"And here come some normals ...
   ...they look like normal... Hawaiians."

     He spoke the first words on Doughnut in Granny's Greenhouse. His bass is on Doughnut (think of the beginning of Trouser Press, for example - that's him), his voice is on Doughnut ("Come on everybody, clap your handsss"- that's him too);  his face is on Doughnut (front cover, on the left, purple socks, holding a bell - that's him);  only thing not on Doughnut is his name.

     Joel Druckman - that's him.  Dubbed the "Missing U.S. Bonzo" on the "History Of" album, Joel toured with the band in 1968, recorded Doughnut , and then quit.

     We found the mystery Bonzo - or rather, he found us - and on July 30, 1998, we popped down to his beachfront condo and spent two captivating hours with him, eating up the stories he told us as a tape recorder whirred.  Joel's thought process can only be described as... well, all over the place.  We've spent the past 2 weeks transcribing the tape and trying to put his rambling into some sort of coherent linear form.  It can't be done.  Why should it be done?  So here it is, in his own words, virtually unedited...

You know, here I am, I go to work, I mean, I have a very straight gig, more or less, I work for a software company, and, you know, it's pretty straight, and I'm there, and I talk to this guy, an ex-bass player, playing again, nice guy, played local vinyl in the seventies, eighties, the fucking guy knows the lyrics to every single Bonzo tune, I mean, that there is!  It's unbelievable.
No, it's not.
Yeah, it is.
There are lots of people like that, you wouldn't believe... obviously, you don't. You will.
Really? Well, God bless 'em, you know?

The opening of Urban Spaceman, Doughnut in Granny's Greenhouse, where you hear my voice interviewing people in the street. Well, Vivian had, I believe he was in his underwear with a belaclava hat, and rabbit ears on, wandering by the street, because I was interviewing people, asking people, what their definition of normal was, and all of a sudden, of course, Viv appeared from nowhere, and I said, "Now, take that guy for example, is that normal?" Then you hear all of these people responding to the question, "No, I don't believe that's normal," you know, it's just, "That's unusual, that is." And ,"He has a head on him like a rabbit," that's the beginning of the record, "But he has a head on him like a rabbit!"
And, "No, it is not manly!"
Oh, that was in regard to the question, not manly. Oh, he was in his underwear, I believe that that was in response to that one. It was just, we were trying to get reactions of people on the street, here I am, I'm twenty-one years old or something, I'm wearing a high school letterman's sweater with a big B on it, with a high school letter, and my hair like shoulder length, straight out, and me interviewing people, that's a sight!  And here's Viv, walking around with a rabbit-eared hat on.  "Now, you think that's normal?"  Phew!  Paint that picture!  We were in a working class section of town, I mean, you know, you gotta figure, who's gonna come by here?  Essentially somewhat industrial recording studio in this area, you've got some strange people. I think there's a bus that goes by, and some students, you know, working class, short back and sides, you know, "What do you think is normal? No, what do you think is normal?" and that's how you would respond, and then Viv appeared, right? from nowhere, "That is unusual," "And he has a head on him like a rabbit!" It was just total insanity. So... and what else did we touch upon?
You mentioned in the studio there was some woman...
No, that was... having been warned.  No one really, there's a lot of conjecture how Paul McCartney appeared on the scene to produce Urban Spaceman. Everybody has their own sensibilities and recollections. Mine being closer to the truth than others, of course, well. I don't remember Gus finishing the thing at all if that happened, that's cool. Gus was the engineer on it, as I recall, on the album, particularly that tune. We're all sworn to secrecy that Paul was coming, Apollo C. Vermouth. And, all I remember about that whole session with Paul there was that one, they couldn't get a good bass sound, it was driving them crazy in the booth. They ran it to the board, they ran it, they couldn't, it just wasn't happening. And I do remember Paul sitting and playing Hey Jude, on the piano, to Viv, before that came out, that I do remember. And we were managed by a guy and his wife, and his wife showed up, and gets a phone call and says, "I can't talk to you now, I'm in the studio with the Bongos." Never quite got it. So, a nonsensical story. Gus has a slightly different recollection of it. All I remember him is being the engineer on that day, not the producer.  He was an engineer, and the next thing I knew, he was producing Reg, whatever his name is. Sir Reginald.

