THE BITTER END, New York City's Oldest Rock Club

    Back in the summer of 1973, the year I graduated from high school, David Tenery and I had a band called The Trapp Brothers. There were four of us, and I won't disclose the other two members' names, but we had been practicing for several months at Gardner Webb College. David had written some great songs, and we had a fantastic Folk Rock sound. We used an acoustic guitar, bass guitar, banjo, sometimes a conga drum, and just had a great sound.

    Remember the year 1973, the time, and all the music that was popular in that era. We were in the middle of the Vietnam War. We had all the music from The Woodstock Rock Festival. It was such a great time for music.

    The Bitter End had launched many good artists in the past, including Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, Bob Dylan, Arlo Guthrie, Neil Young, Roger McGuinn, and too many folk heroes to name. We sent them a demo tape of our songs, and they loved it. We were invited to perform there. If we were accepted, we would get to tour the entire Coffee House circuit across the United States. We were so excited.

    The week before we were to leave, two members of the band backed out. Their reason was that they didn't want to try to make it big, as our dream was, but preferred to stay and continue college. Looking back, I can't say that I blamed them; education is important. David and I both went later and got our education, but this was a chance of a lifetime, considering all the Folk Heroes who came out of this place. We did the best we could. We put together a band in a week with a drummer and an electric guitarist and took off to New York City. This was not the same sound we had with the banjos and conga drum. It was a totally different sound. We went anyway, performed, and had a great time and experience. The people at The Bitter End knew it was a different sound and were turned down for performing the Coffee House Circuit.

    We still had a great time. It was my first visit to New York City. It was such a large city with terrible traffic, with all the yellow cabs and city buses trying to run over us. We had to park in parking decks and walk to our destinations. We got to see Central Park, the Statue of Liberty, Macy's store, the subway system, and lots of people—thousands on just one block of the streets. Our room was at a place called The Arlington Hotel. We had a full bed and a twin bed. Two of us slept sideways with our feet on a chair.