THE STORY OF THE EARLY DAYS OF BEAT 66

AND DOUG RICE

BEAT 66 is: 

Doug Rice: guitars, organ and vocals

Dave Denk: drums and piano

Dave Stanton: guitars

Let this story begin where most stories do, at the beginning. The problem is I’m not exactly sure where or when that moment was. For our purposes however, let this one begin in June of 1966, in a little town in northern Indiana.

 Having recently been freed (graduated) from the confines of high school, I was hard about pursuing freedom! The manifestations thereof, in no particular order, included girls, fast cars, highways (particularly Route 66), alcohol and rock & roll.

 For some forgotten reason, at this time I first began to entertain the notion of myself as an artist. It was no big leap to also realize the viability of amped-up rock & roll as the vehicle for this newfound self-concept.

 Over the course of the next two years, the inspiration and ground work were in place for what was to take over thirty years to actually come to fruition.

 In late 1968, as happened to so many other males of my generation, my life and freedom were rudely interrupted by Uncle Sam drafting me into the U.S. Army.

 Without going into personal details, I was sent to Vietnam and returned in 1970 a very different person. I immediately went back to college and, upon graduation, now had a small family and spent the next 25 years in the midst of those responsibilities. However, the lure of creativity and freedom that rock & roll represented for me from those early years had not been forgotten.

 Thus, Beat 66 was reunited in the 1990’s and since then has played countless gigs for folks at American Legions and nameless smoky bars in the Michiana region. But no matter how many times we played Brown-eyed Girl or Paint it Black, the creative urge was still unfulfilled.

 So, having invoked the muse of Buddy Holly, here they are. These songs were inspired in that long-gone summer of ’66 by The Beatles, 13^th Floor Elevators, Yardbirds, Mouse & the Traps, The Great Society, and The Velvet Underground among others.

 The year of 1966 featured a wide range of music, eclectic if you will, and we have taken the same license with the music herein. And though the music is, in a sense, a trip down memory lane, you may be surprised to find that it also is as fresh as anything played on the radio today. I hope you enjoy. But, excuse me, there’s a knock on the door. It seems they’re coming to take me away ……………

All songs (C) Copyright Retro Rock Records 2005

Return to Retro Rock Records Home Page

CONTACT DOUG RICE at sirdouglasrice@yahoo.com