The recording industry has been blessed throughout the years with vision impaired musicians that refused to let their situation handicap them either while in the studio or while performing. Ray Charles, Roy Orbision and Stevie Wonder, of course, come immediately to mind--and now we can add the name David Dobler to the list. Although Dobler didn't grab the national spotlight like the others named, he has nonetheless had a very successful and rewarding musical career. His teen band Flame LTD recorded a classic single on Lennan, and his follow-up group was named, appropriately, One Blind Mice. 60sgaragebands ace researcher Billy Rollins located Dobler, and sat down with him at his home for a pleasant chat about David's '60's combos.
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An Interview With David Dobler
By Billy Rollins
60sgaragebands.com (60s): How did you first get interested in music?
David Dobler (DD): Well, I was about two years old when I pushed my sister off the piano bench and said, “It’s my turn,” and I just loved piano. I loved music. I remember knowing the names of chords, and I don’t really know I knew them, but I’d know when it as a C7 chord. And I found out a few years later, I think I was about five, that I had perfect pitch and didn’t know that until then, but I remember complaining when things were out of tune. I knew.
So I started playing when I was two, started banging around, and then at five years old – well, we moved to California when I was four, from Denver, so that I could go to a regular school. My mom didn’t want me to go to a residential school, so we packed up everything and moved to California. When I was five, I got my piano and I was so incredibly excited. I remember sitting down. I couldn’t play anything. I didn’t know what to do; I just would play notes.
There was a lady in the church that gave piano lessons. Her husband was the organist and choir director. She gave me five piano lessons, and I was kind of bored with some of the stuff, just playing ‘Old MacDonald.’ I already knew the melody. So I said to her, “How do I play ‘Silent Night’ with chords?” So she played it, and I said, “Oh, like this?” and I played it back to her, and that was my last lesson.
That’s how I got started. I had my first band at 10, and most of the people in the band were blind, except for – yeah, I think actually everybody in the band was blind at that time, except for one guy had a little bit of sight.
60s: Flame LTD was not your first band then…
DD: No. The first band was probably together for, oh, maybe six months or so, or a year. I don’t honestly remember. And then I remember playing in a few different bands. I met some guys that used to be in a band called The Hush Puppies, and I don’t know if they recorded any records or not. I always seem to meet a lot of musicians. My brother, both him and I – he started playing when he was 11 and we got into a band called The Establishment, and there were seven people in that band.
I didn’t sing in that group, but I did play. We had a drummer that played with us in that band, and I think before that, there was a band called The Marauders that we were in. A bass player by the name of Greg Hail, Mike Foley played drums, and John Jensen played guitar, and my brother Kip played guitar in that band, and of course, I was the organist and pianist.
60s: When and where was Flame LTD formed?
DD: It was formed by my brother and I, and I was in early high school. I might have been a freshman. I was about 15 when we formed Flame LTD. The drummer’s name was Dennis Romero. He is no longer living; he is deceased. The bass player was Larry McGaugh. My brother, Kip Dobler, and I, we formed Flame LTD and we played quite a bit in the area. I’m not sure how we got into the recording thing, and I’ll get into that later.
60s: What bands influenced you?
DD: I listened to lots of different styles of music, and I liked blues and jazz, and funk and all that kind of stuff, and I think those were some of the influences. There were always the English bands that were involved in the time, in the era, that were an influence. One of my big influences was a man by the name of Jimmy Smith who played jazz, so that was kind of some of the influence. Dennis’s influence was – he played a lot of funk and he was a very, very fine drummer. He played a lot of different places.
Our record is bluesy – kind of bluesy, a little jazzy, maybe. Definitely the English sound was in there. There were a lot of different things that influenced us. I think we were really contemporary to the time that we were in, and I think we had a really good band. We were pretty tight, and it was really a great band. It was fun to play in.
60s: What was the local rock-n-roll scene like in the ‘60s?
DD: Well, what I remember at that point in time, we would just play different places, parties. We played a school of arts in Idyllwild. I do remember that one. I’m not sure of all the places we ended up playing, but there were quite a few different parties and places that we played in that time, before we recorded the record. We met Leonard (Wojtowicz, owner of the Lennan label), and I’m not sure if he heard us somewhere – I don’t quite remember. You’d have to ask Leonard about that, but when we met him, he talked about recording us and so we went into Living Sound Studio in Azusa, California, and we recorded two songs.
