Bob Watts

Basic
Values

Bob Watts had made a very funny student film called MORE WATTS. He played keyboard on my soundtrack to Bill Ohanesian's short film, "Close Ups." To return the favor, I joined his reggae new wave art band, Basic Values. The values were basic indeed and most of it's a blur. Bob played a Gibson Kalamazoo organ. There was once a taciturn drummer who between numbers read "Man and His Symbols" which was a choice visual pun indeed. Regan Hardman was at the first rehearsal. Regan had a spectacular voice for traditional and contemporary folk music and was a very talented song-writer. She and I would later form a duo called Flying Colors and she would sing on my first two albums. (Bob would play on it also.) However, Regan played only the smallest role in this tale of two cities. She cowrote a Basic Value song: "Gutter Rat."

De De Troit showed up with the cheapest off-brand bass. I played electric guitar. The Jungian drummer was replaced by an amiable fellow named Roberto. We played here and there. I remember we were the first band to play the Lhasa Club which was to become the closest thing to LA's hip club of the day. There was by this time no scene. No sense of something about to explode.

The best gig was our last. There was to be a concert performed on the rooftop of a downtown warehouse. Twenty or thirty bands were to play. A great crowd was anticipated for this all-night event. It was rumored that the Plugz would perform. Yep, the Plugz! We arrive to find that the only way up to the roof was by freight elevator and it cost $5.00 per person to ride. I explained to Bob that I didn't pay money to get where I was to perform. He coughed up the fivers and Basic Values ascended.

It was autumn I believe. Late afternoon. The air was not overly smoggy and between various downtown skyscrapers you could see a great deal of the city as it surged northwards, licking the base of the Santa Monica Mountains like surf. It was a beautiful view, I'm trying to say.

There was indeed a large crowd already there. This was not to be confused with an audience, however. After a quick once-around, it was easy to tell that the crowd consisted of other bands hoping to open for the Plugz. The Plugz, however, were conspicuously absent, as was any form of stage manager. There was probably twenty to thirty drum kits being set up. At one per band, any elementary grasp of mathematics would tell you that only a small percentage of bands would be performing.

The first band finished their set and while they were breaking down I asked the guitar player: who was determining performance order?

"We just got up and started to play," he said.

The sound man (the guy running the microphone, amplifier and speaker) only knew that each band was to play just for half an hour. He seemed very nervous.

The keyboard of the Gibson Kalamazoo organ which helped mold the sound of The Doors and Basic Values

The second band was just about ready to go. Meanwhile I convinced Bob that we should follow suit and set up now next to the band playing. With this strategy we were able to get on as the third band. Phil Kemp of Wat Rock Records, meanwhile, had payed his five bucks and beamed up with his recording equipment. He desperately set about positioning his mics and anchoring his tape recorder somewhere somewhat secure.

Phil set his levels on the fly figuring by the fourth song he would be on top of it. There was no fourth song. The sound man pulled the plug on us, literally. De De and Bob were outraged. I, on the other hand, was delighted by both the humor of the situation and by the beautiful gathering sunset. In fact I recall being momentarily overcome by the noetic glow of its thusness. The Plugz, of course, never showed up.

Bob, Hersch Edwards, ? and Kax Rattlife

Basic Values (second lineup)

Bob Watts in 1981

As I say, Bob became one of the key players on my debut album DARK AGES in 1984. John Bugbee and Pat Meehan, my old cohorts from BLaM were the rhythm section. Brandon "Straitjacket" Curtis supplied some dark fiddle playing. Bob Watts laid down some quirky organ and some great bluesy piano. DARK AGES has long since gone out of print. Round about then, Bob wrote a wonderful reggae song called "Better World" about what a better world it would be if more people acted with kindness towards each other. It's hard to write songs like that and not have them laughed at. Bob succeeded, I feel.

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