Clinically Proven: The Epic Odyssey of a Band Called The Soul Clinic, Part 5

 THEY PLAYED FUNKY SOUL AND R&B... 

 PRODUCING A SOUND SIMILAR TO THAT 

 OF SLY & THE FAMILY STONE. 

 HAD THEY STUCK TOGETHER LONGER 

 DON CORNELIUS MIGHT HAVE INTROED 

 THEM AS THE "WAY ABOVE AVERAGE 

 BLACK AND WHITE BAND!" 

 THEY WERE THE EIGHT... 


 THEY WERE THE GREAT... 


THEY WERE 

Welcome back. For the last week-and-a-half we've been checking in and checking out The Soul Clinic, the edgy R&B band from York, Pennsylvania.
I was thrilled when the guys consented to this their first interview in 43 years and agreed to tell all, uncut and uncensored, right here on Shady Dell Music & Memories.

I'd like to begin today's round by reminding you that horns were making hits in the late sixties. Horns were featured in many popular soul, R&B, funk, pop and progressive rock recordings. Here's an excellent example, the Carolina Beach Music sound of the blue-eyed soul band The O'kaysions.

 "Girl Watcher" - The O'Kaysions (September 1968, 
 highest chart position #5 



S.D. KNIGHT: In previous segments we got to know a few of the members of The Soul Clinic. Now it's time to learn a thing or two about the band's lead singer, Tony Scott, who passed away several years ago. In newspaper articles published in the sixties there was apparently some confusion over Tony's age. One of them stated that Soul Clinic personnel ranged in age from 15 to 25. Rick Dillman, having joined at age 14 1/2 you were the baby in the band. When I look at pictures of Tony I get the impression that he was a lot older than 25. Please set the record straight. How old was Tony Scott?

------------------   Tony Scott 

 RICK DILLMAN: Tony was 40-ish. 

 LARRY SMITH: We didn't want to freak people out 
 by telling them Tony's real age! 

 MIKE EADS: Tony was definitely older than 25 and I think 
 he was in his early 40's already. 

S.D. KNIGHT: A band made up of seven high school and college age guys and a lead singer in his 40s is a rather unusual formation. Where did Tony Scott come from and
how did he become part of The Soul Clinic?

 RICK DILLMAN: 

 Tony's real name was Willie 
 Drummond.. but to avoid 
 confusion we can continue to 
 refer to him as Tony Scott. 
 Tony was a total hedonist. 
 He had a habit of stretching 
 the truth and saying things 
 for shock effect. Anything 
 that could improve his 
 mystique he would put 
 forward as fact. 


S.D. KNIGHT:  Any truth to the rumor that Tony Scott was "The Fifth Beatle"?  Don't answer that!

 RICK DILLMAN:  Tony once told me he sang backup for 
 Little Richard. Dick Gayman (manager of The Epics) said 
 Tony came into town with the York Fair, singing with the 
 Black Girl strip side show. I actually saw him playing guitar 
 to a large black stripper singing "Give Me Money". I had 
 snuck in to see the girls. lol. Imagine being a 14-16 yr old 
 and dealing with all these oddities, coming to terms with 
 maturation, sexuality, etc. and being in close proximity to 
 Tony's goings on...lol..Pretty cool huh...haha. A real life 
 education on the fly. Coming of age with the girls, the 
 notoriety, the access... way cool. 

 LARRY SMITH: 

 I've had both Dick Gayman 
 and Barry Shultz tell me that 
 Tony came from Canada and 
 was traveling with the Girly 
 Show band appearing at fairs 
 & carnivals. Others thought 
 he came from down south. 
 Tony decided to stay in York 
 because of a woman, of 
 course, named JOAN.  He 
 moved in with her and some- 
 time after, got a job at the 
 Cole Steel plant in York. That's where he met Dick Gayman 
 who also worked there. They would go to lunch sometimes 
 and they would talk music.  Although Tony was quite the 
 womanizer, Joan always took him back.  As I mentioned in 
 Monday's segment, Dick Gayman and Jeff Hildebrand are the 
 guys most likely responsible for drafting Tony into an early 
 version of The Epics which evolved into The Soul Clinic.  

 TED SAXON:

 I remember Tony singing 
 in a pre-Epics band called 
 The King Cobras. I played 
 guitar for them for a while 
 and Jeff Hildebrand was 
 on drums. It only lasted 
 about six months and we 
 only had one or two gigs. 


