The Rockets

The Roadhouse, July 28, 30-31

Many white rock and roll musicians still in the Motor City fondly remember the sixties as the "golden days " when there were literally hundreds of places in Detroit for a rock and roll band to get work and exposure-from clubs and sock hops to ballrooms and festivals- along with a flock of recording scouts anxious to sign up the most promising acts. Out of that era came the likes of Bob Seger, Alice Cooper, Ted Nugent's Amboy Dukes, the MC5, the Stooges, the Rationals, Frost, and a host of other hit groups.

That same scene has fallen into a state of economic and musical depression in the seventies as popular attention has turned toward super-stars and super-concerts. The music is still alive, but you have to look for it in little boogie-down bars like The Red Carpet or JC's on Detroit's northeast side or Peter Andrews' fashionably funky Roadhouse, just outside of Ann Arbor.

Experts at packing dance floors and ratting the walls of a number of these hot spots is a classic five-man group known as The Rockets. Drummer Johnny "The Bee" Badanjek and guitarist Jim McCarty were once the musical nucleus of Mitch Ryder and The Detroit Wheels, who were the first popular white rock and-roll band ever (yes, Before the Beatles, folks) with hits like "Sock It To Me Baby," "Little Latin Loop De Lu," and "Jenny Take a Ride/Devil With a Blue Dress." Since then McCarty has been a member of Buddy Miles' Express, and The Bee's unrelenting drive and mastery of 4/4 time has served Doctor John, Alice Cooper, and Edgar Winter. They put together the Rockets in 1972 with bassist John Fraga (formerly with Nolan Strong and the Diablos) and Venezualan keyboard ace Mare Marcano and, after considerable experimentation and dues-paying on the "rock circuit," added guitarist/vocalist Dennis Robbins to the fold just a few months ago.

The white "rock" acts should consider themselves fortunate that The Rockets are still playing intimate clubs like The Roadhouse-because if they ever get a chance to break out into the big-time national super-star scene they're probably going to blow away most of the competition. Undiluted, authentic and unaffected by the "glitter" phenomena, their music comes straight out of the soul/r&b bag that inspired rock and roll in the first place, and it's a lot more potent than the stuff you hear on WRIF, W-4, or WABX these days.

Much of the high-decibal excitement centers on the largely unrecognized genius of Johnny Bee who, besides being one of the most sought-after drummers in the business, is the composer of unique hard-rocking songs whose Dylanesque lyrics deal with big cities, dancing, downers, suburban boredom, and other realities of the current age. Interspersed with period pieces from Bobby "Blue" Bland, Chuck Berry, Otis Spann. Wilson Pickett, Bo Diddley, and the Rolling Stones are Johnny Bee originals like "Rocket Car Wash Blues," "Fell Out of Love" (the sorry tale of a teen-age sleeping pill freak), "Juke Box Daddy," and a contribution from the Viet Nam War era, "Saigon Shuffle." All of the Bee's material has the ability to force folks out of their seats so they can start "Dancin' to the rhythm of the music that fills your soul," to quote yet another of The Bee's songs that sounds like it could be a natural hit record if it ever got on the radio.

As a matter of fact, it's probably a good idea to search out The Rockets and go to one of their gigs in the near future, because if somebody in the recording industry finally gets hip to them they won't be playing little places in Detroit, or Ann Arbor, much longer. Get it while you can, rock and roll fans!

-Frank Bach