An Interview With Elwood Donnelly
60sgaragebands.com (60s): How did you first get interested in music?
Ed Donnelly (ED): I believe I came into this world singing. My parents had me sing for my relatives every time they or we visited. As a kid, I always knew all the lyrics to any song in the Top 40.
60s: Was The Lonely Things your first band?
ED: Yes, the Lonely Things was my first band; I was 15 years of age when we assembled the band.
The Lonely Things was formed in the west end of Providence, known by people as the Armory District.
The year was 1965. Four of us started the band: Jimmy Fleet and myself on vocals; Mike Pappas on drums; and his older brother Peter on rhythm guitar.
60s: How would you describe the band's sound? What bands influenced you?
ED: We were a garage rock band--performing songs from the Top 40 of the time--and influenced by The Who, The Association, The Rolling Stones, and The Beatles.
60s: What was the local rock and roll scene like in the '60's?
ED: There were several garage bands, and at least two better known bands: one rock band called Rizz, and a Beach Boys cover band called The Driftwoods.
60s: Where did the band typically play?
ED: We played at canteens, schools and VFW posts, as well as for battle of the bands events, including Sugarberries at Crescent Park - a popular amusement park during that period. There were a few clubs for teens during those days, and we played for some of them, but I can't remember any names.
60s: Did you play any of the local teen clubs?
ED: The LaSalle Canteen comes to mind, which I mentioned earlier. It was a private high school back then, and in Providence. Another was in a hall at the Holy Ghost Church, also in Providence.
60s: How far was the band's "touring" territory?
ED: Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts.
60s: Did The Lonely Things participate in any battle of the bands?
ED: I remember two battles. One vaguely, so I can only say we came in second place there. The other was at Central High School in Providence where we won first place. There are others mentioned in the news clips on my website, which I have totally lost memory of.
Other bands (we competed against) are listed in those news clips, but Take 5 was a band of friends.
60s: Did The Lonely Things have a manager?
ED: We had an unofficial manager. His name was Nick Pappas, father of Mike and Peter, our drummer and rhythm guitarist, respectively. He was able to get us some gigs at local VFW Posts, Sugarberries at Crescent Park; in fact, he probably got us most of our gigs.
60s: What were the circumstances leading to the band’s opportunity to record your acetate (‘Our Generation’ / ‘Zephyr’)?
ED: I had written ‘Our Generation’, and Peter wrote the instrumental, ‘Zephyr’, for the B-side.
Nick Pappas knew an engineer in a recording studio in Providence; so we, as young teens, were able to get into a recording session—but I can't imagine we spent ample time there, as indicated by the final mix. The levels are awful causing the background voices to overwhelm the lead vocal. In fact, I can't make out the lyrics very well myself, and I've forgotten them over these years.
60s: Where did The Lonely Things record?
ED: It was called New England Recording Studios, Inc., and it was in a room above The Crown Hotel on 208 Weybosset St. in Providence.
I remember that we played live—all together I believe, and this accounts for the poor mix, I am sure.
60s: Why didn't the demo ever get released?
ED: I’m not sure why we didn't release it independently; but we sent it someplace, New York, I believe. I wish I still had the refusal letter. The letter said the theme was too similar to the Who's ‘My Generation’, which was released earlier.
I think they were being kind, since I would in no way compare us to The Who.
60s: Did The Lonely Things write many original songs? Were you the band's primary songwriter?
ED: Most of the songs we performed were Top 40 of the years between 1965 and 1967. ‘Our Generation’ was the only song I wrote for The Lonely Things, and Peter's instrumental, ‘Zephyr’, was his only undertaking. No one else wrote songs for the band either, I believe.
I personally didn't really get into writing songs until the late 1980s. My wife and I are about to release our 12th recording, and this one is all original material, written by either Aubrey or me.
60s: Did the band make any local TV appearances?
ED: We actually lip-synced a song on a local WPRO station, which became WPRI in 1967. I can't remember the program's name, but I'll ask around. It was like an amateur hour for local happenings. We were postponed one week due to an overtime baseball game. I wish we had that television footage. (Note: According to Jim Auclair, The Lonely Things appeared on Wing Ding.)
60s: What year and why did the band break up?
ED: The band broke up mid-1967 because of the draft. Rather than be drafted and sent to kill, a couple of us applied for The Air Force. We didn't actually leave Rhode Island until 1968, but the band fell apart due to all the chaos over the war in Vietnam and the draft, since we were all coming of age for that.
I, personally, was sent to Vietnam anyway in 1969, but as a Fire Protection Specialist, meaning fire and rescue on the air strip at Da Nang.
60s: How do you best summarize your experiences with The Lonely Things?
ED: Those were scary times; bands playing in local halls were susceptible to violence by neighborhood gangs.
We, ourselves, not The Lonely Things, were considered a gang, and although we were friendly—because there were so many in our neighborhood group—we came off as a gang, and other neighborhoods would sometimes challenge us. But you never knew when a fight would break out back then, and a fight almost always led to a brawl.
One time, when our band was playing for a teen group in Mansfield, Massachusetts, some friends of ours, from another band, came to see us. During the dance, one of these friends got into a conflict with a local Mansfield teen and actually stabbed him with a knife.
We, The Lonely Things, kept right on singing and playing while local kids kept coming up to the stage and motioning that they were going to kill us as soon as we left the stage. Notwithstanding, we got a police escort out of that town.
However, we loved playing and singing enough to give the dark side as little attention as possible, and we had a good time and the kids who came to watch and dance always had fun too.
For more on The Lonely Things, check out Elwood's website...
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