The Downbeats

I just finished a photo book of the Downbeats. It’s 42 pages long and contains over 200 photos and articles about the band.

The unique feature of our band is that we are all from the greater Carpentersville Fox River Valley area, we started in 1964 and we have continued to play at least one gig every year. What’s even more amazing is that we all married groupies from the area and we have been married to the same supportive women between 49-52 years.

Most bands, like the Cryan Shames make a big splash, but they were only around for 3 years. The same thing with all the other 60’s garage bands. They would squabble over who plays what part, who stands in front, who carries the heaviest equipment, who gets featured more on certain songs, girl trouble, etc.   We were, and are all still, best friends, with no real egos, and pretty selfless guys. That’s why after more than 50 years we are still best friends and our wives are great friends too.

The group consisted of

Ken Munson – lead guitar – Carpentersville

Scott Peters – guitar – West Dundee

Ted Eckhardt – drums – Sleepy Hollow

Cliff Ehorn – keyboard – Sleepy Hollow

Jay Eigel – bass – Crystal Lake

Rod Kenley – keyboard – Barrington

We also had two other guys in the beginning,

Skip Garner – 1st drummer (1 year) and Jack Reese – bass – both from Meadowdale. Both Skip and Jack have since passed away.

The 60’s were a time for Rock n Roll, garage bands, teen night clubs, and an exciting new transformation in music.

The Downbeats were a Chicago area band that initially started on February 12, 1964, featuring Ken Munson and Scott Peters on guitar, and the late Skip Garner on drums. All were products of Dundee Community High School.

In September of 1964 Skip Garner left to attend Milliken University. Two more Dundee friends, Ted Eckhardt and Cliff Ehorn joined the band on drums and keys (Organ). In April of 1965 Jack Reese (Barrington HS) joined the group on bass and vocals. Jack eventually left the Downbeats in February 1966.

The Downbeats acquired a booking agent, Varian J. Wadford, in March 1965 and joined the Chicago Federation of Musicians, local 10, which is part of the American Musicians Association.  We were hoping to book larger venues in Chicago which typically required union musicians being paid at union scale. To Varian’s credit, in April 1965, he set up a recording session for the band at IRC (International Recording Company) located at 5619 W. Division Street, in Chicago. This was our first, and unfortunately, our only 45 RPM recording, featuring two original instrumentals written by Munson and Peters. Saltwater (Side 1) and Whampon (Side 2. The reason we recorded instrumentals is because at that particular time in our life both Ken and Scott were highly influenced by Surf music, the Ventures, Dick Dale, the Pyramids (Penetration) and other groups featuring guitars using extensive reverb and tremolo.

Other artists who were recording on the IRC label were Ronnie Rice (TNT, Come Back Little Girl), the Little Boy Blues (Look at the Sun, I’m Ready), the Swinging Medallions (Double Shot of My Baby’s Love) and Dick Biondi’s (On Top of a Pizza). IRC was later purchased by Mercury Records.

In February 1966, Jay Eigel (Crystal Lake) joined the Downbeats on bass and vocals. When Jay auditioned for the band, he had a Fender P bass and wheeled in his Vox Essex bass amp. After seeing his impressive gear, before Jay could play a note, Scott looked at Ken and said, “He’s in!”

The Downbeats were one of the most popular Chicago area bands playing at a variety of Teen Night Clubs (under 21 teens) that sprouted up all over Chicagoland during the late 60’s and early 70’s. Some of the more well-known clubs included the New Place, the Cellar, Nevermore, 10-12 Club YMCA, Purple Onion, Rolling Stone, Tiger’s Tale, Cool Schmoo, # 10 Spring Street, Majestic Hills, and Mt. Fuji (Lake Geneva). In addition to the teen clubs, the band was a special attraction at Riverview Ramble and a myriad of area high school dances and special events around Chicago and the Northwest suburban area.

These teen night clubs became a springboard for many of Chicago’s garage bands while helping several of them signing national recording contracts. Although the Downbeats were continually busy and gathered their own loyal fan base and groupies, there were a host of other Chicagoland bands that were prominent on the music scene. I still maintain that if we all had not chosen to go to college (probably an exceptionally good choice) and secured a legitimate booking agent, we probably would have become even more successful.

