Larry made a tape of all the records
he had by the band and explained to Billy that they sounded pretty worn so please
excuse the quality. Larry said that he would like to have them restored, but it was
just too expensive. He also sent Billy photocopies of all The Illusions pictures. Billy
said that he wrote the introduction to the book that came with the 'Cowabunga
Surf' Box Set, on Rhino Records, so he was very familiar with all of the bands
on those four CDs'. Billy told Larry that he would return the check for the records
and send several copies of 'Diggin' Out' to Larry free of charge. Larry received a
box in the mail a couple of weeks later containing several LPs', a magazine called
'Kicks', a royalty check and his personal check returned. The magazine had a picture
of the 45' record 'Earhfquake' picture sleeve, and made some very complimentary
comments about The Illusions. It said that Jezabel, was a Fender sender, rarely
equaled in aquatic instrumental circles and referred to The Illusions as the DaVincis
of Reverb. Robert Dalley publishes his own magazine to members of his 'Surf Music
Appreciation Society', Larry and Robert communicated on a regular basis by e-mail,
and Larry was making contact with other musicians through Dalley's web site. Larry
sent a picture of himself, Carol, his son Troy, and Tom Brown playing at their house.
The next issue of Dalley's magazine had a short statement relating to the picture.
(Not to be forgotten is another popular 60's group from Long Beach, California, The
Illusions. Their big hit Jezabel appears on the Cowabunga Surf Box compilation. The
group has reformed with original members Tom Brown (drums) Larry Ellis (lead guitar)
and Larry 's wife Carol on guitar and their son Troy on bass. They plan on some live
gigs in the near future.) When Carol read this, she asked Larry what it meant? Larry
told her that he had quit his job at the Oil Company and that he was selling the house
and they were all going on the road to perform. That didn't go over to well with Carol
and she let Larry know it. Larry told her that he was only kidding and that the article
was a surprise to him too. He e-mailed Robert and thanked him for the vote of
confidence and appreciated him mentioning The Illusions in his magazine. In arlother
issue of Dalley's magazine there was an article about Jazzmaster guitars. It was written
by Mel Waldorf and Zak Izbinsky of the Montreal Jazzmaster Owners' Society. The Illusions
were known for using all Jazzmasters. It was a long article about how great the guitar is.
Larry is still playing one to this day. As he read the article, a sentence jumped out at him.
It said; In retrospect, many people claim that the Jaguar and Stratocaster were
predominantly used for lead, while the Jazzmaster was relegated to rhythm but this was
not so! Listen to Rich Fifield's blistering lead work with the Astronauts, or the dual
Jazzmaster equipped Illusions, and you can tell the Jazzmaster was fully up to the task.
Larry got their e-mail address from Robert Dalley so he could personally thank them for
the compliment they gave The Illusions. He wrote to Mel Waldorf and thanked him for a
great article. Mel answered immediately and said; " Thank you for your letter! Your
recording of 'Jezabel' was one of the first surf songs I learned how to play". Afer that,
Larry and Mel corresponded regularly. Mel had a band called, Los Mel-Tones, and they had
a hit CD on the market titled 'Surfin' At Black Point. Mel told Larry that one of the songs
on the CD was inspired after The Illusions 'Jezabel'. Mel sent a copy of the CD to Larry and
Larry sent some of The Illusions old music to Mel and a picture of the band when they had
three Jazzmasters and no bass. It was a promotional picture that round records took for
'Jezabel'. Mel hung the picture on the wall in the bands' rehearsal studio. On Larry's birthday,
his son Troy bought the record 'Jezabel' for $80.00 from Mr. C, and gave it to him gift
rapped. Larry had been searching for it along with all the other records through Goldmine
without any luck. Now he had a copy thanks to Troy. While Larry searched for any records
relating to The Illusions, he was also searching for Bobby Mason. He was sending out post
cards to Bob Mason's that he found on the computer's 'People Search' program. They would
read: If you are the Bob Mason who played guitar in The Illusions, Please write. Dozens of
post cards were sent to addresses all over the country without any response. Larry had
a box full of old band pictures, posters, newspaper articles and contracts. One day while
looking through them, he found Bob's social security number on the back of one of the
old contracts. Larry contacted a company that would locate a person for a fee by
tracking them down using their social security number. Larry received two addresses
for Bob Mason, both of them in Aspen Colorado. One of them was a post office box
and the other one was a house number. A post card was mailed to both addresses.
A week later, the post card sent to the house was returned to sender stating 'No
mailbox'! One down, and one to go, Larry told Carol. Another week passed, and a post
card arrived from Aspen Colorado. On the back it said; Well Larry, yes I am. And fhat
was the "Frantic" Illusions, if you please! Please call me at (##) There's hours of
catching up to do. Make that about 33 years. WOW! I can't wait to hear from you,
as always... Bobby Mason. Larry picked up the phone and called at once. They talked
for a long time. Bobby never left the music business. He moved to Aspen in 1969, and
met his wife to be 'Peggy', and stayed there. He joined a local band called "The Happy
Medium" and played with them for a while. After that, he joined "The Black Peal Band"
and became the opening band for "The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band". Bobby got to know the
band very well and started playing with them at gigs and on some of their records.
