Dick Dodd & The Standells
"Mystery Baby"
Demo
1989
I just saw that Dick Dodd of The Standells died last year November 29th 2013. He was so nice to me. Here's the story how I met him. I was in a friend's car back in 1989 and I was playing a Standells tape. My friend says to me "hey I bought a car from one of these guys". I'm like yeah right... My friend goes on by saying the guy was once one of the Mouseketeers. He tells me he bought the car at a Anaheim car lot. The next day I call the car lot looking for Dick Dodd. The lady who answered the phone was very nice and said he didn't work there anymore but would get my phone number to him. A couple days later I got a call back from Dick Dodd. I'm sure I was trying my best to keep calm though I'm sure I felt the excitement of a little kid whose birthday, Christmas & Easter all came on the same day.
I said I was a fan and asked if he could sign a few things for me. He was really nice and said "Sure, come on down Friday. I'm playing in Huntington Beach", Me & my girlfriend at the time go down to some Holiday Inn or something on PCH and he's playing. He's singing a lot of cover songs with a couple of Standells songs thrown in. Dick & his wife come over to our table and look through the items during a break. They were both super kind to us and after a break he gets back on stage and says "Ed Halbrook has come down and brought a bunch of old Standells items. Go over and check it out". A bunch of people came by. I'm thinking man is he gunna sign a few things for me or not. It's getting a bit late. On a later break he comes back and signs a bunch of things I brought. I made this little photocopied fanzine of The Standells which he loved. As he is leaving he mentions that The Standells are getting back together for a KEarth show in 2 weeks and would I like to come along. He gives me his home phone number. I call him and ask if I can film the show. He says sure. I also ask if he could get Tony Valentino and Larry Tamblyn to sign my items as well. Again I get a "Sure why not".
Larry Tamblyn's brother is Actor Russ Tamblyn and he is the Uncle of Amber Tamblyn.
The Standells
The Hollywood Palace
"Dirty Water" & "Why Pick On Me"
1966
A day or two before the show Dick says to meet him at the venue which was in Torrence at the Oktoberfest site. We show up and Dick is there and gets us in. I brought a stack of the Standells fanzine I made and put a bunch out. People snapped the whole stack up in about 2 minutes.
I remember Dick laughing and him saying to me "Told you those were cool, You could have sold them".
I set up the video camera on a tri pod. I sit down with Larry & Tony and ask if they would sing my items. What I remember really well was the 3 of them goofing on each other. I also remember KEarth's Mr. Rock & Roll Brian Beirne reciting his Standells introduction. Right before the show Tony asks me to take some photos of them using his camera. During there set I have the Video going and I'm taking photos as well.
A couple of weeks later I mailed Dick a copy of their concert and in return he mailed me a cassette tape of some things The Standells and some other stuff he recorded. What was really cool was Dick taped a intro to me on the audio tape. I was pretty knocked out. He was an amazingly cool guy.
On the above audio I put a Demo they were working on called "Mystery Baby". 1989... it sounds quite dated.
Cool intro huh???
My Standells Signed CD
