The Minutemen were a very popular teen combo from Binghamton, New York during the mid-to-late 1960’s. Although they never recorded, they were one of the top groups from the Binghamton, Johnson City and Endicott areas. Drummer G. Ted Tedino provides the band’s story.
G. Ted Tedino Recalls The Minutemen
March 2008
I became interested in music, drums, at an early age as a result of my uncle, who occasionally played. I joined the band in grade school with a couple of my buddies. All three of us were drummers. That didn’t last long as we were more interested in sports than in playing music.
The Minutemen was my first and only band. We started playing together in 1965, or last year of junior high school, and played until1970. I formed the band along with another of my high school friends, Jerry Rogers, the bass player. The original Minutemen consisted of me on drums, Jerry Rogers on bass, Don Linville on lead guitar, Larry Claudia on keyboards and Rocco Marcello on vocals.
Our sound was derived from the rock and roll of the ‘60s: The Rascals, Paul Revere & The Raiders, The Animals, The Stones, The Beatles, Beach Boys, Music Explosion, The Doors, The Standells, Shadows Of Knight, Vanilla Fudge, Dave Clark 5 and others.
The rock scene at the time was the greatest. I was fortunate to be able to get into a lot of dances to hear our local bands. There were numerous good bands that I would get to watch and pick up pointers from; not just their music, but their equipment, how they dressed and their style of playing.
Most of the dances occurred at either the high school gym or the local churches. We had the chance to play at frat parties, teener dances, numerous house parties and even a battle of the bands. If I remember we finished second out of five groups. I remember because the band we lost to was The Town Criers from Vestal. There were two brothers in that band- Ray and Joe Courey. They dressed liked Paul Revere & The Raiders from the red and blue coats to the tri-pod hats. I think that’s what got them the trophy.
There were a lot of good bands from the area that were older than us and that we looked up to: Butch Skeene and The Second Edition, The Third Edition, C.M. Ice, The Fabulous Failures, The Ids, R.M. Soul, The Uniques, The Esquires and The Malfunctions. I know there were others but I can’t remember their names.
We played a couple times at a place called The Jacenta Lounge, the Jewish Community Center, St. Mary’s Assumption and W.J. Teener. There were a handful of teener clubs and our area had a lot of church hall and high school dances.
Our playing area was confined to what we call the Triple Cities (Binghamton, Johnson City and Endicott). Vestal was also in the mix. All I can say is we were the local great band for our side of town. Many of our fellow students followed us around the party scene.
Tony DiRico, who was my neighbor, managed us for a while. He got us a couple gigs before he dropped out of the band scene. We also had a guy, Frank Rumple, who was dating Jerry’s sister Kathy. He was always teaching us new songs and how to play them. He was in a couple bands himself.
We never had studio time but it would have been nice to record. I know a couple older guys at the time that were recording and they were all hyped up about how it sounded. We never did any TV shows either.
In the last six months everyone left the original band but me. I then met a kid, Skip Shear (bass) two doors down from me. We added Scott Taylor, a keyboard player; and Mark Fredericks and Larry Cosgriff, two guitar players. We played a couple gigs together but I knew it was almost over for me. Still...they were good guys and I have great memories.
I didn’t go on to play for any other groups once we disbanded. I am currently employed by the city of Binghamton as the city’s zoning officer. I still see Jerry Rogers. He has his own very successful trucking/rigging business and has done that ever since high school. Larry Claudia is a successful real estate broker. Rocco Marcello is a used car wholesaler/dealer. They are all still in the Binghamton area.
I can’t speak for the others, but I will never forget the band and my time with those guys. I wish I could do it all over again. I can still hear us playing, “G-l-o-r-iiii-a. Gloria!”
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