Dan Glidden, bass, Mike Govette, guitar/vocals, Howard Govette, drums/vocals
This is the only picture I have of Dan, Howard and I. You may notice my hair is very short. Not stylish at the time, as the Beatles, Stones were emerging. My Dad was pretty copasetic with me, but he decided I needed a haircut. It was just getting to a cool length! But he laid down the law: Get a haircut. So I got a mohawk. Howard swore he would also get one. He didn’t.
Mike with hair, summer 1969; Mike with mohawk, fall 1969.
I had been on summer vacation when I got my mohawk. Then I had to go back to work as a bag boy at Market Basket on Mountain Avenue. I rushed in to punch the timeclock, but the assistant manager stopped me from doing so. He said I had to get a haircut. He also was laughing so hard he could hardly breath! My drama teacher was none too thrilled when I returned to school almost bald. He had a part in a play for me but didn’t count on me having a buzz cut! Some fun!!!
Devilled Shit had five or six gigs. Some notable things happened during a couple of these. The first gig we had was in South Ontario. It was a party outside a huge, old house. There were weeping willows everywhere and the entire crowd of people were shaded and hidden by these trees in this rural area of Ontario. As I set up my amp and Howard his drums, I noticed that some guy was carefully putting joints on my amp head and Howard’s bass drum. Howard had never had pot before and I was a newbie. Dan Glidden got me stoned with a bong for the first time. But at this party Howard was nearly in a panic. I told him to collect up these joints and give them to me. I pocketed the two joints and told him we could smoke them later. Which I did. Howard did not.
Howard and Mike during their tenure with Devilled Shit.
They are posing with Mike’s 1964 psychedelic Rambler.
(for more Rambler pics:)
We got a gig at the last minute at a VFW Hall. Tex Hampton, our former bass player, joined a band called Hard Luck Boy. They got a better gig and offered us this one.
We drove to the foot of Mount Baldy, and played on New Year’s Eve for a bunch of geezers. We lit incense when we were done setting up and someone came and told us to put it out before they called the cops! Thought it was pot. My most vivid memory? Playing Summertime Blues, the Blue Cheer version, (LOUD!) and several old veterans walking in front of us, making grand gestures holding their ears. We got paid.
Lastly, we played at a church. I believe Howard got this gig. Howard only got us two gigs ever. Both were pretty funky, but the church paid us, so score one for Jesus.
As we set up on a stage behind a curtain, a crowd of youths was in the middle of a meeting. When an obviously annoyed adult poked his head through the curtain, he asked us our name to announce us. We didn’t actually have a name yet. Danny Glidden spoke up and said “We’re Devilled Shit!” Needless to say, we were not announced that night, but for better and worse (!) that was our name.
Remember I had just shaved off my mohawk and had very short, very uncool hair. My sister Julie had a fall! (You know, a long blonde wig-like thing, not curly, just straight.) I talked Julie into letting me borrow it. It would not stay on my head, so I held it there with a hat! Now I looked like Jim Dandy from Black Oak Arkansas! We thought this timid group of worshippers would be intimidated, but they dug it! They were yelling and cheering! I recall we played You Keep Me Hanging On by Vanilla Fudge and Fire by Jimi Hendrix. Results of this social experiment? Blondes DO have more fun!
I lost touch with Dan Glidden after a short few months in the band. I never saw him again, and was saddened to hear several years later he had died in a car accident while under the influence of reds (sodium seconal), common at the time.
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