Jerry Raney - Glory

I was born in El Centro, CA. in 1948. I was raised by my mother and had an older brother and 2 older sisters. My father ran off before I was born and I never met him. We were dirt poor, didn’t have a car and had to rent small furnished houses. Not being able to afford a television actually helped my rock n roll education. I grew up listening to the radio, and loving Fats Domino, Little Richard, Chuck Berry and Elvis among others. Chuck Berry was the reason I was interested in learning to play guitar and he was always a huge influence. I don’t know where those dang hearts came from, I’m trying to get used to my new phone. Ha! I moved to El Cajon, Ca. in 1962 and met Jack Butler and Lester Bangs in 8th grade. I started playing guitar when I was 15 after seeing A Hard Day’s Night. Before that my friends and I were really in to skateboarding.

Thee Jesters.

Glory circa: 1969.

We hit the streets of El Cajon every night after dinner. I was really in to art and had designs on being a cartoonist for Disney, but when I got started playing in bands everything else faded into the background. I was in a few bands before Glory, Thee Dark Ages being the most successful. The band formed under the name Thee Jesters and morphed into Thee Dark Ages after a few member changes. The bass player had to quit, and I asked Jack Butler to take his place. I didn’t have to twist his arm because the band was already doing quite well. We dropped the sax player and went on as a rockin’ 4 piece. We were 16 and living the dream. After Thee Dark ages broke up, Greg Willis ( who I’d never met) Showed up at my door and invited me to his place for a jam that turned out to be the first meeting of Blue Messenger that ended up changing our name to Glory.

Glory.

Circa: 1972.

Circa: 1974. At the band’s California Street house off of Kettner, just a little north of where The Casbah sits today.
The band could practice anytime day, or night because the house set between 5 south and the railroad track close to the airport. Left to right: Jack Pinney, Steve Arenz, Jerry Raney, Greg Willis, Bobby Bales and Mike Berneathy.

Greg had nabbed every member from other bands and we all dug what was happening. Greg was on bass, Jack Pinney on drums Mike Berneathy and me on dual lead guitars and Mike Millsap on vocals. We kicked ass at our first gig at The Palace in San Diego and started receiving a lot of gig offers. Greg was replaced by Jack Butler on bass after a few years. The band ended up having a few other members ( Bobby Bales, Bruce Morse, Jeff Jones, Steve Arenz) and later on Willis returned and Butler moved to guitar.

George St. John and The Glory Band.

We signed management and production agreements with George St. John out of L. A. We ended up being his backing band on the Dragon Records singles. What a mistake, but it’s all in the past. Moved back to San Diego after living in the L. A. area for a couple of years. Skipping back to the earlier days, we played a number of cool gigs.

Glory circa: 1974.

Starlight Bowl open air amphitheater in Balboa Park, San Diego State Open Air Amphitheater, Golden Hall and College concert set ups. Opened for a load of big names. One night we opened for Eric Burdon and War, then for Tower of Power, and then went to The Pleasure Club in National City all in the same night. Opened for Canned Heat, Elvin Bishop, Big Mama Thornton, Bo Diddley, Howlin Wolf, Steely Dan and ZZ Top. High School Letter and Peaches were both recorded on the same day, then mixed on another. George St. John booked a studio owned by a church group, I don’t remember the name, but it was pretty funny when the owner said “ that’s a catchy tune, what are the words right there?” The answer was “ in heat and she sure could chug ‘em down.” Met by silence.

Glory circa: 1970

George St. John had sold off 51 percent of his business to money man Bob Epstein, who liked his writing etc. Bob’s son became involved as our sound man and befriended the band. Things became more irritating for the band because we really didn’t want to back him up and found his material corny. After a west coast tour up to Washington and back things had festered enough to where we just quit and went home to San Diego. Bob’s son explained the situation to his dad and George was caught in some dishonest moves. In a great move for the band, Bob gave us a complete release and stopped dealing with George. Thankfully all that is in the past. I have to say that I’m not at all proud of anything on Dragon Records, but the Speemo 45 remains cool. The last formation of Glory continued playing in San Diego for a while with Jack Butler and myself on dual lead guitarists along with Jack Pinney on drums and Greg Willis on bass and just fizzled out in the early 80’s. Jack went on to form Bratz, who were quite successful as an entertaining bar band.

The Beat Farmers.

He and vocalist front man Paul Shaffer went on to form Private Domain who had some radio success with their song ‘Absolute Perfection.’ Jerry Raney and The Shames was formed as a 3 piece with Pinney and Willis, and later was just called ‘The Shames’ after adding the talented John Baker on Sax and slide guitar. From there, Dan McLain aka Country Dick Montana left the most successful punk/new wave band in San Diego (The Penetrators) to form The Beat Farmers with me. We went strong for over 12 years of recording and touring until Dick’s death in late 1995. I ended up forming ‘ The Farmers’ after getting 3 of the 4 original Beat Farmer members (Buddy Blue, Rolle Love and myself) back together after a year or so of who knows what.

Buddy died and Rolle ended up quitting after a while. I replaced Rolle with Chris Sullivan ( rom The Penetrators) on bass, added Corbin Turner to share singing responsibilities with me, and The Farmers live on as one of the top drawing band in San Diego. Joey Harris, Rolle Love, Joel Kmak and I still play Beat Farmer reunions when nice offers come through. We’re on the Outlaw Country West Cruise coming up this year on November 3rd, and we do a yearly Hootenanny at The Belly Up Tavern. That brings us up to date. I’m still going strong with The Farmers, and two acoustic guitar duo’s. One with Jack Butler (Raney/ Butler) which is very rockin’ blues, and one with Evans Kontopuls named Evans & Raney that is vocal harmony and 1960’s style heavy.

Dakota Brown