Great Falls, Montana is not one of the first places one thinks of when researching local music scenes. It's been said, however, that every town in America in the 1960s had a band, and The Missing Lynx happened to be one from Great Falls. The band toured the Western states, and even recorded a single for RCA. Guitarist/keyboardist/bassist/drummer Tom Groener provides more information...
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An Interview With Tom Groener
60sgaragebands.com (60s): How did you first get interested in music?
Tom Groener (TG): My cousin from Idaho Falls, Idaho, came to visit like usual one summer and he brought an electric guitar and amp with him. That and the British Invasion was all it took. I was hooked. None of us in the group had any music training. It was all by ear and natural talent. It took mine (natural talent) quite some time to kick in.
60s: Was The Missing Lynx your first band?
TG: My first band was The Mandarins. This band eventually became The Lynx after changing a number of musicians and evolving from making noise to actually playing a song that was recognizable.
60s: Where and when was The Missing Lynx formed?
TG: The Missing Lynx was officially named in 1966 in Great Falls, Montana by Jerry Andersch, the drummer-composer, and I. The group consisted of Tom Groener, 12-string guitar (main instrument), keyboards, bass, and drums; Jerry Andersch, drums and bass; Fred Nicholls, bass, guitar and keyboards; and Dean Snow, lead guitar. Dean can play any instrument if you give him five minutes to learn. He is a natural musician.
60s: The photos we're printing show a fifth member...
TG: We had a number of lead singers back and forth and finally realized we didn't need one. We really didn't get our true sound until we were just the four of us.
60s: How would you describe the band's sound? What groups influenced you?
TG: The major influence and best group ever produced and never topped natually is The Beatles. Others we admired were The Beau Brummels, The Hollies and The Association. Their harmony and songs were next to none. Our sound was unique that we had a heavy influence of the three sounds of the bands I listed. One thing I must say is we were loud. Not overdone, but we had the volume before heavy metal came into existence. We were also very tight.
60s: Where did the group typically play?
TG: We started with school dances across the state and then the clubs and then started touring with other groups around the Western part of the country.
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60s: Did you play at any teen clubs?
TG: The local clubs were great. I remember VIPs A-Go-Go (Havre, Montana), The Blue Hare (Kalispell, Montana), Monks Cave (Missoula, Montana), Shanes (Great Falls, Montana) and The Showboat (Great Falls, Montana). We really had a great following with our two major universities, University of Montana and Montana State University. We also had a lot of gigs with the smaller colleges around the state, in Havre and Great Falls. We also toured the Western states.
60s: Did The Missing Lynx participate in any battle of the bands?
TG: We were in a number of battle of the bands contests, We won all of them but one. No brag, just fact. I always loved that saying. I finally got to use it. Some of the other bands we competed against were The Gestures, The Remains, The Ravens, The Out of Sight, The Fabulous Five, The Martian Sand Band, and The Grass Plantation ( I think that name speaks for itself). Boy, you are using what grey matter I have left up.
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60s: Did The Missing Lynx ever have a manager?
TG: We had a manager for awhile but we did better doing it ourselves. We printed up stationary with our letter head along with posters. We had joined our local union which helped getting our exposure and we had sisters, brothers and friends that ran our office and doubled as our roadies. They had a ball also. We paid them when we could, but not often enough.
60s: Where did The Missing Lynx record?
TG: We recorded our first single ('To Be Like You' / 'Live One Life For Me', Drop Out, 1967) and other songs at Valtron Studios in Helena, Montana. RCA subsidized the payment because the studio was super profesional and they saved a ton of money not having to relocate us somewhere closer to one of their studios. This worked great for all of us. The composers of our first single were Dean Snow and Jerry Andersch. They were the main song writers for most of our material for a long time until Fred Nicholls (bass) joined. He and I started writing more songs. The best material I thought was when Dean and I started writing together. We would grab a six-pack and sit around the piano. Me with an acoustic guitar and Dean on the piano.