S.D. KNIGHT: Okay, guys, back to our timeline. When we
left off it was December 1967. Trumpet player Rick Dillman had joined The Soul Clinic the month before and the guys savored the experience of talking shop with David Ruffin of the Temptations in a limo at Lehigh University. Where else did The Clinic play in the final days of 1967?

 LARRY SMITH: We were back at Altland's Soul Ranch on 
 December 23rd 1967. That Christmas performance was 
 significant because pictures taken of the band show our 
 updated lineup with new member Rick Dillman among us. 
 Rick is seen below on the right end of the back row.  

 The guy in the brown V-neck is Mike Leash, our former 
 trombonist, who had joined the Air Force and was back 
 home on leave. Mike came to see us play at Altland's 
 Ranch and had some pics taken with us. As we said before, 
 when Mike left for the service in the fall of 1966, Clark Miller 
 joined the band as trombone player and singer. 

S.D. KNIGHT: It is now my pleasure to welcome Mike Leash to the conversation. Mike, what memories spring to mind when you think about your years playing trombone in the band that was then known as The Epics but is now fondly remembered by one and all as The Soul Clinic?

 MIKE LEASH: 

 When I think back to my 
 Soul Clinic days, I have 
 immediate visions of Tony's 
 impeccable "do"; his awe- 
 some performance of  
 "You Waited Too Long" 
 by the Five Stairsteps; 
 a lot more practice sessions 
 than gigs; and a great group 
 of guys who loved R&B. 


 "You Waited Too Long" - Five Stairsteps & Cubie 
 (June 1966, highest chart position #94) 



S.D. KNIGHT: How did you get started as a musician, Mike?

 MIKE LEASH: Growing up in a musical family I started 
 playing trumpet in second grade, and was later forced to 
 baritone because there were too many trumpet players. 
 Having never seen a baritone in a soul band, I switched 
 to valve trombone during high school. While I missed the 
 glory days of the Soul Clinic due to a 4 year stint in the 
 Air Force, it certainly was an experience that ignited my 
 passion to make music my life. 

S.D. KNIGHT:  Thanks for being here, Mike. I'm going to ask you to tell us about your post-Clinic music career later on so please stick around! Continuing now with our Epic Odyssey, the year 1967 came to a close with a Soul Clinic gig at the Sunny Club in Camp Hill.

A poster listing the club's December 1967 entertainment schedule reveals that The Clinic played December 30th in 
a show headlined by The Fantastic Johnny C.

 (Caution: audio comes in hot!  Turn down loudness.) 
 "Got What You Need" The Fantastic Johnny C 
 (Feb. 1968, highest chart position #56 Hot 100/#32 R&B) 



S.D. KNIGHT: Mike Eads, what memories do you have of playing The Sunny Club?

 MIKE EADS:  We played the 'Sunny Club' on numerous 
 occasions and backed up several national acts there. 
 I remember doing Billy Stewart ('Summer-time'). 

 RICK DILLMAN:  The last time we played the Sunny Club 
 we drew almost 1000 kids and after the show the owner 
 refused to pay us. We went to the Musicians Union for help 
 and nothing ever came of it. It was one of our best 
 performances, marred by bad management. 

S.D. KNIGHT: The timeline now moves forward to 1968, a breakthrough year for The Soul Clinic. Let's take a look at a hand written list of show times for The Clinic and three other acts. Where did that show take place and who is Twila?



 LARRY SMITH: That show was for Strayer Junior College 
 in Washington, D.C. on Saturday, January 20, 1968.  Rick 
 Terlazzo was attending there at the time and the school 
 asked him to book us and some other acts. They told him 
 how much money was budgeted and Rick went to our 
 agent and sax player, Bob Hubbard, from Harrisburg. 
 That's who wrote that set list! Twila Howard was a singer 
 who at one time had an act called Twila and the Twilights 
 which included Jeff Hildebrand on drums.  At the Strayer 
 show Bob Hubbard was promoting Twila and he backed 
 her up on sax with our rhythm section. 

 As you can see from the entry in my old date book above, 

 The Intruders and George Clinton and the Parliaments 

 were the headliners of that Strayer show.

 "Don't Be Sore at Me" - The Parliaments (November 1967, 
 uncharted B side of "All Your Goodies Are Gone") 

 RICK TERLAZZO: 

 Strayer was located just 
 two blocks from the 
 White House on 14th St. 
 The Homecoming Dance 
 where The Soul Clinic 
 played was held at the 
 Willard Hotel which was 
 also two blocks from the 
 White House, only on 
 Pennsylvania Avenue. 


