David Waldon - Kanaan
Releasing one of the coolest and heaviest singles in ‘69/’70, Waldon initially wanted to record the Kanaan 45 by himself, but decided to have a band of friends help back his dream which was to simply put a few songs on vinyl and he did just that! David would go on to play in many different outfits, even prior to the Kanaan single, that included acts such as The Drifters, Victims, and The Brain Police, which was inspired by Frank Zappa’s tune ‘Who Are The Brain Police?’ It was a true honor to speak with this Texas legend about his life, music career and the sonic legacy that he has left behind. In this exclusive, never before interview with David, it features photos from the Kanaan sessions, and everything else in-between. Enjoy!
David at the age of 2 with his dad J.C. and brother Tommie circa: September of ‘55.
When and were you born? Are you originally from TX? When did you first begin playing music and what was your initial choice of instrument? Can you tell me what growing up was like for you? Do you have any siblings?
I was born in Gilmer, Texas in the 50's... I was born and raised in East Texas... Grades 1-7 I was in Lone Star Texas... In 1967 we moved to La Marque Texas... Close to Galveston… There is where I played in my first band ever... I played keys... In '68 we moved back to Daingerfield... My parents made us kids take piano… I cheated and followed the numbers next to the notes... I never learned to read the music...
When my teacher got wise, mom pulled me out of the piano lessons... Those lessons started around 1960... I hated piano... I wanted to play drums, but my folks weren't having any of that... So my next choice was guitar... Got my first acoustic in 1966 I believe... Growing up in East Texas was great... Had a really great childhood... I'm the youngest of 4 kids... 2 brothers and 1 sister... My troubles didn't start until I found out that the girls liked the guitar boys!
David with the All-Star team in Naples, Tx circa: 1965.
So many incredible underground bands came out of TX throughout the 60's and 70s. What were some of the groups you saw back in those days? Where would you go to see shows and what groups, whether local, or not, made an impression on you early on? What was your local music scene like in Daingerfield?
As far as other bands go, I wasn't allowed to go to any concerts in the 60's... I went to a lot of teen dances, but there was nothing special musically goin' on there... But I knew what I wanted to do when I saw The Beatles land in the U.S in February of '64... I was still just a kid, but they really got to me… The whole British invasion thing was life changing stuff... I saw Ten Years After about a year after they did Woodstock... Loved them... Grand Funk was a fun live band too... I really loved The Yardbirds, Cream, Jimi Hendrix, Trapeze, Zeppelin, Blue Cheer…
Ted Karbowski, Gary McClendon, Danny Yeager, Bob Yawn and David Waldon as The Basic Unit circa: 1967 in La Marque, Texas.
I can't remember every group I've seen... Frank Zappa was great... I really liked Mink DeVille... I saw them with Elvis Costello and Nick Lowe... David Bowie was a great show... Roxey Music was great... I got to meet all of the original members of Genesis... Saw them in Austin... No words for how great that was... Joe Cocker was a fun show... The New Barbarians were great… That was Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood, Stanley Clark, Bobby Keys... Can't remember the drummer's name... Deep Purple was the loudest show I ever saw... It was great too...
Cheap Trick was fun... And Robben Ford was awesome... I'll stop there... But as far as the music scene in Daingerfield goes, there was only a couple of groups... We played a lot of dances... The biggest influence in East Texas musically was always country music... And I would rather have been beaten senseless by a gang with baseball bats than play country... Later in life I was forced to do some top 40 and a bit of country if I wanted to eat though...
David singing his first solo that wasn't in a church. Lone Star Elementary, Lone Star, Tx circa: 1965.
Were you in any outfits prior to the release of the Kanaan single? What were some of your interests outside of music and what were some of the things you and your friends would do for fun in your town? What was a typical weekend like back in those days?
