Thieves in the Temple: A Prequel to Purple Rain

Ch.13 California Dreaming- The Mamas and the Papas

Morris had big ideas for the band. Maybe it was Sunny Day who had big ideas but she used Morris to communicate them.  The Mid City Players' manager by default, she bought microphones, amplifiers,and a clavinet making her garage their rehearsal space. Sunny Day was a machine when it came to booking gigs. They played at nursing homes and hospitals after school. She booked them at weddings, bat mitzvahs, sweet sixteens, junior high school, high school, and community dances. "You guys could be bigger than the Jackson 5," she said with a gleam in her eye.

Thanks to Mrs. Knaeble's expertise in discovering true talent, the members of the Mid City Players emerged from her class. Morris played drums. Kid played mainly lead guitar now and piano only if necessary. Jesse was like Kid. He played piano but discovered the bass guitar in Mrs. Knaeble's class. Then there was Schroeder.

Something was wrong with Schroeder. His government name was Anthony but they called him Schroeder because he crossed his legs on the bench when he played piano and kept his face pretty close to the keys like the Peanuts cartoon character. He wore thick glasses, the same three outfits in order religiously and never looked anyone in the eye when he spoke to them. He had a strange ability to memorize everybody's telephone number and would say it to them when he saw them almost like it was their identification. "Hello Kid Smith 612-777-9311." They voted him into the band anyway because he could read music and play anything exactly the way he heard it.

Morris found an eighth grade kid from Union Junior High School named Alexander who called himself "Lex" to sing lead. Lex's voice was rich and mature and he was an expert at gospel runs. Lex had plenty of stage presence but he could not read music. He hardly understood how to make his voice go up or down. Kid spent hours trying to make him sing in the right key at the right parts. Just because someone sounds good when they sing in one key does not mean they have any sense of tone, pitch or melody. Lex sounded good most of the time but he had trouble if the note got too high. 

"Thought you taught him that part already, Kid! What did you fools do last night after I left?"  Morris scolded. Sunny Day insisted Morris go to Wednesday night bible study. The Brake family had to make a good showing at Metropolitan Cathedral services.  Sunny Day let the band stay in the garage after they left as long as Kid locked up. She handed Kid the garage key. Morris told Sunny how Kid stole Mrs. Beechum's car but Sunny trusted him anyway. Morris never felt it necessary to tell her how he stole the one drum stick.

"I can teach him but I can't make him remember," Kid said smugly.

"Doesn't matter if I sound good to you or not," Lex did a Michael Jackson spin, "It's all about the ladies." Older clearly did not mean smarter.

"It's more than just giving a good show, Stupid, you have to sound good too," Kid fired at Lex.

"Who you calling stupid, Onion head!" Lex stepped up to Kid. "Maybe you just don't know how to teach it to me, Tonto."

"Maybe your singing isn't all it's cracked up to be, Sucker," Kid countered in Lex's face.

"Both of you shut up!" Morris shouted.

Lex turned to Morris. "I'm not going to stay here all night with this fool. He's too damn picky."

"My mom got us two parties next weekend and The Washington High School winter ball the week after that. We got to be ready if we expect to get paid." They resolved that Morris would stay to work with Lex.

They ended their rehearsal with the traditional MCP chant. Morris made it up. They put their hands together in the middle like a basketball team. "MCP!MCP!MCP! Mid City Players!"

Kid was glad to go home tonight. He'd rather spend his time writing at the piano Francis still thought was his. Juanita gave Kid a stack of blank music sheets for Christmas. He wrote ten original songs with all of the parts.  He could sing a little and envisioned himself singing and dancing on stage with his guitar. He saw himself directing the band instead of standing there playing guitar like he did with Mid City Players.  His songs were much funkier. He hated the cover tunes the Mid City Players cranked out. Not because they were bad songs, but because the band had no creativity. Sunny Day did not want to change anything from the record versions. Furthermore, Kid did not want to wear a bow tie but Sunny Day insisted that's how all the professional bands look. But Kid knew that was not true.

That is certainly not how the Pussywillows looked. The drummer had dreadlocks and wore a white button up shirt and jeans. The saxophone player always wore a shirt and tie with a long sleeved sweater. The upright bass player wore a button down wide collared print shirt that was always open revealing his ample chest hair and a gold medallion. The only one who wore a suit jacket and tie was Kid's father, Francis L. Smith, Sr.

Francis used to send home pictures of himself with musicians who wore afros and boots, fringe and paisley. There was even a man in make-up dressed like a woman. Juanita thought Kid couldn't tell from the picture but he could. The Jackson 5 did not dress in white shirts with bow ties. Kid was getting tired of Sunny Day and her constant nagging but it was the price they had to pay to use her garage for rehearsals and her van to get them to gigs.

Soon they were playing every Friday and Saturday night. Sunny Day split the money evenly between the five of them after each show even if the client did not pay her right away. For all her faults, she was a benevolent manager. Her musical tastes, however, left much to be desired.

The previous week, going against Morris' strong warning, Kid decided to take a chance and ask anyway, "Mrs. Brake, I was wondering. I wrote a song in my band class. The teacher said it was a good dance tune and I thought you might want to hear it." Sunny Day smiled condescendingly.

"Sure, I'll listen to it tomorrow," she said tired and exasperated from a long week.

"I was hoping maybe we could play it at the next party we-"

"I said I'll listen to it tomorrow!" she snapped. She cracked the car window and blew cigarette smoke through it hard.

The boys kept the ruckus down in the back of the van that night. Nobody farted, made fart noises or fart jokes.