Can a former Electra electrify the electorate?
Most Americans don't know John Kerry, and some of those who are getting to know him are making ungenerous comments. In recent weeks, commentators have compared Kerry to Lurch, the stiff-gaited butler on "The Addams Family" television show, or to an Easter Island statue. Of such traits are cuddly Q-ratings not made.
So of course the Kerrymen have to bring the statue to life. Plopping the bumptious John Edwards next to JFK Reloaded is a good start. And then there are efforts like the website kerryrocks.com.
"I like Kerry. He's actually an interesting, funny, and active guy," says co-webmaster Paul Williams, a "marketing guy" from Jupiter, Fla. Williams, who set up the website with fellow Kerry fan Scott Pitchford, acknowledges that Kerry "comes off really dry and dull on television. I thought that kerryrocks.com would be a nice way to show another side of Kerry that might help people look at him a little differently."
Does John Kerry rock? Signs point to no. But he did at least try to rock 43 years ago; witness the timely resurrection of the Electras, JFK's "high school garage band," which has just reissued its first and only album on CD.
Let's take this one step at a time. John Kerry's high school was in fact the St. Paul's School, an elite, WASP boarding school in Concord, N.H. If they had any garages during the years that Kerry attended, they would have been used to shelter the Bentleys and Rolls Royces of the visiting parents.
Here is verbiage from the original liner notes of the Electras' 1961 record, a 500-copy vanity pressing they sold at private-school dances: "At Saint Paul's they are a regular and popular feature in the intermissions of the Term dances; and in the Fall of 1961 they were invited to play at the Senior Class Dance of the Chapin School in New York, where they were extremely well received." And here is the relevant capsule biography of our fave band member: "John Kerry, electric bass, is a resident of Oslo, Norway, and the producer of a pulsating rhythm that lends tremendous force to all the members."
Is Kerry now Norwegian, in addition to being WASP, Irish, and Jewish? This guy is a one-man diversity campaign! But no, he's no herringhead. His father Richard was stationed in Scandinavia with the Foreign Service while the presumptive nominee-to-be was rocking out.
What about the music, you ask? On the one hand, it sounds pretty ordinary. On the other hand, the boys were young. A
You can hear the music and buy the CD at www.theelectrasrockandrollband.com.
Bonus! Behind the music
Who shot the saxophone player? The original Electras cover depicted seven band members, including a saxman. But the band's newly issued CD has airbrushed out the sax player, Soviet style. (You can see both photos on the KerryRocks website.)
A harbinger of things to come in Comrade Kerry's Politburo? "There is a lot of internal conflict going on in the band," co-webmaster Williams told me, and he is right. Two former Electras members formed a corporation to press and sell the CD. Jack Radcliffe, who still plays piano professionally, sneers at the band's "self-appointed leaders" who drew up a 34-page business proposal for the Electras. "My reaction was, 'You've got to be kidding. We're not bringing the Who together here.' "
One band member, maracas player Andy Gagarin, was allotted only a one-half share of any Electras loot, and saxophonist Lee Scarbrough was denied a share and cut out of the band picture. "I got [cheated]," says Gagarin, who adds that eliminating Scarbrough, who played with the Electras for two years, "wasn't the right thing to do."
There is talk of a reunion before or after the Democratic convention, if only to provide a boss photo op for axman/ rocker John Kerry. If they do get together behind their former bass man, it will be for the sake of music, not politics, explains guitarist/bandleader Larry Rand. Asked about political differences in the band, Rand replied: "Let me put it to you this way. If ever there was a school for the rich and famous, it was St. Paul's. How could you not expect a good deal of these people to be what their parents were -- rock-ribbed Republicans?"
Alex Beam is a Globe columnist. His e-dress is beam@globe.com