I was in several bands before Kanaan... Kanaan only happened because I just wanted to put something on vinyl... It was also my very first time to see the inside of a recording studio... It was the first time to record for all of us... I played guitar and keys in a couple of rock bands... I played drums in a couple of bands right after Kanaan... I just encountered bands that had a need for another singer and another instrument and played whatever instrument they needed as long as it was guitar, drums, keys, bass or a little harmonica... I became a utility guy... Which I hated... But if I wanted to play and work, so I did what I had to do...
All I really wanted to do was be a lead singer in a band and not play an instrument... I was always THAT, but I had to play other instruments too... I grew up in small towns... All we did for kicks was drag our acoustics around and run up and down the main drag in Daingerfield just like the kids in American Graffiti did…(the movie)... We had a state park where we'd congregate and party after hours... Always gettin' hassled by the redneck cops we had… I can't really tell you what a typical weekend was like for the crowd I ran with without incriminating myself beyond repair!!
Cindy Hurtte and David at a homecoming in Daingerfield, Texas circa: '69, or '70.
How did you initially meet the guys that played on the record and who were they? You mentioned in our correspondence that Kanaan was never really a group. What inspired you to have an interest in putting out a record in the first place? What was your process of writing the songs, 'Leave It' and 'Something Inside' and what is the meaning/idea behind them?
The guys in Kanaan were local vocalists like me... The bass player had a top 40 and country band that I played drums in on weekends... Plus he was a contractor that I worked for during the week... His name was Doug Fagg… No really! That was his name! He was a great guy and a great boss... He lived in Marshall Texas... About 55 miles from where I lived on the lake between Lone Star and Daingerfield... I drove 110 miles a day and further sometimes for 2 bucks an hour... I had to supplement that income by playing music that made me want to take a long walk on a short pier! I had played in one of our little high school bands with the drummer... I played bass in that short lived group... His name is Garry Bryant... Leon Hass played piano... He was friends with a friend of mine that I wrote music for... My friend wrote lyrics but didn't play an instrument so we'd sit for hours writing music...
From the Kanaan sessions circa: January of ‘71 (below 1-7)
That's something I did with a few people through the years... Man do I hate doin' that... I'm not big on collaboration... And when I say "wrote music", I mean chord progressions and riffs... Because I can't read a note... I'm no different than a multitude of players who play completely by ear... And like I said earlier, I just got an itch to put somethin' on vinyl... I wasn't lookin' for a hit record or a deal of any kind at the time… Those tragic yearnings would come a little later... And only a few months later... Something Inside is the result of being in love... As it turned out, someone should've smothered me in my sleep for writing it... But I was under the impression that girls preferred sloppy crap like that to hard rock... Soon I lost the will and or desire to care what anybody thought...
I remember sittin' on the edge of my bed just a couple of days before the session where I wrote Leave It… It was suppose to be a throw away tune for side B... It took me about 30 minutes to write... And that should come as no surprise to the peanut gallery!! I kind of wrote it as a protest to Something Inside... See I was still trying to do what I thought everybody wanted me to do... When Robin Brian finished mixing both tunes, he asked me "Which is side A?" I told him Something Inside... He said No no... You should really consider Leave It as the A side... It's the better tune... So who was I to argue with a man whose credentials were already legendary as far as I was concerned...
I remember sittin' on the edge of my bed just a couple of days before the session where I wrote Leave It… It was suppose to be a throw away tune for side B.
You originally planned on recording the single by yourself, correct? How did you learn how to play all these different instruments and how did the guys that ended up joining persuade you into making a one time band for this project? How did the name Kanaan come about?
Yeah, I could've done it all myself, but it would've taken too long and I didn't have enough money for a project like that... Like I said earlier, I worked in the daytime and played drums on weekends for the bass player so I felt obligated to ask if he wanted to help out... Besides myself, the pianist was the only other keyboardist I knew at the time... And the drummer and I have been great friends most of our lives since we pretty much grew up together... I'm completely self taught on all the instruments I play... I threw everything my piano teacher tried to teach me out the window... Once I learned how to play guitar, I'd sit and play a chord on the guitar one string at a time and find it on the keyboard... That's how I learned my chords on the keys... And the name Kanaan came from the biblical Canaan, just spelled with a K instead of a C...