Bob Kerr, who was in the band at the time, split the band to do a vaudeville band, Bob Kerr's Whoopee Band, so there's a picture of Bob Kerr on the Gorilla album, made out of women's crotches, panties, the implication being the guy's a cunt, in British terminology, you know.  They were really kind of pissed off at him.

I think in the History of the Bonzo there are three or four pictures of me, and my voice is heard loud and clear on "Here comes some Normals, they look like Normal Hawaiians," and sports fans and other shit like that, so yeah, I was there, but they had a very strange sense well, let's leave Joel out of this, believe me, I'm sure, what do they care?
Do you think that was the plan?
Subconsciously, or consciously...
Has it been that way since the first release of the album?
I was never given any, there was some sparse credit given somewhere, but on Doughnut in Granny's Greenhouse...
The very first release of Doughnut does not have you credited?
Nah... Since the very beginning, since the very beginning, so, that's their sense of humor. They're such talented lads.
You never said anything to them about it? You never asked them?
What? I went on with my life. You think I'm gonna say "Where's my fifteen minutes and my twenty-five dollars?"
Well, yeah!
I got paid for the time I was there.  I got paid.  Didn't share in no profits, but, it was a very small period, granted it was transitional, but, as far as they were concerned, hey, Dennis actually spent a great deal of time with it, so did the other two. Vernon and David "Licky" Clague. Dave Clague, he had a mustache and he used to go (mimes licking mustache), so they called him Licky. The minute you show any weakness, and they're on you, without a doubt, which is why I fit in so perfectly, cause I'm exactly like that, immediately playing on somebody's weakness, so whatever, that's that.

It's been said you had a penchant for mooning onstage.
... No, that's not true. I don't recall, I could have been, you know what? It's quite possible, I don't think that would have happened. I don't think that would have happened. Unless someone could tell me exactly where they saw me do that, me personally, to tell me time and place, to jog my memory, it's possible, but I doubt it. Although every one was pretty nutty in those days. I don't deny it, it could possibly have been, I don't recall.
It's rumored you did it regularly, all the time.
No.  No.  Once, maybe, certainly not repeated.  I don't even think once, but I'll cop to maybe. Once.  But on a regular... no the show it had other insanity, you didn't have to do that.  There was a lot of, a lot of, a lot of action.  Roger liked to make machines as part of the art.  These guys were actually artists, not musicians, very talented art students, all art students, that's how they met. They were Dadaists, sort of, Doo Dah was Dada.  This is their thought pattern.  And here I show up needing a gig, right?  Didn't want to work in restaurants peeling potatoes, tried that, didn't work, so I got this gig.

The other thing I regret is I didn't get to do Magical Mystery Tour, I really love that. Such is life.
Where you before or after that?
I was after. I think that was Licky Clague. Death Cab For Cutie.
(ed. note: actually it was Vern Dudley Bohay-Nowell)

