What Charleston Was Like Way Back When . . . (Part 2)

Or at the very least, the way that I remember It?

Note: The first version of this article was originally posted March 4, 2015. However in the following few years, it was updated and improved several times. The size of the article increased significantly with the addition of several vintage advertisements; those changes exceeded limits for the Blogger host site. Therefore it was split into two parts. (Part 1 can be found at it's original space:

https://ko-op.blogspot.com/2015/03/what-charleston-was-like-way-back-when.html)

Few matchbook covers from decades back

"It has been fifty years since I began working at the Ko-Op in the fall (November 1964) near the end of my first quarter of EIU classes." This continues my memories of the years that I lived in Charleston.

Nearby on the SW corner of the Square was one of two Charleston locations for a Snappy Service Diner. Open twenty-four seven (A rarity in those days), Snappy's was home to a fifteen-cent hamburger (In earlier days, they were a dime), but Snappy's also served breakfast any time of day. Nothing like being up late and sending someone for a bag of ten burger sliders for a buck-fifty. It was also interesting to spend a short-time watching a one-person operation.

Think of a small shotgun building with a counter down the center and half-a-dozen or more stools (Usually full around or after midnight). A dozen or more patties on a smoking hot grill, right next to eggs cooking, and a pot of chile heating behind. Grease from the burgers threatened to float other eggs and patties right of the grill top, while steam and smoke saturated the air. One likely gained a hundred calories just by breathing for ten or fifteen minutes.

A second Snappy's location was near campus, a block west of Old Main, on the south side of Lincoln Avenue. These two locations were part of a small local chain (Believe there was one in Mattoon) with home store in Paris, IL. Those fifteen-cent burgers were relatively small-size (Ten per person was often the choice) and those 'belly-busters' were best eaten hot off the grill. Chase them down with two or three Tums, and they could get you through a late nite. And as I mentioned, Snappy's never closed.

While thinking about the downtown area, who has had a ‘Chinkburger’ from up on Whiskey Row (Block off the Square from the 1st. National Bank)? Chink and Kate’s Bar was on the south side of west Monroe St. You could order a braunschweiger with a big slice of onion and cheese on rye bread, even if you were not old enough to purchase a beer.

Closer to campus, Coffee Time was opened by 1967 and was open late at night and early in the morning.

Also on the southside of the Square was Snyder’s Donut Shop and early in the morning, they delivered a tray of fresh donuts and sometimes a freshly-baked cake roll to the Ko-Op. Fresh cake roll was a treat with ice cream (Choice of soft-served or hand dipped); Larry Mizener often wondered why so much ‘sold’ that first day - - might have been that workers knew when it was fresh, soft and scrumptious too.

By Spring of 1965, Snyder’s Donuts was displaced at the Ko-Op by a new donut operation. This shop was operated by the Brooken’s family (Not positive on the name, but he was a former employee of Snyders). The night before Brooken’s Donuts opened, several of us Ko-Op workers accepted an invitation to help with a shake-down run - - making and taste-testing donuts until way after midnight - a hot glazed donut right out of the grease is hard to resist. Those were the days; I ate three to five meals a day and didn’t gain weight (Paying for that appetite development in these later decades).

For over a year, Lyle Mowery and I opened up the Ko-Op at 7 a.m. When we arrived at 6:30, the delivery of milk and ice cream from Mattoon’s Meadow Gold had already occurred. The delivery man had a key and stopped before we arrived on the scene.

Time’s, they kept a changing. Snappy’s and Coffee Time are long gone.

Until recently, it was often said that Charleston did not have and could not support a good restaurant. With very few exceptions; there were not many distinct choices, and I’m not sure if there ever was an outstanding meal in the town? What’s Cookin’ caused a little stir when it opened. Restaurants there trended toward providing low or moderately priced eats - - pub food, fast food, cheap food.

Today Trip Advisor rates Pagliai’s Pizza as number 1 of 44 restaurant in Charleston. As reported in the last census, Coles County’s medium household income for a family was estimated to be $ 37,397; twenty-two percent, over 1 in 5 of the current population were rated as being officially poor. I would guess that some people save their dining experiences for a road trip made to Champaign, IL. The good news is that Dirty’s Bar and Grill (What was once the Ko-Op) is rated number three (Update - Dirty's has not held to that rating, Feb. 2018 finds it rated 10th).

