Dan Dougherty - Finch (Part 2)
I was born in 1948 and lived in Milwaukee, or the suburbs of Milwaukee always. I have a brother who is 5 years older. We were not rich. We were not poor. My mom and dad both worked. My dad worked during the day and my mother waitressed at night. Before I was 11, we had rented and had moved four times. When I was 11 (1959) they purchased a colonial style home on Palmetto Avenue. Two years later, Tom and Scott (AKA Finch) Jaenecke's parents built a new home a few houses down the block on Palmetto Court. Because this was a new subdivision, I went to a brand-new elementary school, Ralph Waldo Emerson, for 6th grade, but then spent 7th grade in a junior high school in what The Milwaukee Journal newspaper described as the “Blackboard Jungle.” That year was a learning experience. Among the things I learned was how to forge a note in my mother’s handwriting and signature so that I didn’t have to stand outside on the playground in the freezing cold until the opening bell rang. I also learned a little about girls and sex.
When I say “a little,” I mean very little. I’ve always loved music and singing. Elvis was the first artist I imitated, but my brother was far better at it. However, my “Don’t be Cruel” was pretty good. The singing thing got a confidence boost when each person in my 6th grade class “auditioned" for a solo at Emerson’s grand opening celebration. Each class member sang the same verse. After it was my turn, there was silence, then applause. Myself along with another boy and two girls, had short solos in the ceremony. We even got our picture in the Milwaukee Journal. If this had happened a year later at the Blackboard Jungle, I would have probably gotten beaten up. As for playing instruments, the Milwaukee Public School system had a program where perhaps in the second or third grade interested students were given “saxset” lessons to learn how to read music and to play. The saxset was a small plastic soprano recorder. After the first semester, the teacher told my parents that he didn’t recommend me going further with music. That ended my dream of becoming the saxophonist backing the Del-Vikings on the song “Come Go with Me.” After the seventh grade, I attended another new school, John Marshall.
Our first gig circa: 1964 at a friend’s summer party. It looks like Scott and Tom’s microphone is from a tape recorder.
John Marshall High School.
It was a junior-senior high school. I met my neighbor, Tom, on the city bus that we took to and from school. We became instant friends. That led to my introduction to Scott his younger brother. They were different than the other guys in the neighborhood. They played musical instruments. I didn’t, but I wished I knew how to. They liked to do science experiments, as did I. They were always doing something interesting. We were lucky we didn’t start our houses on fire, hurt someone or blow our fingers off. We probably came close to doing all those things. While Tom was a good gymnast and I was a good in track, sports were not our passion. 1964 In 1964, I was a sophomore in high school. My morning alarm clock was an AM radio. The station that awoke me was WOKY. It played popular music. One morning in January, 1964, it woke me to a sound that I had never heard anything like before. I don’t believe I heard the whole song, but I do remember hearing the end: “Yeah, Yeah, Yeah.” I thought, “This has to be that English group the guy sitting in back of me in homeroom was talking about.” It was. Their sound was awesome. I was hooked. The Beatles had arrived.
Dougherty wearing a thin tie in the center in homeroom circa: 1964.
A few weeks later, The Beatles appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show. Shortly thereafter Tom, Scott and I started experimenting with music. One experiment was me beating a cardboard box with drumsticks for a backbeat and singing. Tom was on an electric keyboard. Scott on a guitar. The song we played was “Bits and Pieces” released by that the Dave Clark Five. That was a failed experiment. We then moved to me learning how to play guitar, specifically, the bass line. I believe we borrowed a neighbor’s acoustic guitar that would act as my bass. At that time, I don’t believe Tom had an electric guitar. My recollection is that he played an acoustic and Scott played an electric. Using only the bass line, I may have written my first song with that borrowed guitar. It was a typical progression in the key of C called “Remember When.” During this period, I also acquired a ukulele, that I learned to play. I remember playing that song on the uke, but pretty sure I wrote it from the bass line on the guitar. After a couple of months, we had learned how to play somewhat, but had no gear. Scott probably has a better recollection of what equipment he and Tom acquired and when.
