While it's always great to read about the legends of the '60s garage band field, sometimes it's equally special to learn about the bands that only the true hardcore collectors know about. Such is the case with Rubber Memory. Though the group's sole album, recorded in 1970, is in enough demand to lead to a recent reissue, Rubber Memory remains unknown to all but a handful of collectors. The fact that the band self-produced only 110 copies of the album, and hailed from New Orleans has no doubt helped lead to their anonymity. So here's your chance to read the story of a TRUE garage band. (Special thanks to Ted Haas and Park Seward for sharing their stories with The Lance Monthly.)

[Lance Monthly] How did you first get interested in music?

[Park Seward] I was influenced by the Beatles in the mid '60s. I didn't know how to play any instrument, but I thought it looked like fun to be in a band.

[Ted Haas] The Beatles, and the New Orleans Pops (Pete Fountain and Chet Atkins in particular). Park and I were back door neighbors and thought the Beatles were cool. I also had been exposed to the New Orleans Pops Orchestra and was impressed with Pete Fountain (his guitar player was Paul Guma) and Chet Atkins, especially when he played tow songs at the same time. I started taking guitar lessons from Paul Guma in '63-'64. We saw the Beatles play City Park Stadium in New Orleans in 1964. Everybody on the block thought it was very cool. Park and I produced 8mm movies of us pretending to be the Beatles. We even went to the airport and got some airline to let us take movies of us getting on and off the airplane just like the Beatles did.

[Lance Monthly] And that eventually led to the formation of the Rubber Memory . . .

[Ted Haas] My neighbors, Nicky and Jerry Compagno, played clarinet and sax and wanted to put together a band. Ronnie Snodgrass (guitar), Nicky and Jerry, my brother Mike (drums), and I started writing our own stuff for a year or so through '65. I had to quit because it interfered with my homework. Then, in 1966, a few of my classmates at school started talking about forming a band and asked me to get involved because they knew I played guitar. That (band) was me (guitar), John Meltzer (guitar), Winky Shirley (guitar), Philip Asprodites (organ) and David Parker (bass). We only did a few practices and never really got anything going. At the same time, Park was fooling around with some of his friends who were doing the same thing. That included David Greene (guitar) and Bill Babin (drums). Park and I started talking about merging the committed members of the bands together into a real band. Initially Philip Asprodites hung around and played organ but he soon dropped out which left the original band members: me (guitar), David Greene (guitar), Park (tambourine), Bill Babin (drums) and David Parker (bass). After a short while, we got Park to get an organ and taught him how to play. All this occurred in late '66 and [into] '67. By October '67, we were ready to start playing band jobs.

[Park Seward] I was in several no-name "starter" bands for several years until a band I was in "merged" with the Rubber Memory. We needed a bass player and they needed a drummer! I remember it was in 1967 when we decided to join together. Ted lived behind me so I knew of him and David Parker the bass player. Ted met Greene and Babin through me. We were the creators of the band.

[Lance Monthly] How did the band decide on the name Rubber Memory?

[Park Seward] We got the name from David Greene's brother - Freddie or Dickie - who used the phrase in a poem.

[Ted Haas] The band fiddled around with a couple of different names. At our first job at St. Roch playground (we were) The Mason Dixon Line (I have no clue where that came from). At our second job at the Ellis' private party for my and David Parker's schoolmates (we were) the National Columns (my Dad made an arrangement with a company that made National instruments so that we could buy stuff for 50% off). We then settled on the Rubber Memory. There are a number of bad jokes about the name (a priest said it was better than the Prophylactic Reminiscence!) but I think it was a name we thought fit in with the psychedelic times. We also liked the Beatles album "Rubber Soul." Frankly, by 1970, the name was outdated but it had stuck.

[Lance Monthly] What was the band line-up at the time you settled on the Rubber Memory name?

[Ted Haas] Ted Haas - rhythm guitar and vocals, facilities provider of our practice room, "The Back Room," where we eventually recorded the album, and co-producer; David Greene - lead guitar and vocals, co-leader of the band, music leader and primary band presence on stage; Bill Babin -drums, and co-leader of the band; David Parker - bass guitar and vocals, primary vocals coordinator; and Park Seward - organ, very occasional vocals, and co-producer.

[Lance Monthly] Where exactly was "The Back Room"?

