Brooke: I think there usually was beer in the end zone, or at least on the side line. I remember the enormous pain I was in for days after the first game. I remember Frankie smoking Marlboros during plays, and that he could hurl a ball forever. And I remember not being able to catch a pass all day. Also it seems the gay community from quarterbacks provided some of our best players, but I can't remember any of their names. T. Cecil was instrumental in organizing the games, perhaps he can contribute more.

Hello everyone. Mark here. Long-time subscriber; first-time caller. I was the Nightmares' drummer. I was the guy with the mullet and a bit of a temper. GREAT TO SEE ALL OF YOU AGAIN.....wow, I've been reading this stuff for a few weeks. Pretty intimidating room. I was still in high school when many of you were studying mysticism and such,
>ahem< but I'd gladly oblige you with tales of true Johnson City Dirt and raunchy, ribald tales of the Nightmares adventures on the road. I rarely have the time to do more than read what's posted here. As I mentioned before, I have a bit of a temper which has rendered me computerless for the moment. (long story)
Someone in here mentioned Claudia.....where the hell is she now? She and Linda Barnett were roommates at one point...(1989???) and they came to my rescue once in Charlotte, NC ... (Longer story) Took me to the beach, got me drunk and nursed me back to health over the course of two weeks after I split from the Nightmares in 1990. I am forever grateful for their kindness.
I watch this site occasionally when time allows at work and will gladly answer any questions you have for me. Much love to all....

Say Spam, didn't Ralph (who has a college degree in science) recently reccommend that all victims and/or persons who beleive that they may be victims of alien abduction check for physical evidence of the abduction by way of self examination for residual anal probes????

Final Curtain at various times consisted of:

Bruce Honeycutt, Frank Spangler, Donnie Pool, John Smith, Martin, Jeff Campbell, Heather, and myself (version one)

Bruce, Frankie, John, Roland Tester and myself (version B, "the golden age")

Bruce, John, Roland, Wayne Winkler and myself, (version tres) and;

Bruce, Roland, James Arwood, Ric Milhorn and myself, (the Return of the Bride of the Son of Final Curtain)


I hope I did not leave anyone out. It would be nice in retrospect to say we were a conceptual art group that encouraged "happenings" and "pushed the envelope" of publicly acceptable discourse and satire.... but actually we just wanted to get drunk and act like rock stars (much like the Ramones, another very good band.)

Final Curtain went thru 3 bass players; John Smith, Jeff Campbell, and Ric Milhorn.

Jeff left Johnson City and pursued Keroac's dream by driving an 18 wheeler around the country. He was an enthusist of the work of sci fi author Harlan Ellison and once told me that he had met Mr. Ellison, as I recall at a Sci Fi convention. He existence was last confirmed by Rob Bacon, who was a singer in a poser band I don't remember the name of, and I last saw Robbie as the bailiff in the court I worked led him off to jail.

Ric went on to be a very well respected drug and alcohol rehab counseler, and now lives in the land of cheese. Prior to leaving J.C., he was also involved as the Tennessee Investigator for M.U.F.O.N., the "Mutual UFO Network."

Now John claims a UFO experience......COINCIDENCE?????????

Hmmmmmmmm, well We were in Jeff Gold's Mysticism class with a bunch of hippies, who for some reason thought I was an irritating smartass (I know, it's had to imagine where they might have gotten that idea!) One day while Jeff was going over the concept of detachment as it related to Taoism, he asked if anyone had a western example. After a pregnant silence, with hippies stareing into space, I said "Shane", referring to the western movie. The hippies erupted with their usual wrath, when Donnie, and others, jumped to my defense, pointing out that the storyline of "Shane" did meet the criteria. Perhaps I was wrong on you being there, or which side you took!!

As I recall I needed the class as an elective for my major, while most of the rest of us were there because we thought it might involve Voodoo.

I just tripped over some Reinhold Neibuhr recently- a "neo-orthodox" or "Christian realist" theologian, his is a complicated story. He was a liberal protestant during the Progressive era, then became an isolationist after WWI. Then he did this "Christian realist" thing because communism had failed and the nazis were evil, so a "realistic Christian" had only the choice of the lesser of evils. His pessimism was an influence on John Dos Passos, mark 2, and James Gould Cozzens, expounding on maturity as the ability to live in an imperfect, ironic world...but it can be read as an apology for apathy, too. Is my source on the mark, Julie?

Could that show be the one where Blue knocked over my congas at the Down Home?? yeah, Mike and I were doing a Bros. Ugh show & he knocked it over when we were loading it up and it rolled down the hill. I could a killed 'em, but hey, I am sure he doesn't remember it. Spam, You easily entertained one, Rob and I are debating your secret identity. Elvis rules! Hey Bloggers, EME is going to be on Studio One program LIVE on public radio@ 1:00 on Sat. Oct. 12. Check us out. We won't be doing" Elvis"but here's a chance to tune in.