David’s first time in a recording studio. Recorded first record at Robin Hood Brian's studio in Tyler, Tx. Circa: January, 24th of ‘71.
When and Where was the single recorded and how long did it take? Tell me about working with Robin Hood Brian in his studio? What was that experience like having a band to record these songs? You mentioned you funded the whole entire project, where were you working at this time?
We recorded the 45 in Tyler, Texas at Robin Hood Brian's studio... '70 maybe... He was a great guy to work with and he patiently guided us through the process since none of us had ever been in a studio at all... I've killed myself trying to make good in the "music biz" and it's funny that after all these years of playing in every puke stained club in the country and even warming up for a few notable characters like Blue Cheer, Bloodrock, The Grass Roots and a Brit group called Gentle Giant and another Brit group called Budgie and a few other concert type settings, that my very first time to record anything in a studio turned out to get the most attention of anything I've ever done!!
The session lasted 4 hours and I ordered 1,000 copies... I think I have about 11 left… But the compilation album from an L.A. label used Leave It as the lead off cut on the album and they also made 45's out of it with another group on the flip side... And like I said earlier the money came from working a day job with the bass player as my boss and playing drums in his band on the weekends...
Was there ever any thought after the record was made that you guys should stick together and actually work on being a real band? Or maybe play a gig now that you have some material under your belt? What did you do with the records now that you had them?
There was never much interest in turning Kanaan into a working band... So I just went to a few radio stations and anywhere in the area where there was a juke box… Got airplay on about 6 stations and got it on a few juke boxes... It made hit of the week on one station and pick hit of the week on another... Here's a funny bit... We had a radio station in my home town... They initially played the record, but when they got what was in their opinion too many requests for it, they stopped playing it! Hilarious... They accused me of puttin' people up to bombarding the station with requests for it but that wasn't true at all...
They initially played the record, but when they got what was in their opinion too many requests for it, they stopped playing it!
You mentioned that you played in many bands and toured extensively after this period, can you tell me about that? What were some of those bands and experiences like? What were searching for, or wanting to achieve through music? Are there any gigs, or times that still stand out to you till this day?
My main objective in the early days was to get out of East Texas... Funny that now in my older still not wiser days, I wish I could find a way to get back to East Texas... So even though my heart was in rock-n-roll, I quickly found out that gigs were few and far between playing music I really enjoyed playing... So I caved to pressure from booking agents in Shreveport and me and a couple of the mates put a, WAIT!!! I have to fetch a bucket just in case I have to hurl when I tell you this... There... I just hope it's big enough… When I talk about the years I spent in, (gag reflex in gear) top 40 groups, I get kinda sad... Made money, but I still see it as a tragic waste of time and energy... Oh and lest we forget that we always had to sprinkle some country on the rotting corpse we called a song list… It was hard for me to play 6 nights a week and only have one or two songs to play that I actually liked...But doin' that kind of music showed us this beautiful country we live in...
Taken at the venue, "I Gotcha's" in Ft. Worth, Tx circa: 1977.
We were always busy... Mostly hotel gigs... Nice ones too... We met a lot of interesting people in the biz because they stayed in the hotels we were playing in....Had supper with Buddy Miles in Jackson, Miss... At the same gig two members of The Chambers Brothers band sat in every night with us for a week… I turned from a candy machine in a lobby and stepped all over Fats Domino! Ha… I had a great time with King Crimson in Indiana... Played in a band in California that had a former member of Blue Cheer, a former member of Big Brother and The Holding Company post Janis Joplin, and he also played with Norman Greenbaum who had the hit "Spirit In the Sky", a guy who played with Buddy Miles and a guy who had played in two backing bands for The Drifters and then actually became a Drifter... Oh yeah, that would be me!
