Paradox (1975)

One Uponce A Time....

Back in the misty moisty pre-history of the legend-in-its-own-
time that was Alien Planetscapes there were four or five eager young
schoolboys, musicians and techies who found each other by following
the spark of an idea that they could make music of their own every bit
as good as anything they could find on the radio or in the record
store....

These fellas, Ronald McCalla, Douglas Walker, Peter Murphy, and
Tom (I wish to heck I could remember his last name...this will be a
recurrent theme in these narratives, I do apologize and I mean no
slight to anyone affected by my lack of most of my brain) ...and
myself, if I may be so bold as to suggest. I know there are those who
might be of the persuasion that a band consists only of what you are
likely to see on the stage, but as far as I know, we never did, and I
was *always* accorded the respect of an equal within our ever changing
family and I was always made to feel a 'member in good standing' in
every way. But I digress...These fellas, as I say, formed a band,
yclept 'PARADOX'. Ron learned his keyboard chops exclusively on the
piano, as far as I remember, but in Paradox he played mostly the
organ. It was a matter of expedience as much as anything, the only
piano's we had available to us in the beginning were big, and quite
immobile, acoustic things. Ron played a Farfisa 'Fast 3' at first.
Yes, we used to laugh about it too. But money and the lack thereof was
a major behind the scenes theme of that and many of those early bands
for us. Douglas played his trusty old Bundy flute, Pete played a Pearl
kit, I believe (he was just a killer drummer, we have always had
amazing luck with drummers) and Tom played a couple of lovely Fender
basses through a custom Peavy rig. Tom was, a bit later, to switch to
guitar, six and twelve string, when the Mike (again, nothing short of
hypnosis is gonna draw the last name from my poor head). It was a
wonderful combo, all progressive rockers with heavy jazz
enthusiasms...or maybe it was the other way 'round? We rehearsed and
got to know each others ways in a series of family basements, mainly
Ron's is Hollis, and then Peter's in Middle Village. We lived largely
on good fellowship, Blatz beeer and plenty of hashish. And music. We
played a few gigs, one, I think, in the cafeteria at City College,
though that may be a false memory...I know that they did book bands
there at the time...we all saw John McLaughlin there before he hit the
stratosphere in terms of fame...and two others of particular note
which I will mention here, not necessarily in order. One was a last
minute "Hey, you guys wanna play..." kind of gig at Peter's sisters
Catholic high school auditorium, St. Mary Up The Cream Bun And Jam or
some such. We all was lit up that night something fierce and had the
good Sisters sniffing us up and down all evening...and not in a good
way, either. The original music was, well, mostly politely recieved,
but as the evening wore on we realized that we had to break out
something more familiar. I won't go farther, so as not to dishonor
everybody's notion of the good Doctor, but if Doug ever regaled any of
you with his notions of what he would not ever be caught dead doing
and how he would never, ever stoop to playing stuff like 'Johnny Be
Good' and 'Jumpin' Jack Flash', nunja believe it!!
The other gig that comes to mind from the Paradox era was the
night we played Creedmor. Yes Walter, I said Creedmor. *That*
Creedmor! For those of you who are not Queens locals, Creedmor is the
principal state hospital for the, ummm, *psychologically challenged*
in Queens, New York, and it was in it's heyday at the time, the
program that eventually "de-instutionalized" most of the inmates of
such facilities around the state had at that time only recently begun.
So we pull up to the gate and, of course, they don't know squat about
any stinkin' gig and are frankly earnestly disbelieving of the notion
that anyone would be so deluded as to book such a thing in such a
place at all. But, calls are made and we are admitted and we make our
way around the grounds until we find the stadium. Yes, the
stadium...this is to be an outdoor gig. The stadium is a standard
american baseball field smack in the middle of the vast grounds of
this hospital complex. Who knew?? It has a diamond laid out and
viewing stands on the first and third baselines, just like the real
thing. But this field is surrounded, in its entirety, from behind the
stands on the home plate side, completely around the outfield and back
again, by a twenty five or thirty fooot high chain link fence. A
little disconcerting, eh what? But no matter, our attentions were
drawn away form that bit of business when we notice that the viewing
stands are separated from the field proper by similar, if not quite as
high chain link fencing, so not only can we not get out, but we are
immediately put on our guard by the institutions idea that it would be
a good idea to protect *us* from our *audience*. Oy vey. Or anyway, so
it seemed to us at the time. I think the band at the time was Pete
Murphy, Ron McC., Doug, Mike da bass, Tom on guitars, and a second
guitarist...of whom we saw neither hide nor hair after that
night...his first and last show with us, a recurring subtext in this
history. The show actually came off quite smoothly...except for the
fact the the stage was about eight feet high and just big enough for
all of the players...oh, and there was only a ladder to get us and our
equipment on and off...and no guardrail. But the crowd proved to be
harmless, dazed and appreciative by turns, very sad really, they had
them drugged up but good, most of them moved like zombies. There was
an opening act, and the headliners were this hilarious Sha Na Na knock
off act, very good at what they did, really, but we were mortified at
the time. As the sun went down and it got dark most of my time was
taken up keeping the patients out of our transport, I felt like the
laundry van in an old prison movie.

Well, that's my first installment, rather more useless
information than may be desired, but a lot less than there was to be
had. I'll tell you the story of moving Mike's upright piano sometime.
Anyway, the key thing to take away with you is that this band,
PARADOX, was the direct precursor, both sire and dam, the begetter of
the Band Third Sun...there were other bands with whom Doug was
involved before, but this was, I would argue, the true first link in
the long and branching chain. More to come soon...tired
fingers...sorry.

RB