I won't get around to getting Blue Jackson kicked out of Chucky Trading Company until I first report how we embezzeled 3 weeks of rehersal time at the Community Theatre, ignored the NO ALCOHOL AT THE THEATER rule, spent more time coming up with a name than in writing our entire first set, managed to get 7 people on stage at the Down Home (including a bass player dressed for some reason as a gangster), made it snow inside the Down Home, made a huge pile of money for Phil Leonard, and got ourselves kicked out of Down Home. Then, and only then, can we explain how we, with the assistence of the DCI, got Blue Jackson kicked out of Chucky Trading Company. After that we can move on to getting ourselves kicked out of Chucky, returning to Down Home, getting kicked out again, and all of that will be easier than explaining how we got kicked out of Down Home on a night we were not playing, and most of us were not even there....

Julie: I don't know if I've met you or not. But any friend of Brook's..... say, have you ever been to Cimmeron, New Mexico????

The Former First Dog should be named "Enronworldcomdesertercowardcokeheaddrunkardlyingpretzelchokeabortioncauserconstituionignoringshadowgovernmentwhineyass-
secondplaceinfloridaunlessmybrotherdoesthecountfuckface", but we could just call him "Kenny Boy"

Remeber in 2004, Re Elect Gore!

by the way, I would be interested in hearing stories of how other bands came up with names, or actually more interesting to me would be a list of names rejected on the way. We have some dandies, which I hope to share soon. Perhaps Spam could help me with this....

And finally I need to write sometime about how the movie "Shane" became a metaphor for Taoist detachment and why I owe a big thanks to Brook, Donnie, Heather and John for coming to my defense on that occasion.....

Julie: I don't think Tinglehoff gave all Christians a bad name. I consider myself of the Christian faith, and he had no effect on me what-so-ever (though arguably I have given myself a bad name from the christian perspective.) Foaming at the mouth charismatic/fundementalists are as representative of Christianity as Shite fundementalists are to Islam, or as Rush Limbaugh is to rational thought.

As to The Fucking Prudes, I thought they were the most amazingly cool thing I had ever seen, and would pay good money to see a reunion show.

The lost posting of Bill from a week ago (that got me scolded for being on AOL) went into the Grease band history. George Mactee (later of MacBett) ran into me in the fall of 1984. He was of the understanding that I was a mature young man that could be trusted to get a band together for his production of Grease (he was not the last director to intrust me with a position of responsibility in a play...see Chris's earlier comments re: Dracula.) I barely knew anything about playing the guitar, but knew someone who did. Frank Spangler agreed to help, but only on the condition that he enlist some guys from Andy Boy/Acid Cows; John (God) Smith and Donnie Poole. This was then the make up of "Five Neat Guys." The play was generally panned (this was when the J.C. and Kingsport papers reviewed plays) but the band was reviewed well, one reviewer even called us "the all too good rock and roll band." This would become the core that would become Final Curtain, and start the downward descent of East Tennessee culture in general......

more later!!

John, I'm still waiting on a copy of the John Smith is God Newsletter!!!!

Not all andy boy... just parts of andy boy. I think the lineup was Frank, Roland, Bill and me but I could be mistaken. This is the band that went on to form the core of Final Curtain. Even some of the Final Curtain songs were stolen from Grease songs. There was some song about governent cheese(not the band) that was a grease tune.

Yes there was a MacBett. In the program to it, I was thanked for quitting it. George Mactee directed it, and Roland Tester was in it. I don't recall anyone else.... so while it may have been the drugs, they were not halluciniginic (which are known to cause poor spelling.) It starred a guy named Scott Snell, who was a regular at the Community Theatre at the time, and may still be.

I have been meaning to mention the first time I remember meeting Heather, although I may have met her before then, was at the first Final Curtain show at the Down Home. We had spent a total of 5 minutes writing a song called "Tinglehoff Blues" which was about Kingsport's own Anti-Rock and Roll Preacher, Marty Tinglehoff. Although quickly written (it consisted of and E chord followed by and A chord, repeat until bored) it took about 45 minutes to preform, as it's lyrics were a free form rant by Bruce (and we all know how good he is at that.) Anyway, about 15 minutes into the song I was bored and walked off the stage to get a beer. We had about 3 guitarists, so the abscence of one was rarely noticed. About the time I got tired of mingling with the audience and went back to the stage, Heather took the Mic from Bruce and started chanting:"The Devil's in my uterus...He's yours Marty! He's yours!!"

