Thursday, January 22, 1987
Daily Nebraskan
Page 5
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Photo courtesy of PolyGram Records
By Geoff McMurtry
Diversions
There once was a band that played at the
Drumstick a lot. Just a couple of years ago.
They played out there so often, in fact, that a
lot of people thought they must be from
around here. They didn't really have one
name, they had three. Steve, Bob and Rich
they were called. Off stage, they still are. But
when Bob decided to play guitar and concen
trate on singing, they added a drummer. It
was decided then that the name "Steve, Bob,
Rich and Pat" was starting a nasty trend
toward overly long marquee titles. And thus,
Steve Phillips, Bob Walkenhorst, Rich Ruth
and Pat Tomek became the Rainmakers.
But people began to wonder, "How come
Steve, Bob and Rich haven't been out at the
Drumstick lately?" Little did they know,
Steve, Bob, Rich and Pat had made a record.
Then one day a song came over the radio.
People were startled to hear a song like this
on the radio. It had no synthesizers. It wasn't
by Lionel Richie or Phil Collins. It wasn't
even a soundtrack from a movie at all. It
sounded almost like rock 'n' roll used to
sound. The singer's voice sounded manic,
almost psychotic. When the whole band
joined in and yelled "Let my people go-go,"
well, it just sounded like a hell of a lot of of
fun. (And the "go-go" part made everyone
forget Wham! completely.)
"Let My People Go-Go" was about Moses.
And Chuck Berry. And Jesus. And the Coas
ters. In fact, the song was kind of like taking
the Old Testament and old time rock 'n' roll
and throwing them all together into a big,
sweaty pile.
And the word soon got out. "Those Rain
maker guys, their names are the same as
Steve's, Bob's and Rich's used to be." And
people said to one another, "I bet it's the
same guys!" Then they looked at each other
and said, "I wonder when they'll be back in
Lincoln." -
But things were just beginning for those
Rainmaker guys, uh . . . the Rainmakers. They
had another song. This one was about welfare
and poor people. It was called "Government
Cheese." It said the government was only
helping the poor so they'd be easy to please,
and less likely to criticize, and not out of any
kind of concern. It called food programs
"passing out drugs to the American people."
And then it said, "I ain't gonna eat Govern
ment Cheese." Some said it naively echoed
the Reagan administration at its most ludi
crous. Others said it unfairly criticized the
Reagan administration for trying to help.
A lot of people who were offended by "Let
My People Go-Go" liked "Government Cheese,"
and a lot of people who liked "Government
Cheese" were offended by "Let My People
Go-Go." People looked at each other and said,
"Hey, just who are these guys? Who the hell
do they think they are?" But they just
thought they were Steve, Bob, Rich anil Pat.
Other people just snapped their fingers in
time and said, "It's got a good beat and you
can dance to it."
There were other songs on the record to
talk about, too. "Rockin' at the T-Dance"
asked about American pride in workmanship.
It mentioned Apollo I.
"Take a trip with me in 1967
with Grissom, White, and Chaffee
on a rocket ride to heaven ...
It was American made only the best
for our boys."
It sounded awfully darn patriotic, until you
remembered that Apollo I exploded on the
launch pad. The song also mentioned the
Hyatt Regency falling on carefree, happy
dancers and pointed out that nobody seemed
to care how or why these things could
happen.
". . . they let the monkey go
And blame the monkey wrench."
And it had a good beat and you could dance to
it. Anxiously, people kept asking each other,
"When are these guys coming to Lincoln?"
Finally the two sides stopped arguing and
looked over at everyone else. "Why are you so
anxious to know when they are coming back
to Lincoln?" they asked.
"Because we like the record. It sounds
great. And because we remember them being
a good live band when they used to play here a
lot, before they were famous," they all said in
unison. , , - .
"But don't you think they might be. wrong
about some of the things they say?" the
arguers replied.
"Maybe they are, maybe they aren't," cho
rused the response, "but at least they have
the guts to take a stand on something a little
less obvious than apartheid. Anybody can say
they're against that. Besides, they sound
great. Isn't that what a rock V roll band is
supposed to do?"
"Well, yes, we suppose you're right. They
do have guts. And they do sound great."
"So when the hell are they coming to Lin
coln?" the crowd screamed.
"Tomorrow night, Friday, the 23rd. They'll
be at the Nebraska Union in the Centennial
Room. That's the big one upstairs."
"Good thing dropadd is over with. How
much are tickets?"
"Four bucks for students, six bucks for -non-students,
because it's being put on by
the Campus Activities and Programs office.
Tickets are at Dirt Cheap, Pickles, and both
unions."
"Great. What time does it start?"
"8:00. At night."