Instead of simply replicating Blue Caps drummer Dickie “Be-Bop” Harrell’s setup, DeLorenzo went a step further.
And Brian was into the acoustic mariachi bass guitar.” That was the sound we wanted to go after, something very small yet powerful. The drummer in that band played a very small drum set, and sometimes he would just play a snare drum. Years later, DeLorenzo told Modern Drummer, “We were really into what was happening with the early Gene Vincent & The Blue Capsrecordings. Ritchie and DeLorenzo had already begun playing together and laying the groundwork for what would become one of alt rock’s most innovative rhythm sections. Victor DeLorenzo had theater experience in common with Gano but had also been a jazz drummer. Gano’s teenage discovery of bands like The Ramones and The Velvet Underground along the way sealed his fate as a rocker.īefore hooking up with Gano, Brian Ritchie had played with psychedelic garage-rock revivalists Plasticland, who went on to become cult heroes. Maybe Gano would have ended up an actor or a country singer (or both, like Kristofferson) if an older brother hadn’t taken him to see Johnny Thunders’ Heartbreakers during a trip to New York. “Those people could write some amazing songs,” he told Bozeman Magazine, “and with such a range of emotion, and storytelling, very funny, or very sad and tragic, or all mixed up.” Gordon grew up on his dad’s collection of classic country records, and the sounds of everybody from Hank Williams and The Carter Family to Roger Miller and Kris Kristofferson influenced his songwriting. Gordon was bitten by the theater bug at a young age, appearing in his father’s productions and likely developing ideas about dramatic presence that would serve him well as a singer.Ĭrucially, the Reverend was also a music lover and guitar player. Gano had other passions besides the priesthood – he was heavily involved in theater as an actor, director, and teacher, establishing nearly as many theater companies as congregations.
Gordon grew up entranced by the sermons and hymns he would hear in church.īut Rev. Norman Gano, was a priest of the American Baptist Church who led multiple congregations over the course of his career. You’d never guess from the iconoclastic songs on Violent Femmes’ classic, self-titled debut album that Gordon Gano came from a devoutly religious household.