The Brawling Nobles

(Syracuse, New York: 1964-1969)

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The following account was written in 1999 by Jeremy (Jerry) Montague, hereinafter known as "JRM."  All names and events are true (as JRM sees things), but age does dim the best of memories, doesn't it?

    JRM and Frank Jordan were teenage friends growing up in Syracuse.  They started playing acoustical guitars in 1963.  They got their first electric guitars in 1964; JRM went with an economical Silvertone double-pickup guitar from Sears, and a 35-watt Epiphone amp with a 10-inch speaker.  Frank's triple-pickup guitar lacked a known brand name.  It had silver plates and was of the most hideous blue, a color usually seen floating in a liquid pool of toxic waste.  Frank wailed on that guitar, channeling through his mighty, 75-watt Silvertone twin-12 amp.   Forming a rock group was inevitable for these two young Beatles fans.

    Our first paid gig ($10) was in November 1964...Mike Roth (piano), Frank Jordan, JRM, Mike Monahan (guitar), and Dick Gunn (drums) rocked the basement ballroom of the Syracuse Downtown YMCA - about 15 kids showed up...the energized set included such classics as "Wipe Out," "Walk Don't Run," and other snappy instrumentals.  We were called "The Panthers."  The "Brawling Nobles" emerged in 1965 after Mike Roth and Dick Gunn left.

THE NAME

    The Brawling Nobles: a sillier name would be hard to imagine...legend has it that Frank Jordan and Dave Farrell, two bored high school freshmen at Bishop Ludden, invented the name by randomly picking the first two words their fingers fell on in a history book.  Why they were picking band names out of a history book and not paying attention in class was anyone's guess...their high school education at Ludden was defective to begin with, and it only got worse.  Dave Farrell took over on lead guitar because he knew more chords than Frank.  John Hiserodt became the vocalist in 1965.  JRM switched to bass guitar because single notes were easier to play than Dave's bewildering array of chords.  Dave Bauer, Vinny Hueber, Peter McCarthy, and Timmy Shaulk became the roadies.  We charged anywhere from $25-$75 a night...how much we were actually paid was another story.  Most of our performances were pro bono...house parties and CYO dances filled the tour dates.

THE SET LIST

    Under the iron-fisted rule of Dave Farrell and Mike Monahan, the set list grew.  We tackled the simple songs first: "Satisfaction" (Rolling Stones), "I'm a man" (Spencer Davis Group), "Gloria" (Them), "Louie Louie" (the Kingsmen), and so forth.  Some songs were more complex, such as "She said, she said" (the Beatles), and so more practice was required.  John Hiserodt's vocals were perfect for "Hey, Mister Tambourine Man" (the Byrds), but we really could have used some good back-up voices.  Putting a back-up mike in front of Dave Farrell proved to be a disaster.  A couple of Dave's friends (singer Gary Crandall and drummer Dave Tobin) filled in sparodically in 1965, but just the right line-up would take time to develop.

    Practices were held mainly in the Jordan's living room or new drummer Chuck Zycheiwsky's basement.  And they were noisy, tedious affairs - lots of teenage goofing around, cigarette breaks, taunts, and arguing.  It was really a miracle that we learned any songs at all, given the over-doses of testosterone, general lack of attention-span,  and abysmal level of personal discipline.  Still, the sound began to improve.  The boys were finally honing the technical skills necessary to tune a guitar.  Frank Jordan added a fuzz-tone pedal to his rig that supplemented Chuck's Dynachord Echotape machine.  JRM was now playing his bass through a Vox amp.

SCREAMING FANS

    The Nobles soon attracted a rabid following of groupies and hysterical fans: Jeanne and Janice Dunn, Pam Clapper, Mic O'Brien, Linda Sticco, and Jennifer Quackenbush formed the nucleus of the ever-loyal Merrill Road Nobles' Fan Club.  Sue Fini traveled with the equipment van.   Gail Enders arranged bookings for Westvale parties.  Some of the loudest concerts in Nobles' history cracked the concrete walls in the Dunn and Enders basements.

    St. Ann's CYO, under the management of Father John Morse, proved a bountiful source of gigs for the group.  The Nobles hit the gym stage at St. Ann's, Holy Family, Rosary, and various other Parish Centers.  Bookings at Song Mountain and Labrador gave the group their first taste of the hard life on the road (such as it was on a 15-mile day-trip to Tully, New York).

THE STUDIO SESSION

    The Nobles scraped together $75 and sessioned at Seneca Records Recording Studios in the Hotel Syracuse in February 1966, there to record two Nobles' originals: Chuck Zycheiwsky's "She lies," and Mike Monahan's "Stay out of my mind."   We wound up with five acetate demo copies (all quickly scratched up, lost, and forgotten).  WNDR played "She lies" for a week, but that was about it.  (Bob "the Sausage-King" Flynn, noted musical historian and avid Nobles fan, swears he still hears this smash hit regularly on WNDR's Oldies Hour.  Then again, Bob Flynn swears he hears everything except his wife calling.)