Back in ’64, Charleston still had a few neighborhood grocery stores. Pearcy's Market was then open and their processing plant and delivery supplied all of the meats for both the Ko-Op and the Short Stop. There was Haddock’s Grocery up toward the the Square (Don’t remember which street). In the first block north of campus, also on Fourth Street there was Orndorf’s Market (Horney Ornies). Sometime in the Seventies, it was replaced with a dance club (Think spinning glitter ball hanging from the ceiling) and a restaurant named E.L. Crackers. Rumor had it that the owner / builder purchased a remodeling permit and kept one small wall section intact until the outer shell of the new building hid it from view. A permit for added construction on an existing building is much cheaper that one for new construction. Other night spots are / were Marty’s (What was Walt’s back in the day, named after Marty Pattin), Ted’s Warehouse (Live music on weekends, located in the north section of town next to the rail tracks), Stix's, Mother’s (Also hosted disco dancing), the Uptowner, and Thirsty’s (Quarter beer nights).

Near the intersection of Fifth Street and Lincoln, the original / first Jimmy John’s was started in a garage (1983) by Jimmy John Liautaud. Jimmy John’s is now a national chain with over two thousand stores in thirty-four states.

The changes in business Enterprises were not limited to food and bar establishments. There were a handful of other stores and shops that I and other EIU students frequented. Finding a good barber in Charleston in those days was difficult. Aron’s Barber Shop was down in front of Old Main near Ike’s, getting a cut there was often the default choice. Cavins and Bayles Clothing had two locations: the Campus shop in the strip mall across Lincoln Avenue from Old Main and another on the inside NW corner of the Square. Jim Edgar (Interview transcript; college years begin about page 59), a President of the EIU student body and the last downstate governor of Illinois, worked there in 1965.

There was one independent book store, the Lincoln Book Shop owned and operated by Tanya Wood (Her husband was an EIU faculty member). Lincoln Books was housed across from Old Main on Lincoln Avenue. In 2004, Tanya and Dr. Leonard Wood died as a result of an auto accident east of Charleston.

Charleston’s town square began a decline in the early Sixties - - after the widening of Lincoln Avenue (Early Sixties), some businesses moved from the town square out near campus. But the Square was and still is vital and the heart of Charleston’s downtown. In the 1964-’68 era, there were still several businesses there. Along with Roc’s Lounge (The Black Front) and the Sportsman Lounge, there was Mack Moore Shoes, a five and dime (Ben Franklin’s? The basement had some restaurant glassware; I purchased some there for the Ko-Op), nearby was Jim Lanman’s Hardware store. The Will Rogers Theater (Opened in 1938) was and is still located on Monroe Street off the northeast side of the town square (Courthouse). Currently it is under restoration.

I’m sure that I left some important businesses off this summary listing; also probably have some errors in my memory. Add your entries and corrections to this posting.

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* Joe Lucco coached three legendary basketball players who all played for the U of IL in the late Fifties: Govoner Vaughn, Manny Jackson and Don Ohl. After 39 years as teacher, coach and administrator, Joe retired from Edwardsville School District and was elected to serve as an Illinois State Representative (Democrat, Dist. 56).

** Herb Brooks had worked at Walt’s with Larry Mizener, and in 1964 he was the grade school principal in Rardin. In those days, Herb often helped on Sunday mornings by taking orders and payments at the cash register. After church, customers lined up for our deep-fried chicken dinners. I recognized Herb's ‘Brooks look’ the first time, that first weekend that I worked at the Ko-Op.

Two Brooks brothers and their families lived in Findlay; their kids went to Findlay schools - - first cousins, Charlotte and David, graduated in my class. Herb had been born in Moweaqua and graduated from Lovington High. He had served in the Air Force during the Korean War, then returned to Charleston and EIU. He was a cousin of the Brooks families in Findlay. I later worked with Herb’s younger brother, Jim Brooks, who was a music and band teacher in Urbana Schools.

Herb left Charleston Schools and worked for the University as Assistant Director and later Director of the Student Union (1966-1978). He retired from EIU in 1987 as Director of Veterans Services. By then, Herb had purchased the DQs in Charleston. Herb Brooks, age 69, died in April 2001 at his rural Charleston home. His wife, Darlene, died in Feb. 2012.