 LARRY SMITH: On February 3rd, 1968, a couple of weeks 
 after the Strayer show, we opened for the Artistics at 
 West York High School. 

 "This Heart of Mine" - The Artistics (January 1966, 
 highest chart position #115 Hot 100/#25 R&B) 



S.D. KNIGHT: West York High School was one of the many local venues The Soul Clinic played in 1968. I caught one of your shows at York College in March of that year while I was home from Penn State on spring break. As I pulled into the parking lot of the college that night, WSBA was playing the new one by Arthur Conley.

 "Funky Street" - Arthur Conley (March/April 1968, 
 highest chart position #14) 




 LARRY SMITH: Good memory! That York College concert 
 took place Saturday March 18th. We also played there 
 Saturday May 11th (York County Youth Council affair), 
 a private gig. The year before, on May 5, 1967, we 
 played a 24 minute set at what was then York Junior 
 College. It was a "Battle of the Bands", but we were 
 paid $300.00 total. Hey, that was 1967 $$!! Ya know??  
 Then, Saturday November 18th, 1967, we were back for 
 another show. 

S.D. KNIGHT: We now come to a major milestone in the history of The Soul Clinic... the making of your record. 
Rick Terlazzo, how did that opportunity come about?

 RICK TERLAZZO: Someone from the Bay Sound label 
 out of Baltimore heard us play "So Sharp" on stage and 
 liked it. They brought us in and we recorded it with 
 producer/engineer George Massenburg who went on 
 to record many well known acts. He also invented the 
 parametric equalizer around 1970 and is still involved 
 in the music industry. 

S.D. KNIGHT: Do you remember which venue you were playing when the Bay Sound rep discovered you?

 LARRY SMITH:  I'm not sure about this. Even back then, 
 as young as we were, we weren't suckers. You don't 
 believe every guy who comes up and says "We're gonna 
 make a record for you."! So I don't remember where. 

S.D. KNIGHT: On what date were the two sides of your single recorded and when was it released?

 LARRY SMITH: Both sides were recorded at Bay Sound 
 Studios in Baltimore, MD, on Friday March 29, 1968. 
 The 45 was released on Monday May 6, 1968. 

S.D. KNIGHT: What do you remember about the Bay Sound recording session?

 RICK DILLMAN:  We brought in another trumpet player to 
 double the trumpets and also a baritone sax player. So we 
 had two trumpets, two saxes, and one valve trombone. 
 I remember having a lot of trouble getting all of us in tune. 
 Larry had some kind of a squeak in his bass drum pedal 
 that none of us could hear. The engineer kept stopping us 
 to try to find the squeak, finally oiling the pedal. We got 
 the music recorded pretty quickly after that, maybe three 
 takes each. Then we all went into the control room for 
 Tony to record the vocal track. First he insisted on the 
 lights being turned way off, then up a little for mood and 
 then he sat down on a stool and said he wasn't going to 
 sing. We said WHAT??? He said he would only sing if 
 his name was on the writing credits for the B side song 
 "No One Loves Me Anymore." We had agreed to only 
 put Mike and Ted on the song credits but Tony threw 
 a hissy fit. We finally had to agree and that's how Tony's 
 name got on the record. Tony had a bad case of LSD... 
 (Lead Singer's Disease) lol. 

 MIKE EADS:

 That's right. Ted Saxon 
 and I wrote the B side 
 song "No One Loves 
 Me Anymore." Tony 
 had nothing to do with 
 it other than maybe 
 change a word or two 
 ..... literally. He pulled 
 the old .. "lead singer 
 ego trip"... on us at the 
 last minute. He insisted 
 his name go on it as co- 
 writer or he wouldn't sing it in the studio. Guess he figured 
 he'd get some royalty money that way, not to mention his 
 ego bolstered. But Ted nor I ever got a dime for it. 
 Needless to say, neither did Tony. 

 RICK DILLMAN: As I remember it we wrote the tune 
 "No One Loves Me Anymore" collectively. Most every- 
 one in the band contributed. The writing of the tune was 
 a group effort after Mike and Ted wrote the chord 
 structure. They came up with the chording and the feel 
 of the song. Clark, Bruce and I wrote the horn parts 
 together during one practice session. Bruce wrote the 
 lyrics on the spot that same day. Larry and I dispute 
 who wrote the drum break but I can assure you that 
 I did...haha.. He was struggling with finding something 
 suitable and I came up with the bump bump ba bump.. 
 lol.. Rick T helped us with the harmony for the horn parts 
 also. We put the tune together during one practice in 
 Clark's basement where we always rehearsed. 

