Marauders Thanks to our interview with Tony Stallard of The Magnificent Seven, we were contacted by Jerry Taylor, a member of popular Lexington, Kentucky band, The Marauders.  The Marauders were a blue-eyed soul group that played R&B and were heavily influenced by James Brown.  Once they added female vocialist Mickey Levi, they expanded their sound even further by performing many of the hits by the top female artists of the era. Although Taylor left The Marauders before they disbanded, he was part of the band's 1964-1968 heyday. Original Band, 1964. L-R Bottom: Jerry Taylor, George Graves, Richard Perry, Randy Evans; L-R Top: Don Jeffers, Bill Leslie and Ray Peden. An Interview With Jerry Taylor 60sgaragebands.com (60s): How did you first get interested in music? Jerry Taylor (JT): I had always been a big music fan and took band from grade school through high school but sports kept me from being real active. I guess in the late '50s the rock-a-billy sound really grabbed my attention and started me really listening to what was on the radio. It wasn’t until late high school that I started playing guitar and bass. I had played the drums prior to that. In the early sixties, even though the British Invasion was the pre-eminent sound in our area, I really became hooked on R&B. By the time I got to college R&B was it! 60s: Was The Marauders your first band? JT. The Marauders was my first and only band. The band was together from 1964 through 1968. 60s: Where was The Marauders formed? JT: In the fall of 1964, I entered the University of Kentucky along with two of my high school friends, Don Jeffers and Ray Peden. We were either in architecture or engineering and as freshmen had to live in a dorm. Once we got there we were quickly exposed to a lot of good local bands. We immediately decided to form our own band because we enjoyed playing and it would help pay for our college education. We ran an ad in the school newspaper, the Kentucky Kernal, and received a large number of responses from other students wanting to play. Within a few weeks we had a full compliment of musicians and began practice. I’ll have to say we never played in a garage! Across the street from our dorm was the Department of Agricultures' Stock Judging Pavilion. It had a large upstairs room and somehow we convinced them to let us practice there. Within three months we played our first paying gig. The line up was guitar, bass drums, organ, trumpet, saxophone and male vocalist. The music was R&B with some pop thrown in. The band was formed by Don Jeffers, Ray Peden and I. 1966. L-R Front Row: Bill Leslie, Mickey Levi; Back Row: Jerry Taylor, Steve Johnson, Ray Peden, George Graves, Randy Eichelberger and Don Jeffers. The original line up was Bill Leslie on vocals, Ray Peden on guitar, Jerry Taylor on bass, Randy Evans on organ, Richard Perry on drums, George Graves on saxophone and Don Jeffers on trumpet. In 1965 we were asked to be the opening act for Brenda Lee at Lexington’s Bluegrass Fair. It was four shows over two nights. The catch was the promoters insisted we have a female vocalist. I suppose they wanted to set the stage for Brenda. We agreed. It didn’t take us long to find Mickey Levi. Mickey was one of the original “Tempettes “ and  solo vocalist for The Temptashuns, who later changed their name to The Magnificent Seven. Although we only intended to hire Mickey for the one gig, the musical chemistry and the crowd effect made her a permanent fixture. The addition of Mickey changed the complexion of the  band. Although we were still a great fraternity party band, an older crowd immediately took to us. We could now add to our repertoire the music of Dionne Warwick, Dusty Springfield, Pet Clark as well as renditions of male artists such as Little Anthony, Smokey Robinson and others. With Mickey we moved to nightclubs from frat houses. Mickey on stage at the Bluegrass Fair; this was her first performance with the band. Over the next few years we had several changes. Richard Perry was replaced on drums by our high school buddy Steve Johnson. George Graves, our sax player, left and was replaced by Dave DeAtley. Randy Evans was replaced on organ by Ron Begley. Ray Peden was replaced on guitar by Steve Mickey. Finally, in 1968, I left over a dispute in leadership, and was replaced by Jackie Burch. The band toured that summer but disbanded shortly thereafter. 60s: How would you describe the band's sound? What bands influenced you? JT: The bands sound was definitely blue-eyed soul. We were greatly influenced by artists such as Little Milton, Sam & Dave, Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, and all the true R&B artists. We played all their songs. Another big influence was James Brown, not only for his music but his sense of "showmanship." If asked, we could do a two hour James Brown show. We tried to be more than a dance band. We tried to put on a show. I can’t talk about influences without giving a lot of credit to another local band, The Magnificent Seven. They are on your site as well. When we came to U.K., The Mag 7 had been playing for about three years in Lexington. They were obviously older than we were and had established themselves as the local band. They were exactly what we intended to be--a blue-eyed soul group. They greatly influenced us and some of us became good friends. I certainly like to count Tony Stallard, who founded the band,  as a good friend. You have to realize that in the mid- to late-Sixties, Lexington and Louisville had some of the greatest local bands in the country. In addition to The Magnificent Seven and Marauders, Lexington had The Torques and Gary Edwards and The Embers. Louisville had The Epics, The Mystics, The Monarchs, The Sultans, The Carnations, The Trendells and The Oxfords. These were all great bands. The band on stage at the Bluegrass Fair, complete with Go-Go Dancers! 