Turn the Radio On

The Music

A music fan; I like music of almost all types. For several years, I've booked musicians, singers, and music groups that perform at the Bookstore Stage in Torrey, UT for The Entrada Institute. Myself, I don't have much talent in singing or playing an instrument. I keep an acoustic guitar around home, and take it out of its case now and then. I know a few chords, but my attempts at playing are strictly solo, without an audience. Not much of a singer either, but I enjoy singing . . . in the car, in the shower - - alone.

Reminder that colored text here indicates an active link; click on them and you will be taken to offsite resources.

From an early age, I was drawn to music - - that is, listening to music. And the first music I heard was likely on the radio. Sometime around 1957, in my childhood family an old clock radio was replaced (mainly used to wake my Dad for early morning farm work). My brothers and I took the old one upstairs to our bedrooms. We tried using a metal coathanger and aluminum foil to improve its reception. The best time seemed to be late at night when some of the AM stations boosted their signals - - occasionally I could pickup a station from Memphis, TN, probably WDIA. Three hundred and sixty miles away.

A quick rundown of some of the pop music of the Fifties leading into the Sixties (Perhaps not always in order). Popular styles included big band and orchestras, jazz, ballad crooners and song stylists (Nat King Cole), and traditional country tunes (Hank Williams) and then Rockabilly. I remember kids my age and older still citing Stardust (1927 by Hoagy Carmichael), covered by groups such as Glenn Miller and His Orchestra as their favorite song. 

Your Hit Parade was a weekly network TV show that aired from 1950 to 1959 (Its radio predecessor began in 1935 and ran for fifteen years). I did not watch the show until the late Fifties when my family first got a television. Each week the seven top popular songs were featured and performed in reverse order by the Hit Parade cast of singers and dancers. The top songs were determined somehow by a ‘national survey of record sales.’ American Tobacco Company’s Lucky Strike cigarette brand sponsored the show. Each week on Saturday night, the audience would anticipate which songs would be in the top three positions and how many weeks they might stay there.

A vivid childhood memory is of me and my two older brothers being invited over to a neighboring farmhouse by an elderly couple to watch television on a Sunday night. We washed and scrubbed, put on our best clothes, and were dropped off in the early evening. There was popcorn and Kool-aid, but my main recollection is seeing and listening to the Nat King Cole Show. At that time, I did not realize his was the first network music variety series hosted by a black performer.

By the late-Fifties, youngsters like myself were beginning to listen to rhythm and blues music with its stronger rhythms, often faster-paced beats, and sometimes suggestive lyrics. Music by black performers such as Fats Domino and Little Richard.

Yeah, I remember listening to 'rockabilly music' too.

"Well, I never felt more like singing the Blues

cause I never thought, that I'd ever lose

your love Dear. Why'd you do me this way?"

That is the first song that I remember learning all of the words and singing along to - - whistle if you wish.

Marty Robbins and many others covered Guy Mitchell's pop-hit of 1956; YouTube has numerous other versions - guess I was in good company.

The Sixties . . .
Growing up in the rural Midwest nearby hometown Findlay, IL, guys around my age spent hundreds of hours driving around in automobiles (Gas was cheap, around 30 cents per gallon) and listening to radio, station WLS at AM 890 kilocycles on the dial.

Five thousand watts of power that on a clear, cold night could reach way out into Iowa, east to Ohio and beyond, north to Deer River MN, or down to the Ozark hilltops and beyond to Louisiana. WLS - - 'The Bright Sounds of Chicago Radio'. Music fans could pick up the station’s evening, atmospheric ‘skip’ hundreds and sometimes a thousand of miles away. WLS made the world seem a little smaller to the average guy growing up in a place that they thought was the middle of nowhere. We ignored the signal drift and static that only lasted for a little while before the signal came back gangbusters strong. The call letters, WLS originally stood for ‘World’s Largest Store” - the station was owned by Sears, Roebucks way back when it started as a country station. But by the Sixties and into the Seventies, it was basically Top-40 music all the time and had some well-known deejays that ushered in the golden age of top forty radio.

Walt Mizener (Apr 2015) posted an article on Facebook about 'Superjock' Larry Lujack’s death (Dec 2013). Lujack was one of a string of radio deejays from the Sixties and Seventies who kept WLS radio as a top rated Top40 station.