In 1964’s summer, I purchased a Kay K5920 hollow body sunburst bass and for an amp used something that Scott probably cooked up. That summer Tom, Scott, and I practiced and learned songs. If I wasn’t practicing with Tom and Scott, I was probably practicing in my bedroom. On the weekends, if our parents didn’t have other plans for us, we were learning or playing music. If we weren’t with our guitars, we were probably outside walking down Palmetto Avenue singing in three-part harmonies. High school athletics went by the wayside. When school was in session, we had a standing practice on Wednesday evenings. We practiced in Tom and Scott’s basement. I would say sometime before 1965, Tom and I purchased Fender Bandmaster amps. Mine was used and had a cream exterior with a dark brown cloth grill. Tom’s was all cream colored. 1965 We may have been auditioning drummers before 1965, but we found Tim Dessereau in 1965. The Palmettos became a band. Mrs. Jaenecke suggested that name. It basically won by default. The second song we wrote was in 1965 after the Byrds released “Turn, Turn, Turn.” I believe that Pete Seeger may have wrote it using verses from Ecclesiastics. We followed suit. Tom came up with a chord progression and using modified lines from Ecclesiastics 1:5, I added a melody. It was called “The Sun Also Rises." This was one of the first songs we studio recorded.
Photo by: Scott Finch.
My parents bought me an acoustic guitar for Christmas 1964. I would watch Tom and Scott’s hands when we practiced and try to make those chords when I got home. Sometime in 1965, I was able to play well enough to write two songs. One was called, I’ll Never Love Again.” It was a jazz progression that Scott taught me. He had learned it from his guitarist Uncle. This really never made it out of the basement. The other was a song called “Whispered the Bird.” This made it to our first recording session. We were teenagers. At that time, there were no specific concert venues for rock and roll. Bands played in bars which we were too young to go to. We relied on TV and the radio for exposure to popular music artists and then either borrowing or purchasing the records for songs we wanted to learn. But at least by 1965, things were changing. Schools, churches and colleges were hiring rock or R and B groups for their dances and festivals. There were a more concert tours. In addition, TV stations began offering live rock or R & B music in after school or Saturday morning programming. We could now see what other local groups were doing and attempt to copy the good stuff and discard the bad. The Palmettos played Beatles, Stones, Kinks, Hollies, Ventures (instrumentals), Chuck Berry, Kingsmen, and the Legends (a local group that had some national exposure). We even played James Brown, but that wasn’t our strong suit.
It was hard to let our hair grow out because the schools wouldn’t allow it. The Principal gave me $2.00 to go get it cut before the school choir did a TV appearance in October of 1965, a month after this picture. After that, I don’t think I got it cut for a while. The Bye Bye Birdie rehearsal shows it got a bit longer.
“Bye Bye Birdie” dress rehearsal circa: 1966.
In 1966, the father of Scott’s girlfriend, offered to produce a record and promote us using one his movie theaters as a concert venue. We recorded three songs: “Whispered the Bird,” “The Sun Also Rises,” and a new song, "Molly Ann.” It was a basement studio used to mostly record narration. It was single track equipment. We recorded the music and then bounced that to another machine while also adding vocals and perhaps other instruments. It did not produce what I would consider a radio ready product. It was more of a demo. While the promotion, gave us more name recognition, it didn’t lead to stardom. It did lead to better gigs. At this point we may have been moving away from matching suits. My high school girlfriend made us matching vests. So, evidently, we must have felt that we still had to have clothes that looked alike. We also wore something referred to as Pendeltons. It was a heavy shirt/jacket that you could wear over another shirt. Ours were blue denim with epaulets. 1967 1967 was a turning point. Tom and I were both attending a junior college and had become acquainted with other musicians who were going to school there. We were all trying to avoid the draft. Two of the guys there were members of a very popular local group said we should come see them at a church dance. That was July, 1967. Tom, I and another one of our college friends went there and were given access to the band’s dressing room (the boys gym locker). After the first set, we went back to the locker room, and waiting there was a new national act called, Moby Grape. We got to meet them. They had just released at least six singles at one time and were on a promotional tour.
The Palmettos circa: 1967: Dan Dougherty, Tim Dessereau, Scott Finch and Tom Finch.
They wanted to play during the band’s break. They got the okay, walked on stage, plugged in their instruments and proceeded. It was the first live national act the either Tom or I had seen. They were fantastic. They played well. The sang well. The songs were great. They put on a great show and they wore street clothes and not suits. However, one of the members, got a little out of hand and began smashing things and destroyed at least one amp and perhaps his guitar. So much for the rest of the dance. It was over. However, we became Moby Grape fans. I don’t know if I had already had their album or purchased it after the event, but we learned a number of their tunes. We may never had played any on stage, but you can hear their influence in the songs we would record in the coming months. Also, in 1967, we began hearing about the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Not actually having heard a Hendrix record, I remember hearing a local a band play one of his songs and it was not good. As it turned out, it wasn’t the song, it was how the band played it. We finally heard the album “Are You Experienced” in the fall of that year. Hendrix became a big influence in our music. 1967 was also the year where we became exposed to the counter culture on Milwaukee’s East side. In the fall, I met a nursing student who became my girlfriend. She introduced me to people who were front and center in that culture. She also introduced me to a recreational drug, LSD.
