We’ve previously had the pleasure of interviewing Michael Gleicher of The Cellar Dwellers, one of the many excellent local bands that recorded for Lance Records during the 1960s. Michael and his brother, Rick, were very important parts of the Albuquerque rock and roll scene, and one of Rick’s early bands featured Bill Oden, who would later become the keyboardist and occasional lead singer for The Yellow Brick Road. The Yellow Brick Road was a high-energy group that knew how to play the crowd, and that performed with a party atmosphere. While he no longer performs, Oden currently misses both his friends in the band and the crowds that The Yellow Brick Road so easily entertained.
An Interview With Bill Oden
60sgaragebands.com (60s): How did you first get interested in music?
Bill Oden (BO): I grew up in a family where music was everywhere. We had radio and record players, there was a TV but we were never were allowed to turn it on unless an adult did; that’s how I got to see Elvis and The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show. The mainstay in our home was the piano. That became my instrument of choice and I took the routine lessons ordered up by my mother every Saturday morning. Little did I know how those lessons would affect my world of music later. When I was in high school I met a couple of school mates interested in forming a band. I really wanted to play the organ but didn't have the means to own one at the time so I took to being the lead singer for the band. The rest is history.
60s: How did you first hook up with the Gleichers?
BO: At Del Norte High School in 1965 I had a couple of friends who knew Rick Gleicher, middle brother to Don and Mike. Don was older than us but had a great band already on the move in Albuquerque and had done a recording or two as I recall. Rick, I and our other classmates started a band called The Nomads and went to practicing at the Gleicher’s home garage every chance we got. Don would listen in on us, as did Mike, and offered advice to what we could do better; it wasn't always welcomed advice. In the big picture Don used us all in some of his recording sessions when he had written some material and had some recording time owed to him by the studio. This was a great experience because to hear all three of the brothers play was awesome; although I was doing vocals on the tracks, I always enjoyed listening to the music. Mike went on to form up with The Cellar Dwellers, another great group and The Nomads continued with our learning experiences and occasional gigs. It was a great way to start and we held our own—we even did a battle of the bands against The Cellar Dwellers which they said we won with the song ‘Kicks’ by Paul Revere and The Raiders. You didn't always get a compliment from Mike but when one came I really appreciated it.
60s: Where and where was The Yellow Brick Road formed?
BO: In 1967 I had just left another band I had played organ for and posted my name at one of our local music stores. I received a call from an interested band called The Yellow Brick Road (YBR) lead by guitarist Phil Puckett. I auditioned with the group one morning at the local Air Force Base and was brought on board as their organist immediately. I used the Vox Continental and Leslie and I'm sure the B-3 sound really sealed the deal because their variety of music needed such a sound. The band was made up of three Air Force Airmen and one Army Sergeant, all stationed at Kirtland AFB Albuquerque. The great thing about this band was that they had excellent practice facilities—either the Enlisted Club or the NCO Club on any given weekday night. The acoustics were great, the electricity free and there was lots of privacy. I loved it.
The band was made up of Phil Puckett, rhythm guitar (always a Fender) from Topeka, Kansas; Mike Fulmer, lead singer, from Conway, Arkansas; Lenny "Junior" Delitka, drummer (used only Ludwig Drums) from Detroit, Michigan; Richard "Spanky" Blue, bass guitar (always a Precision Bass, of course) from New York, New York; and myself Bill Oden, organist (Vox Continental and a Hammond Leslie) originally from Dallas, Texas. We added Jon Romero as our lead guitarist shortly after I joined the band. Jon and I were friends from a former group and he could sing and play awesome leads on anything you put in front of him. I never saw him with anything less than a Les Paul and several of them.
60s: How would you describe the band's sound? What bands influenced you?
BO: Personally, I was a Young Rascals fan. I always liked the B-3 sound and still do. Overall, we were very diversified when it came to our music. We could run out ‘Good Lovin'’" then back it up with ‘Hold on I'm Comin'’ by Sam and Dave. The great thing about our music is that we entertained our crowds. We would change up a lot of the well known songs and add our versions to lengthen the song to dance to for a while. We would sometimes add our own onstage moves and whenever we played ‘Land of A Thousand Dances’ our bass player, who was a little heavy but very light on his feet, would shuffle across the stage to the “Na Na” part of the song. The crowd loved it. We did even more: We brought people on the stage during a song and danced with them while playing. To us it was as much about good music as it was about having fun. We were influenced by The Rascals, Temptations, Four Tops, Steppenwolf and the regulars like The Kingsmen and The Ventures. When it came to what I called the naturals, The Beatles led the way, especially with Jon Romero on lead. He could play every song note for note and sing the songs as well. Playing with these guys was like a party every day.
60s: What was the Albuquerque rock and roll scene like in the '60s?
