RUNN D.T.J( 1986/87)

Christmas Time 1986 and the Aerosmith/Run DMC Walk This Way  song (mashup) was everywhere and was a huge hit. Like a couple of highschool knuckleheads myself and Tbone thought for the Highschool Christmas Assembly that year  wouldn’t it be a hoot to take the  stage at our Highschool and play this tune live as a rap/rock act!

Along with our pal Jack Loaf we went about hatching our fun scheme of actually putting this together. Why not we were all graduating Seniors that year and who gives a rat ass. Let’s do this!

So we basically became RUNN D.T.J (Deke/Tbone/Jack)

We were lucky that we knew fella’s that could actually play instruments so we knew the live music portion would be taken care of. It was just up to the three of us (Myself/Tbone and Jack Loaf) to pull our shit together.

So we approached the  rocker guys at school who could actually play  (Foles/Hoggie/John Young) if they would be willing to do it. They agreed so we hooked up at Hoggie’s basement which was a jam shack and after we studied the lyrics to Walk This Way it was go time…Rehearsal that is…

Once Fole’s kicked off that opening drum beat of Walk This Way followed by John on guitar and Hoggie on Bass it was our time and as soon as Tbone and Jack launched into the opening verse it was about 20 seconds later that song came to an abrupt halt!

Due to…Laughter,lot’s of it! Foles/Hoogie and John roared with laughter whereas we stood dumbfounded as we never heard our voices coming through a live mic….

I think it was Hoggie who in his laid back style said something to the effect of “Fuckin Hilarious!” so off we continued every couple of days practicing our one tune for the Assembly!

We were allowed 10 minutes at the assembly so it was only fair that since we actually had a live band laying down the sonic assault of Walk This Way as a favour to us that we would let the other guys play the remaining 5 minutes to there liking a song of their choice. This way it gave us a chance to get out of dodge asap in case….

Chapter 1: Christmas Assembly….

So now its time ..we get introduced and were off and  running  and the boys musically are on cue and here we go….

It was superb it went splendid. Everyone loved it People were hooting and hollering at us. Just like that it was over for the 3 of us whereas the real musicians in our band could play out the remaining 5 or so  minutes of the song of their choice..

What would that be…How about one of the best Christmas Songs ever!!!???

Cocaine by Eric Clapton was performed musically by the three fella’s. Cocaine is white meaning snow. It’s December in Thunder Bay…hahahaha…..one of the funniest things I  remember still to this day.  Man I howled as Cocaine was echoing through the halls of Lakeview at a Christmas Assembly!

Chapter 2: Flirting With Disaster….(perhaps not a good idea!)

So come spring time 1987 some one on Students Council approached me about us doing it again. I was totally for it and so was everyone else. The only thing is they wanted us to do about an hours worth of music?

Whut?

So we hunkered down and decided to do Walk This Way/Fight For Your Right To Party/Smokin In The Boys Room. We also did our spin of No Sleep Til Brooklyn and Tbone changed all the lyrics and titled it No Sleep To Lakeview. We howled! We were on top of the world.

We jammed a few times and we had it together or so we thought. Tbone drew up the poster that you see posted and we littered Thunder Bay with our ads of the upcoming show! ( Heard through the Grapevine that our ad ended up in the ladies washrooms at a few of the high schools!)

Come show time we told the organizers that we would do our thing for about 15 minutes and the other dudes in the band could fill the other 45 minutes.

 

Tbone and Jack to get right into the DTJ vibe went all out. They got black shoe polish( applied the shoe polish onto their faces) and decked themselves out as basically DMC. Jean Jackets/TurtleNecks/Hats and sneakers with no laces as well. They went hardcore! They looked brilliant!

My Mom stitched me some cool pants with stripes on one side and denim on the other. Tbone even if you look closely on the drawing drew our wardrobe right down to the very detail.

The school dance was pretty full. The boys in the band opened with Wipe Out than it was our turn and  we launched into Walk This Way. Things felt off on stage. The mic’s were cutting out. Jack Loaf was missing his vocal lines and all you could hear was him muffling jabber into his mic.  Musically it was solid. Our vocal performance was sub par. We limped and got through our tunes. It was a struggle.

After the raucous celebration just 4 months earlier here we are 4 months later and basically onboard  the Hindenburg about to go up in smoke. Andy Warhol once said something about “15 minutes of fame” We took our 15 minutes and disintegrated it into one big train wreck before the dance  beach crowd!

DTJ was finished. The Hide Your Sheep Tour after one date was cancelled. Debacle comes to mind!

We should have went out as Champs. Instead we went out as Chumps! Ha!

Life Lesson Learned! Still a ton of fun looking back at it now. Speaking of which….

Chapter 3: Time Stand Still

So just the other day Jack found the ad from 30 years ago and we both howled and I told Jack I could hardly wait to post this Tbone drawn pic on FaceCrack as I still love to rattle Tbone’s chain now and then…

Chapter 4: Tbone has the final say…

Tbone quipped on FaceCrack that hopefully “No audio evidence exists!”