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Rock and Roll!!!

Kerry's campaign has been trying to spice up his relatively unexciting campaign by trumpeting his past as the bass player in a rock group called "The Electras." A quick web search finds this description on a 60s garage band web site: "All of their recordings are now hot property - their best known song "Dirty Ol' Man" was written and produced by Warren Kendrick, The Litter's producer. This is a superb example of mid-sixties punk with excellent snotty vocals and chainsaw guitar and became a local hit selling 5500 copies."

Unfortunately, that was a different band. The same web site says of Kerry's outfit, "ALBUM: 1 THE ELECTRAS (No label ELT-201) 1962 -- Not to be confused with the Minnesota bunch, this private press album was the work of a prep-rock band from St. Pauls academy in Concord, New Hampshire." Another member of Kerry's band, "Rambling Jack Radcliffe", says that the group played "tea dances during the school term and parties during vacations." OK, not quite the same RAWK excitement. They were however organized enough to copyright the name first, forcing the better reputed garage band to change its moniker to "Twas Brillig" when they signed to a major label.

He still plays -- according to his unfortunate staff, Kerry will sometimes pull his guitar out in the middle of a meeting and start playing his favorite show tunes from 'Cats' and 'Evita', or the theme song from 'E. T.'

Sources

Biography of Rambling Jack Radcliffe, on his website www.ragtimejack.com, 2003

"KERRY GETS IN TUNE FOR MOBY GIG", by JOANNA WEISS, Boston Globe, September 9, 2003

"THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING NOT SO EARNEST", by Sally Jacobs, Boston Globe, May 1, 2002, pD1, reprinted partially at this yahoo group post

"Backed by a rock star, Kerry hits a new note", September 11, 2003, The Boston Globe, by Joanna Weiss and Christopher Muther, reprinted on the John Kerry official web site

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