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The Timex Social Club Page 2
By Anthony Douglas Gere
Anyway, most of my friends played instruments, and all I can remember is each one
of us wanting to be like the Jackson Five. Now growing up where I did, there was no
near by ghettos or drive bye shootings, so our families would pay for musical
lessons with the local or regional artist advertising their services and talents
throughout the area. We would go to their homes or studios, and they would teach
us whatever we liked. Our parents did this to simply occupy our time and give us
some sort of culture and appreciation for something besides the streets and
television. I honestly thank them for that, because those same streets now, claim so
many children today, all around the world, in many different ways. So my desire and
love for music was instilled and polished back then, but it was only later on in my
early twenties did I discover my guitar teacher was no other than the drug gobbling
pirate poet named Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead. He was a young music teacher
at a place called Best Music in Oakland, and we both discovered it when I was over a
friends house drinking beer after one of his concerts. It was a harmless session of
people sharing stories and experiences, and socially gathered around talking
macho shit and exchanging ideas. My friend is Named Zakir Hussain, and you may
know him from the Grammy award winning band called Planet Drum. He is
considered one of the greatest drummers in the world and of all time, and for a
long time, I did'nt know any of that and just considered him the husband of my then
girl friends business partner. Now by him being best friends with Mickey Hart,
who is Jerry's instrumental cohort and we all live in Marin County, it was just a
matter of time before we all figured this out, and shared it in astonishment and
drunken laughs. Now before I moved to Tiburon, my childhood in Berkeley was
one of miraculous fashion. So many groups and individual performers like
Primus, Green Day, Digital Underground, Rodney Franklin, Master P, Shelia
Escavedo and her band, Miko and Eddie M from Prince, En Vogue, M.C. Hammer,
Tower of Power, Journey, Tupac Shakur, Carlos Santana, Robin Williams, Tom
Hanks and many more would perform their talents at small clubs, Lake Merritt &
Peoples Park. They did all of this for a small fee or for free most of the time, to
simply gain a reputation in hope to be discovered and sign a lucrative deal.
Now a very good friend of mine from childhood named Kenny Green, was also
a drummer and he was one of the first people I knew to perform on David
Letterman and Soul Train. He was in a group called The Timex Social Club,
and there number one hit was a song called "Rumors". The group was
spectacular, and spawned another group called Club Nouveau that also went
on to do very well. They were young, hungry and basically spoke about things
that drove our curiosity in the early years of growing up in the Bay, and simply
talked about the things that were happening to us daily. I thought it was strange
in a way, because me and my half brother Tim, would laugh and basically dance
around the house, lip sync to the words holding a spoon or fork as a microphone.
We did this because we thought they looked like dorks on television and we didn't
know any better, they were just our friends and we were happy to see them. But
any way, music was a major part of my life and in the development of displaying
my voice, even though mine was primarily great in the bath tub or shower if you
know what I mean. So just think, I owe this theory of thought and all that comes
with it, to a group of fellas from Berkeley, California called, The Timex Social Club.
By Anthony Douglas Gere
Anyway, most of my friends played instruments, and all I can remember is each one
of us wanting to be like the Jackson Five. Now growing up where I did, there was no
near by ghettos or drive bye shootings, so our families would pay for musical
lessons with the local or regional artist advertising their services and talents
throughout the area. We would go to their homes or studios, and they would teach
us whatever we liked. Our parents did this to simply occupy our time and give us
some sort of culture and appreciation for something besides the streets and
television. I honestly thank them for that, because those same streets now, claim so
many children today, all around the world, in many different ways. So my desire and
love for music was instilled and polished back then, but it was only later on in my
early twenties did I discover my guitar teacher was no other than the drug gobbling
pirate poet named Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead. He was a young music teacher
at a place called Best Music in Oakland, and we both discovered it when I was over a
friends house drinking beer after one of his concerts. It was a harmless session of
people sharing stories and experiences, and socially gathered around talking
macho shit and exchanging ideas. My friend is Named Zakir Hussain, and you may
know him from the Grammy award winning band called Planet Drum. He is
considered one of the greatest drummers in the world and of all time, and for a
long time, I did'nt know any of that and just considered him the husband of my then
girl friends business partner. Now by him being best friends with Mickey Hart,
who is Jerry's instrumental cohort and we all live in Marin County, it was just a
matter of time before we all figured this out, and shared it in astonishment and
drunken laughs. Now before I moved to Tiburon, my childhood in Berkeley was
one of miraculous fashion. So many groups and individual performers like
Primus, Green Day, Digital Underground, Rodney Franklin, Master P, Shelia
Escavedo and her band, Miko and Eddie M from Prince, En Vogue, M.C. Hammer,
Tower of Power, Journey, Tupac Shakur, Carlos Santana, Robin Williams, Tom
Hanks and many more would perform their talents at small clubs, Lake Merritt &
Peoples Park. They did all of this for a small fee or for free most of the time, to
simply gain a reputation in hope to be discovered and sign a lucrative deal.
Now a very good friend of mine from childhood named Kenny Green, was also
a drummer and he was one of the first people I knew to perform on David
Letterman and Soul Train. He was in a group called The Timex Social Club,
and there number one hit was a song called "Rumors". The group was
spectacular, and spawned another group called Club Nouveau that also went
on to do very well. They were young, hungry and basically spoke about things
that drove our curiosity in the early years of growing up in the Bay, and simply
talked about the things that were happening to us daily. I thought it was strange
in a way, because me and my half brother Tim, would laugh and basically dance
around the house, lip sync to the words holding a spoon or fork as a microphone.
We did this because we thought they looked like dorks on television and we didn't
know any better, they were just our friends and we were happy to see them. But
any way, music was a major part of my life and in the development of displaying
my voice, even though mine was primarily great in the bath tub or shower if you
know what I mean. So just think, I owe this theory of thought and all that comes
with it, to a group of fellas from Berkeley, California called, The Timex Social Club.