60s: What was the Lexington rock and roll scene like in the '60s?  JT: Lexington is a very provincial town. Even in the Sixties the bulk of the band gigs were fraternity parties, university jam sessions or adult night clubs. I would say over 50% of our gigs were outside Lexington, many in Louisville, which was, and is, more progressive. There were some good local night spots like The Rebel Room, The Fireplace and The Embers Inn. Another regular gig was in a small town south of Lexington called Lebanon. It had two nightclubs, The Golden Horseshoe and The Club 68. Each had its own set of bands and you never crossed over. For instance, The Marauders played The Horseshoe and The Magnificent Seven played The Club 68. The two clubs drew students from colleges all over central Kentucky. Although not quite as bad, because they liked our music, the place sometimes reminds me of the scene from The Blues Brothers with the band behind chicken wire. 60s: Did you play any of the local teen clubs?  JT: In the early days, we played mostly at the universities--either fraternity parties or campus wide dances. Later we played a lot of adult nightclubs and special events. Our typical range for weekend engagements was Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio and Tennessee. Occasionally we would play clubs in Chicago. During the last summer the band was together, it toured nightclubs all over the country. 60s: Did The Marauders participate in any battle of the bands? JT: There were not any battle of the bands in our area that I recall. That phenomena did not occur until later. We were all too busy playing real gigs to participate in that kind of thing. As I previously mentioned, there were great local bands in our area. Whenever we had the chance we would go listen to each other. While there was obviously some rivalry we all respected one another. As an example, when The Marauders first formed we didn’t have a lot of money. The Torques were a well established band and after they bought a record and learned the song they would give us the record so we could also learn it. They were great guys.   60s: Did The Marauders have a manager? JT: I began as the band's manager and continued to run the “business” until I left in 1968. It became obvious pretty early on that we needed help booking engagements. The main Lexington agency was Cecil Jones Entertainment. Cecil booked The Magnificent Seven and Torques. I felt we needed someone different. I approached Louisville’s top agency, The Joni Agency, run by local WAKY disk jockey, “Jumpin” Gene Snyder. I felt they would have greater exposure and could promote us better. It was a partnership that lasted as long as the band. Eventually, since I was in Lexington, Gene asked me to be the “local” Joni agent for Lexington. It was a great arrangement for everyone; me, the band and Joni. I got the Louisville bands a lot of exposure in Lexington, after we were booked of course. 60s: How popular locally did The Marauders become?  JT: The band was very popular and had a loyal following. The only time we were not booked is if we asked for a night off. Besides great music and stage shows, I credit a lot of our success  to the Joni Agency. They promoted us well and put us in situations where we could get maximum exposure, like the Kentucky Derby “Derby Eve Jam” or as opening act for national recording artists. 60s: Why didn't The Marauders record any singles? JT: Recording was never a priority for us. One, we loved performing live; and two, we were interested in making money to pay our way through college. In those days local bands put up all the costs for recording and promoting a record. We were not interested in doing that just so we could say we had a record. The music business was never going to be a career for any of us. 60s: Did The Marauders write any original songs?  JT: No we didn’t try to write original music. We didn’t have time. We were full-time college students with a full-time music job. 60s: Do any Marauders' recordings exist? Are there any vintage live/practice recordings, or unreleased tracks? JT: Not to my knowledge. Any old tapes of us live would long ago have deteriorated into dust. 60s: Did the band make any local TV appearances? JT: No. 60s: What year and why did the band break up? JT: The band broke up finally in 1969. We were in the band because we loved music, we loved performing, but most of all we wanted to finance our education. The band members left as they completed school. It is a very successful group of people with successful careers. This includes architects, engineers, teachers and Government employees.  That was it for me, although at this point in my life I would like to perform again but in a much less stressful manner. 60s: How do you best summarize your experiences with The Marauders? JT: The time with The Marauders was the greatest time in my life. I loved playing and performing for people. It was a great ego trip. The band helped me get two college degrees. But most importantly by organizing, leading, managing and promoting the band I learned those things that allowed me to be a successful business person and practicing architect. I will always cherish those days, the friends we made and people we entertained. Hopefully we touched their lives a little. 1967. L-R Front Row: Steve Johnson, Ray Peden, Mickey Levi, Jerry Taylor; Back Row: Dave DeAtley, Don Jeffers, Bill Leslie and Ron Begley.