The Ravens: History

The Ravens History: 1968
by John Anthony

This was the last year the original Ravens would play together. We continued playing at the Barn and through mid year still pulled in good sized crowds. Around this time the Fore 'n' Aft opened in Brewster, NY, and we began to slowly lose some of our audience.

With less people to absorb sound sometimes we'd play too loud for Gil, one of the owners, and he would cut the power to the stage. Looking back on it now, it was funny the way it happened. The guitars and voices would begin to fade until all we heard was Jeff's drums. Once Gil had our attention he'd motion us to lower the sound and then flip the circuit breaker back on.

Band members change for the last time

Early in the year Richie was up and around and we asked him if he wanted to come back. He did and we became a 5-man band.

Later on in the year Bruce left the group and joined an alternative style band. We still had two good rhythm guitar players but the absence of a strong lead guitar and a missing voice left a big hole in our sound.
Without Bruce we were unable to continue recording for RCA. Up to this point we had early on twice found good replacements fairly easily, but this time was different. The band sound had matured and we were a very cohesive unit. The Ravens were in the late fall of their life cycle and had neither the will nor the desire to seek a replacement.

Bert had booked us earlier in the year to open for The Blues Magoos at Danbury High. We played this venue shortly after Bruce left and hadn't had enough time to rearrange our sound without him. We played that night, but our hearts weren't in it. The writing was on the wall.

As the year came to a close so did the curtains for The Ravens. We played our last few weekends at the Barn and pretty much didn't have the motivation or sound to seek out other gigs.

Go To: 1967 1969