In early May of 1960 a pack of new deejays were hired by WLS and revolutionized the music heard in the Chicago area. “WLS’s Swinging Seven” (Art Roberts, Mort Crowley, Jim Dunbar, Dick Biondi, Gene Taylor, Bob Hale, and Clark Weber) became known all over the country. Bob Hale was the MC of the Winter Dance Party the night Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and the Big Bopper played in Clear Lake, Iowa (February 1959) . . . “the day the music died.”

A Sixties feature at WLS Radio was the Silver Dollar Survey Countdown. The survey was compiled each week from record sales reports gathered in the Chicagoland area. 

Lujack, Biondi and some of the others . . .
Dick Biondi was at WLS in 1960 to 1963. He was named the number one disc jockey in the country by Billboard magazine in 1961 and 1962. He called himself 'The wild I-talion' and (Suspended for some FFC violations) was noted for his occasional off-color jokes. Around 1962, I remember his on-air-comment “Meanwhile back at the oasis, the Arabs are eating their dates.” Is my memory correct? Did the station go silent a few moments and then another deejay take Biondi's place? The dreaded FCC censor at work . . .

Biondi drew an unbelievable sixty percent of all radio listeners as 'The Screamer' at WLS. One fan noted that “No matter how crazy things get, as long as you can still hear ‘The Wild I-talian’ on the radio, you just know that all is right with the world.” (Robert Feder, 2009). Listen to Dick Biondi WLS Radio Second Anniversary Show 1962.

WLS fired Biondi three years to the day of his hiring because of a dispute over the amount of advertising that was broadcast during his air time. He was the first to play a Beatles tune on radio; 'Please Please Me' in 1963. He was influential in advancing the careers of performers like Gene Vincent, Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley. Dick Biondi was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame (1998). Sometimes sidelined for health reasons, today he's still on-air at WLS-FM 94.7 Radio; Biondi claims that he wants to die with his headphones on . . . 

There were others:

Dex Card
Clark Weber (East of Midnight show)
Bob Hale - MC 'Feb. 2, 1959' in Clear Lake, IA
Ron Riley (Sixties) 
Art Roberts (Sixties) 'Bedtime Stories'

Tribute to WLS Sounds of the 60s

Bill Bailey (Seventies) Includes an audio clip.
Fred Winston (Seventies)
Joel Sebastion Show (Seventies)
Jon ‘Records’ Landecker (Seventies) - "Records was truly his middle name." He created 'Boogie Check', 'Americana Panorama', and satirical songs and bits based on current events such as 'Make a Date with the Watergate' and 'Press My Conference'.

Larry Lujack was a standout WLS deejay, the Superjock of the Seventies. Uncle Lar, the ‘wild man’, and ‘king of radio’ was on-the-air with his sidekick, Lil’ snot-nosed Tommy (Tommy Edwards).

"When buying a used car, punch the buttons on the radio. If all the stations are rock and roll, there's a good chance the transmission is shot." - Larry Lujack

Among Lujack's most popular radio bits were Animal Stories (Made three albums of them in all) and the Cheap Trashy Showbiz Report. Animal Stories included the tale of an anteater who had a twelve inch tongue and could move it in and out of its mouth forty times a minute. Lujack's response was, "I'd bet mom would love that for Mother's day"!

Larry Lujack "Off the Record" Part 1 of 3.


Who remembers the 'Tooth Fairy' stories with Dick Orkin, nurse Durkin, and the Toothmobile? Or the ads for drag strips in Union Grove, WI and Oswego Speedway in IL. SUNDAY, SUNDAY, SUNDAY!

Other great links:
WLS 890 AM Chicago - The Lost Sixties

WLS Radio 25th Anniversary TV Show Ch-7 Chicago (1985)
The radio station celebrated its 25th anniversary of playing rock and roll with this retrospective TV show. Most of the disc jockeys of the past (and some of the present at the time) appear on this program. The program was hosted by the late super jock Larry Lujack

There were a few other AM Radio competitors in nearby regions. During summer vacations back to the Arkansas Ozarks, I listened to KAAY out of Little Rock (K Double A Y!), another 50,000 watt clear channel station - Clyde Clifford and Beaker Street.

