We the People (band)
Encyclopedia
We the People were an American garage rock
band from Orlando, Florida that were formed in late 1965 and professionally active between 1966 and 1970. Although none of their singles
charted nationally in the U.S., a number of them did reach the Top 10 of the local Orlando charts. The band are perhaps best remembered for their song "Mirror of Your Mind" which reached the Top 10 in a number of regional singles charts across the U.S. during 1966. The song has subsequently been included on several compilation album
s over the years.
, brought together members of The Trademarks and members of another local group, The Offbeets (formerly known as The Nonchalants), to form a garage rock supergroup
of sorts named We the People. The band were notable for having two talented and prolific songwriter
s, Tommy Talton and Wayne Proctor, with the latter writing most of the band's most popular songs.
With Dillman in place as the band's manager, We the People quickly released "My Brother, the Man" in early 1966 on the local record label
, Hotline. The single was a Top 10 hit locally and gained enough airplay
to enable the band to sign a publishing deal with Nashville-based producer
Tony Moon, which, in turn, led to a recording contract
with Challenge Records
. The band's second single, "Mirror of Your Mind" (b/w "The Color of Love"), was released on the label in June 1966. The song is marked by the pounding drums
, wailing harmonica
, raucous vocals
, and crazed fuzz guitar that characterized the band's signature sound. Although the single failed to reach the national charts, it was a big regional hit in a number of locations across the United States, most notably in Nashville and Orlando. During the 1980s, the song was also responsible for posthumously bringing We the People to the attention of music fans all over the world, when it was included on Nuggets, Volume 6: Punk Part Two, the sixth volume of the Nuggets series of albums.
"Mirror of Your Mind" was followed in September 1966 by "He Doesn't Go About It Right", which included "You Burn Me Up and Down" on the B-side
. Like "Mirror of Your Mind", "You Burn Me Up and Down" has gone on to become one of the band's most famous songs, due to its inclusion on various garage rock compilation albums. We the People's fourth single, "In the Past" (b/w "St. John's Shop"), was released in late 1966 and featured the sound of a locally made musical instrument
that the band used instead of the sitar
, which was becoming popular on records at that time. The eight-stringed instrument, dubbed the "octachord" by the band, had been made by a friend's grandfather and looked like a large mandolin
. The octachord was played on the record and at live concert
appearances by the band's lead guitar
ist, Wayne Proctor, who still has the instrument in his possession today. Despite "In the Past" being released as the band's fourth single, local radio stations preferred to play the softer B-side over the more psychedelic sounding A-side
, which resulted in "St. John's Shop" reaching #2 on the local Orlando charts. "In the Past" was later covered
in 1968 by The Chocolate Watch Band on their second album
, The Inner Mystique
.
We the People suffered a major setback in early 1967 when songwriter and lead guitarist Wayne Proctor left the band and returned to college in an attempt to avoid the draft
for the Vietnam War
. The band issued a further three singles on RCA Records
throughout 1967 and 1968 before the band's second songwriter, Tommy Talton, left in mid-1968. This departure, coupled with the expiration of their RCA recording contract, effectively ended the band's recording career. We the People limped on throughout 1969 and into 1970, until Ron Dillman decided to disband the group following a Halloween concert on October 31, 1970. After leaving the band, Proctor went on to write the minor hit, "Follow the Yellow Brick Road" for The Lemonade Charade and today plays with local bands in South Carolina. Tommy Talton went on to form the country rock
band Cowboy with Scott Boyer and was consequently the only member of We the People to have a professional music career after the 1960s.
by the band have appeared over the years. The first of these, Declaration of Independence, was issued in 1983 by Eva Records and later re-released on CD
by Collectables Records
in 1993. Declaration of Independence consists of tracks that originally appeared on the band's singles. In 1998 Sundazed Records
released an exhaustive 2 CD
retrospective titled Mirror of Our Minds, which again featured the band's singles along with previously unreleased material and songs by other related bands. This was followed in 2007 by a limited edition vinyl
only LP
release, titled In the Past, which appeared on the Spanish label, Wohn Records. In 2008, Sundazed issued a second compilation, titled Too Much Noise, which brought together tracks from the band's Challenge Records era in an approximation of an official album, as it might have appeared had the band released one during the 1960s.
Garage rock
Garage rock is a raw form of rock and roll that was first popular in the United States and Canada from about 1963 to 1967. During the 1960s, it was not recognized as a separate music genre and had no specific name...
band from Orlando, Florida that were formed in late 1965 and professionally active between 1966 and 1970. Although none of their singles
Single (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...
charted nationally in the U.S., a number of them did reach the Top 10 of the local Orlando charts. The band are perhaps best remembered for their song "Mirror of Your Mind" which reached the Top 10 in a number of regional singles charts across the U.S. during 1966. The song has subsequently been included on several compilation album
Compilation album
A compilation album is an album featuring tracks from one or more performers, often culled from a variety of sources The tracks are usually collected according to a common characteristic, such as popularity, genre, source or subject matter...
s over the years.