[Ted Haas] The band practiced in "The Back Room" at my house in Metairie (Louisiana). "The Back Room" was a storage room separate from my house. My Dad stored all his golf stuff in the room (he was a professional golfer) and it had a full size Brunswick pool table around which we set up our stuff for practice. "The Back Room" had an attached carport, so we really were a garage band. We practiced two times a week for about an hour and a half after school. We would go over our opening song - usually "Evil Ways" - to warm up and then learn new stuff that I, David or anyone else had figured out. Early on we practiced on weekends frequently but we gave that up when we started playing jobs.

[Park Seward] Ted's family has a back room to his house that contained a pool table and a lot of old golf stuff his father has collected for years. We set-up around the pool table.

[Lance Monthly] What type of jobs did you usually land?

[Park Seward] We got to play the large local dances and frat parties. Our first goal was to play Valencia, a high end teen club. We were accepted there and played many return engagements. Then we made the high school prom circuit. At the end, we were playing commercial dances.

[Ted Haas] The typical Rubber Memory jobs were CYOs (Catholic school weekend dance circuit), Valencia (teen club), private parties (middle school and high school), and proms. We also did Battle of the Bands early on and later did a few free concerts at Audubon Park and the University of New Orleans.

[Lance Monthly] What do you recall about these Battle of the Bands?

[Ted Haas] We did a number of Battle of the Bands. We won one or two but we quit doing that because the audiences liked the "horn"/"pit" bands better. We considered ourselves to be a "frat" band - whatever the hell that means.

[Lance Monthly] Well . . . how would you describe the band's sound?

[Ted Haas] The band's sound early on was Top 40 pop rock radio doing covers of the Beatles, Animals, Stones, Young Rascals, etc. We got "heavier" as time went on: Vanilla Fudge, Three Dog Night, Grand Funk, Led Zeppelin, and Santana.

[Park Seward] The Beatles and many '60s groups. A list of songs we played is on the web site. We were best on songs by the Young Rascals, Grand Funk, CCR, Vanilla Fudge and other guitar-with-organ bands.

[Lance Monthly] How popular locally did the Rubber Memory become?

[Ted Haas] I think we were popular on the Catholic high school circuit because we were relatively inexpensive. It was the same for Valencia and private parties. The band developed a name and identity but no real following because the audience we played to were too young.

[Lance Monthly] What can you tell me about the band's album? Where and when was it recorded?

[Park Seward] It was recorded in "The Back Room" during the summer of 1970. I think it took about a week and a half.

[Ted Haas] The "Welcome" album was created so that we would have something to remember the band by. In 1970, Park, Bill and David Greene were graduating from high school and moving on to college. Although Bill was staying in New Orleans attending the University of New Orleans, David Greene and Park decided to go to LSU in Baton Rouge. David Greene was moving in other directions musically - more towards solo acoustic, so his interest in heavy rock was waning. Nevertheless, we all agreed that we had something special and we thought it would be cool to have our own album since every band of any significance had an album. We did it for ourselves, though; we never expected or even designed the album as a way to make money. The album was recorded in the summer of 1970 in about one week in "The Back Room." It was a true garage effort - recorded live, no double/multi tracking (except for Park generating the echo sound on the beginning of "A Song For You" without telling anyone he was going to do that). The recording equipment was rudimentary at best. We had a two track Ampex reel to reel machine and used two four channel PA systems as mixers. So we had eight tracks recorded live into two channels. We did each about three or four times and moved on to the next one because of time limitations. I wish we would have done a few more takes on a few of the songs. The vocals, which we thought were one of our strongest assets, are not real good on the album.

[Lance Monthly] Do any other '60s Rubber Memory recordings exist?

[Ted Haas] There are other vintage Rubber Memory recordings, but not many. We recorded "In the Midnight Hour" in '67, and our "final" band job at Luling in 1970. The Rubber Memory 2 and Oakridge (later four man bands after David Greene and Park left) made live recordings. We have lost all the other recordings.

[Lance Monthly] Did the band make any local TV appearances?

[Ted Haas] I do not recall ever playing on local TV shows.

[Park Seward] No.

[Lance Monthly] Why did the band break up in the '60s?

[Park Seward] Greene and I went to LSU in Baton Rouge so we could no longer play with the band. Parker, Babin and Haas continued for a while with Joey playing keyboards.

[Ted Haas] The original Rubber Memory broke up because Park and David Greene went off to college. They had to maintain student deferments back then. Park could not keep his grades up, however, and drew number 28 in the draft so he joined the army and went to Germany in radio/TV broadcasting. David stayed in school and continued to play solo acoustic and other stuff. Bill, David P. and I formed the Rubber Memory 2 with Joe Montelepre on organ. We played the "heavy" original band stuff from '70 to '71. Then David P. went to Mississippi State University and we got a new bass player, Brian Simeon. We changed the name of the band to Oakridge (the name of the street that I lived on and where "The Back Room" is located) and played through late Spring '72 when we finally broke up because of lack of practice (the neighbors complained about the noise) and personal problems between band member girlfriends. Also, we started playing a nightclub and the late nights and noise was starting to take a toll on our hearing and on the fun of it.