The whole story about "Follow Mr. Apollo", on this ride back from Rhyl, North Wales where we had been playing, we were starving. We played working men's clubs. These vacation spots, as they would call them. I hesitate to draw parallels, I can't think, Murietta in the fifties, I guess, but, and they would have these acts performing for these people, "You're on after the strippers" It was pretty out there, here's Viv trying to do the stripper, right? Another story... but anyway... So, we're coming back from these gigs, playing county fairs, I know it was at least one night, it may have been more, but I would swear to one, but coming back in this station wagon, and I said, "Let's pick the hitchhiker up, and put him on." The guy gets in, the poor slob gets in the car, and we immediately start doing stuff... This guy doesn't have a clue! Someone, I can't remember, it may have been Roger, probably, pretended they were deaf, just totally deaf. And you'd get up real close, and yell as close as you could to their ear. Anyway, I began telling this hitchhiker of my master, Mr. Apollo, who could pick up trees... in the meantime I'm taking off all of my clothes, so by the end of this story I'm totally naked in this car with about five or six other guys, each doing their own inimitable thing, and uh, you know, I'm getting out of the car to eat grass, and stuff, and there's this poor guy, you know.. That was fun, and so I think left the band shortly after that, because we were going to do what was called a double, two gigs in one night, in two different towns. They wanted to reinstate the act, part of the act they used to call "Little Sir Echo", which I found humiliating. I was to sit on Viv's lap, and he was to go, (singing) "Little Sir Echo, how do you do?" and I was his puppet. He would go, "Hello," and I would go, "Hello!" and he'd say "Hello." "Hello." And we would get more bizarre than that. And I said, "I absolutely refuse, that was it, I said, "No, I will not humiliate myself by doing this routine." That was it.
That was why you quit?
That was the deal, I just said I couldn't do this.
I thought it must have been something horrible and scandalous!
No, that was it, I wasn't going to sit on Viv's lap and do Little Sir Echo.  That was it.
I'd sit in Viv's lap.
He was a very unfortunate individual.  He was extremely talented.  His talented has never been... Neil is tortured in that way. He's a fringe-y. I should talk. I'm eight generations removed from that.  Neil certainly has... my most recent understanding what he's doing is he is doing something with public t.v., music for public television, these people have no, no clue to what they're doing, just totally maddening.  I'm sure it's chaos of course, that's the environment that Neil thrashes about in anyway, so magnify that by degrees and it's like.. . I'm sure he's not enjoying himself.  So, where were we?
You were eating grass.
I recall, feigning, definitely feigning eating some flowers, I definitely recall that, but, you know, it was one of the more enjoyable... that was probably more fun that the gig itself. I recall mostly chasing skirts, and being successful, but in bizarre ways, I mean nothing kinky (snaps fingers) but, just strange shit, comedic type of clowning. Just running around with those guys.  And then, what else? We talked about so much on the phone, didn't you write any of this down?
I did, but...
And you forgot the notes?
I couldn't read them.
Oh, gosh!
Actually it's all part of our plan...
I'm recording now...

You told me a story about the Albert Hall...
Oh, Albert Hall? Albert Hall. So, we played, I can't remember how the tune, or what the routine was, when we played gigs, we would do this vaudevillian act, and start the tune, on the down beat of the tune, da da da da da dum, then an explosion would happen, and we'd feign playing in mime, or some shit like this, my recollection is somewhat foggy, case in point. So we get invited to play this gig at Royal Albert Hall, and there's hundreds of people, the Byrds were in town. Oddly enough, the Byrds were breaking up, that gig was it for them. Apparently Gram Parsons refused to go to South Africa, with the Byrds. They were top of the bill, and we were playing, and there were a bunch of other bands. We had all borrowed massive walls of amplifiers, rock stars, we can do this. Roger, of course, who was responsible for the pyrotechnics, said, "Well, we're playing Royal Albert Hall, we should probably have a fairly good sized explosion." Now, normally, we just played in clubs, so he had like sixteen amps or something, this wall of amplifiers and speakers, and Roger built a bomb, all right. We started playing, da da da da da BAM!  And that explosion went off, and actually labeled, knocked out all of the amplifiers, it was an incredible experience, you know we, God knows know how long, the situation I believe was corrected.  I had invited friends to come and see us, "Hey, man, we're playing." Here's this guy, he shows up and says "Hey, man, we're gonna play the Royal Albert Hall, come on down!" So I invited a bunch of my friends down. We ended up, "Come on, let's go backstage, and we'll hang out," and I said, "Let's go upstairs and watch the show, you know, check the Byrds," and I say, "Hey, here's an empty booth." I go in, and lo and behold, we sit down, and within seconds from the time we sat down, the door opens and there's a guard there. "You can't sit here." "Well, I'm in the show." "You can't sit here." Turned out it was the Queen's booth, right. Not good form. Hmm, gee. Hmm. Can't be here.  Me?  I can't be here?  What do you mean I can't be here?  I got thrown out of the Queen's box at the Royal Albert Hall. It was, yes?  And then, and then?  