S.D. KNIGHT: Let's get a first hand account from the man himself, Clark Miller. Welcome to the interview, Clark! Tell us what you remember about those Soul Clinic practice sessions at your home.

 CLARK MILLER: 

 The Clinic used to practice 
 at my house in East York 
 because we had a large 
 basement where we could 
 bring all the gear. The house 
 was in a quiet suburban 
 neighborhood. Nobody 
 parked on the street. 
 Everyone had driveways 
 and well-manicured lawns. 
 You always knew when the 
 band was practicing because cars would line the street and 
 all sorts of unsavory looking characters would be wandering 
 about. 

 Neighbors, lock your doors! 

 

 The Soul Clinic’s around! 

 The basement was cool because it had access to the 
 outside at ground level, so we could sneak in and out 
 without my mom (everyone knew Doris) knowing about 
 it, or so we thought. It also had a pool table and a fridge 
 with a lighted 6 foot long sign above the table displaying 
 “Soul Clinic” that someone made in art class. 

 So, during breaks in practice, we’d all place our bets 
 on the table, hoist a few beers, and let loose our inner 
 pool sharks. The music would get quite loud in that 
 confined space and we just kept turning up the volume, 
 but no matter how loud we made it, it could not drown 
 out the thump thump thump of my mom’s high heels as 
 she was marching down the basement stairs fuming 
 with righteous indignation that we had invaded her 
 peaceful abode. And she would start her tirade in 
 grand fashion, not to the band, but to me, with me 
 looking totally embarrassed in front of my friends. 
 Fortunately, she was easily charmed, and one thing 
 that we had in the band was an abundance of charm. 

------------  Rick "The Face" Terlazzo  

 I think Terlazzo was her favorite because he was so good 
 looking, and she was always a sucker for a pretty face. 

------------  Larry "The Pacifier" Smith 

 And Larry, with his gift of gab, could pacify a charging 
 elephant, so in the end, she backed off, having felt not 
 a wall of resistance, but a warm embrace of the band. 
 Thank God, because I would have blown my stack! 
 And then there was my little punk brother Mike always 
 hanging out getting in the way, but kind of a band mascot. 
 I think he tried every form of intoxicant in existence by 
 the time he was 14. Where did he get this stuff? 
 Ah, hey, you know musicians… 

S.D. KNIGHT: Great story, thanks Clark! Alright, all that practicing paid off when The Soul Clinic went to the studio and waxed a record. It's time to hear the funky sound you cats were puttin' down, beginning with killer bee side of the single!

 "No One Loves Me Anymore" - The Soul Clinic 
 (May 1968,  B side of "So Sharp") 



Now let's turn our attention to the better known A side of that Soul Clinic 45. "So Sharp" is a cover of a record released in July of 1967 by Dyke and the Blazers, a Buffalo R&B/Funk group. "So Sharp" by Dyke and the Blazers grazed the top 40 on the R&B chart but merely bubbled under the Hot 100, never climbing above #130.

Dyke and the Blazers are best known for their hit record "Funky Broadway" which cracked the top 20 R&B, reached
its zenith at #65 on the pop chart, and earned a spot on
my list of the 200 Greatest Hits of the Shady Dell at #79.

 "Funky Broadway" - Dyke & the Blazers (April 1967, 
 highest chart position #65 Hot 100/#17 R&B) 



Less than four years after the release of "Funky Broadway," lead singer Dyke Christian was shot to death at age 28.



We've waited long enough! It's time to hear the energetic cover of "So Sharp" recorded and released 44 years ago by The Soul Clinic. This record is currently selling for $75 USED on eBay. I'm glad I still have my copy!

 Get ready, gang, for the hippest trip in R&B! 

  You can bet your last money... 

 it's gonna be a stone gas, honey. 

 It is my pleasure to present an eight man 

 contingent from the White Rose City... 

 home of the real nitty gritty.  They're doing 

 a little something for us called "So Sharp." 

 Let's get some 

 hands together 

 and give it up 

 for those  

 solid senders... 

 they're no 

 pretenders... 

 you must 

 remember... 

 THE SOUL CLINIC! 

 "So Sharp" 

 The Soul Clinic (May 1968) 

 Which gig was the high point 

 of The Soul Clinic's career? 

 On which TV dance show 

 did the band perform? 

 Which Clinician threw a shoe 

 to a frenzied female fan? 

 The answers are coming up 

 Friday in Part 6 of 

 Clinically Proven! 

Have a Shady day!