60s: Why wasn't the second single released?
TG: The two songs on the unreleased single are 'San Francisco Bus' and 'Long Time Sometime.' 'San Francisco Bus' is the song we found quite distasteful. The funny part is Dean wrote the music and didn't realize how drug related the lyrics really were until he actually heard them on the tape. Neither did I. The songs not only didn't have our sound, but the lyrics were all drug related. Dean and I were pretty much disgusted with the turnout of the record and the group parted their ways not very long afterward. It just wasn't our sound or what we stood for, so it stayed in moth balls.
There are also still some studio tapes we cannot get our hands on (yet). We have tapes upon tapes of wonderful songs. Also, we have one single that was not released and a bunch of home and live recordings. We had a great setup for recording and great recording equipment (reel-to-reel) at our disposal. We also had great music equipment, including Fender Dual Showmans, Vox Beatle Stacks and more.
We have written so many songs that we do forget them, and then we get mad at ourselves, but they usually don't come back. Now one you record, that's a different story. One song that Dean and I wrote, 'Pages Of My Mind' is, I feel, the best one we ever wrote. It is on one of the reels Dean is trying to preserve. I hope we can save that song recording. It is just Dean on the piano and me on acoustic guitar. If it moves us that much, it has to really have some punch with the everyday type of listener of easy quiet love songs. That's the one we should have released somehow but, by that time, the group was finished and we were about to enter mainstream adult life.
We were also hired by The Wham-O Toy Company to write a jingle about their new release of the an old toy, the Kazoo, and their new toy that you hum into to get the same sound as the Kazoo (or somewhat there of). Anyway, there was a problem with RCA and Wham-O and it was never released. We did play it on stage quitre often and it really was quite a hit with the crowd. It was really a novelty song but it catches people the right way. They loved it. Too bad...I think Wham-O made a big mistake not taking the song and using it in their advertising scheme. I haven't really heard of a "Hummazoo" since, have you?
60s: How did you hook up with RCA?
TG: We were discovered by Lucky Ashbey (RCA) at Northern MSU University while playing. He was a talent scout traveling around various colleges searching for talent. After we performed to a great crowd, he caught us backstage and filled us full of great ideas and built our hopes up super high. He came through with the bucks as promised, but man was he a (super jerk). Let's just say he was a real slave driver. It took us quite some time to get rid of him (contractually), but we finally convinced his boss that he was hurting us, not helping us. It is a long story, but everyone involved came out just fine...
60s: Did the band make any TV appearances?
TG: Our first release, 'To Be Like You,' was performed on American Bandstand in 1967. Our five seconds of fame came on America Bandstand. Our single had just been released and I got a call from a friend and he said it was playing on American Bandstand as an up-and-coming new release. We did not perform it live. To bad, but it did well.
60s: When and why did The Missing Lynx break up?
TG: The Lynx broke up around 1970 due to an infiltration of the drug movement. Unfortunately one member got into this area quite heavily and we parted ways. The remaining members stated a group called Fred and Company. We played a few gigs and one concert. This band was totally into writing new music but performing was basically out of the realm of possibility; we had had enough of that...believe it or not.
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60s: Whay keeps you busy today?
TG: I am a retired disabled old grocery hand. My title when I left Super Valu Grocers was Sale Manager. The lead player, Dean Snow, and I wrote and played music every chance we had when we were in the same city. We have oodles of written material. Recently, due to my disability,my guitar playing days are over. And yes it is awful, but that's how it works down here on Earth. I have no regrets whatsoever. Soon after the group broke up, Dean and I took over a young folks group at my church and wrote and performed songs with the young people at and for various church functions. That was great. What wonderful sound; hearing your own music sung with great voices and the blend of male and female voices with the triple harmony we wrote in the songs still gives me shivers. Now that was a great finish to our live performances.
60s: How do you best sumarize your experiences with The Missing Lynx?
TG: It was wonderful. I relive it almost everyday.
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