He became a local icon in entertainment in Aspen. One of his guitars is hanging on the
wall at the 'Hard Rock Cafe' He is also in the 'Rock and Roll Hall of Fame'. Bobby's voice
was used in a Jeep commercial and for Heinz products. He received royalty checks for
them along with the money he made on performances. He has a recording studio in his
basement where he records New Age Music on CD's. Bobby was unaware of everything
that was going on with The Illusions music even though he never left the business. Larry
gave him Tom Brown, John Blair and Robert Dalley's phone numbers. Bobby did very well
for himself over the years He was associated with many celebrities like Don Johnson,
The Eagles and John Denver was the executive producer for one of his records. He
owned a 4200 square foot Villa in Belize called, Casa Tortuga Villa. Over the years,
Bobby lost all of his records relating to The Illusions. Larry sent him copies of 'Diggin
Out' and 'Surfer 's Mood' and made him a tape of his remake of 'People Say', Lonely
Lonely Nights, and all the other Illusions music. Bobby lost all of his pictures of the
band also so Larry made some copies and sent them to him. Bobby called Tom that
night and talked about old times. Tom sent him a 'Cowabunga Surf Box Set'. Now Bobby
was back in the loop. There would be many more telephone calls between the three of
them after that. When the band made their first record at Wenzel's, the master tape
was assumed to be lost somewhere in the archives of the recording studio. All that was
left, was one copy of the acetate 45' that Larry had saved. Over the years, one side
became brittle and flaked off. The two songs were 'Surfer's Lullaby' and 'Que Paso'.
'Surfer's Lullaby' was lost. 'Que Paso' could still be played, but it was extremely worn
and sounded bad. Wenzel's is no longer a recording studio.
They specialize in 'hard to
flnd records' Larry would ask them now and then if they ever found a master tape
from that session. They were probably still in High School when The Illusions recorded
at Wenzel's and never became involved in the business until their parents retired
and later passed away. When they took over the business, they closed the studio and
turned the room into a rare record archive section. When the movie 'Pulp Fiction'
was being made, the producers contacted Wenzel's for much of the surf music used
in it. All of a sudden, they were digging through all of the stored boxes in the attic
looking for master tapes. Many of the songs in the movie were recorded by groups
under contract with 'Downey Records', and they received a very large sum of money
in royalties. They never came across a tape by The Illusions and Larry finally accepted
the reality that it was lost forever and stopped asking. A couple of weeks later Larry
and Bobby spoke on the phone, Larry was in his garage rearranging things. He found
an old gray, dusty, metal box on the top self up in a cupboard high in the rafers.
When he opened it, he found several reel to reel tapes and a stack of business cards
for The Illusions in mint condition. In the bottom of the box he found a piece of paper
that said 'Surfer's Lullaby' It had scotch tape on it as though it was attached to one
of the reels at one time; but which one? Larry took the box into the house and started
playing the tapes on his Teac tape deck. It was a slow process. The tapes were very
old and kept breaking. He would use scotch tape to splice them back together. There
was a lot of old history on the tapes. Some tapes were recordings of their sons Rodney
and Troy when they were infants and just learning to talk. He found some old
recordings by the band when they were just starting out and trying to work out
different harmonies in someones' front room. There were some practice sessions
before they went to Sunset Studio to record their demo album, they were just doing
harmonies along with a bass. Larry transferred everything that could be saved onto
cassette. Hours went by and it was getting late. The work was tedious and time
consuming. Pieces of Scotch tape were laying everywhere. Seven tapes had been
reviewed but none of them had 'Surfer's Lullaby' and 'Que Paso' . There was only
one tape left. He thought that it would be falling apart like the others, so he got
the scotch tape and scissors ready. He put the tape on the spindle and pushed play.
A low-pitched growling sound was coming from the tape. It sounded like a bear
being woke up from hibernation. It was someone talking and it sounded like they
were saying, " Melody number one, take one". Then the drums started. Larry
instantly recognized Tom Brown's drum introduction to 'Surfer's Lullaby'. He
called Carol into the room and said, " I found it!' The tape was recorded
professionally at a high speed of 15 ips. For better sound quality. The speed
on Larry's tape deck was 7 3/4 ipS. He played the entire tape without it breaking
once. He was amazed at the good condition it was in, compared to rest of the
tapes in the box. As it played on, he was surprised to hear two takes of 'Surfer's
Lullaby' then a song he couldn't remember doing and then 'Que Paso' Now he would
simply take the tape to a studio and let them change the speed and transfer it to
a cassette. The next day he started going through the yellow pages and calling
recording studios. The price for transferring a tape from one speed to another
was outrageous. One studio told him, "Yeah, we can do it, but your not gonna like the price,
$175.00 an hour" Larry replied, "Yeah, your right, I don't like the price" He gave up at
that point and started his search again on the following day. For some reason, this
day was better. The first call he made was successful. Larry found a small studio
in Westminster that would transfer the tape for only $5.00 plus the cost of a blank
cassette. He was inside the studio within twenty minutes. The technician said it
would take a couple of days due to his workload. Carol drove to the studio a few
days later to pick up the tape. The technician told her that the tape was in such
excellent condition, that he could make it into a CD. He was also shocked at the
great condition of the tape considering that it was thirty-three years old. Carol
told him to go ahead and make ten CD's. with only one take of 'Surfer's Lullaby',
and the other two songs. When they received the finished CD, and played it, it
sounded crystal clear, as if it was recorded only yesterday. Larry sent copies of
the CD to Tom and Bobby. They were just as shocked as Larry was about the long
lost tape. Bobby told Larry that the second song was one that he just made up on
the spot that night at the studio. It needed a name, so they called it, 'The Lido Stomp'.