Did you tell your version of how Paul McCartney came to, you never...
Oh, oh, we talked just briefly, I hinted at. Well, as I recall, who would have been producing? There was some discussion of some producing this, the tune we were doing.  I mean, I never got the tune, anyway, I thought it was Irwin Spaceman. I could never figure out what the fuck they were talking about, I mean, for Chrissakes, speak English!  Who in the fuck, I mean, I charted the damn thing out for Chrissake, I said, "Who the... what the fuck is Irwin Spaceman? They looked at me in just total disbelief. "Irwin Spaceman? This is part of the act. Irwin Spaceman. Urban Spaceman, shmuck." Oh, and I'll tell you something funny, Zappa, they used to have, the Melody Maker used to have these "Blindfold Tests" right, that's what you call them, where they have other people evaluate your records, right?  So I remember Zappa doing one on Irwin Spaceman, Urban Spaceman, and he thought it was some drug tune. I mean, you know if Zappa was out there...
So did that other article, "here they are saying that they're not real, and they can fly, and..."
No, they had no, there was nothing...
I didn't think so.
So non-drug related, I mean, bulimia, it wasn't. So, where was I?
Over there.
Fell asleep again, what were we talking about? Oh, there was some discussion about the, some one to produce this record. Back and forth, and somebody said, "Well, why don't you ask Paul or George to do it?" and I said "Ooooh." Because the community was very small, and these guys knew each other, and don't forget, they had a relationship back in Magical Mystery Tour, with "Death Cab For Cutie" and Ringo thought they should release it as a single, and all this shit. So, they called Paul. Viv, I believe, Viv called Paul, and said "Would you do this?" and he said "Sure." So, Paul was going to use his name, you know, I mean there was some discussion about, I said, "Well, we should name him Apollo C. Vermouth, I mean, let's give him a pseudonym. Those boys think of a clever name like Apollo C. Vermouth? Come on!
How did you come up with it?
Oh, you know, I was taking lots of drugs at the time, so...
Yeah, well...
It was El Niño.  Had to have been El Niño.  So, that's how it come up, I mean, I don't know. How does... it's just another of the menagerie of names that I pull out of my hat, so anyway... I wigged out, at doing "Little Sir Echo". I couldn't get a work permit, there was some, at the time in England, anybody, any foreigners, they were coming and taking jobs away from Britons, you know, "Britannia Waves the Rules" so, I never got a work permit, so I couldn't, you know, I was a starving musician, so I came back to the states, and starved as a musician. At least I could speak the language. Ba dum bum. So, it was wild and wooly, playing there, I mean, it was a very wild time, I mean it was 1968 in London. They were, they were pop stars, they were definitely pop stars, and a pretty good following, everyone certainly knew who they were, Switzerland, played there, never first rate though, we would end up driving places, taking the boat train, the ferry, rather, "Oh, goodness, our own Navy?" Never mind, it's an old joke. Taking the ferry to the continent and driving a Ford Wagon.

We have some questions here from a 14 year old American fan: "What happened when the band first heard Spaceman on the radio?"
What? I remember hearing, do I recall hearing it in the car somewhere, driving in England somewhere? That's a possibility, that's a possibility. I have a vague recollection, I hear voices, yes, I'm coming... I have a vague recollection of hearing it in the car, being in the car with "The Guys", and hearing it on the radio, I think, but I don't remember.
She also asks about Roger...
I don't know what Roger's doing, Roger is extremely, Roger Ruskin-Spear was very, he was really a very complex person, much more so than all the rest of them. You know, his father was a still-life artist, Ruskin-Spear, and Roger was a... a story had it, that when they came to the United States, they went to New York, Roger went to the window, throws the window open, and yells, "Stop it!!!" as loud as he could.  It's New York, you know, and this is the kind of person he was. He was, really, still is, I'm sure he still very much a creative guy, and just nutty.  Rodney was pretty much down home, but Roger Spear, was a different, an entirely different person.  Definitely out there.  Next question.. And then, Joel, we've got one here from a 35 year old transvestite bullfighter, named Joaquin. Joaquin writes, "Hi, the last time I been there, I saw... what?...
"Is that you singing Trouser Press on Unpeeled?"
No, it's Roger. My voice is the same (now as it was then). They thought it was cute. "Do you like soul music?" "No." "Well, do the Trouser Press, baby! One, two, three, go. You're so savage, Roger!"  That was the deal.  It was like that shit.  That's me, but the other stuff is Roger.  I yell "Raw meat!" Wait till you hear that.
It's right before My Pink Half of the Drainpipe.
"Raw meat!" Listen very carefully.
The very last thing.
That was a very funny day, we were all goofin' pretty hard that whole session.  It's been fun. What tune was that?  Trouser Press.