Chicago became a real hot bed for new garage bands. Besides the Downbeats, there were groups like:

Cryan Shame                            

Buckingham’s               

Thunderbirds

New Colony Six                       

Ides of March                

Chicago

Shadows of Knight                 

Maud’s                              

Flock

The Delvettes                            

Kingmen                           

Little Boy Blue

Swinging Medallions            

Novos                                 

American Breed

Earth Wind & Fire                    

Amboy Dukes                

Saturday’s Children

Mogen David and the Grapes of Wrath                 

Galaxies 

During 1965 the Downbeats traveled with the WLS Radio DJ’s Don Phillips and Bernie Allen as a package deal for area teen clubs, high schools, and special events like the annual summer Riverview Ramble held at Chicago’s iconic Riverview theme park. The 1965 Riverview Ramble featured two of Varian J. Wadford bands at the time, the Downbeats, and the Swinging Medallions (a real greaser band from the inner city), best known for cutting the single, Double Shot of My Baby’s Love. I’ll never forget, Don Phillips (WLS – East of Midnight Show,) threw out around 100 free 45 RPM records to the audience, unfortunately, only 1 out of 5 were hits so the other 4 out of 5 duds were fired back at us on stage.

During the late summer of 1966, Ed Pazdur Productions asked the Downbeats to open for the Yardbirds at the Chicago Civic Opera House. (August 6, 1966). Not only was the band invited to share the same “Green Room” with the likes of Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, Keith Relf, Chris Dreja, and Jim McCarty, but the Yardbirds asked if they could use our equipment since their equipment truck was stuck in traffic. I remember Jeff Beck asked me how high I had turned the volume up on my amp. I told him 5-6 and he retorted, “I’m playing your amp on 10 and if I blow it up, I’ll buy you two of anything you want.”

Jeff Beck was actually recruited by The Yardbirds in March 1965 to replace Eric Clapton. who quit on March 13th, and on the recommendation of fellow session man Jimmy Page, who had been their initial choice. The Yardbirds recorded most of their Top 40 hit songs during Beck’s short but significant 20-month tenure with the band allowing him only one full album, which became known as Roger the Engineer (titled Over Under Sideways Down in the U.S.), released in 1966. Beck was actually pictured on the cover of For Your Love, which was released by the Yardbirds’ American label in June 1965, however Eric Clapton played guitar on most of those songs. From September to November 1966, Beck shared lead guitar duties with Page, who initially joined as bass player in June of that year. After the 1966 American summer tour, Jeff Beck left and went on to cut Beck’s Bolero with the Beck Group and Jimmy Page continued to play lead guitar until he formed Led Zeppelin in 1968.

At the end of summer 1966, guitarist, Ken Munson and keyboard player, Cliff Ehorn, left to attend college. Ken went to the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire, where he continued to play music in the bands, Mo and the Minstrels (winner of the 1967 Wisconsin State Battle of the Bands) and Chocolate Chips and the Cookies, a soul group featuring 3 black women singers. Cliff went onto to further his musical education at Eastern Illinois University. Although Cliff never returned to play in the band for almost five decades, he eventually earned his Master’s and PhD in music, taught music, became a principle, and then left it all to become a pilot with United Airlines flying Jumbo Jets to SE Asia for nearly 30 years.

In September of 1966 Rod Kenley (Barrington HS) joined the band on keys and sax and in November Tim Hagen was brought in to replace Ken on guitar and vocals. Tim left the group in April 1967 and Ken rejoined the band in May of 1967.

Ken, Scott, Jay, Ted, Rod, and Cliff have remained best friends over the past 50 plus years and we still try to get together to play a gig every year when possible. We played Crystal Lake High School’s 20th Class Reunion in 1986 and Dundee High School’s 48th and 50th Class Reunions. The band got together in Cincinnati in 1999 and 2006 as well as other locations in the Chicago area during the past 20-25 years. Amazingly, we all went on to graduate from college, some with post graduate degrees, married Chicago area groupies, and amazingly, we are all still married to the same supportive women after 49-52 years.

So there is the story of the “Fabulous Downbeats”, and I say “Fabulous” because there probably is no other band in the land who have been so lucky to be such close friends after more than five decades, bonded by “Good Old Rock N Roll Music”, sarcastic and very sick senses of humor, creative pranks, practical jokes which all helped to form unconditional love and friendship.  Hats off to the Downbeats, and especially, those supportive better halves who have put up with our folly and nonsense for so many years. Who would have ever thought this group of friends/musicians would have had such a tremendous and lasting impact on each other’s lives for so many years?

So that’s my story and I’m sticking to it. The Downbeats in living color and black & white. All I have left to say is ……

Good-Bye!

Ken Munson

The Downbeats Book

The Downbeats Photo Gallery