Today, let's have some Vermont memories and shed some light on the band that gave us the crude punker "Hard Workin' Man", a song I became obsessed with ever since I heard a scratchy sample of it on an auction site.
The Rejects formed in 1965 in Rutland, Vermont as a four-piece, led by Gordon "Buff" Spaulding. The earliest gig I found was in May 1965 at a Hootenanny Dance held at the Mount St. Joseph Academy's auditorium.
Less than a month later at the Variety show of Rutland Havenwood School, the band had extended to a six-piece with Buff Spaulding (leader, guitar), Mark Sammons (guitar), Rick Bloomer (drums), John Pfenning (drums), and Steve and Rod Van Buskirk (trumpet), all students at Rutland High School. The unusual thing is the presence of two drummers, though I don't know if they played at the same time or shifted between gigs (or songs).
In February 1966, John had left, Rod was absent and Buff, Rick, Steve and Mark played as the Buff Spaulding Jazz Quartet for an event of the First Methodist Church.
Still The Rejects had not been put on hold and were back a couple of weeks later, joined by Tom Wormwood assisting Steve on trumpet. They won a band competition at the Castleton Federated Church on March 7, against a Fair Haven band called "Hairs".
In May, the band's local popularity led them to appear on WCAX-TV's "Dance Date" show in Burlington. This time, Steve had left the trumpet to Rod. At that time, the band's set list included songs done by Herb Alpert's Tijuana Brass.
In June, The Rejects attended a Jamboree at the Otter Valley Club while the latest radio equipment was showcased to thousands of Northeast radio operators. They appeared a second time on the same TV program in July, without Rod and adding a female vocalist, Carol Thrall. Two female vocalists, Connie Cook and Andy Bishop, were also members for two months, I think around that time.
In September, due to graduation, the band lost many members and had to evolve, and the new lineup finally crystallized into the one that would be heard on the Dasca single.
Keeping up with the new sounds of the time, the band had now given up trumpet players and added an organ. Along with Spaulding and Sammons on guitars, the band was now comprised of Donald "Don" Ravenna (drums), Mike Densmore (bass), Craig Robinson (organ) and two girl vocalists, Lisa Kimmey and Martha Lord. Don had previously been a member of The Fugitives, another local band, in 1965.
Having become the most popular rock 'n' roll band in Rutland, the band saved money from the gigs and gathered a total of $4,000 worth instruments and speakers. They also started saving to finance a record.
In November, the band attended the huge "Southeast Varieties" held at Southeast School to which over eighty local performers appeared, in which Carol was featured as a soloist. Then The Rejects appeared at Fisher Elementary school in Dec 1966, before winning another Battle of the Bands in January 1967 at Rutland Junior High.
Having saved enough money and with the help of their parents, the band paid a $400 fee for the recording and pressing of some original material. The members were at that time all between 15 and 18 years old.
They called on David S. Calef, a Vermont director of broadcast, radio engineer and promoter of his own small Vanguard Productions company, who seemingly took advantage of the ambiguity and presented himself as working for the Vanguard Records from New York City. Calef recorded their two songs on February 12 right at Rutland High School, likely very cheaply.
"Hard Workin' Man" was written by Buff Spaulding in December 1966. It's a really cool garage track with a great riff and guitar solo. Despite being placed on the B-side, it was presented as the top side even at the time.
"3 Hours Til' Dawn" is a great moody punker as well. Mark Sammons wrote the song the night before the recording session. Both songs have great guitars and organ sounds, with many voices and great backings by Lisa and Martha.
Dave Calef sent the recordings for a pressing of 1,000 copies, while the band started to promote the upcoming record, appearing yet again on "Dance Date" and performing their two originals.
The copies were delivered at the end of March and the band was apparently a little surprised to find Dasca instead of Vanguard on the label. In addition, Buff Spaulding's name was misspelled. They were also justifiably disappointed with the sound quality, as the recordings were indeed crude.
The record was nevertheless the pick of the week at radio station WHWB. Spaulding announced they already had plans for another record, but were waiting to see if the first one sold. The idea was that if they could sell the 1,000 copies, another run of 2,000 would be submitted.
Meanwhile, the band, that had been chosen to represent the Rutland Region, left for Burlington for a statewide Battle Of The Bands against five other combos sponsored by Jaycees. They played on April 8 in front of 250 teens at the Black River High School Gymnasium but unfortunately didn't reach the podium.
Back at home, the band found a spot at the end of April at The Towne Shop on Merchant Row and Center Street, a clothes shop, where they played a 2-hour afternoon gig and did their best to sell their single and autographed them to an enthusiastic crowd. Still, the band considered the disc had failed. They said having sold only 1,500 copies, which seems to imply with their plans to order 2,000 additional copies that half of the discs remained unsold.
