Black Oak Arkansas had been one of many nice southern rock bands, sending ten albums into the US chart and making a storm at 1974’s California Jam alongside Deep Purple and Black Sabbath. In 2008, Traditional Rock spoke to founding frontman Jim Dandy and guitarist Rickie Lee Reynolds, who instructed us a narrative like no different.
“I’m making an attempt to get out of the rescue enterprise, man, nevertheless it’s onerous to give up.”
Jim ‘Dandy’ Mangrum is the final of the rock’n’roll superheroes. Nonetheless clutching his bulletproof washboard, nonetheless clad in white leather-based and with flowing blond mane, the person who invented southern rock within the very southern state of Arkansas again in 1965 has weathered each unhealthy season, overcome each impediment, and bested each dishonest ratfink and politician that has crawled his method.
Of their 40-plus years in rock’n’roll, Jim Dandy and his league of gents in Black Oak Arkansas have gone from teenage outlaw hippies to genuine rock gods with gold information and stadium excursions, with each rags-to-riches variant in between. They could not have their non-public compound within the Ozarks or a military of roadies anymore, however integrity, spirit, and gumption – that, they’ve nonetheless obtained loads of.
“See, I used to be associates with Invoice Clinton since earlier than he was the Legal professional Basic, again when he was mayor of Hope, Arkansas,” says Jim Dandy, by means of introduction. Certainly. However wait – what of the scurrilous rumours that Jim Dandy and the previous US president smoked marijuana collectively?
“I smoked with him, yeah,” Jim laughs, “however we didn’t inhale!”
Ho ho. You get the image. Jim Dandy is bigger than life and weaves his tales of rock’n’break with mentions of many visitor celebrities – Elvis Presley looms massive, as does John Lennon, and a number of southern politicians – however the man that comes up probably the most is his co-founder in Black Oak Arkansas, Rickie Lee Reynolds. The 2 met in junior excessive and had been, as Jim sees it, fated to play collectively. In any case, they had been the one two males in all of Arkansas with lengthy hair.
Rickie Lee lived in neighbouring Monette, two miles from the tiny city of Black Oak, Arkansas. Jim needed to attend highschool in Monette as a result of Black Oak was – and is – too small for a highschool of its personal.
“My mother and pop are nonetheless alive they usually nonetheless dwell there, on Fundamental Road, proper throughout the road from the put up workplace,” Jim beams.
“The inhabitants of Black Oak is 282 individuals, and it by no means adjustments, Rickie Lee provides, “As a result of each time a child is born, the daddy leaves city.”
Influenced by The Beatles and The Byrds, Rickie Lee took up the guitar. Jim Dandy, nicely, he already knew what he wished to do.
“Once I noticed Elvis on Ed Sullivan, I knew he was having extra enjoyable than every other human being up there. He was having cosmic enjoyable, and I wished to do it, too. I didn’t wish to be no rock star, once I was younger I didn’t even know what that was. I simply wished his job, no matter it was.”
Each males had their very own bands, till someday when Jim identified that they had been the one worthwhile elements of both group.
“We simply naturally bonded and watched one another’s again,” says Jim, “And we’ve been collectively ever since.”
In 1965, Jim and Rickie Lee discovered another courageous souls to type a psychedelic rock band referred to as the Knowbody Else. Their first impediment was a scarcity of correct gear.
The answer? Steal it.
“We broke into the highschool and stole some audio system and the ability amp,”
Rickie Lee explains. “Our mother and father had been all poor, so we couldn’t afford that stuff ourselves, they usually had this previous PA system that wasn’t getting used in any respect, so we went there within the winter time and snatched that critter. We obtained caught for it and needed to give that again – and purchase a brand new one in addition.”
Crime didn’t pay, so the Knowbody Else was pressured to do issues the onerous method.
“All of us moved into one home and began sharing bills,” says Rickie Lee.
“All the cash we made went into the band, with just a bit bit left over to eat. So on the finish of the week, we had just a little cash left to purchase a complete lot of 1 factor. One week we’d purchase potatoes, so each meal we had was potatoes. One week we’d eat eggs, one week we’d eat popcorn. The remainder of the cash we’d use to purchase tools. We’d even have ladies that may snatch meals from their mother’s fridge and convey it over to us as a result of they thought we had been hungry. We had been farm boys, so we knew find out how to get by on just a bit bit.”
Fuelled by starch and nubile farm ladies, the band started to hone their craft, a type of southern-tinged cosmic boogie laced with a wholesome lust-for-life and, nicely, simply plain lust. Not schoolboys, the Knowbody Else realized early on that for diehard rock’n’rollers, it’s finest to maintain shifting.
“We headed as much as Lake Norfolk, that they had some caves up there alongside the ledge,” Jim explains.
“We didn’t keep in ’em, although. We solely stayed within the cave about one evening. They’d bats in there. However we did keep up there for awhile. That’s as a result of that was after my first marriage, and I used to be behind on my little one assist. That’s the one time I ever needed to go to jail, too. Not then, however a month or two later. We went right down to New Orleans to remain out of bother and we went from the pan to the fireplace.”
