In 1961 the Rockin Drifters temporarily disbanded. Jack Charles, who was playing drums at the time left to join another band and Jerry Boyd, who played bass, formed his own band in New Jersey. Actually Jerry had already been gone for about a month prior to the break up and Marcus Van Story from Memphis had been hired to replace him. When Lloyd came home in the summer of 1961 only a couple of band members returned with him. Lloyds next musical venture was focused upon a country music show based in Memphis. The program was organized by Buford Cody and Gene Williams. The idea grew from a KWAM radio program that Buford and Gene were producing at the time. This idea gave birth to the Cottontown Jubilee which was a radio program aired over KWAM with a live audience. It was broadcast every Saturday evening from the Rosewood Theatre on Lauderdale Street. Lloyd usually headlined the show along with other local Memphis performers, such as: Eddie Bond, Tommy Tucker, Bobby Davis, Dave Hillhouse & the Runabouts and Leon Starr to mention just a few. Buford and Gene also booked a Nashville artist every week for the Jubilee, artists such as: Bill Monroe, Stringbean, Sonny James, Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs, Bill Carlisle, Pete Drake and others. Soon the Jubilee began to travel through the surrounding areas of Mississippi, Arkansas and Missouri. Every Saturday, after the one oclock broadcast, the artists would board the Jubilee tour bus to journey to their destination for that nights performance. The show was billed as The Cottontown Jubilee with Lloyd Arnold and a Nashville guest artist. Bill Monroe was one of Pas favourite entertainers so naturally when Bill played the Jubilee, Lloyd brought him home for lunch to meet his dad. Before I left for school that morning, I reminded Lloyd and Pa of the table leaf extension that needed repair work. It was prone to give way at unexpected moments. When lunchtime came, Pa prayed as usual, giving thanks for the food and the conversation started flowing. I guess Lloyd and Pa forgot about the table leaf because, Bill, being the guest of honour, was seated at that end of the table. And yep you guessed it, that end calapsed .. As he took his first bite, the table leaf extension gave way and crashed into his lap. All the southern delicacies that had garnished his plate now lay splattered at his feet. While Ma rushed to the kitchen for towels, everyone else began to stammer for apologies. Mr. Monroe was gracious about the whole thing, no apology necessary .. When the ordeal was over, he discovered that he had one small spot of ice tea on his trousers. Everything else was on the floor. After that, we got the table leaf fixed. During the Cottontown Jubilee days, Lloyds back up band consisted of local Memphis musicians. In 1962, when Lloyd decided to leave Memphis again and re-organize the Rockin Drifters, the new band members consisted of David Neuman on drums, Freddy Douglas on guitar, Bill Zarr on bass and Whimpie Lewis on saxophone. After the discontinuation of the Jubilee, Gene Williams capitalized upon the name when he created the Cottontown Jubilee Record label. Buford Cody recorded Lloyd on the Memphis label from 1962 through 1964. They began these recordings with Tennessee Twist and I Couldnt Make My Heart Believe My Eyes. Their Nashville recording of Lonesome Finds Me climbed high enough in Billboard ratings to received airplay from Dick Clarks American Bandstand. In those days, prior to modern music technology, Buford tried many approaches to create certain sounds. He would put brown paper bags over the microphone or have Lloyd sing into a corner with the mike several feet away. Buford was willing to embrace any technique in order to get the sound that he wanted. He told me once that his only regret regarding the records that he made with Lloyd, is the fact that he did not try to overdub Lloyds voice. In July of 1962 Lloyd was back in Memphis due to the birth of his second daughter. Shortly after, he was off on the road again. It seemed that his life was destined to be hectic and full of goodbyes. In October of 1962 Lloyd and Buford made a trip to the disk jockey convention in Nashville. They set up a display for Memphis Records in the historic Andrew Jackson hotel. During the course of the week, a young lady made her way through the crowd to the room that housed the Memphis Record display. She approached Lloyd and told him that she had followed his career for quite a while and wanted permission to create a Lloyd Arnold Fan Club. The first fan journal rolled off the press in December of 1962. Here are some excerpts from a letter written by Lloyd greeting the members: Just a few lines to say hi and thanks from the bottom of my heart for the support and backing youve given me. Be on the look out for my new release and Im hoping to have my first album out soon. Ive really been on the road alot this year, God has been good to me. Id like to hear from any of you and Ill