There were so many bands and places... This could go on, but I'll try and reign myself in... And you ask what I wanted to achieve... Probably every musician alive would love to gain notoriety... And of course that would've been great... But pretty early on I became the guy who just wanted to be able to make a living playing music I enjoyed and being able to pay my bills and have the occasional cheeseburger without going in debt... And sure there are gigs that stand out… When I toured with the Drifters we played a few pretty cool places... Keep in mind that the group I was touring with was one of about 3 groups of Drifters touring at the time… But we spent 2 weeks at a club in Houston called The La Bastille... It was in December during Christmas... We were following Buddy Rich... We left that gig and went straight down the coast of Texas doing one nighters...
Then we turned around and came back to Houston for some really rich folks private party... After the party the leader of the group asked me if I hadn't mentioned likingThe Spencer Davis Group… Yeah I had... He said lets go to The Bastille... They're playing there now... We showed up and there was a line around the block... Fortunately for us several of the people in line recognized us... We may have been in a 3rd rate Drifters group, but we got the star treatment everywhere we went… They let us go to the head of the line... The place was packed... The doorman immediately knew us and said wait here and I'll set a table up for you right down front... We saw him hand a note to Spencer Davis...
And I still get goose bumps when I talk about it, but Spencer Davis started talking to the crowd and introduced us...We were still at the front door... The spotlight swung around and hit us... People politely applauded and we made our way to the table... People were gathering 'round and asking for autographs... It was so great!! Spencer greeted us... Then they finished their set... The Drifter I was with just jumped up on the stage and went back stage... Then he comes out a minute later and helped me up... We went to the dressing room and met all the guys and chatted a bit... Then we left and Spencer joins us for a beer at our table... In 1967 the first band I was ever in played a few Spencer Davis Group songs... Can't even describe what a thrill that was for me... R.I.P. Spencer... There were several memorable gigs and interesting people along the way... But I tell you again... Anybody whose been in a traveling band has experienced these same kinds of things...
We recorded a 6 song album, but it never got released… There were 4 test presses made that were distorted and couldn’t be used...Then it became a matter of money and the whole thing fell apart... Just as well... The engineer didn’t want me to use the Marshall amp I had because it was too noisy for him... Got his panties in a bunch... So the only other amp I had with me was a little PigNose practice amp... Sounded awful... And if that didn’t make things bad enough, I had to finish a gig a couple of hundred miles from the studio and drive all night to get back in time for the session... Plus I’d just come down with a terrible case of the flu!
The Brain Police from L to R. Robert Faust, David Waldon, Murray Conklin and Huey Collier. Dallas, Tx circa: 1977.
And I still get goose bumps when I talk about it, but Spencer Davis started talking to the crowd and introduced us…
What are you up to these days? Are you in any current outfits? How does it feel to have the single 'Leave It' featured on Riding Easy and Permanent Records' Brown Acid comps? I imagine this has stirred up quite a bit interest in you and the single. How did you initially handle all that and what is it like for you, after all these years, to now have a completely different generation appreciating your music?
These days I'm no longer playing gigs... And to have Leave It reach the people and places it has is a mystery to me...But it sure has given and old guy a real thrill... It has literally made it around the world... I'm so thankful to Riding Easy Records for making my song the lead off track...
In the Studio in Jackson, Mississippi.
When you reflect back on the early days of playing music, what times are you most fond of and why? Are you still in contact with the guys that helped you to record the Kanaan single?
I'm still in contact with Garry Bryant, the drummer, but he's the only one... I'm still shocked that I've heard from people from coast to coast in this country... I've also heard from Great Britain, France, Russia, Greece and Japan... I think the most fun I had was during my teen years... And there was another group in California called Blue Front that was probably my favorite group... Power trio...
Is there anything else you would like to further share with the readers?
I'd like to say thank you to anyone whose shown interest in the record... And a special thanks to Dakota Brown for affording me the opportunity to re-live so many great memories even though I'm well aware that the person most interested in reading my dribble is me…