Troy took an old picture of the Illusions as they were when the Wenzel's tape was made,
and colorized it and then added some graphic artwork to it. Larry wrote a short story
telling about the recording session for the backside. When they were finished, it looked
like a store bought CD. Larry also sent copies to John Blair and Robert Dalley.
The following article appeared in the classified section of Robert Dalley's magazine:
Gee Dee Records. Hey bands!! Gee Dee Records in Germany is looking for music for a
forth-coming German surf compilation CD called, 'Smells Like Surf Spirit'. All interested
bands / musicians who would like to be on it (against royalties) are asked to send
materials (audio / bio /pics to Gee Dee Music, Luruper Chausee l25, Gewerbehof,
Haus 8 A, Hamburg, Germany. Larry wrote them and asked if they would be interested
in music by The Illusions? He received a reply a few weeks later saying that they were
interested in The Illusions music and wanted an audition tape. Larry made a cassette
of 'Jezabel b/w Nitemare' and 'Earthquake blw Ooh-Pooh-Pah-Doo'. When the tape
arrived in Germany, it was defective. Apparently it was demagnetized while going
through the air port security x-ray. Gerd Dietrich, of Gee Dee Records told Larry
not to worry about it and asked him if he had any unreleased records or acetates,
because they were thinking about making a top 40 cover-versions CD called,
'Raw & Raw From The 60's'. Larry told Gerd about the unreleased acetate with
six songs and explained that it was in very poor condition. He also told him about
the three tracks CD from Wenzel's. Gerd replied with the following letter; "We have
the modern updated mastering studio and can turn old records into new master
tapes without any scratches, surface noises left". What do you think of the following?
You courier all materials to Gee-Dee, and we will arrange for perfect digital master
tapes and you will get your old materials plus new masters back from me at no cost,
and Gee-Dee has the first option to release any of the music against royalties of
course". It sounded fantastic to Larry, but he wanted to see what Tom and Bobby
thought. A couple of phone calls later it was settled, they felt the same way Larry
did about it. The records were on their way to Gerd in Germany the next day. Gee-Dee
was very pleased with the variety of music from The Illusions and wanted to make a
CD on them instead of compilation. Gerd asked Larry if he had any more records
relating to the band? So far, there were thirteen tracks. Larry replied that he had
'Lonely Lonely Nights' b/w' I Want To Be With You' and Bobby Mason's remake of
'People Say' b/w 'Laura' on the Imperial label. Gerd told Larry to send them both.
Both records were in mint condition and Gerd decided to add them to the CD;
making a total of seventeen songs. Tom and Larry spoke on the phone the following
day, and thought that since 'Laura', the flip side of 'People Say' was recorded
with studio musicians, and reflected Bobby's pursuit of music after leaving the
band, that maybe Gerd would like to add some music by Tom's group 'The Wedge'
showing his persistence in the world of music. Tom called Gerd on the phone the
next day to suggest the change. Gerd thought that it was a great idea and said
he would like to get twenty tracks on the CD if possible. Tom told him about the
two different versions of 'Lonely Lonely Nights', and Gerd said he could add it to
the CD also. The only problem was, they didn't have a copy of the other version,
but Steve Propes did. Tom called Steve and asked him if he could borrow it and
send it to Germany so it could be added to the CD. Steve said yes, and Larry went
to his home and picked it up. The record was on it's way to Germany by Fed-Ex,
the next day. Larry sent photo machine copies of all the pictures he had of the
band and Gerd picked the ones to be used for the CD artwork and mailed them
back to Larry so he could send the originals. The Illusions own CD with all their
music called 'Surfin' & Stompin', with twenty tracks was released in March l998
by Gee-Dee Records in Germany. Larry, Tom and Bobby thought it was great.
Now they can hear their music as it sounded over thirty years ago, and The
Illusions memory will live on.
Larry Ellis wrote this story in the third person. All information was collected from December 1996 through January 1998. By researching old documents and newspaper articles. Also by tracking down lost recordings by the band and collaborating with Tom Brown and Bobby Mason.