Mid-West Spotlight: The Royal Flairs - Suicide/One Pine Box

Our final day spinning records for the Mid-West Battle of the Garage Bands finds us sitting along the massive Missouri River in the town of Council Bluffs, Iowa. The town is, for all intents and purposes, a suburb of Omaha, Nebraska. The Royal Flairs would migrate to Chicago to seek their fame and fortune, but for our purposes, we are going to keep them on the Missouri River straddling Nebraska and Iowa.

These mid-west hep cats had a flair for the macabre. The band released their one and only single on Marina Records in 1966. The ever so brief A-Side is the band composed, Suicide. The number was written by singer and harmonica player Bob Everhart and guitarist Dave Krivolavek. On bass was Dave Brubek (not THAT Dave Brubek), Mel Mathews on lead guitar and Mike Donion on drums. Suicide tells the tale of, well, suicide. Our protagonist offs herself as she is distraught over a love gone bad situation. She didn't even stick around long enough to hear Mel Mathews' awesome guitar solo. Our narrator feels guilt and remorse and, like the Romeo he longs to be, decides maybe he should go as well. 

The flip-side is an instrumental called One Pine Box (sticking with our not-so-living winning theme!) and comes replete with awkwardly timed hammering, digging and other appropriately inappropriate sounds pimping the glory of death. The number was written by Everhart, the gentleman seated in the middle in the picture below. The pic was lifted from Back From The Grave Vol 3 (the besterest comp ever?). The liner notes from that great record mention that Everhart was shot while defending a 300 pound Go-Go Dancer named Miss Temptation who was being sexually assaulted by a patron. Not sure if that is true, but there you go. Everhart apparently lived to tell the tale. Ironic, huh? 

Until next time, we'll see you On The Flip-Side!