As a result of Ron Tognarelli's story on Prince & The Paupers, we were contacted by latter day member Phil Cabuzzi. Cabuzzi replaced Bob Silva on bass, and provided some additional information on Prince & The Paupers, other area bands, and the rock scene in general...
Phil Cabuzzi Recalls Prince & The Paupers
I grew up with Frankie (Johnny B Goode) Whitehead). He he…we were in Cub Scouts together and Frankie's real name is Carlton Whitehead, but he'd get pissed if you called him that.
Dennis, Chris and I were best friends through high school. Chris Cunningham trained on classical piano, and was an excellent painter and lead guitarist.
Chris then suggested Dennis for the group. I forget but I think Bob left cause he was gonna get married and his wife insisted he get a real job. That’s when I took over at bass. By that time it was Dennis, Chris, John and myself and we were doing a Sgt. Peppers cover set with mainly Chris's songs for the rest of the gigs. I'll note that whomever wrote the liner notes on the web page was most accurate about the fan reaction. We also did some promo gigs with Ron Robin and Dick Summers from WMEX, which was the only really good rock station at the time. Anyway, we also started booking a lot of college gigs like Colby College in Maine. That came about when we hired Kenny Streigt as our band manager and mentor.
As mentioned earlier, Kenny was the original bass player from The Pied Pipers out of Lexington, Massachusetts from a few years prior; it would have been maybe 19651967. They were about the most popular band in Massachusetts at that time. It was Frosty Aaronson, Barry (Spider Bo) Boski, Kenny Streight, Scott Benton and—sorry—I just can't dig out the drummers name. Frosty did the front man chores and played keyboard. Besides their talent, Frosty's stage presence was one of the main reasons for their success. I heard somewhere that Frosty jumped from the back of a cruise ship and was never found. Barry had a stroke, and became paralyzed on the left side. Kenny moved to San Francisco where he met Mike Wilhelm of The Charlatans (The Charlatans were one of the original San Francisco bands). Prior to Barry's stroke, he went England. While there, with the exception of drums, he wrote, performed and recorded all parts of an album that rivaled anything Paul McCartney was doing. Barry was a fabulous songwriter. I wish I still had that cassette but it melted on a dashboard in Los Angeles. One too many hot LA afternoons.
Well, Mike and Kenny formed Loose Gravel and had one hit called ‘Gravel Rash’ then went nowhere. Around that time I moved to San Francisco and Mike introduced me to Cyril Jordan, who was the guitar player in The Flamin Groovies, later to become popular in Europe. Cyril had broken with Roy Loney and was looking for a new front man and I got Chris Wilson from Waltham to come out and audition. Chris tells the story a tad different but that could be (a result of) either age or embellishment.
Let’s see, what else? Oh yeah…Dennis was hit by a car while crossing the street in Arlington. I never did hear from Frankie and I lost touch with Chris. I went on to manage The Lodge at Harvard Square and shortly after Woodstock moved to San Francisco where I met Wilhelm. I finally got married and went on to raise a family. I hadn't touched a guitar till a few years ago. You can find some of my amateurish stuff on YouTube under ZZJOCA.
I came back to Boston for a few years in the early ‘70s and managed a store in Brookline Village. There was this kind of weird guy who came in the store a lot and was always trying to get me to jam with him. I declined because he struck me the wrong way. I always remember him saying he'd be famous (how many times have you heard that?) because he had the formula to rock and roll. He turned out to be Rick Ocasek from The Cars. I'm still kicking myself over that one.
Last little tidbit, unrelated to Prince & The Paupers: The straightest kid in Arlington High was Dave Ryan. He became Chico in Sha Na Na. Lenny the sax player (think heavy set) came from a ‘60's group in Massachusetts called The Pilgrims. I now live in Winston-Salem after 20 years in San Diego.
Thanks for giving me the opportunity to add some historical facts. I hope I didn't miss anything.
Phil Cabuzzi
December 2010
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