“We were driving home from registering at college, and she hit another car. I was injured a bit and got out of the car. She was administering to me, and this guy came flying down the street and hit her right in front of me. Literally took her out of my arms and killed her on the spot.”
Joe Grushecky relives the accident on the song “Here in ’68” with his band the Iron City Houserockers 57 years later on their Omnivore album Can’t Outrun A Memory.
“It was pretty horrific. The last song we heard together before the accident was ‘Get Together’ by The Youngbloods. I was telling her I had purchased a Telecaster Guitar. I played in a band in high school. I had played in college my first year and a half, and I was going to go back and play again. I made a pledge to myself never to quit playing guitar again.
“And I kept that pledge. Yes, I have!”
Folk singer Chris Smither told this music journalist that you don’t write a song, you live with it, and it gradually emerges. “This is true,” says Joe. “The best kind are the kind that come down out of the heavens, and over the years I’m pretty particular about my lyrics. I’m trying to make every word count. I do a lot of rewrites on the lyrics until I think they’re where I want them to be, and I always try to be conversational like I’m having a conversation with you. I’m not trying to outsmart anybody or put in references. I’m having a conversation.”
A recently retired special education teacher by day and a hard rocker with a bluesy edge by night, he and his band the Iron City Houserockers signed with Cleveland International in 1979. Through numerous incarnations as a band leader and solo artist, Joe has captured the edgy essence of hometown Pittsburgh. His resume includes contributions from Ian Hunter (Mott The Hoople), Mick Ronson (David Bowie), Steve Van Zandt, Bruce Springsteen, and Steve Cropper.
Steve Cropper co-wrote “Dock of The Bay” with Otis Redding which was released after Redding’s death. For more than 60 years Cropper has been the creative force behind the Stax/Volt label and a member of Booker T. and The MG’s. He got involved with The Houserockers early in their career.
“We were a pretty good band, but with Steve we upped our musicianship considerably just to keep in step when he was involved. We played more concisely and more precisely. We had a deal with Cleveland International. We were champing at the bit to do the record and got a call from MCA. They asked me if I would be interested in recording with Steve Cropper, and I said, ‘Of course I would,’ because he was an all-time guitar idol of mine. So, I flew out to Los Angeles and met a guy named Denny Rosencranz who called our sound urban stink.
“He hooked us up with Steve, and we hit it off for a little bit. He played on some tracks, probably some of the songs on that collaboration that we just put out called Blood on The Bricks, a couple of tracks.
“Steve actually came to Pittsburgh to hang out with us. He stayed at the Howard Johnson for 10 days and rehearsed in this sweat box. We were rehearsing in this place in the middle of Pittsburgh, middle of summer, no windows at the beginning of summer. We just rehearsed, rehearsed, rehearsed for six hours a day for a week or so, and put the record out.”
Blood on the Bricks contains four cuts captured at In-Square Men’s Bar in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1981. “It was just a dinky little bar. It was a tiny little place, maybe 100 people at the most, and it snowed and snowed and snowed that night. We were stranded in this club, and whoever got in there before wasn’t getting out until later in the evening until it quit snowing. As luck would have it, it was the night WBCN came down to record us. It was a pretty exciting show. I mean, it was very enthusiastic. There were only a hundred people there, and everybody was drinking like crazy. It was one of those end-of-the-world events, you know, stuck in a blizzard with the Houserockers.
We did this first record, and we had a steady Thursday night here in Pittsburgh. We’d drive up to Cleveland on Friday and record on Friday. Sometimes we’d drive home Friday night. So, that first record we’d never spent more time than one day at a time in the studio until Bruce and I went in and cut some vocals on it. All the band tracks we did there over a period of 16, 18 months because we could never afford studio time.
“To my surprise we were so well received. The second record Steve Cropper brought us to New York at (S.R.O.) Studios. Steve and his partner Marty Mooney were like the de facto producers. They brought in Mick Ronson. Whoa! Damn! You know, he was a master guitar player. We didn’t know it at the time but he’s a trained concert pianist.
“So we rehearsed for that day, and the next day he showed up with Steve Van Zandt. And then Steve Van Zandt starts coming in the morning and Mick Ronson starts coming in at night, then pretty soon Ian Hunter shows up. I was just trying to keep my mouth shut and not say anything too stupid. At that stage, I was a fledgling songwriter and some of my songs sucked.”
So, why am I writing about a hard rocker in American Blues Scene? “Well, funny you should say that because in some ways I consider myself a blues guy, but I started off just a regular rocker. Then I started adding more Chicago blues stuff like Buddy Guy, Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Jr. Wells, that old kind of stuff. Those guys were my favorites. They are all my heroes. One of the thrills of my life was seeing Muddy, Howlin’ Wolf and Lightnin’ Hopkins all on the same show in Florida.”
Joe has released three albums in the last year: Can’t Outrun A Memory containing new songs, Blood on The Bricks with material from 1981, and Joe Grushecky Houserocker. He only does about 20 or 30 tour dates a year, but he has no plans to stop making music. “You know that story about Gene Pitney where he said he always put family first. That’s what I did. The constant playing out all the time took a toll on my family, and my kids needed health benefits. That’s why I gravitated towards teaching, and then I had a serious back injury that knocked me out of the ballgame for almost a year when I was touring a lot and playing a lot.
“Johnny, my son, plays with us now. We have three guitars, bass and drums. Springsteen joined us a couple of weeks ago at the Night and Day Festival. My theory is that old jazzers and bluesers play well into their old age, and I think if you do it all the time and keep healthy, you push through with what you do, your passion. I think the guys who take 20 or 30 years off to count their money and try to make a comeback are the ones who are never great. I think the guys that never stopped doing it get better with age.”
