Mark Easton

The next musician I had in mind for this group was the guitarist/songwriter I had played with in the band I had after I got back from Detroit. Mark Easton and I had been close friends for about six years, and we played together like...we were supposed to play together. Mark and I had different styles, in fact Mark played like nobody I had ever heard, and although he was very original, he had great skills, and a real gift for guitar, and for songwriting. We had grown up in the same small town, had listened to the same albums, and the same bands...so we had very similiar musical influences. We also had gone through the psychedelic era...and drugs...at pretty much the same time...and often together...listening to the same albums, but being "taught" in different ways. What I liked about playing with Mark the most was...we complemented each other's strengths very well. We also knew each other's musical instincts,  and we had actually rented adjoining houses out in the woods of Hampton, Conn., soon after I returned from Chicago, and well past the time when I returned from Detroit. With no other houses or people within two miles of us, we were able to play whatever and whenever we wanted to, for almost two years, at first, tripping on acid, and jamming for hours...and sometimes days...but eventually, as acid lost it's appeal, we found other things we both liked to do...some of which we both would have been better off without...but music was always the tie that bound us together. A lot of really good music seemed to "flow" between us, and we really began our musical collaboration at that time. The things he played on my songs made them a lot better...and the things I played on his songs had the same effect on his...so we naturally enjoyed playing together. I knew the songwriting team we could become could be the foundation of this new band, and so I really wanted Mark to be a part of it...but Mark was going through a personal crisis in his life at the time Charles came "on board", and he wasn't really playing with anyone. Mark had a younger brother, Barry...and Barry was the young drummer I had salaried to rehearse with me before the New York audition. So I invited Barry to start "jamming" with Charles and I, because we needed to play...and since Barry and Mark were very close, and often played together, I thought he might be able to persuade Mark to give this new band a try...