Out-of-print Book Report: “Starting Your Own Band” (1980)

Ah salad days.

Making noise with some high-school bros

and/or chicks

maybe you were on the “wheels-of-steel”

or maybe you were the one who pushed ‘RECORD’ while others were in the lights

Good days.

“Starting your own band” (h.f. ‘SYOB’) was published in paperback by Weekly Reader Books of Middletown CT in 1980.  It’s the work of one Lani Van Ryzin, who also wrote several other books on subjects and near as “Cutting a Record in Nashville” and as far as one volume on creating magical spaces in your yard.  Anyhow, SYOB is a 64pp volume squarely aimed at high-school students.  Some of the suggestions on offer:

“To succeed, (a band) must flow together– not just musically, but in feelings, too. And it simply won’t flow if’s full of personality hassles…”

“It’s probably best not to start talking ‘Band Talk’ until after several jam sessions.”

“Extension cords are expensive and necessary…”

“Making music is making sounds, and the quality of the sound you make is critical.”

Could there ever really be a book of a sufficient length to offer the knowledge necessary to operate a rock-band smoothly?  The answer is no.  Lani, if you’re out there, tell us about the bands you were in…  send us some MP3s.

Back to the photos.  I am going to wishfully believe that these pics were shot in Connecticut, home of the publishing company responsible for this treatise…  prove me wrong (or right).   As I look at these images, which truly feel like they are from so-very-long-ago, I have to recognize that I was in a high-school garage-band in CT a mere 10 years later.  Trying not to cross the line from ‘historical research’ to ‘actual nostalgia.’  Wish me luck.