    Mrs. Zycheiwsky packed up the acetates and drove Chuck and Dave Bauer to New York City in March 1966 to hit up the big talent agencies.   Delusions of grandeur, we'd call it today.  Our hopes of landing a record deal were quickly dashed - too young, too inexperienced, too naive, too unheard-of  (and way too short on talent).  Dave and Chuck came back home broke and discouraged after a week.  That's life in the Big City.

THE COUSINS JOIN FORCES

    Meanwhile, JRM's cousins (Peter Pfohl, Larry Clark, and Jim Quigley) were throwing themselves into a musical project of their own.   Peter sang lead vocals, Quigsy sang and played rhythm guitar, and Don Bullis played lead guitar.  The Munnett brothers (Kevin on bass and Dick on drums) rounded out the combo.  Larry Clark and Mary Rogers occasionaly filled in with an acoustical number.  Quigsy also performed folk numbers with Jerry Berdan, beginning a lifelong musical association.

    Peter Pfohl, Larry Clark, George Hueber, and JRM formed a popular folk music act in 1966.  Calling themselves "The Wanderers," the group played traditional 60's folk tunes, wandering among various "hootenannies," coffee-house beatnik scenes, peacenik "teach-ins," and church-youth gatherings.  If they "had a hammer," well, they'd surely let it be "blowin' in the wind!"  A single newspaper photo is all that remains of this magical group:

    But JRM and Frank were not well-suited for the simple, mellow repertoire of Peter, Paul, and Mary folk tunes...still yearning for the hard-edge of rock and roll, they continued on with the Nobles.

THE NEW NOBLES

    In 1967, John Hiserodt moved to New Jersey, Mike Monahan went to college, and Chuck Zycheiwsky wigged out.  Mr. and Mrs. Farrell warned Dave of the evil that comes with hanging around with hoodlums and other bad elements of rock-and-roll.  So Frank and JRM teamed up with Peter Pfohl's band, now all re-incarnated as the new Nobles - not just louder, but better.  JRM went out and bought a used AceTone keyboard, and Kevin (Meatball) Munnett took over on bass guitar.

    With Peter on lead vocals, and Quigsy and JRM on back-ups, the band quickly adapted to the popular sounds of the Young Rascals, perfoming such songs as "Love is a beautiful thing," "In the midnight hour," "Mustang Sally," and "Good love."   And they also experimented with acid-rock, playing "Fire" and "Purple haze," (Jimi Hendrix) and "Keep me hangin' on" (Vanilla Fudge).  Frank and Quigsy were now cranking out of a pair of big Fender Bandmaster amps, and the early signs of significant hearing loss were beginning to creep in.

GRAND OPENINGS

    In autumn 1967, Dave Bauer, the Nobles' shrewd sound-techie, caught wind of celebration plans for a grand opening of the newly-built Western Lights Shopping Plaza.  Set for the first weekend in December, the plaza management set up for a gala opening, with a live rock band to play in front of the P&C Super Market.  The idea here being that a live band would bring in hoards of customers...crowds of gawkers...screaming fans galore...good for a profitable business.  Dropping the right names at the right time, Dave hustled up the booking for the Nobles.  Of course, the downside was that the temperature out in front of the P&C was roughly 40 degrees on opening night.  Keeping the fingers warm and limbered up was certainly a challenge.  The crowd loved the music, though, and the $100 felt good in those chilly fingers!

WORKING FOR A LIVING

    The band reached their zenith of popularity.  The Heat Wave break song reverberated from Fayettville to Fairmont to Eastwood.  During 1967-1968, the Nobles found steady (albeit, underpaid) work just about every weekend, lining up cozy deals with several local sororities and fraternities.  Elvira Genevese joined Sue Fini in the equipment van.  The boys would pocket just enough cash to cover late-night six-packs & pizzas after the gig.  The decadent life style did not erode their playing skills (their musical talent wasn't much to begin with), nor did it dampen their spirits.

THE END OF THE NOBLES

    The Nobles remained intact until June 1968, when just about everybody graduated from high school - whether they could read or not.   JRM & the Munnetts battled on for a few more months into early 1969.  JRM, now a college freshman at OCC, upgraded to a spiffy Farfisa organ, and brought in fellow OCC freshmen, guitarist Mike Triano and singer Dennis Loftus.  But the handwriting was on the wall: the party's over, fellas...time to get real lives.

    Over the years, some of the Nobles & close associates played on.  Dick Munnett wound up in Nashville, drumming for the Razzy Bailey Band, but he's mainly into studio sessions now.  Don Bullis still plays on with the Kinsmen.  Quigsy & the Bird haul that old Fender Bandmaster from one Irish Festival to the next.  JRM keeps the dream alive with Dr. Rock at Barry University.

    And we're certainly getting on in years, aren't we?   Dave Farrell's son plays drums in a rock band now.  I'd guess Frank Jordan's kids would be in a band, too, if only Frank would let them use the garage for practice.  Fat chance.  John Hiserodt claims to remember not a thing from yesteryear, but that's plain sour grapes for you.   Peter Pfohl's just happy to be alive and in fighting trim.  Larry Clark still warms up the crowd with his classic rendition of: "poor old Charlie and the M.T.A." (in the key of G, if you please).  Meatball Munnett says he's going to get a computer one of these days.

    I haven't been able to locate any other photos yet, but here's the Brawling Nobles' line-up, as best I can remember:

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