WDIA-AM Memphis in the Sixties was the among the nation's first stations to devote its entire format to black popular music. They were the first to have African American broadcasters on staff; Nat D. Williams, B.B. King, Rufus Thomas, and many others demonstrated an original flair, wit, and personality that helped attract young black and white listeners alike. Whether they were making up poems on the spot or urging their listeners to stay in school, these deejays made WDIA the true pulse of Memphis. Late night clear channel AM broadcasts, "50 thousand watts of goodwill" out of WDIA opened the doors to blues music by James Brown (Caldonia), B.B. King, and more.

Back in the day, we listened to WLS almost exclusively. It was the golden age of AM Radio. These days, WLS is talk radio with a few seemingly sane hosts augmented by mostly jabbering nutcases; syndicated programming such as Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity.

 

Have a related memory to share. Click on the 'comments' below and add your ideas and information. (Do that on any posting). lj

What Charleston Was Like Way Back When . . . (Part 1)

Or at the very least, the way that I remember It?


Note: The first version of this article was originally posted March 4, 2015. However in the following few years, it was updated and improved several times. The size of the article increased significantly with the addition of several vintage advertisements; those changes exceeded limits for the Blogger host site. Therefore it was split into two parts.


Part 2 can be found at: 
http://ko-op.blogspot.com/2018/02/what-charleston-was-like-way-back-when.html



Click on image(s) to enlarge

It has been fifty years since I began working at the Ko-Op in the fall (November 1964) near the end of my first quarter of EIU classes. I lived about a block away in a basement on 9th street, and the day I applied to work at the Ko-Op was the first time I had been inside the campus hangout. I had walked by a few times, but had cooking privileges at the house I lived in and seldom ate out.

I graduated four years later (August 1968) and taught one year at Edwardsville High School (Joe Lucco of Illinois coaching fame was my principal; one of the finest administrators that I ever worked with in my career)*. I moved back to Charleston in the summer of 1969, took a teaching position with Urbana School District 216 and commuted to and from Urbana and later Champaign (Parkland College) for two decades.

Since moving away from Charleston in the fall of 1988, I’ve been back to visit several times. All three of my children grew up there and graduated from Charleston High. The two oldest completed their undergraduate degrees at Eastern; the youngest son chose Illinois State University in Bloomington. I was around town for several years and saw a lot of the changes that occurred over those five decades.

In my early college years, Charleston did not have many fast food chains. Dairy Queen was open in the warmer months (Located toward the northside of town at Division and State next to a miniature golf course); later another DQ opened near campus on Lincoln - at one time the Herb Brooks family operated both DQ businesses **.

After more than four decades of doing business in Charleston, Dog and Suds located on the east end of Lincoln Avenue (Now the site of an O'Brien Auto Parts) closed in December 2009 - it was out past the then site of the IGA Grocery.

Eventually in the Seventies, several fast food restaurants came to 'Chucktown' including Hardees, Kentucky Fried Chicken, McDonalds, Subway and others.

In the Fifties and Sixties, the three eating places close to campus were (1) Walt's, (2) Ike's Little Campus and (3) the Ko-Op (Followed by the opening of the Short-Stop in the mid-Sixties). A few months before I graduated in 1968, news came out that Ike Kennard had gotten a liquor license, and he and his sons were changing Ike's to a bar - sounded like a sound business decision and also great timing with the next few years bringing Illinois a drop of the drinking age to 18 years old (Vietnam War era - old enough to fight and die but not old enough to drink).

Pagliai’s Pizza (Pronounced Poly-eyes) had already opened by the Fall of 1964, and was located in the strip mall next to the Ford dealership, adjacent to the bowling alley (East end of Lincoln). Last time I checked, all were in the same location except the auto dealership had changed names and maybe models. Pagliai’s expanded into a Midwest chain.

Was the locally-owned (Not part of the national franchise chain) Burger King open on Lincoln Avenue by the mid-Sixties? I believe so . . . it was operated by Dale Hoots of Mattoon. Dale's brother Gene and sister-in-law, Betty, ran the Burger King in Mattoon.

Back in the day, another popular eating place for college students was the Little Venice restaurant (On one-way Sixth Street down near the town branch), where one could order an inexpensive pasta dinner and a bottle of cheap Chianti wine.