BO: I believe Albuquerque was a hot bed of talent. The first local band I heard while I was in high school was Lindy and The Lavells. Lindey Blaskey had a huge following on the dance scene and I was very impressed when I got the chance to interview him for a journalism class project. I learned a lot about the local music scene and it was probably one of the major reasons I wanted to pursue the band world in the first place. Groups I recall being always on the move were The Kreeg, Lincoln St. Exit, Cellar Dwellers, Viscount V, Scepters, The Morticians and The Monkey Men (and more than I can remember at this point). There was an all-girl band from my high school but I sure can't recall their name. They were great. I wish I could recall all the names but I know there were lots of bands from all the high schools for sure. And I know this: There must have been a lot of very tolerant parents and neighbors in town because there were lots of bands practicing from garages. I did a lot of the booking for the bands I worked for and never had a problem getting gigs. Everything from frats to clubs—everyone was hiring, even if you had to wait a few weeks for the gig.
60s: Where did the band typically play?
BO: The Yellow Brick Road played everywhere. One of the best parts of being with this group is that people wanted us and didn't mind paying for it. We played in only one major battle of the bands at the local coliseum in Albuquerque. There were bands on stage all day long and we were one of many. Who won? I only recall the bass player of the band was in one of my university classes and they played ‘White Rabbit’ with an awesome girl singer. Otherwise, we were on deck for country clubs, high school dances, frat parties (lots of those) and just about anywhere there was a need for a good band that could bring in a crowd.
60s: Did you play any of the local teen clubs?
BO: There were teen clubs around, but we catered more to the college and over-18 crowd.
60s: How far was the band's "touring" territory?
BO: We did do some traveling into Northern New Mexico but never more than a night away. I know we drove through some awesome snow storms sometimes. I would say Albuquerque, Grants and Santa Fe area the most. In other bands, I traveled a lot more into other parts of the state and into Texas.
60s: Was Chris Arleff your manager?
BO: Chris was a great guy! We knew him through his reputation of booking gigs at some of the most sought after places in town to play. Although Chris managed a lot of the best groups in town, we didn't sign with him. However, he would book us anyway and most times he was in the crowd having a good time.
60s: How popular locally did The Yellow Brick Road become?
BO: Very. We had such a good time that whenever anyone knew we were booked for a gig there was usually standing room only. I can testify to that fact because of my line of vision on stage. There were some dances where people couldn't get in either due to fire department rules or just not having room to sit. As I mentioned, we just had fun and we made the crowd have fun with us. We had some close calls with our equipment cords and such but we learned to watch for things. I recall one incident at the University of New Mexico Sub whereas our lead singer decided to use both our PA and the stage PA. It was a bad idea. They were not grounded properly and he took a shock that knocked him out cold. The crowd was so into the song ‘Purple Haze’—strobe light and all—that they thought his knock out was part of the act. It wasn't and they had to cart the singer off to the hospital for a checkup. The dance didn't stop. We always had a backup plan and yours truly became the lead singer for the rest of the night. I would say we were popular because we always wanted the crowd to be happy.
60s: Did The Yellow Brick Road record?
BO: No professional recordings I'm sorry to say. We thought about it some but we were into being a stage band for the most part. One of our issues was that the majority of the musicians were military and money was in short supply. We had a couple of offers to record but each time we listened we learned the pitch was phony, which made us a little nervous about anyone wanting to use us for personal gain. One dude I recall made a big deal about making a record only to find out he wanted to make a record himself and needed some of us to back him. It was a big no no. He was a freak! I would say had we recorded with the original members of the group it would have gone pretty well but later when several were transferred to South East Asia or discharged, the replacements we had were not as talented for studio work, which was okay; they were still good musicians for the stage.
60s: Did The Yellow Brick Road write any original songs?
BO: If we had written songs I would have probably been the one to do the lyrics. Since high school, I had a talent for words and used to write songs all the time, at least from the lyrics point of view. I got good reviews on my work from friends. As for the music, that would have been Jon Romero. He had the talent to make the music happen and probably still does. Had we made the move to writing and studio work I would never have hesitated to work with Jon.
60s: Do any '60's Yellow Brick Road recordings exist? Are there any vintage live recordings, or unreleased tracks?
BO: There are vintage live recordings of the Yellow Brick Road and I believe Phil Puckett probably has all the recordings. During my time with Phil and the original group there were several gigs where recorders were set up along with a camera. I never realized that we were probably doing some of the first music videos in the world from an amateur level.
60s: Did the band make any local TV appearances?
BO: To my recollection we never did any TV appearances.
60s: What year and why did the band break up?