Oddly enough, there are so many roundabout connections between me and this band even prior to my getting with these guys, I mean, things just happen, like Terry Gilliam was my camp counselor when I was 12. Yeah, that Terry Gilliam thing was very funny. Then I recorded with Cale, and Larry got involved with Cale. Yeah, I did a couple albums with John Cale, here, independently of anything else, back in the seventies.
I used to hear Bonzo tunes on Dr. Demento...
See that's another situation. I played with John Fahey, recorded about three albums back in the seventies. John and Barrett Hansen were very very close friends. Barrett Hansen is Dr. Demento.
Name all of the songs you've played on.
Shit...
Do you remember?
I know we did Urban Spaceman, Trouser Press I did, My Pink Half Of The Drainpipe, Rockaliser Baby, pretty much... every... I can't remember! (cries)  Every tune here on Irwin Spaceman, what else? All of that.
Were you ever in any film or video of any sort?
Now, that's a good question. You know what? Unless it's deteriorated and lost by now, which could be, but I have a recollection, and so does LLS, that there was film of the, on the album cover for Doughnut In Granny's Greenhouse, where we're in this park, and I'm wearing this Tinkerbell looking outfit, you know, with wings, and a beret, and the Irish Wolfhounds are on the cover, there was film taken, as I recall, and I think Larry Smith also feels that. God knows where that is. That was the only film ever done, besides Magical Mystery Tour, which I was not in.
Any shows, do you know if anyone taped you playing in any of these workingmen's places?
There may have been... They did a lot of the radio shows, we did John Peel, I think, as I recall, and Top of the Pops, and some other shit. That may have been recorded, it's been thirty years now, gone, probably deteriorated, the shelf life, gone... That's about it. I don't think anything else exists. Exit.
We have a lot of video of the Bonzos.
From where? After me. Nothing, the stuff you've got, it's all after I left the band.
What about Do Not Adjust Your Set? Where does that come into your stint?
Either before me, or after me, I don't recall. It may have been, I missed that one, as well. My fifteen minutes was just Doughnut In Granny's Greenhouse. Things kind of took off for them right after that album, they never kind of, never, really happened, just moderate success, never much more than that. I don't know. I think in terms of raw production, I think Gorilla was pretty well done.  The Intro and the Outro was, the whole thing, Jollity Farm, that whole record was done pretty well. I don't think Doughnut in Granny's Greenhouse was very well produced, I think because the boy's produced it themselves, as I recall, most of it was produced by Viv.  I thought it was a very poorly produced.  Except for Dennis Cowan... I'm sorry I didn't do Alley Oop, that was one of the better tunes that he did. And Suspicion. Did they do Suspicion? I think they may have been doing Suspicion prior to me being in the band. You know that tune?
Love that!
It's on a CD re-release of Let's Make Up and Be Friendly.
Let's Make Up and Be Friendly is also a very good album. The likelihood of this band ever... I mean Neil... first of all, I'm here, they're there. Neil and Larry are within proximity, I believe they're... I think they played with Rodney, I don't know about Roger. And Yoakum's in Atlanta. So I don't know, the proximity of the deal, and the band really is Larry and Neil, so... nice talking to you guys!  Somehow I just don't see them saying, "You know, Joel, here's a few grand, come on." When's the last time somebody gave you five thousand dollars out of the goodness of their heart?  "Here, take this money, please. We love you. But hey, man, you know, we're doing this, if you can get here, cool, and oh, by the way,"  I mean, who knows?  It really isn't... I would rather see Neil socially, anyway.