History
We the People consisted of musicians drawn from a number of different Orlando based garage bands. In the early 1960s, The Coachmen, a frat rock band who were a popular fixture at local college parties, merged with members of another local group, the Nation Rocking Shadows, to form The Trademarks. Then, in late 1965, Ron Dillman, a writer for the Orlando SentinelOrlando Sentinel
The Orlando Sentinel is the primary newspaper of the Orlando, Florida region. It was founded in 1876. The Sentinel is owned by Tribune Company and is overseen by the Chicago Tribune. As of 2005, the Sentinel’s president and publisher was Kathleen Waltz; she announced her resignation in February 2008...
, brought together members of The Trademarks and members of another local group, The Offbeets (formerly known as The Nonchalants), to form a garage rock supergroup
Supergroup (music)
In the late 1960s, the term supergroup was coined to describe "a rock music group whose performers are already famous from having performed individually or in other groups"....
of sorts named We the People. The band were notable for having two talented and prolific songwriter
Songwriter
A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...
s, Tommy Talton and Wayne Proctor, with the latter writing most of the band's most popular songs.
With Dillman in place as the band's manager, We the People quickly released "My Brother, the Man" in early 1966 on the local record label
Record label
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...
, Hotline. The single was a Top 10 hit locally and gained enough airplay
Airplay
* Airplay is the amount of time a song is played on the radio.It may also refer to:* AirPlay, an audio & video streaming technology from Apple Inc.* Airplay , Foster & Graydon music project from 1980* Citroën C1, Citroën C1 Airplay...
to enable the band to sign a publishing deal with Nashville-based producer
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
Tony Moon, which, in turn, led to a recording contract
Recording contract
A recording contract is a legal agreement between a record label and a recording artist , where the artist makes a record for the label to sell and promote...
with Challenge Records
Challenge Records (1950s)
Challenge Records was founded in Los Angeles in 1957 by cowboy singer Gene Autry and former Columbia Records A & R representative Joe Johnson. Autry's involvement with the label was short lived as he sold his interest to the remaining partners in October 1958. The label's first success came with...
. The band's second single, "Mirror of Your Mind" (b/w "The Color of Love"), was released on the label in June 1966. The song is marked by the pounding drums
Drum kit
A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
, wailing harmonica
Harmonica
The harmonica, also called harp, French harp, blues harp, and mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used primarily in blues and American folk music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. It is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes or multiple holes...
, raucous vocals
Singing
Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
, and crazed fuzz guitar that characterized the band's signature sound. Although the single failed to reach the national charts, it was a big regional hit in a number of locations across the United States, most notably in Nashville and Orlando. During the 1980s, the song was also responsible for posthumously bringing We the People to the attention of music fans all over the world, when it was included on Nuggets, Volume 6: Punk Part Two, the sixth volume of the Nuggets series of albums.
"Mirror of Your Mind" was followed in September 1966 by "He Doesn't Go About It Right", which included "You Burn Me Up and Down" on the B-side
A-side and B-side
A-side and B-side originally referred to the two sides of gramophone records on which singles were released beginning in the 1950s. The terms have come to refer to the types of song conventionally placed on each side of the record, with the A-side being the featured song , while the B-side, or...
. Like "Mirror of Your Mind", "You Burn Me Up and Down" has gone on to become one of the band's most famous songs, due to its inclusion on various garage rock compilation albums. We the People's fourth single, "In the Past" (b/w "St. John's Shop"), was released in late 1966 and featured the sound of a locally made musical instrument
Musical instrument
A musical instrument is a device created or adapted for the purpose of making musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can serve as a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. The history of musical instruments dates back to the...
that the band used instead of the sitar
Sitar
The 'Tablaman' is a plucked stringed instrument predominantly used in Hindustani classical music, where it has been ubiquitous since the Middle Ages...
, which was becoming popular on records at that time. The eight-stringed instrument, dubbed the "octachord" by the band, had been made by a friend's grandfather and looked like a large mandolin
Mandolin
A mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family . It descends from the mandore, a soprano member of the lute family. The mandolin soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. A mandolin may have f-holes, or a single...
. The octachord was played on the record and at live concert
Concert
A concert is a live performance before an audience. The performance may be by a single musician, sometimes then called a recital, or by a musical ensemble, such as an orchestra, a choir, or a musical band...
appearances by the band's lead guitar
Lead guitar
Lead guitar is a guitar part which plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs within a song structure...
ist, Wayne Proctor, who still has the instrument in his possession today. Despite "In the Past" being released as the band's fourth single, local radio stations preferred to play the softer B-side over the more psychedelic sounding A-side
A-side and B-side
A-side and B-side originally referred to the two sides of gramophone records on which singles were released beginning in the 1950s. The terms have come to refer to the types of song conventionally placed on each side of the record, with the A-side being the featured song , while the B-side, or...
, which resulted in "St. John's Shop" reaching #2 on the local Orlando charts. "In the Past" was later covered
Cover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...
in 1968 by The Chocolate Watch Band on their second album
Album
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...