BO: The breakup of The Yellow Brick Road was a heartbreak. After a couple of years of good times, the military part of the group started getting shipped off or discharged. Phil Puckett was transferred to a base in California, Lenny got out of the Air Force and moved back to Detroit with his new wife, Mike Fulmer was shipped off to Vietnam and Richard Blue left the Army and moved back East. Jon Romero and I kept the band going with a couple of former band mates, Chris Davis on drums and Kelly Stevens on bass. I took over the lead singer and organist position; of course, Jon played lead and sang as well. The problem was that the life of the band wasn't there—the fun sparked by those former members didn't remain and we became just a band. In February of 1970, following one of our band parties, Kelly Stevens, our bass player, was killed in a car accident late that night on the way home. Ironically, we had a Valentine’s Day gig the coming weekend and my friend Rick Gleicher, who had just returned from Vietnam, stepped up and offered to play bass for us that night. The gig went okay but as you'd expect the life of the band was gone. I returned home that night and decided I had come to the end of The Yellow Brick Road. Jon Romero went on to play in other groups, eventually moving to California and becoming a studio musician for a few years before returning to Albuquerque and continuing his career in computer systems. Rick Gleicher went on to get his Doctorate in Computer Science and to the best of my knowledge is still in Albuquerque (I saw him for the last time in 2003). Chris Davis, the drummer I had worked with in past bands before The Yellow Brick Road, passed away a couple of years ago in Albuquerque.
The memories I have of all these friends will always be with me and I have a single newspaper article with our picture done on December 25, 1967 that I cherish as a reminder of when we just had fun—and plenty of it. There is another person in that picture that I failed to mention that played trumpet for us on some of our gigs. His name is Paul Crepeau. He wasn't fulltime but worked as our horn section when needed.
60s: Did you join or form any bands after The Yellow Brick Road?
BO: Yes. This is interesting. In 2002 I was managing a medical firm in Albuquerque when a lady friend of mine came into my office and mentioned she knew I used to play in a band once upon a time. Yeah, right…30 years ago. She ask if I would be interested in auditioning for a classic rock group made up of a local doctor and a few well-to-do real estate men. I thought she had to be kidding but she said she was the lead singer for the group and their keyboard player had recently left and they needed a replacement. Not to be one to back down from a challenge, I said I'd give it a thought. I went home and mentioned to my wife this opportunity and she thought it would be great, so off to the music store I went to purchase some new gear just to audition. Guess what? They took me on. The name of the group is Time Traveler, fitting for the situation and my personal place in it. You have to understand that working with a medical doctor in his late 40s, who is taking guitar lessons and actually doing pretty darn good at it, (we're talking midlife crisis here, folks) and two real estate tycoons on bass and drums with ample experience and pretty much set in their ways, is really not the way to break into the music scene when you’re in your late 50's, but I did it. The lead singer and I were good friends and we did have to tolerate a lot of ego stuff but in the mix it all turned out sounding pretty good. Another plus, these folks could afford anything they wanted when it came to material and equipment. I thought this very important. Anyway, my wife and I decided to move to Prescott, Arizona in mid-2003. Therefore, I left the band in need of another keyboard player and they did eventually get one but it wasn't easy. I have to admit that this experience made me yearn for another opportunity to rock on with another classic rock group but to date nothing has transpired and it’s probably just as well. I enjoy playing music for myself and keeping agile on the keyboards. There are some pretty good groups here in town and several famous musicians in town as well, from The Beach Boys, Grass Roots to The Captain and Tennille down the road. Just last weekend I heard a classic rock group at the mall for some type of fund raiser and just to listen to them sing and play made me think.
Life today here in Prescott is like heaven on earth. My wife and I operate a medical supply company, the true dream job for people our age. We are both respiratory therapists. She runs the office and I do the marketing. Our outlet for the most part is raising quarter horses and my involvement with the Prescott Frontier Days Rodeo as one of their Chairmen. In addition, I am retired from having served in both the Army and Air Force Reserves for 22 years with my last active duty assignment being Desert Storm in 1991. We are blessed to have several of our grandchildren living in Prescott while the rest of the family still lives in Albuquerque. If the opportunity came to just jam with folks who want to play classic rock I'd be happy, although today I throw in a little Eagles, James Taylor and George Strait for variety. It’s always a kick to let the grandchildren and children know that once "Papa" was a real rock and roller in a band. They just give me the look! Of course…I grin and remember.
60s: How do you best summarize your experiences with The Yellow Brick Road?
BO: If I could do it all over again, I would. I miss my friends and fellow musicians. I miss the happy crowds and the great music of the era, not to mention the innocence of the times which, when fun, was really fun. I can best say that if I could sit in Jon Romero’s 1966 Chevelle Convertible with him and all the rest of the guys I have mentioned in this interview overlooking the lights of Albuquerque from the West Mesa, it would be a grand time. The stories we would tell and the memories we would surely share and cherish. As Dick Stewart’s wife wrote of him in one of her interviews, "Old musicians don't die; they just go on and on!" I would add one more saying in that if someone asked an old musician why all these memories mean so much, all you'd have to say is, "You had to be there."
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