Excellent Tony, I'm glad someone else remembers the SNAG party. I'm not sure what was more ironic,, the complete apathy with which Frankie received the title, or the look on Ralph's face when Vickie voted for Frank....... ah, the memories flow like Tuborg at a hockey game.......

Ok Bruce, I want to do "Elvis in the Pyramids" and others too. I will try to get 'em to do it again. It always got the crowd going and I have to construct some more of those "pyramid" props we had at the Venus show where we trashed the place with broken styrofoam. That was the show we gave out potted meat products, condoms and a 10 Lb bag of religious pamphlets. Besides your PST, I thought the weekly Beat was great too.

Tony, you are right about the computing power. Hell, probably not enough to compute the number of bands I was in - Bass player is synomous with music whore me thinks. I have considered creating a database to do just that. Sort of the six degrees of separation kind of thing. I know I’m one degree removed from Johnny Carson having played with the old tonight show band drummer Ed Shaughnessy. Check this shit out

http://www.drummerworld.com/drummers/Ed%20Shaugnessy.html

How about those burns!

What about the fact that we are all once removed from GG Allen via Johnny Puke? Now that’s fucking scary!

On the JC thing: Having played in all sorts of shit-hole college towns, I must say that JC was/is unique. Not that there were not other towns with good scenes but that JC had one. People were so crazy for music. I knew tons of people back then who looked forward to playing JC just for the crowd response.

james hensley..."there's a certain girl i've been in love with a long, long, time. what's her name? i can't remember. awwww"

WHAT IS PST? I CAN'T REMEMBER.......HELP. ON A DIFFERENT SUBJECT, A FRIEND OF MINE MENTIONED THAT SOME OF YOU WERE THINKING OF PUTTING TOGETHER A COFFEE TABLE BOOK OF OLD FLYERS FROM THE JC 80'S ERA. I HAVE FLYERS OF EME, STINKY FINGER,NIGHTMARES,PAPERBOYS,BEAT YO MOTHER,PLANE JANE,FLOYD EATS MAYBERRY,GIANT SPIDER INVASION AND MORE. A GOLDMINE FROM THAT TIME. IF INTERESTED
LET ME KNOW. BY THE WAY, THE EME SHOWS WENT WELL, ALTHOUGH I THOUGHT THE FRI.13TH SHOW @ VITO'S INVOLVED THE MOST MEDICATED &/OR DRUNKEN AUDIENCE OF ALL TIME. LETS FALL DOWN AND BE IN A TRANCE. ALMOST LIKE A STRANGE TWIN PEAKS EPISODE OR SOMETHING. HERE I AM STUCK IN THIS DARK LAGOON..... ;)

Tony Coker: My point wasn't that JC was the ONLY town with a fringe in modern times (no need to wax pedantic about Athens, dude...) My point was that the JC "scene" existed ALSO but isn't as widely known, and deserves to be, every bit as much.

As for senility, I'd have to agree with you.

So Coker,,,, what you are saying is that Bruce did not stop PST because it wasn't making money, only that it wasn't making enough money to pay for it's own printing once access to free printing disappeared. In other words, it was not profitable. Like you, I admired Bruce for his love of the J.C, scene and his dedication to it's nurturing via PST. I thought it was great and looked forward to it's publication each whenever, and like you I contributed articles to it. I agree that Bruce never wrote it for the money,,, it was always a chore to pry 50 cents from a college student at a bar on quarter beer night when he was selling it.......In addition Bruce paid his dues the first time Final Curtain played at "The Village of Pub Venus Out Back" We were the first band to play there that did not write it's set list by alternating Lynard Skynard and Molly Hatchet covers ("so it don't get boring.") We were warmly recieved by rednecks that occupied the place, who lauded the arrival of the Alt./punk scene by throwing glass ashtrays, as well as a half pitcher of beer at us. Their applause included comments on our music, family lineage, and our house pets as I recall. Quite the scarey evening. Final Curtain at the time was Bruce, John Smith, Roland Tester, Myself, and Wayne Winkler of all people making his only appearence with us. I think Frank was there too, but I don't remember if he was still in the band. There was a table of construction workers there that had a couple of black guys at it with 3 or 4 of the biggest white guys I had ever seen and our show brought a great feeling of racial harmony to the room as they put aside thier differences long enough to all hate us. This was, and remains, the worst show we ever did, and my personal least favorite.

T.cOKER, what I meant was that we were the first band to back them as a "band" instead of two nasty rappers. That was fun! great show.

Oops, silly me, I keep trying to subtract expenses from revenue to determine wheather an enterprize is profitable. Who would have dreamed that printing costs could be considered an expense. Perhaps Bruce should have spun off "PST Printing" as an off shore company in order to hide this cost of running a paper. By using the Harken Oil accounting system, PST could still be publishing. This Enron style accounting the conservatives extoll sure is handy!!!! No wonder the economy is doing so well under George Bush's visionary leadership!!!!!