“Once we obtained right down to New Orleans we discovered a membership there referred to as the Gunga Din,” says Rickie Lee. “We performed there for over a yr each evening. We began at 7pm and we’d play till 6am, half-hour on, half-hour off. That was three hundred and sixty five days a yr. We obtained to know New Orleans fairly nicely.”
“That each one began when the crops got here in,” Jim explains.
“You already know, in mountain territory they work across the harvest, they usually allow you to out of faculty early. So once I got here again I had lengthy hair as a result of we had a superb crop that yr, and my dad mentioned, ‘I don’t care how lengthy you develop it, so long as you retain it clear.’ So I obtained again to high school and realised I used to be in a repair, as a result of right here I used to be on monkey island and right here I used to be with the opposite monkeys they usually obtained bizarre as a result of I didn’t appear to be them.
“I bin in additional fights than anyone moreover Wild Invoice Hickok. I’d get into fights each day behind the barn after faculty due to my hair.”
“Jim would get referred to as out on a regular basis,” guitarist Rickie Lee remembers. “So he ended up in loads of fights. He didn’t at all times get beat up, although. Typically, he’d do the beating.”
“Anyway, that’s when it began,” says Jim. “It was simply me till Rickie Lee got here again from California. He had lengthy hair too, by then. A surfer reduce, after Brian Wilson, I assume.”
“I used to be born in Arkansas, however my dad was a carpenter,” explains Rickie Lee. “So we needed to go the place the work was, and I grew up in California. I had lengthy hair on the market and once I got here again to Arkansas within the tenth grade, my hair was 3 times longer than anyone else’s, aside from Jim.”
On the similar time, the band was trying to find a file deal. They’d already launched one album in 1971 on Stax Information, an all-black label from Memphis, however being white and psychedelic didn’t assist their trigger.
“The radio stations would get information from Stax, and it’d be Otis Redding, Isaac Hayes, the Bar-Kays, after which hastily you’d get this white psychedelic band, and the DJs would go, ‘What the hell is that this?’” laughs Rickie Lee. “So Stax, though they handled us actual nicely, didn’t have a marketplace for our sort of music.”
The band began to separate their time between New Orleans and California, the place they thought their distinctive southern-ness may get them observed.
“We had been out in California enjoying these out of doors festivals,” says Rickie Lee. “It was in the course of the free love period, and also you’d have half a dozen teams all out in Griffin park enjoying that afternoon. There’d be 4,000-5,000 individuals on the market, all getting excessive and weaving blankets with their infants and their monkeys, and it was only a massive carnival.”
Their crafty plan labored, and the band quickly signed a profitable contract with Atlantic Information.
“Effectively, we’d put out our first Atlantic album, and we had been doing actually good,” Rickie Lee remembers. “There was no different group doing that sort of music then. We had been the primary ones to have the three guitars, the primary to combine up rock, nation, and rhythm and blues. We obtained a significant agent in New York who was gonna e book us, and Iron Butterfly had been doing a farewell tour on the time, they had been going to interrupt up. So that they did a nationwide tour and we obtained on a bus and opened up for them, and after we got here again, it was time for Grand Funk Railroad to interrupt up, so we obtained their break-up tour, too.
“These guys had been big again then, they had been enjoying arenas, they usually didn’t even promote the opening acts. However by the point the tour was by way of, everyone was speaking about Black Oak Arkansas. It was like, ‘I noticed Black Oak Arkansas! Oh yeah, and Grand Funk had been there, too.’ For 3 years in a row, we did 321 nighters per yr, and two albums per yr. We had been by no means dwelling.” By the top of 1972, issues had been wanting excellent for Black Oak Arkansas. And that’s when the difficulty began.
“I’m solely 5 foot 9,” Jim says. “Individuals at all times say, ‘I assumed you was taller, Jim Dandy.’ I inform ’em, ‘I was larger, till they took all my cash away. And after they give me my a refund, I’ll be massive once more.’”
If there’s one taboo topic within the Black Oak ranks, it’s cash. All through the 70s the band rose a crest of unparalleled success.
“On paper it appeared good,” says Ricky Lee. “We had a full street crew, we had a enterprise supervisor again dwelling who was hiring all these individuals. We donated three-quarters of 1,000,000 {dollars} in charities to the state of Arkansas. We changed the final one-room schoolhouse in Arkansas, we helped construct a radiology wing in a hospital, we gave cash to mentally retarded kids and the YMCA, we obtained a letter from Betty Ford for our contributions to the American Most cancers Society, battered wives…
“We donated some huge cash again then. In order a lot cash as we made, we gave loads of it away. We had our payments paid, however we by no means noticed a terrific fortune.”
“However then, with out even speaking to us,” Jim says, “Our supervisor determined to ship us to this lodge…”
Ah sure, the notorious Black Oak compound. Now a thriving 6.5 acre resort on Bull Shoals lake, from 1973 to 1978 it was the house of your entire Black Oak organisation, an idyllic mans-world of searching, fishing, and onerous rock.