The Palmettos make "Advertiser of the Week" on WOKY survey.
At the same time, I think Tom may have been introduced to “grass.” Keep in mind that neither of us smoked cigarettes or drank then so this was a big step. Fall, 1967 was the year that Nate and Joel showed up. Nate and Joel were high school classmates of mine, but I don’t think that they knew that I was in the band they were contacting. They were looking for a rock group to turn some of their music to rock. In the process, they listened to music that we wrote. Ultimately, they put their music aside and offered to produce a recording session. We needed more songs. Obviously, we were all very excited about this. I wrote at least eight songs five were rock flavored, two were ballads and one was what a novelty number called “Cowboy Heaven.” We were off to the Dave Kennedy Studio to record. We used the studio’s amps for sound. I think they may have been VOX Super Beatles amps. I don’t remember how many studio hours it took, but I do know that we got a break because the 4-track machine was broken and we got to use an 8-track for the price of the 4. That was great except we had to rely on the engineer to maximize this opportunity. We did not know what to tell him to do and he did not tell us what we could do. Most of the final product was pretty good, but it definitely could have been better. Nate and Joel took the final mix to New York to demo it to record companies. Meanwhile in Milwaukee we looked for air play. My nurse girlfriend’s girlfriend was dating Bob Reitman. Bob was one of the people who had a big role in establishing Milwaukee’s counter culture.
Bob Reitman started his radio career at WUWM in 1966. He went on to become a successful commercial disc jockey and spent the next 40 years at several Milwaukee-area stations, including WZMF, WAWA, WTOS, WQFM and WKTI. Reitman returned to WUWM in 2007 and revived his weekly music program, “It's Alright, Ma, It's Only Music.” - Shaun Miller
On Sunday nights, he had an FM radio program on WUWM. This was the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s public radio station. His program was called, “It’s all right ma, it’s only music.” He played the entire tape. We received some favorable feedback, but we were still the Palmettos whereas local East side groups had names like Velvet Whip, The Baroques, and Shag. 1968 Nate and Joel came back from New York with bad news (they didn’t say it, but I know “Cowboy Heaven” did us in). They did not come back with a record deal, but they weren’t defeated. They wanted to release a 45 and put it under their label (Montage). We went back to the Dave Kennedy Studio in either late 1967 or early 1968 to record “Nothing in the Sun” and “Let It Be.” (The Beatle song, “Let It Be” with” was released in 1970.) We also changed the band's name to Finch. “Nothing in the Sun” is a medley joining the song “To Be Free from Speed” with the song “Nothing in the Sun.” The song had a working name: “Nothing in the Sun (To Be Free from Speed).” We didn’t think we’d get any commercial airplay with “speed” in the title so the second part of the title was dropped.
Finch. Scott on home made sitar andDan on recorder.
“The recording was made at Kennedy Studios in Milwaukee in 1968. I played the bass guitar (a Kay) and sang lead vocals. The lead guitar player, Scott Finch, played a Mosrite (Venture style guitar). We used the studio's amps which were Vox Super Beatles. They had built in fuzz.”
The first medley part has two verses describing someone who is strung out on speed and its second verse ends with the line, “To be free from speed.” The second part is "Nothing in the Sun.” The second line “Everyone knows there’s nothing to be done” is actually is a reference to our song, “The Sun Also Rises.” It had the lines: “What will be shall surely be again, and what’s done shall soon be done.” The refrain “How can you tell when you’ve got it” sounds like a reference to a sexually transmitted disease, but it’s really a reference to a phrase that was used in the sixties as in, “Man, he’s really got it together.” The premise for both parts is a person searching to get their act together. “Let It Be” is basically a song about getting high and being mellow. We also wanted to experiment with changing the rhythm to a waltz for the instrumental breaks. That’s Scott on a Hammond B3. Once again, I can’t remember how long the sessions took. I’m guessing eight hours at the most, divided over two days. The songs were recorded on a 4-track machine.
Finch. "Polaroid" photo session after release of single 45 'Nothing in the Sun' circa: May 1968.
After its release, the song was panned by the Milwaukee Journal music critic. He basically said that it was dated and sounded like the kind of music that had been produced a year earlier. There was no further explanation. Forty-nine years later, when the song was released in 2017 on “Brown Acid: The Fifth Trip” (Riding Easy Records). The description in the Liner Notes reads: “Finch sounds way out of time (1968) and place (Milwaukee) on the grungeadelic anthem “Nothing in the Sun.” So “Nothing in the Sun” was behind the times in 1968, but ahead of its time looking back from 2017. The song is also referenced in the book “Brick Through the Window.” A history of punk rock and new wave in Milwaukee. The writer notes, “Still not anthologized is “Nothing in the Sun,” the high-energy 1968 Montage single by the band simply called Finch. The A-side pits heavy fuzz lead guitar against soulful hollow-body rhythm playing, and walloping low-fi drums against Dan Dougherty’s likeably innocent vocal that gently implores the listener to “drink this cup of venom.” Flipside “Let it Be" is faster and even more fun, with Fender Rhodes-driven fairground waltz interludes.” This is a nice review, but I don’t recall us using a hollow body rhythm guitar and “Fender Rhodes” was really a Hammond B3.