I’d written one and my brother had written the other one. Kip had written ‘Never The Same’ and I wrote ‘Stay Right Here.’ We went in and we laid them down, and we did them in one take I think, if I remember correctly. All the music was definitely one take, and I think that the vocal was done in two takes on ‘Stay Right Here,’ and it was only because I didn’t get a couple of words out clear enough. But that was my very first experience in a recording studio, and I will never forget it. It was wonderful.
60s: Where did Flame LTD typically play?
DD: We did dances and we did parties, and we played schools, as well.
60s: Did you play any of the local teen clubs?
DD: You know, I don’t remember the teen clubs at that time. I know we did play – we may have played the Pace Center. I think we did. I know we played there, but I’m not quite sure. I think that was Flame LTD.
60s: How far was the band’s touring territory?
DD: Probably within 100 miles, at the very most. I think the farthest we ever went was Idyllwild.
60s: Did Flame LTD participate in any battle of the bands?
DD: Oh yes, we did. Most of the time we won the battles of the bands – not always, but most of the time we did, and I don’t remember most of the groups, but there was a band called Organized Confusion. In fact, I’m a friend of his today. He plays with me at a church. Anyway, we used to always win when they would battle the bands.
We did fairgrounds. I remember playing the fairgrounds in different places, and of course, some of the equipment we’d get to use was so unfamiliar, and it was fun, though. I had a great time.
60s: Did Flame LTD have a manager?
DD: Well actually, the manager was my mom, Lois B. Dobler. She was our manager, so that’s how we hooked up. She got us quite a few gigs, and even in the other bands that I was in, she managed quite a few of those, as well.
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60s: What were the circumstances leading to the band’s opportunity to record your 45 (Lennan L 1262)?
DD: We met Leonard Wojtowicz. I’m not really quite sure where my parents met him, but they were the ones – he talked to them about us recording, he liked what we did, he liked our sound, and we ended up recording and had a great time doing it. We did it on my brother’s 13th birthday, so that would have been about 1967.
The studio was an amazing place. I think the band that was in there – there was equipment that was the music machine. Their drum set was in there, and I remember playing the honky-tonk piano that was in the corner. Of course any time there was a piano, I was on it. I remember walking in, and it was a pretty good-sized room. To me, it was a pretty big room, and they had dividers up around all the equipment. I remember them bringing my organ in, setting it up, and I remember feeling the mics that they had on the Leslie. They were pencil mics – condenser, I know for sure now.
I didn’t know too much about the recording business at that point. They told us to do the music first and then to put down the vocals, and so if I remember correctly, we did it all in one take. We put the music down and then I came back and did the vocals, and I remember standing in front of this mic and my first impression was, I reached up to touch it, and it was a pretty good-sized mic. It was a Telefunken and it was a big mic. I remember it was warm and I asked him why, and he said there were tubes inside.
But I’ll never, ever, ever forget the sound. I have been looking for that mic sound ever since. That was such a wonderful recording experience, and that was my first time recording vocals other than tapes at home with whatever you could get your hands on. Of course, reel-to-reel back then, but it was wonderful. The board was amazing. I got to look at the Ampex machines that they recorded on, the Altec speakers, and I remember the engineer’s name was – I think his name was Danny or Dennis.
I think it was Dennis, and he showed me the board. Of course, the board was different. It had knobs and was way different than today’s consoles, but I remember the experience was so impressive to me. I saw the record cutting lathe and the mastering decks that they used, and I was so amazed at the sound and I loved it. It was wonderful. It was a great experience.
(Note: Reportedly, 100 copies of the 45were pressed as by Flame LTD, and 50 each as released by David Dobler and by Kip Dobler).
60s: Did Flame LTD write many original songs?
DD: My brother and I were the songwriters of the band, and we didn’t write too many, no. We did a lot of cover tunes. We did stuff like ‘Midnight Hour’ and stuff like that. We did a lot of cover tunes, but we did some original things, some blues and different things, but those were the two that we recorded.