[Lance Monthly] Ted, were you in any bands after the Rubber Memory 2 and Oakridge?

[Ted Haas] I goofed around for a while and was the only white guy in a band called Uranus (it was a Crusaders type thing). Uranus opened one of the stages of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival in 1974 (I got paid a whopping $15 and the other band members didn't want to give me the money because they said I didn't need it - geez). After that I played on two songs that David Greene and Joe Montelepre wrote and recorded in the late '70s. The next time I picked up a guitar was in October 2000 to start to get ready for the reunion concert.

[Lance Monthly] What can you tell me about the album's reissue? How did that come about?

[Ted Haas] The album reissue thing started about three years ago. Actually, every once in a while, somebody would call and ask about the album. I remember getting a few calls in the '70s and three or four calls in the '80s. In the '70s, I was offered $100 for a copy of the album. By the '80s the price was up to $400. In the early '90s, the price was the same but the calls came more frequently. Then Scott Bubrig, a local record collector, called and offered to buy an album for $750. I said "no" and then he started talking about reissuing the album to avoid it being bootlegged in Europe. I said, "how much is this going to cost me?" He said he would put up all the money. I said, "you are kidding", and asked him to send me a contract . . . never thinking I would hear from him again. Two days later a contract showed up in the mail. While the contract was being worked out with Scott, I got more calls and offers to reissue the album. One was from a collector/producer in Germany and the other was from a producer in Florida. Each of these guys sent me contracts and resumes and copies of other stuff they did. Incredible! I also received a call from a collector in Switzerland who offered $1500 for a copy of the album.

I then started exploring the Web and found out that there is an entire group of crazy people who actually collect garage band albums. I also found out that the Rubber Memory album is one of the rarest of this variety of albums. I understand that the album is unique because of four elements: It's by a true garage band who did a live recording of original songs in limited quantity. I have the original paperwork (orders/invoices/receipts) establishing that we produced 110 albums. Cost per album was $3.10. I believe that we may have sold 30 or 40 at band jobs and to friends. The rest were given away. I have two in fair condition. David Greene does not have any. Park has one or two in fair condition. Bill has one or two in fair condition. David Parker still has one that has never been opened. Our manager, Johnny Digiovanni, who lives in Tennessee still has the unopened package of the original master recording that we mailed to ourselves to establish copyright on the original songs.

At the reunion, we all agreed that the three best original songs on the album are "Welcome," "The Walnut Song," and "All Together." We did those songs at the reunion. We also did "It's For You" because we liked that song. We have played "All Together" less than seven times total. Once at the reunion, once at the last band job and the rest during the recording. When we recorded the final version of the song, Bill got off measure resulting in the last sound being his crash of the cymbal. We liked the effect and kept the recording. We played the song live at Luling and recreated the mistake. At the reunion, we ended the song on the same beat. We noted the fact that we finally got it right after 30 years. Copies of the reissue LP can be obtained from Scott Bubrig. 1000 were produced. The band members got 125 copies. Scott has wholesaled a large number of albums in the U.S. and Europe but has plenty to sell. They cost somewhere between $10 and $15. We're still discussing what we want to do about a CD reissue.

[Lance Monthly] Please tell me about your career today. Do you still perform?

[Park Seward] No. I am a television technical director for network programs.

[Ted Haas] I am a Maritime lawyer. I built and drive, since 1994, a SCCA Spec Racer Ford in road races throughout the Southeast. It is an open cockpit sports racer so I guess you could say that I still perform. I also did some community theater in the early '90s. I have no plans to take up music again as a main hobby but intend on staying active by doing some recordings with David Greene, and occasionally jamming with Bill out in Phoenix.

[Lance Monthly] What, if anything, is in store for the Rubber Memory?

[Park Seward] I am working on mixing the reunion concert from 2000.

[Ted Haas] I think the band members all agree that the reunion was a one time event. The purpose was to celebrate the album being reissued. Doing it again would be attempting to make a music statement. We aren't good enough musicians to be able to pull that off to a satisfactory or commercial degree, nor do we have the time. So a "rubber" memory is what we have to treasure. It was fun then, and it was a blast at the reunion. To read more about the Rubber Memory, check out the band's excellent website

Rubber Memory  La "Welcome" 1969 (RPC 69402/vinyl)  
Late 60s organ-lead garage psychrock with a teenage vibe, pretty cool and mostly originals with one doomy killer track on side 1. Side 2 is a bit on the weak side and has an inept drum solo. Original was 300 copies, very rare. Exact reissue is legal and has inserts.