answer every letter. God Bless you. Your friend always, Lloyd Arnold On October 19th, 1963 CashBox announced the following: -Morty Wax, another indie about town, reported Tony Babbie and Jimmy Webb, Armour Recording exes, have formed a subsid label called Avet with a first issue tagged, School Days by Lloyd Arnold. The Avet label leased two tracks from Buford Codys Memphis label. As the sixties moved along the phenomenal success of the Beatles prompted Lloyd and Buford to consider using the Memphis label to birth a fictitious band name. On February 24, 1964 Lloyd received a copyright to use either The Hairs or The Long Hairs. Deciding upon The Long Hairs, he and Buford went into a recording session in Nashville during the winter of 1963-64. The Rockin Drifters were not used for this session. Instead Buford employed Nashville studio musicians. Singer, Ray Stevens provided the backup vocals for the session. The release of Eight To Five and Go-Go-Go was the only time that Lloyd ever released a recording under a pseudonym and most people never associated him with The Long Hairs. Later the same year Lloyds final Memphis release was issued, but it didnt do as well as his other Memphis releases. Sometimes Buford Cody would book the guys in what appeared to be out of the way places. Such was the case on an evening in 1964 as the car sped along a flaming horizon. They had driven for two days to keep a show date in Texas. When they finally arrived, they found themselves in the middle of the desert, in a tiny town. One of the buildings served as the grocery store, gas station, courthouse and entertainment centre. Lloyd spoke as he looked around, -Why in the world would Buford send us to this place? Who are we goin entertain? Theres nobody here but us . Hes got some explaining to do just as soon as I can find a telephone. As show time drew near Lloyd kept peering from behind the corner of the curtain into an empty theatre. Seven thirty, no audience, eight oclock, no audience, at eight fifteen there were still absolutely no people. Needless to say, by this time Buford Cody was at the top of everybodys want list. Surprisingly, though, when the curtain arose at eight thirty, Lloyds eyes grew wide as he scanned a completely full house with standing room only. The show was a success, the audience was warm and receptive but Lloyd was never able to figure out where all those people came from at the last minute. Shortly after his association with Buford came to an end, the Memphis Record label folded. Lloyd continued to record for other labels such as Jo-Mar, Eddie Bonds Millionaire, Katche, John and Margie Cooks Blake label, Demand and John Capps K-Ark. The strenuous roadwork persisted in 1964 with a series of dates that began at Hurleys Club in Chester, Pennsylvania. On July 28 to August 23 of that same year they flew to Thule, Greenland for a series of performances. Lloyd considered the Greenland tour to be one of the highlights of his career. On August 26 they flew back to Chester, Pennsylvania for more show dates. In January of 1965 they played another series of clubs in Linwood, Pennsylvania and in March and May they flew to Ernest Harmon AFB in Newfoundland, Canada. Since he played the eastern states extensively he kept an office at P.O. Box 1173 in Linwood, Pennsylvania. Lloyd began writing songs in 1953 and continued to write throughout his career. I also did alot of writing. When I was a high school student, I wrote a poem that took less than an hour to complete. My mother and my grandfather read it, loved it and insisted that Lloyd set it to music. We decided to copywrite it under Lloyds name. As a gift to Pa and Sis and with very few modifications to the lyrics, my poem of Million Miles to Nowhere was included on one of Lloyds recording sessions. He and I also colaborated on two more songs, one entitled The lights of Home and the other one entitled, Maureen. These last two pieces were just for family tapes and were never recorded. Lloyds performances in Memphis during 1965 included the Country Music Shindig held every Saturday night at eight oclock in the Lions Den. The program was sponsored by Eddie Bond and presented by Country Circle Enterprises, Inc. On one of those nights, during Lloyds portion of the Shindig, the microphones suddenly developed sound problems. Immediately electricians were on the scene frantically searching for electrical shorts. Lloyd found himself facing the audience with no way to communicate. As the minutes dragged by, the people began to grow restless and some of them started leaving. One of the mikes had periodic moments of sound so Lloyd took advantage of one of those moments and spoke to the audience: -Think about this folks, you cant go just anywhere and watch electricians hunt for their shorts. This remark saved the day because the people stopped leaving as peals of laughter rippled through the crowd.
Posted on: Wed, 30 Oct 2013 23:28:38 +0000
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