my book. I do write about The Myddle Class backing the production of 'You Go On' written by Rick Philp and David Palmer, released as a single recording by Bach’s Lunch; the lead singer of this girl group was friend Darlene McCrea. My book does provide information on the many band recordings that weren't released.  This book is much more than a straightforward account of a mid-'60's rock band. I write about my very personal relationships shared among an extremely talented, yet conflicted circle of friends, the circumstances of Rick Philp's killing, and the ultimate success of the friends left behind in L.A. to become icons of the music industry. The dark-side tragedy of my book tracks what became of Rick Philp's killer and could leave readers with lingering disdain over the loss of opportunity to enjoy the success of a gifted group of artists.  People ask me if I have achieved closure of a horrible wound by my writing this story.  I'll say, with a bit of lamenting heartache, I've enjoyed going back, but I am pleased with who and where I am now. For those who would like to purchase my book – A Song For You: he Quest of The Myddle Class – they can go directly to the following links; or they could email me for a signed copy for $30.00 (Hardcover) or $20.00 (Paperback) – tax and shipping is on me.  I welcome comments.   Thank you for your support.