Progressive broadcasters like those at WZMF-FM played played an eclectic mix. ZMF DJs included (from left) Tony Gazzana, Steve Stevens, Dale Reeves, Ed Walker, Bob Reitman and Dave Steffan.
The song did get airplay on WUWM and it may have also been played on WZMF an underground type FM station that began programming fall 1968. We also performed the song on a local public TV program (playing with the record). While we did play a few bars, I would say we mostly played teen clubs, high school dances, and colleges. We performed the recorded songs and other originals at our gigs which would have been different from other bands back then. There is one gig that does stand out. Through our Eastside contacts we were asked to perform at an “event.” It took place in a barn outside Milwaukee county. The other group there was the Velvet Whip, but I think that they had changed their name (or at least their name for this night) to Furry Quim Slash and the Love Muscle. Their back-up female singing group was called the Dildo Sisters. I believe they performed topless. I’m pretty sure we went on first because I would not have wanted to follow them. 1969 While “Nothing in the Sun” was far from a “hit” and not commercial enough at the time to be one, we began playing more. Nate and Joel moved to California and we eventually lost contact.
White Lies.
We began booking through, a new agency. As mentioned, we introduced more originals into our sets. One of the songs from the initial Kennedy sessions, a song titled, “I’m Going Home,” continued to be part of sets in future bands for the next ten years. This is the year that Tom and I moved from Palmetto Avenue to an apartment overlooking Lake Michigan. 1970 and beyond In early 1970, Tim, our drummer, quit the band. While Tom, Scott and I continued to practice, record and write we kind of floundered and never auditioned a new drummer. Scott began writing songs which we eventually played in future bands. None of us were ever drafted. The lottery saved me. I graduated from the University of WisconsinMilwaukee in 1971. Scott graduated from the Milwaukee School of Engineering in either 1973 or 74. Tom earned a printing degree and worked in his father’s business. In 1972, I took a job at a large insurance company. However, we were not finished with music. Scott was hired to play in a group called Palmer House (perhaps in late 1972 or early 1973).
In May or June,1973 he asked me to come and tryout to be the group’s bass player. We were together. I had an equipment upgrade to a 1964 Fender Precision bass and purchased a Sun Concert Bass amp. This was a great group. It was incredibly tight. We performed a lot, we played original music and covers, but ultimately broke up. After that, I joined a group called Amber Jack. At the start, this group was just okay. However, the lead guitarist left and was replaced by Scott. Then the rhythm guitarist left and was replaced by Tom. Then the drummer quit and was replaced by Gregg Slavic, a great drummer we knew. The singer quit and was replaced by Scott’s wife. This became a great band. It too played originals and covers. In 1978, I decided to leave the group. They wanted to go full time. They changed the name of the group to White Lie. They released a single “Cheap Love Easy Money,” which I have a partial writing credit on. They also released an album, “White Lie.” They toured around parts of the United States.
Scott on keyboards circa: 1973.
Palmer House October of 1973 at Greendale High School Homecoming dance. Dougherty’s wife went there. She was 14 then.
Palmer House: other guitarist is Michael Milewski. On drums is Thomas Ashbolt Steward (he’s playing today in Mexico) circa: 1973.
Scott’s music history goes well beyond this and Scott continues to perform music to this day. Tom passed away. Tim is alive and a big classic hot rod guy. We have had no contact with Nate, or Joel since then. We found out that Nate invented a keyless entry system for automobiles to which he holds several patents. He is alive and we believe he is doing quite well. We do not know what happened to Joel. Dave Kennedy Studio no longer exists. After leaving the group, I continued to write music and record at home. Once in a while I would write and record songs for work related things (nothing serious). Scott and I always kept in touch. When I turned 50, I began taking piano lessons at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music and still do today. My wife runs an age 50+ senior female dance group that performs in parades around the state. I’m their roadie, hoisting ION Power Glow 300 speakers on my car’s roof top, hooking up the connections, driving the car and playing the music. After I retired in 2010, Scott and I got together to record a few songs at his recording studio. He and his wife moved to North Carolina a few years ago. My wife and I went and have visited them twice in 2018 and we actually wrote and recorded a song.
Dakota Brown