“They dammed up the river and made two lakes,” says Rickie Lee. “It was a searching and fishing lodge. There was an enormous most important home within the center that had a café and stuff in it and it had 4 or 5 cabins throughout it. We discovered that everyone residing collectively was cheaper than a dozen individuals all residing in separate locations. So we lived in that compound till ’77 or ’78.
“We beloved it, however our previous women hated it. There was nothing to do. You needed to drive 25 miles to get to the closest film theatre, and should you needed to go to the hospital you had been taking a look at a 150-mile journey. It was method on the market within the Ozarks. However we had nice searching and fishing. All of the stuff guys love to do was proper there, and all of the stuff ladies love to do was a whole bunch of miles away. Plus, we’d depart the women on the lodge and we’d be gone for a yr on the street. It was actually onerous to maintain a household going up there.”
By the top of the 70s, Black Oak’s reputation started to wane. Lots of the bands they took on tour with them at first – Lynyrd Skynyrd, Bob Seger, Bruce Springsteen – had gone on to main stardom, leaving Black Oak behind. It was time to regroup, pare down, get again to fundamentals. And that’s after they realised their fortunes had dried up.
“We had a fairly good concept of the place our cash went,” says Rickie Lee. “Between me and Jim, we figured we’d misplaced a number of million bucks. It simply disappeared.”
“I’m over it,” sighs Jim. “About 15 years in the past I broke my again. Fell asleep on the wheel and hit an oak tree. In a dream, the nice lord got here to me and mentioned, ‘You may have a superb life once more should you let go of vendettas and grudges and overlook in regards to the previous,’ so I obtained over it, as a result of I wished to stroll once more. I didn’t wish to be in a wheelchair for the remainder of my life. It took one thing like that to actually rattle my chains and get me to understand issues.”
The 80s had been lean instances for Black Oak Arkansas, however Jim and Rickie Lee rallied with 1984’s Prepared For Hell album. Marketed as a Jim Dandy solo album, its guttural sex-boogie sound charmed a brand new era of Black Oak followers, and though they by no means managed to revive themselves to stadium-rock standing, they discovered a distinct segment that they nonetheless fortunately occupy: as America’s favorite biker band.
“For a very long time, when the entire disco factor died down, we discovered ourselves enjoying at Sturgis, the large biker rally,” says Rickie Lee. “And so they’d go loopy after we performed Scorching Rod or Scorching N’ Nasty, they simply beloved that stuff. And hastily, after years of this, we discovered ourselves doing a dozen biker gigs a yr. The 2 greatest biker bands are us and Steppenwolf. They’ve obtained Born To Be Wild and stuff like that that pertains to bikers. I’ve by no means been in a position to put my finger on why they like us a lot, however we find it irresistible.”
For the previous 20 years, Black Oak has been touring regionally within the southern US. “We do the weekend warrior factor, primarily,” says second-generation Black Oakster Hal McCormack. “Biker rallies, gala’s, corn canine sucking issues. The bikers maintain us alive, Black Oak has obtained diehard followers that always remember. Thank god for that.”
Arkansas-born guitarist Hal McCormack joined Black Oak in 2000. The quintessential rock’n’roll journeyman, Hal’s performed with Survivor, Tora Tora, and southern rock supergroup Deep South, amongst many others. However Black Oak, that he didn’t count on.
“Jim noticed me enjoying round city in Memphis, and he mentioned, ‘Every time your band breaks up, give me a name’. So I referred to as him,” Hal says.
“I noticed Jim on Don Kirshner’s Rock Live performance once I was 10 years previous. I bear in mind pondering, ‘Man, that dude is loopy!’ I by no means thought I’d really be enjoying with him.”
Hal is presently co-producing a brand new Black Oak album with Jim. When it’s launched, will probably be the primary new Black Oak Arkansas album in a long time.
“It’s referred to as Memphis Imply Instances,” Hal says. “It’s completed aside from the blending and mastering. It’s obtained 10 years of Jim’s writing in there, and each music is a fuckin’ novel. It’s not verse-chorus stuff, each music is sort of a story, and the songs all circulate collectively. It’s a conceptual sorta file. This would be the first contemporary Black Oak file in 20 years.”
The band are presently procuring round for a label to launch it, and hope to have it out earlier than the top of the yr. Within the meantime, there are nonetheless wrongs to be righted, and, as their most well-known music goes, Jim Dandy will proceed coming to the rescue.
“They threw me out within the jungle, anticipating the animals to eat me,” Jim says. “However the animals appreciated me. And I might have gotten the elephants to stomp on their village, however I didn’t. That’s not what I’m about. See, rock’n’roll has a that means. It’s about freedom. And it’s about taking time to get together. It doesn’t matter what’s taking place to the world, we’ve obtained to chortle and smile and face catastrophe. We are able to’t let it present, it doesn’t matter what they do to us.”
And with that, Jim Dandy is off in a flash. Someplace on the market, a southern damsel is not in misery.
This function initially appeared in Traditional Rock 125, revealed in November 2008. Rickie Lee Reynolds died in 2021, however Jim Dandy continues to fly the Black Oak Arkansas flag. Memphis Imply Instances stays unreleased.