Do you still play?
Occasionally. I told Bonnie I was playing this band in the L.A. area, but down here, I just practice, totally undisciplined. I really burned out. I was playing legitimate music, trying to make it as profession and a lifestyle up to 1976, then just couldn't... I was just going to get married, and it meant emigrating to Israel, and my ex wife didn't want to go at all, and I just stopped playing, totally. After getting Master's Degree in Performance, a recital and the whole shot. Burned out. Absolutely burned out (fake cries) I couldn't take the pressure! I had to support a family, that's what happened, part of it. It becomes a priority, what are you going to do?  Live on welfare? Or get a job, or both?  Collapse. End of part two.  

I was kind of reuniting with these people after a 20 year absence, almost a thirty year absence, it was really recent.  I mean, I had been perusing the web sites for, you know, awhile, and finally just... every time I would see an article printed about the Bonzo Dog and the McCartney legend, The McCartney Legend! I would write these people letters and say, "That ain't the way it happened." Finally I did it, I did it to Yoakum, and he said, "Who are you?" I didn't have any idea who Yoakum was, we've become somewhat friendly in the past year. He allegedly had some relationship with Larry, or has a relationship with him. You can 't  have a relationship, how can you have a relationship if you're three thousand miles away from somebody?
E-mail.
E-mail yeah. "Nothing personal, but I find that, from the way you type..."  So, who knows, like I say... Neil and Larry have... live within proximity of one other, what is England?  The size of... I correspond with Neil, and I e-mail Larry.  There about as, there interest in me is about as... let's just say that I'm not in the forefront of their thoughts.  And that's fine.  Why should I be?  They're not in the forefront of mine. (fake cries again) But they don't write, they don't call! These guys are in show business, and I want to be in show business!  They only wish they were in show business, I mean poor fuckin' Neil doing this public tv, you know, I can just see what's happening, being tortured, doing this public television shit. Neil's no youngster, you know.
I thought he did it because he enjoys doing it.
Neil is like most people. Neil has to pay his bills. And I'm sure the management's been poor... Do you know, anybody, tell me, anybody who doesn't live from paycheck to paycheck? I don't care how much money you make. So figure it out. It's a world-wide condition. We're all in the same boat. The same boat. A similar situation. Very very bad. Like I said, if I see these guys socially, if I want to waste ten thousand dollars, ha ha ha, throw it away, go to England on a lark, I should probably take an airplane... I will grow wings before that happens... Comin', Lawd!  I'll be right up! Anyway, what other questions does the fourteen year old have? Where is she? Iowa or something?
Kansas
(singing) Kansas, Kansas, do do do do do do. Kansas, Kansas... Born and bred!
"What happened to Dave Clague," do you know?
David Clague's around. Let me tell you something. This project, this c.d., or whatever the fuck it's gonna be, has received some notoriety. Well, everybody that's ever touched the Bonzo Dog, is all of a sudden now, "mmm, it was me" jockeying for position, to get there fifteen minutes back, it's remarkable.  I mean, you know, I'm guilty, too.  I'm six thousand miles away, so for me, it's gonna be a long ball hit, "Tony Gwynn ain't got nothin' on me, man! Pow!" So, if that happens..."Sure, guys, yeah fly to London? Sure, no problem!" So David Clague's around, Vernon might even be around, but I know Clague's around, I know he's doing something. Yes, next?
"Where did Legs Larry incorporate his tap dancing in performances?"
Oh, insufferably. Oh, all throughout the act.

