mike posted some pictures on facebook. maybe someone can post those pictures here, and a link to the music videos featuring jack. a project for tom?

Oh crap here we go.

Jack Reynolds came to us thanks to David Harbison who met Jack in some Venice area rock cover band. Jack was a big strong guy with crazy hair, had a bit of a British accent, a scalding sense of humor and wanted to be the best friggin' drummer ever. Mick Avery and Benny Hill were among his heroes.

Jack had this certain beat that he could mold to make just about any song cook. And he just pummeled the crap out of his kit. Jack had the been nick named Jock the Rock in some previous life and it fit him quite nicely, though Jack Hammer might have made a more appropriate stage name. He was a great guy to hang out with, extremely funny but not somebody you'd want to tangle with.

He had to go to extremes to keep his kit from moving while he played. I have distinct memories of large chunks of broken concrete traveling with Jack and I and our gear. Jack didn't drive and so we would stack his battered drums inside one another and shove them, some loosely bound trap kit and cracked cymbals, my Farfisa and Ampeg amp into my 2 door compact car. The large pieces of asphalt with concrete projections or concrete with rebar sticking out would be used to weigh down his kick drum.

Sometimes he'd make me pull over by the side of the road, "There's a nice chunk," he'd blurt out in a fine cockney. These tended to get left behind at the club, on stage no less. Usually they were so large it would require Jack to actually move them, but not after a few beers and a set with the Last. I remember other bands on the bill having to pussy foot around such an 'installation,' their guitar cords hooked on a rebar spike.

Once we walked into the Whisky for sound check and they hassled Jack about the jagged 150 Lb chunk of freeway overpass he was hauling. Holding the thing up Jack tried to explain quickly but the guy at the door wasn't buying it." ...'ave I got to shove this thing up yer arse?" Jack inquired. He was let in with no further objection. I remember being in tears laughing so hard. I could barely relay the story to David Nolte. The two of us used to just crack up together whenever Jack was in top form.

There was a dive bar we played where the sound man offered Jack a hammer and nails so he could hold his kick in place. You could see where others had driven 16d sinkers into the slippery linoleum floor to anchor their kick drum if the spiked legs couldn't hold. Mid set Jack got up from behind the kit and everyone watched in disbelief as he literally nailed through his kick drum into the floor. That worked.

I will have to return to more tales about Jack's pranks and special antics. The upshot of my digression here is that the guy played drums like an animal. He could sound absolutely great. That killer modified surf beat served the band real well. There were quite a few other beats he had down pat but he just couldn't deal with Joe's song "L.A. Explosion." Our previous attempts to record it had failed for various reasons and Jack wasn't real keen on trying again. He suggested we get someone else for the one track. That took guts and self confidence.

We tried to make it up to Jack by letting him record his song "Hitler's Brother" for the flip side. We took his song so seriously that David Nolte and I traded instruments for the recording. It was an definite 'Arrow Book Club' experience. Jack had us all in stitches and the song actually ended up being really fun live.