60s: Are there any other Flame LTD recordings? Are there any vintage live recordings or other unreleased tracks?
DD: Unfortunately, I don’t think there’s anything left of that. Not that I’m aware of. I will have to look through my tapes and see if there’s anything I can find, but I think that is the only recording we have of the band.
60s: Did the band make any local TV appearances and does any home movie footage exist of the band?
DD: I don’t think there’s any home movie footage. There may be some pictures somewhere stored of the band. I do know that we played a lot of places, so there could be pictures somewhere.
60s: What year and why did the band break up?
DD: We just moved on. It was after the recording, probably about a year. The drummer left and went on to be with a band called Jerry and The Uniques, and they did recording at the same studio, Living Sound, and Dennis went on to play with other musicians, and we never really ever did too much after that. We did play once and a while together, but he moved on to a whole different – he wanted to play soul music, so that’s where he went.
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60s: What about the group One Blind Mice, which also followed quickly after Flame LTD in the ‘60s?
DD: One Blind Mice was a way different kind of band. Kip was a little bit older there, and we got into kind of boogie music and stuff like Zeppelin-ish, more like Zeppelin stuff. It was the later ‘60s. And my brother and I played together from the time he was 11 until, oh gosh, I was probably 22 or 23. I’m four years older than him, so it was a long time we played together and we’ve played together off and on through the years. We just recently released a CD, last year, called Forever Love. The two of us hadn’t played together for 25 years.
But back to One Blind Mice, the base player’s name was Danny Glidden, and the drummer’s name was Jon Friese. Jon Friese is still alive, and I have his contact information. We got hooked up. We talked this last year, and it was great to talk to him. We even talked about maybe a reunion of One Blind Mice and doing some of the material. Unfortunately, the bass player is no longer alive. He was killed in an auto accident in the early ‘70s. He went into a band called Ouch for a while after he left us.
We had a lot of different engagements. One of the places that I remember playing a lot was the Difference Club. It was owned by the drummer of The Strawberry Alarm Clock. I don’t remember his name, but I remember him and I remember the nightclub. It was actually called the Gas Company there, and that’s where we played on Colorado Boulevard there. We did a new year’s show. I slept on my organ pedals. I remember laying on those.
One thing else that Bill and I talked about was I had told him when I was about 15, I was hanging around in a club called O’Hara’s and I met this man. His name was James Rudy. James Rudy came up to me and he started speaking to me about my technique, and he said, “Can I come to your house and show you how to kick bass pedals?” because he saw me playing with my feet and playing just the toe method, and the proper way is to play heel-toe. He came to my house.
This guy played with Donald Bailey, Kenny Burrell and all those guys. He played like Jimmy Smith. I couldn’t even believe how good this guy was. He was just amazing. He came to my house and he spent about three days with me, early morning until late, late at night. We never stopped. We didn’t even stop to eat, and he would teach me. I remember him taking my feet in his hands and showing me where to change over from toe to heel, to toe to heel, and how to kick bass pedals. So now I can play bass pedals pretty well, but it was because of him. It changed my whole style of playing.
I always liked jazz and I always liked blues, and I remember one of the groups that did influence us back in the day was The Animals when they came out, and it was the organist that influenced me, not so much the singing, but the organist and the bluesy playing that he did.
But this man, James Rudy, I wish I could find him and thank him because what he gave me was a gift that could never be bought, and to be able to learn to play. So he left me after the three days. He put bricks on my feet to strengthen my feet, and he tightened my bass pedals, so that I had to play them harder. He taught me how to do it and I took his lessons to heart the three days that he spent, and I spent many, many, many, many hours playing and doing the bass pedals and all that, and then the legacy he left was amazing.
And he told me, he said, “Now, you go out and buy Jimmy Smith albums,” which I did, and I learned a lot of his licks and I learned how he played it, and I learned with he did with his left hand and how he played left-hand bass, and that’s what made me the organist I am today, and I still play organ and piano both.
60s: How do you best summarize your experiences with Flame LTD?
DD: They were great times. They were really wonderful experiences. It was a great time to play music. People were receptive, and they accepted you for how you were and how you played, and we were always well liked wherever we played.
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