Tonight's show honors over 40 musicians who's work we have admired during our lifetimes, who passed away since we last played in 2019. We also honor 6 of our Paper Baggers lost to us. At the lower right of our logo for the year is a heart and initials commemorating Bruce Sautkulis, Eddie Carucci, Donny Prager & Jimmy Cummings. At the time this was created I mistakenly omitted Lani Roye. At the bottom left is a Gibson SG named Gus who lived in the Jim Small Band van for 30 years. It was the slide guitar for Rick Silecchio who played his last licks on Gus in January. His cable is unplugged from his amp. Sigh ...
- the Body Bag -
music by artists that died since the last Bag
Tues June 28, 2022 at Mulcahy' in Wantagh
Paper Bag #43
This email is going to the 300 participants who will be wearing Bag shirts for Paper Bag #43 - the Bag is Back in Town!
Hey Folks,
First of all, thanks and a tip of the pink bandana to Denise Corazon for the excellent Bag #43 artwork. She has included the initials of Baggers we have lost these past 3 years, Bruce Sautkulis, Don Prager, Eddie Carucci and Jimmy Cummings. The guitar on the left is a Gibson SG named Gus. It belonged to Rick Silecchio who for decades stood in front of me and used it to play slide guitar. My favorite little “Denise touch” is the unplugged cable on the ground next to Rick’s amp. Sigh ...
The Executive Board for Paper Bag #43 - the Bag is Back in Town! had our 3rd - first meeting in the (newly renamed) Peace Room. I opened the windows for the first time in decades and we kept the lights low, lit by 2 neon Budweiser signs that I salvaged from Chelseas in Huntington way back last century. We reacquainted ourselves with each other and I pitched a small hissy fit at Lester which he gracefully accepted, so everything seems normal.
What is not normal is that it has now been almost 3 years since we had a show. Way back in 2006 at Paper Bag #29 - the Doctor Bag, as sort of a sick joke we added a section to the show called “The Body Bag” wherein we honored four musicians who had died since the previous show. Lou Rawls, Billy Preston, Billy Cowsill and the late great Long Island legend, Edward “Little Buster” Forehand. People winced at first, but it was a tribute. Two years later we split “The Body Bag" into two sections, one in each half, each honoring 3 of our departed brothers. Soon it was split into 3 sections. By Bag #35 the number had grown to 12. It had remained at approximately a dozen people each year since.
2020 ... 2021 ... 2022 ... tick tock ... tick tock. It’s been 3 years. Yes, the very thing we joked about has finally come to pass. At our March meeting, the Executive Board was unanimous in determining that "The Body Bag" is indeed so full that every song in the Paper Bag, is in the Body Bag. Yep. There are over
40 songs on the list. Every one honors a musician, from bands we admire, who have passed since we last performed. Some, like Eddie Van Halen, Charlie Watts or Little Richard are well known. Many others are like deep album cuts, you may not know their name, but you recognize the joy they have brought us through their music.
The Movie has moved!!!! This year we will be hosted by Scotto Savitt at Repeal XVIII - 30 New Street, Huntington (I played there when it was the Blue Goose way back in the previous century). The date is Sunday April 24 6pm start. Ticket envelopes will be distributed, shirt names and numbers will be ordered and fun will be had!
Thank you to all for your continued participation and interest. We, all who get this email, have ownership of the coolest rock event on the planet. Hope to see you at the movie.
The itinerary for Paper Bag #43 is as follows:
April 24 - 6pm ~ Paper Bag #42 ~ the movie at Repeal XVIII in Huntington
May 16 - 8pm - MONDAY - the May Meeting of the Exec Board
This email is going to the entire Paper Bag email universe
Wow! That was an impressive performance. We covered a continuum from being absolutely the most powerful rock band on the planet to ... my favorite point of the night, Song #42 ... a dead stop, with Mark Bonder, Naomi Margolin and me in the middle of the stage giggling at each other wondering aloud how to end the song with some shred of dignity, then hearing Larry Ketchell call out “Just play an E chord” so we did, there was happiness throughout Bagland and we moved on to song #43.
I usually write my post-Bag email on Bag Lag day. Not this time. I waited and thought about the night. It has now been a week. After 3 years off, there were some areas of Bagdom that continued as if we never left, and some that enjoyed subtle changes. Actually, it was the first time the Bag started during the daylight hours. Sundown on Bag Day 2022 was 8:29pm. Starting at 8pm is something I resisted for years. The change worked well and will continue. Onward we go.
Bag Month - June 2022 ~ Ticket pre-sales went well. Meetings with Mulcahys, SK Systems and EKO Productions were on-going. New sound, lighting and video was being tested. Shirts and trophy plaques were printed. The Vocalists once again accomplished their now familiar month long series of rehearsals that resulted in high quality vocal performances on some very difficult material. Other sections of the band need only assign parts for the Bag to work properly. The Vocalists and the Down Wind Horns need to rehearse, and they make considerable effort to do so. Much work by many Baggers went on during the month of June. Charts were made, woodshedding was done. The al fresco meeting of the Executive Board for Paper Bag #43 - the Bag is Back in Town! was held in the Peace Room due to rain. We very efficiently went through every song, looking for ways to make the show better. Everybody involved was as prepared as we could be. So far ... so good.
Bag Week - June 26-29 ~ Sunday night was the final Vocal Section Rehearsal in the backyard of Chez Guido. Tradition dictated that the Rave brought belly bombs ... White Castle. Yep. My immediate neighborhood was treated to the same exquisite singing that you all heard on show night. Just beautiful stuff. In recent years I have made my living sitting and listening to bands perform live. Good singing is important to the rock music we thrive on. Two part harmony is nice. Three part harmony is more than just one voice better. It is thicker and more expressive. I sat at their rehearsal and heard 4, 5, and sometimes 6 interconnected parts. Incredible.