Still thinking of making a better record, the band set up on the second floor of an old barn on Grove Street, in the rear of the Melody Radio-TV Shop owned by Spaulding's father and spent the summer converting the attic into a completely equipped recording studio, including a glass enclosed control room, to be able to professionalize their sound.
Yet again because of graduations, Mark Sammons and Mike Densmore left the band and Bill Comstock was brought in on guitar and saxophone. Lisa Kimmey also took up organ while Martha Lord took up the guitar too.
The Rejects came back again on "Dance Date" in October, and on Nov 27, won a second time at the local contest that allowed them to represent Rutland again in the statewide Battle of the Band in April the next year. In December, Martha Lord was also named to appear in the publication "Outstanding Young Women of America".
The band kept appearing at Teen Dances at the beginning of 1968 and in March, they devoted themselves to record material for another single in hope of a chart-buster hit. Spaulding's father helped operate the deck while recording.
"We're making the master tapes ourselves," said Buff Spaulding. "That last record, the one that flopped, that was done by a 'professional' and we consider it... well, an experiment."
Martha Lord wrote eight songs for the band and Spaulding helped with the arrangements. One of them was "Love Ya", reportedly a "slow, rhythmic, almost haunting melody" with vocals by Lisa and Martha which the band members thought had a good chance to make it big. Another one was called "Hold Me Baby".
According to an account of a session, "when the Recording sign in the studio flashed on, Miss Lord looked as professional as Peggy Lee as she sang her own lyrics. Spaulding seemed pleased and laughed loudly when Ravenna ended with a loud drum flourish."
The master tapes were shipped to three big companies; MGM, Columbia and Robin. Spaulding was confident that at least one of them would be impressed enough to do something with them, adding that MGM had already offered them the services of an arranger for free. But all the band members except Bill Comstock were now seniors at Rutland High School.
"A lot depends on what happens with our recordings between now and September," Spaulding said. "If they flop, we're off to college. If we get a hit, we'll stick together. Either way, it's a lot of fun."
In April, the band attended again Jaycees' Vermont Battle of the Bands. The Rejects ranked fourth but still won a consolation trophy. Some other competitors had colorful names: one was called The Other Man's Grass when another was the Apathetic Mushroom!
Sadly, to my knowledge, the eight new Rejects songs were never picked up and are now lost in time. As Spaulding had announced, the band likely broke up as members left for College in Sept 1968.
Yet, Spaulding remained active, including as a manager and booker for local venues in Rutland. In 1969, he arranged a tour that included The Zombies at the College of St. Joseph, coordinated various rock concerts in Main Street Park and engineered live recording sessions for local folk singers.
One day, Spaulding made a bet with a local band that he could put together a band formed with high school guys who had never played before and make them beat anyone in a Battle of the Bands. That's how he created and managed The Original Cast Blues Band. The band competed in the Battle and Spaulding won his bet! One member, Thomas McHugh, who was described as an outstanding guitarist, unfortunately died homeless in 1989 after a short self-destructive life, pretty much washed up by alcohol and drug use.
In 1970, Spaulding operated the record section of his father's shop and offered the city to pay for trash cans in the high school area with his own funds but he also wanted to advertise his music and store on the said cans, which the city couldn't allow. Later that year, Buff obtained The Flock from Chicago to come to play at the Castleton State College.
As for David Calef, the 'professional' recorder that laid on tape the two songs we have today, he later became a member of the committee of Miss Vermont, owned the Jerry Lewis cinema, and produced educational documentaries for TV on tape.
In 1974, it was made public he had failed to pay his personal property taxes but he kept up with the Miss Vermont contest and his theater, now called First Cinema, also selling electronic equipment and telephones through his Vangard-Dasca company. He became president of the Battleboro TV Network and directed many TV programs. His company later became Vanguard Telephone. He finally added Greyhound racing to his list and was active until the end of the 1990s.
Buff Spaulding stayed in Rutland and kept ties with music in the following decades. He opened the Melody Music Center where he sold guitars and other musical equipment and his recording studio kept attracting many people.
A local musician, Art Rothafel, remembers that "Buff was sort of a wannabe producer. There were a lot of touring bands that played on the mountain, and they'd always come to Buff's. We had this ongoing flow of musicians coming to Rutland. Local kids with musical aspirations hung out at Spaulding's studio, learning from the visiting musicians. It is uncanny how many really great musicians came out of Rutland. There was just a slew of people. We had our own little community of musicians, and the nexus of all that was Buff Spaulding's studio."
After keeping up as a local figure with a great influence on local musicians, Gordon "Buff" Spaulding passed away in 2019 in Rutland.
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