The 'Little V' closed in the Seventies, and the owner moved on to building and running a gas station on west Lincoln Avenue (Near the site of the 17 Club Bar). Also during the early Seventies, another Mattoon restaurant opened a second business location (After Burger King) in Charleston: Little Mexico on the east side of the Square.

But jumping back to the fall of 1964, Schmidt’s Drive-In was still in operation - on the southeast side of town on Hway 130 as one headed out toward the Charleston Drive-In Theater. Schmidt’s had ‘car hops’ and they were still hanging trays on car door windows. After closing for the winter one year, Schmidt’s never reopened. The drive-in theater also closed a few decades ago . . . but not before some legendary Ko-Op car-load outings there (Have memories of double-features c1967 and have never been a huge fan of Mogen David Concord Wine since. But it will get you there!).

The Ko-Op closed at 4 p.m. on Friday afternoons, reopened Sat. morning and then closed at 2 p.m. in the afternoon. Friday was also payday, and some of us dined out those evenings. Green’s Restaurant was located just off the town square (A few buildings SW on Jackson Avenue). Friday’s evening menu featured broasted chicken served with a baked or mashed potatoes and gravy, a salad, choice of vegetable (corn or green beans usually), a bread roll, and followed by Pie à la Mode (Green’s made their own ice cream?). I don’t remember when Green’s closed their doors, but they were still in business when I graduated. I believe that the last time I ate there was the night before I got married.

This is the first portion of this article; it continues at What Charleston Was Like Way Back When . . . Part 2:
http://ko-op.blogspot.com/2018/02/what-charleston-was-like-way-back-when.html
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

* Joe Lucco coached three legendary basketball players who all played for the U of IL in the late Fifties: Govoner Vaughn, Manny Jackson and Don Ohl. After 39 years as teacher, coach and administrator, Joe retired from Edwardsville School District and was elected to serve as an Illinois State Representative (Democrat, Dist. 56).

** Herb Brooks had worked at Walt’s with Larry Mizener, and in 1964 he was the grade school principal in Rardin. In those days, Herb often helped on Sunday mornings by taking orders and payments at the cash register. After church, customers lined up for our deep-fried chicken dinners. I recognized Herb's ‘Brooks look’ the first time, that first weekend that I worked at the Ko-Op.

Two Brooks brothers and their families lived in Findlay; their kids went to Findlay schools - - first cousins, Charlotte and David, graduated in my class. Herb was born in Moweaqua and graduated from Lovington High. He served in the Air Force during the Korean War, then returned to Charleston and EIU. He was a cousin of the Brooks families in Findlay. I later worked with Herb's younger brother, Jim Brooks, who was a music and band instructor in Urbana Schools.

Herb left Charleston Schools and worked for the University as Assistant Director and later Director of the Student Union (1966-1978). He retired from EIU in 1987 as Director of Veterans Services. By then, Herb had purchased the DQs in Charleston. Herb Brooks, age 69, died in April 2001 at his rural Charleston home. His wife, Darlene, died in Feb. 2012.

Kept that Jukebox Playing . . .

While working hours at the Ko-Op Cafe, the one almost constant presence was the Jukebox. From opening up at 7 a.m. till closing at 11 p.m. (Or was that 10:30 ?), most of the time - tunes were playing. Samuel Music of Effingham, owned and maintained the Jukebox and the pinball machines. Their two workers came by every few weeks to empty the till, load some new vinyl and clean / maintain the machine.

Once we had worked there long enough, Mize granted a few of us the privilege of sometimes taking a few quarters out of the cash register to play some of our favorites. A good time to exercise that special right was when a crowd of students came in - - what we called a 'rush.' Many of us also kicked in more from our own pocket; we loved pop music and truly kept the jukebox playing.

When I started work in November 1964, the Folk Music Revival was winding down as the British Invasion was firing up. And somewhere around 1966, Soul Music and Motown were having an impact. Put your dancing shoes on; here's one of my favorites from Jackie Wilson.

Jukeboxes are largely a memory today, but what was your favorite tune from the Sixties? I'll see if it can be spotlighted from here.

The Beatles in 1965 with "I Feel Fine."

The Animals in 1966-1967 . . . those tunes were our 'anthems' in the hall! The 'Mow' and his roommates in the 'Bahamas' wore out the groove on his album.