- The Shadow Blasters (fall of 1956 – early summer of 1957)
- The Jokers (12/24/1956 – unknown)
- The Golden Chords (Fall of 1957 – May/June 1958)
- Elston Gunn And The Rock Boppers (short 1958 summer jamming)
- The Satin Tones (late summer of 1958 until late fall of 1958)
- The Rockets (late fall of 1958 until end of 1958)
Maybe one of the most interesting stories of his early music career is the story of The Rockets and The Satin Tones.
In late spring of 1958 Monte and LeRoy left The Golden Chords to join Jim Propotnick and Rod Taddei at The Rockets. Something that Bob complained about years later still:
“Lead singers would always come in and take my bands, because they would have connections, like, maybe their fathers would know somebody.”
Clinton Heylin points out, that for Monte Edwardson’s and LeRoy Hoikkala’s taste, Bob was too ambitious, since they were just in it for fun and to play what the people wanted to hear, and Bob often demanding weird songs or arrangements.
Bob did not gave up here. He quickly put together his own band with assorted cousins frm Duluth and called it:
Elson Gunn and the Rock Boppers (Summer of 1958)
That was when Bob started calling himself Elston Gunn (still with a double-n).
According to uncirculatingdylan.blogspot.com Elston Gunn and the Rock Boppers, performed at Colliers in Hibbing during the summer of 1958. According to the available sources, this combo was short-lived and I was not able to find any information of who else was a member of that combo other than that it were some cousins.
Clinton Heylin mentions in Double Life of Bob Dylan:
“Bobby even fleetingly put together his own, Duluth-based band with assorted cousins in the days of ’59 and called it Elston Gunn & The Rock Boppers.”
(This is the only source I saw that named the year 1959 for the Rock Boppers. All other sources are pointing towards a short summer-combo with some cousins of Bob in 1958.)
Shortly after the Rock Boppers, Bob formed another band and tried to get more serious again:
The Satin Tones (late summer of 1958 until late fall of 1958)
(Duluth-based; late summer of 1958 until late fall of 1958, Band from his cousin; Bob himself on guitar and vocals, Bill Morris (cousin) on drums, Marsh Shamblott on piano, Dennis Nylen on string bass)
Within a short period of time, The Satin Tones become somewhat like a “local success”, playing one song on a local TV station in Superior, Wisconsin (just over the border from Duluth) and even recorded a session for Duluth radio. In the Hibbing area, though, they continued to play second fiddle to The Rockets.
Heylin in The Double Life of Bob Dylan:
“…who saw Bobby’s new combo, The Satin Tones, at the St Louis County Fairgrounds Grandstand in September 1958, which ended with a familiar sound of boos and demands to turn it down.
At the show in question, The Satin Tones went head-to-head with the newly fired-up Rockets, accompanied by Bob’s old sidekicks Monte and Leroy, and whose bass guitarist remembers “Zimmerman did a good job on Little Richard songs”. But in the end, Bobby’s Satin Tones lost out to the Rockets in any popularity contest, prompting Bobby to ditch The Tones.”
“Described as “giving a wild, “Elvis” rendition” of some rocker by the local newspaper, The Satin Tones faced off against The Rockets, who had the sense of stick to crowd-pleasing covers.
Rehearsing on weekends in Hibbing, the Satin Tones campaigned unsuccessfully for high school dance gigs until another offer came Bob’s way. Ironically, it came from the Rockets, who were now in need of a new singer/rhythm guitarist, as Ron Taddei was now on his way to college. The audition went surprisingly well, Propotnick recalling: “We went over our songs and he seemed to fit right in.”
Above: The Rockets pre-Bob
The Rockets (late fall of 1958 until end of 1958)
After Bobby ditched The Satin Tones, probably around fall 1958, he, according to Heylin “swallowed his pride and auditioned to rejoin his own band – as he saw it – on guitar.” His own band, since Monte Edwardson and LeRoy Hoikkala were now besides Jim Propotnick the only members of The Rockets.
Retaining the name The Rockets, they played The Airport Bar, the Moose Hall and Hibbing youth center, Bobby alternating on guitar and piano.
With Bobby, it was back to the old days of pushing the volume, the choice of material and the intensity of the performance beyond what paying audiences felt comfortable with, and once again Monte and Leroy decided to dispense with Bobby Zimmerman’s services and return to their staple diet of Bill Haley and Buddy Holly covers.
He “was deemed surplus to The Rockets requirements, replaced by Dave Karakash, putting The Rockets into reverse thrust and consigning them to music history’s footnotes.”
(Clinton Heylin; Double Life of Bob Dylan and Behind the Shades.)
What happened after his time with The Satin Tones and The Rockets?
At the Hibbing High School Jamboree on January 9th 1959, according to the local newspaper Hibbing Hi Times:
“Bob Zimmerman sang “Time Goes By” and “Swing, Dad, Swing” with vocal assistance from Junior college girls Kathy Dasovic, Mary DeFonso and Franny Kay Matosich, and instrumental assistance from John Bucklen and Bill Marinac.”
John Bucklen we know from the so-called “Bucklen-Tapes”, early recordings of Bob and John from the spring of 1958. Bill Marinac once again, we know from Bob’s first band, The Shadow Blasters.
Above: Bob mentioned in the bottom right part
On June 5th in 1959 Bob graduated from high school and started studying at the University of Minneapolis in September 1959. But there was still stuff happening for Bob in his music world during that summer. The story includes Bobby Vee and Bob’s discovering of Folk music.
We will cover that story in our last part of this series.