An Interview with Bill Babin
Drummer for The Rubber Memory

By: Mike Dugo, The Lance Monthly
2002-05-03

Bill Babin, drummer for the Rubber Memory (see last month's issue of The Lance Monthly that features interviews with band members, Ted Haas and Park Seward by clicking onto the archives link), responded to our questions after the deadline for the December 2001 posting had passed which was unfortunate. So in order to offer as much information on the band as is possible, we've printed Bill's recollections. For additional information , visit their website at: homepage.mac.com/therubbermemory/PhotoAlbum1.html

[Lance Monthly] How did you first get interested in music?

[Bill Babin] Like so many others born in 1952, I was captivated when the Beatles came to America in 1964. Of course, I at first wanted to play guitar, but after getting my first one, a Sears Silvertone acoustic, I quickly realized it was not for me. I then naturally switched over to drums and began pounding out rhythms on everything with my hands. It has never stopped since.

[Lance Monthly] Was the Rubber Memory your first band?

[Bill Babin] Yes, the Rubber Memory was my first band. We got together first in 1965 when I was in seventh grade. The band played together in its original form (David Greene, David Parker, Park Seward, Ted Haas, Bill Babin) until August 1970, when we released our self-produced album, "Welcome." At that time, David Greene and Park Seward left the band. We brought in Joe Montelepre on keyboards and played for one more year in that format.

[Lance Monthly] Was there any significance to the name "Rubber Memory?"

[Bill Babin] I don't remember the details of how we got the name the Rubber Memory. I believe it came from David Greene's brother, Fred.

[Lance Monthly] Where did Rubber Memory practice?

[Bill Babin] We played in a dilapidated room added on to Ted's carport in Metairie, Louisiana. It was a great place to rehearse and bother the neighbors. Many of the photos of the early band, found on our website, were taken around "the back room" and Ted's house.

[Lance Monthly] What type of jobs did the band typically get?

[Bill Babin] Both the Rubber Memory and Oakridge (Bill Babin-drums; Ted Haas-guitar & vocals; Brian Simeon-bass & vocals; and Joe Montelepre-organ & vocals) played a wide variety of venues: private parties, social clubs, fraternities, high school dances, and often, Battle of The Bands.

[Lance Monthly] Did you compete in many Battles?

[Bill Babin] Yes. We went after many Battle of The Bands! According to Ted's records: 3/23/68 St. Agnes - Finished last; 5/10/68 St. Matthew - Won; 11/15/68 St. Leo - Finished 3rd; 4/27/69 St. Francis - Finished 2nd; 10/10/69 Sacred Heart - Finished 2nd; 10/1169 Teen Fair - Did Not Place; 2/7/70 Warren Easton High School - Won; 4/12/70 The Computer - Won; 4/26/70 The Computer Did Not Place

[Lance Monthly] Did you become very popular during this time?

[Bill Babin] I think we got rather popular locally. There were several fraternities that called us regularly to come play. We remained busy, but we were not a "big name" act.

[Lance Monthly] How would you best describe the band's "sound?"

[Bill Babin] The music we produced has 1969 stamped all over it. We reiterated all the popular themes of the day - PEACE, LOVE NOT WAR, DRUGS. The sound that we produced was strongly influenced by the Beatles, Grand Funk Railroad, and Steppenwolf.

[Lance Monthly] Besides "Welcome," did the band record much?

[Bill Babin] Yes, there are other recordings besides the album. I believe Park Seward has them. There are also some really hot Oakridge live recordings.

[Lance Monthly] Did Rubber Memory appear on any local TV programs?

[Bill Babin] As far as I can recall, we made No TV appearances. Again, Park would probably have the 8mm film of us. There is some great stuff. (AUTHOR'S NOTE: Be sure to check out the band's website for video clips from this footage.)

[Lance Monthly] Why did the band end up calling it quits?

[Bill Babin] David Greene and Park Seward left the band in September, 1970 to go to college. In August 1971, David Parker left the band and we brought in Brian Simeon on bass and became known as Oakridge. That band played together until about January 1972. It was a great but short-lived band.

[Lance Monthly] The band has recently reissued the "Welcome" album. What can you tell me about that?

[Bill Babin] The album was reissued in December 2000. Copies are available from the members.

[Editors' note: Check the website for more information.]