Monday - Bag Eve ~ The incredibly expensive and excellent sounding PA system was installed and configured by the SK guys. We set up the Bag office in its usual spot. The afternoon was preternaturally calm. The extra stage decking was late arriving but the crew (Mad Magazine’s usual gang of idiots) just went about their business. The EKO video crew showed up a day early, confusing the rest of us. Stage Cameraman Ralph spent some quality time driving the scissor lift around the venue, occasionally popping a wheelie. Tom Heinisch did some final tuning of the PA system by emitting different grunts and glottal stops from his throat and making the appropriate adjustments. Chris Hart brought the drums. 7pm rehearsal time approached. It had been 1,098 days since the last time we played. Would the band need time to reacquaint themselves to “Bag band technique”? No way. I gave no instructions. 1-2-a1234 bang! The Paper Bag Theme Song started up. 4 measures, 8.5 seconds later still without giving instructions I cut the band off and looked at one of the drummers who
immediately counted off the first song and off we went. Because so many of our 72 musicians were in attendance we were able to rehearse the entire first set on Monday. The level of preparation and the focus of those 72 people was apparent. We rehearsed like an efficient machine. Play / hit a bump / stop immediately / fix mistake / drill if necessary / continue. I did not pitch a hissy fit, nor would I for the entire 2 days of playing.
Tuesday - Bag Day ~ Woke up at my accustomed hour, noon, and had breakfast. Logged all the data from last night onto the ticket and shirt list sheets. Organized the song list for today’s rehearsal, kissed my sweet wife and headed off to the Bag. Rehearsal on Tuesday picked up right where we left off. Everyone present, ready, willing and able. We were able to rehearse almost 40 songs in total. Doors at 7pm. The crew at the door and the Tell Your Story Here Booth began their night of pleasant interaction with most of you and taking crap from people who don’t deserve their shirt. I retired to Mr. John Murray’s office to take a shower and eat a hot dog. I got to do a lap around the audience and greet some folks. I said hi to my 91 year old Mom. Thanks to the band for playing A Satin Doll so I could dance with her on stage. She handled being on stage like she was a former member of Aerosmith, waving to her peeps. Thanks to all who stopped to say hi to her.
Musicians to the Courtyard ~ I dressed in the Bag tux with my age on the back. 70. Yikes! No clue what I said. I assume there is video. Fly Monkeys!!! Yo oh whoa ee oh! I got to the front of the stage, stood in my spot and just looked around for a moment. Yeah. The Down Wind Horns began the New Orleans funereal procession. On stage they start Saints Go Marchin' In. The band joins. We play our favorite tritone - Bb7 to E7. Then the V chord - B7 - and finally the audience counts us in. The Paper Bag is Back in Town. For the next 6 hours we were a powerhouse band. You were there. You heard it. You experienced it. We played some very, very difficult music and played it well. Yeah, we got a little squirrelly in the last hour or two but it was worth every second. This is what my friends and I do on our day off.
Something that should be said ~ Most musicians on the planet would hesitate to join a 70 piece rock band that barely rehearses and during the performance the conductor encourages the audience to boo the band’s mistakes. You folks are clearly not most musicians. No way we can do that many hours of music of all degrees of difficulty without errors that may be obvious to our audience. We have a way to normalize that by engaging in non-traditional behavior. I only resorted to the “boo the band” thing a small handful of times. I really liked when I told the audience that it was only a small mistake so just give me a short boo. 1,000 people replied with a taut, terse “Boo!” as requested. Bizarre.
There were so many great performances that it would be disingenuous of me to single people out. It was truly a group effort. Last Friday I received an email from an audience member previously unknown to me. It is well written and maybe the nicest and most insightful letter about the Bag I have ever gotten. I will let his words speak for me. The names have been changed to protect the innocent. You will notice that our dear writer correctly refers to me as "the thread that holds this all together.” I am simply a thread that bundles together the efforts and talents of many. Please enjoy this eloquent praise from a fellow Bagger who clearly gets it.
You are all booked for June 27, 2023 at 8pm - Paper Bag #44 - theme to be determined
your pal
Mike
June 29, 2022
Hi Mike
My name is John, and and I am a friend of Bag Member. My wife Jane and I and I were very happy to attend the most recent Paper Bag at Mulcahey's.
As a fellow musician (mostly bass, but also acoustic guitar and vocals), I was so impressed with the incredible array of diverse talents up on that stage, as well as the careful and thoughtful curation of songs representing the legacy of so many important musicians sadly lost over the past three years. The most striking thing for me, though, was the warm and welcoming spirit of the evening: what a wonderful idea to bring together a community of artists and music lovers for a celebration of our shared love of great tunes and live performance! It was an evening of pure joy and real FUN.
Hats off to you for the dedication, hard work, persistence, attention to detail, and organizational genius it must have taken to orchestrate this and pull it off so successfully. As a professor and former chair of English at a nearby Community College, and now faculty Union president, I can really appreciate the logistics involved in planning and putting this together (my wife, currently a DOE high school principal concurs 100%). That clearly doesn't just happen. Bag Member filled me in on some of the particulars involved in the process, especially the months of work behind the scenes of the Executive Committee in determining song selection, personnel assignments, decisions about equipment, advertising and media, not to mention ancillaries like tee shirts, food, etc. Your leadership and vision has to be the thread that holds this all together, and the North Star that points the way when it could easily be lost in the weeds.
This is obviously a labor of love for you and everyone involved, and let me tell you, it shows, and pays off handsomely. Thank you and everyone involved for a really special evening and a truly unique experience (which, ironically enough, we look forward to repeating at #44)!!