Dennis (Cowan) fit in , I met him once or twice. I didn't fit in with them, I was not a friend of theirs, at least that was my perception. I was never a friend. Maybe I wasn't there long enough. I mean, they were so disillusioned when I left the band, they decided not to have a bass player for awhile, then they walked by a club and heard Dennis play, and though, "Hmm." So that's my understanding how Dennis joined. And since Neil isn't here, and Larry isn't here, I can say anything I want, and you guys can believe me, because I'm the truth!  You know, it was really my band and I was the entire inspiration behind everything!!
This is all new!
So, I mean, but, yeah, that's... I'd love to see Neil, I'd love to see Larry.  Actually I'd like to see Roger Spear.  And Slater.  Actually, Slater was... I think they were disappointed when I left. Rodney said, "Eh, very disappointed, very disappointed in you, eh, very disappointed."  Roger was off in the clouds, I'm sure somewhere.  I had aspirations of playing with Eric Clapton, at least that's...I guess I did, I wanted to go play with Eric.  The likelihood of that, you know, wings, actual real wings on my back. I sure so wanted to do that. Well, whatever. Certainly thought I was better than I was. And it would have been nice to have made a movie with them, that would have been... that was never done. Something Neil and Vivian certainly should have and could have created. That's a tragedy, that were they never, that that never...I don't know, maybe Rawlinson End...  

So I got out... after seventy, about seventy-eight, I quit playing all together. So that was ten years after I played with them. Then I played in L.A., freelanced, eeked out an existence. Record dates, just tried to break into the studios, it was so fucking hard.  Not travel, not be in a band, but do jingles, and I did a little bit of work, but it was just very difficult.  Then I got married, and I burned out.  I had to do this for a day gig.  Unfortunately I had a college degree, they didn't care if it was in taco making.  Anyway, so I was out of it, I didn't play for 20 years, and then something said, "Hey, let's have a surf band," and I said, "Okay, I'll do that," and then they got serious, and we ended up playing the Malibu Inn, somewhere in Malibu. Show biz. Then I remembered why I quit playing for a living, I hate working nights, I would much rather just kick back and go see friends play.  You know, I got to the point where I thought about doing like community orchestra, community playing, and you know, I get home from work on a good night at six thirty, why do I want to rush to a rehearsal at seven, forget it!  So, you know, I practice a little bit, maintain a little bit of facility, fuck around with stuff, for my own pleasure.  But if the guys call, I've got some chops! When I came down here I was playing in a blues band, with a friend of mine, playing tunes, like some Cole Porter stuff, Peggy Lee, you know, tunes. But he wanted to do play three nights a week, and I said, "You know, I'm good for one night, maybe." They wanted to do it, you know,"Boy oh, boy! We'll get a record contract!" I don't think so.

Anyway, so there you have it, Ladies and Germs. The Joel Druckman Story as a Bonzo Dog. In terms of history, what's he doing now, or what did he do... After the Bonzo Dog I did, came back to L.A., gigged around with Jim and Jean, actually I tell you how I got that gig. Somebody hooked me up with the Buffalo Springfield, this was '68, they still hadn't recorded, they hadn't gotten big hits, Why Can't Clancy Sing? and some other stuff... and then Neil, or somebody knew that Jim and Jean were looking for a bass player, and I got the gig with Jim and Jean. We played a place called the Ash Grove, which is now the Comedy Store on Melrose, or whatever it's called, some comedy place on Melrose... was a comedy store, in a coffeeshop, whatever they do, comedy on Melrose. Anyway it was the Ash Grove. And we played with Fahey, which is how I met John.  Ended up playing with Fahey, recording three albums, three albums?  Two or three albums with Fahey. Played around, goofed around L.A. did jingles, worked for Basil ?Polidoris? for awhile, who did "Hunt For Red October" and the music for "Big Wednesday" a surf cult classic. I did some of the music on that. I mean, I freelanced, I did a bunch of different stuff, and then, I quit playing. Just quit. So that's what did, after leaving the Bozo Doge Band. The Bonzo Dogs. That's what happened to me, and here I is now, living in Leucadia! Dog my dogs!

If you have any questions for Joel we'd be happy to forward them to him; just email us!