Dyslexics of the World Untie!!!

Ok, so earlier tonight I wrote a comprehensive history of Final Curtain from the summer of 1979 thru the fall of 1984. It was entertaining and included the phrases "I hold Greg responsible" and "My Sister's Had Two Operations." Then when I hit enter to post it, my Mac decided to log me off AOL, and it was forever lost.....

When I get a chance I'll write it again...

Until then, be excellent to one another.

A Nitemare List.

This is a list I compiled the day after the Nitemares' last show at the Down Home. Some are titles and some are lyric snippets cuz I don't know the title. Those songs are signified by ellipses. If I'm not sure of a title, it is between two question marks.

If it is a cover and I know the band I added that in brackets. If I think it's a cover but don't know the original performer, I put a question mark in the brackets.
Please let me know if there is a song listed as original below but is actually a cover (plus who orginally performed it).

A brain dump. In no particular order.


Can't Touch An Angel
The Letter [The Box Tops]
Parish (I Love You But You Are a Bitch)
What's Her Name [??]
Brick House [Commodores]
Look the Other Way
California Sun [Eddie Cochran, Ramones]
Summertime Blues [Eddie Cochran]
Born to be Wild [Steppenwolf]
Truckin' [Grateful Dead]
Listen to the Rain
Whip It [Devo]
She Thinks I Still Care [George Jones]
Nash County Turnaround
Forget About You
Desperate Hyway
Stephanie (aka Mary Ellen)
Primitive Rose
Stagger Lee - [Lloyd Price? Grateful Dead? B. Relleva?]
Batman
These Boots Were Made for Walkin' [Nancy Sinatra - I think Brian got the idea from the Movie "Full Metal Jacket"]
Little Bit of You
Shakin' All Over [Johnny Kidd & the Pirates]
Johnny B. Goode [Chuck Berry]
Get Out Baby (aka Get Out Commie)
Lawnmower Man
I Wanna Rock n' Roll All Night [Kiss]
Tear It Up [??]
Rave On [Buddy Holly]
Eye of the Tiger [Survivor]
...Sometimes good guys don't wear white... [??]
Matchbox Blues [Blind Lemon Jefferson]
Matchbox Blues - I remember Brian turning this into something entirely different.
Jackson Square
House Built Around...
Daydreamin'
Easy Way Out
Lizard Song
Goin' Nowhere (Bored Games)
Think About It, Dream On, Look Back & Remember [Freak Circus]
Last Train to Clarksville [The Monkees]
99 1/2 [Wilson Pickett]
I'll Go Crazy [James Brown]
Hush [Deep Purple]
?Cat Song?
?Ain' Gonna Worry No More?
...leave your balls on the Christmas tree...
Close Down the Honky Tonk
Good Friends
Paint It Black [Rolling Stones]
Jumpin' Jack Flash [Rolling Stones]
She's a Surfboard Now [Stinky Finger]
She's So Tall
Surrounding Me
?Shovelhead Wilson?
When Your Heart Gets Ripped in 2
Please Come Out & Play
Across the Red Man's Land
Buy a Garden
Ain't Your Steppin' Stone [Monkees]
Lost Hyway
Ramblin' Man [Hank Williams]
Kabul Stomp
?a Scott Pleasant Song?
Route 66 [Bobby Troupe, Nat King Cole, The Stones]
?a song where Kurt plays slide guitar?
?Hope That You'll Remember Me?
Jonesboro Woman
Somethin' Else [Eddie Cochran]
Trippin' [Stinky Finger]
"...look straight ahead... ?a train song?
New Kind of Kick [The Cramps]
Brown Eyed Girl [Van Morrison]
Train Song (?Stand Still? State of Mind)

Hello bloggers,
ahhh, the 80's. I thought Quarterbacks,the Pub Outback were my favorite places to play and of course Down Home, where sooooo many of us got our starts. Hi, I am Doug from ELECTRIC MIDDLE EARTH, anybody out there remember us? Well, we are still kicking and playing at BUCK'S PIZZA on Tues.Sept.10th @ 10-1 and VITO's Sept.Fri. the 13th. I remember playing shows with Floyd Eats Mayberry,also Beat Your MOther with a Putrid Herring. Here is a little known fact for ya... FYI..We were the first band to give STiNKY fINGER their start. In fact, we backed them up at a show where they opened for us at Pub Outback. This was when it was Ugly,ugly and jOhnny Puke era. We were doing or psyhedelic stuff , very cool show. WE still do some of our old 80's standards plus lots of new music. Come out and see us. We would love to see you there.!

It was a McDonalds. Of course we celebrate.