, The Inner Mystique
The Inner Mystique
The Inner Mystique is a 1968 album by The Chocolate Watch Band.-Tracklist:# "Voyage of the Trieste" - 3:41# "In the Past" - 3:08# "Inner Mystique" - 5:37# "I'm Not Like Everybody Else" - 3:42# "Medication" - 2:08...
.
We the People suffered a major setback in early 1967 when songwriter and lead guitarist Wayne Proctor left the band and returned to college in an attempt to avoid the draft
Conscription in the United States
Conscription in the United States has been employed several times, usually during war but also during the nominal peace of the Cold War...
for the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
. The band issued a further three singles on RCA Records
RCA Records
RCA Records is one of the flagship labels of Sony Music Entertainment. The RCA initials stand for Radio Corporation of America , which was the parent corporation from 1929 to 1985 and a partner from 1985 to 1986.RCA's Canadian unit is Sony's oldest label...
throughout 1967 and 1968 before the band's second songwriter, Tommy Talton, left in mid-1968. This departure, coupled with the expiration of their RCA recording contract, effectively ended the band's recording career. We the People limped on throughout 1969 and into 1970, until Ron Dillman decided to disband the group following a Halloween concert on October 31, 1970. After leaving the band, Proctor went on to write the minor hit, "Follow the Yellow Brick Road" for The Lemonade Charade and today plays with local bands in South Carolina. Tommy Talton went on to form the country rock
Country rock
Country rock is sub-genre of popular music, formed from the fusion of rock with country. The term is generally used to refer to the wave of rock musicians who began to record country-flavored records in the late 1960s and early 1970s, beginning with Bob Dylan and The Byrds; reaching its greatest...
band Cowboy with Scott Boyer and was consequently the only member of We the People to have a professional music career after the 1960s.
Later releases
Although We the People did not release an album during the 1960s, a handful of compilationsCompilation album
A compilation album is an album featuring tracks from one or more performers, often culled from a variety of sources The tracks are usually collected according to a common characteristic, such as popularity, genre, source or subject matter...
by the band have appeared over the years. The first of these, Declaration of Independence, was issued in 1983 by Eva Records and later re-released on CD
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
by Collectables Records
Collectables Records
Collectables is a reissue record label founded in 1980 by Jerry Greene. Greene was previously associated with New York City's Times Square Record Shop, Philadelphia's Record Museum retail chain, and the Lost Nite and Crimson record labels....
in 1993. Declaration of Independence consists of tracks that originally appeared on the band's singles. In 1998 Sundazed Records
Sundazed Records
Sundazed Records is a record label based in Coxsackie, in the Catskills of New York. It specializes in obscure and rare recordings from the 1950s to the 1970s.Label founders Bob Irwin and his wife Mary started the label in 1989...
released an exhaustive 2 CD
Double album
A double album is an audio album which spans two units of the primary medium in which it is sold, typically records and compact discs....
retrospective titled Mirror of Our Minds, which again featured the band's singles along with previously unreleased material and songs by other related bands. This was followed in 2007 by a limited edition vinyl
Gramophone record
A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...
only LP
LP album
The LP, or long-playing microgroove record, is a format for phonograph records, an analog sound storage medium. Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry...
release, titled In the Past, which appeared on the Spanish label, Wohn Records. In 2008, Sundazed issued a second compilation, titled Too Much Noise, which brought together tracks from the band's Challenge Records era in an approximation of an official album, as it might have appeared had the band released one during the 1960s.
Band members
- Randy Boyte - Organ (1966–1970)
- David Duff - Bass (1966–1970)
- Tommy Talton - Guitar (1966–1968)
- Wayne Proctor - Lead Guitar (1966–1967)
- Tom Wynn - Drums (1966)
- Lee Ferguson - Drums (1966–1967)
- Terry Cox - Drums (1967–1970)
- Carl Chambers - Guitar (1968–1969)
- Skip Skinner - Guitar (1969–1970)
Singles
- "My Brother, the Man"/"Proceed with Caution" (Hotline 3680) 1966
- "Mirror of Your Mind"/"The Color of Love" (Challenge 59333) 1966
- "He Doesn't Go About It Right"/"You Burn Me Up and Down" (Challenge 59340) 1966
- "In The Past"/"St. John's Shop" (Challenge 59351) 1966
- "Follow Me Back to Louisville"/"Fluorescent Hearts" (RCA Victor 47-9292) 1967
- "Love Is a Beautiful Thing"/"The Day She Dies" (RCA Victor 47-9393) 1967
- "Ain't Gonna Find Nobody (Better Than You)"/"When I Arrive" (RCA Victor 47-9498) 1968
Compilation albums
- Declaration of Independence (Eva 12009) 1983
- Declaration of Independence [Reissue] (Collectibles COL-CD-0532) 1993
- Mirror of Our Minds (Sundazed SC 11056) 1998
- In the Past (Wohn WHNLP009) 2007
- Too Much Noise (Sundazed SC 6258) 2008
External links
- [ We the People] at Allmusic
- Interview with Wayne Proctor
- Nashville's first long-hair band releases new CDs Weekly Wire profile of We the People (August 24, 1988)