THE BUS BOYS EQUAL OPPORTUNITY INTERVIEW

THE BUS BOYS EQUAL OPPORTUNITY INTERVIEW

FEATURES

by

J. Kordosh

The Bus Boys shuffled into the nation's consciousness late in 1980 on their debut album, Minimum Wage Rock 'n' Roll. Five black guys and a chicano drummer, they came up with a cool idea—Aunt Jemima rock—and proceeded to make it work. The LP is genuinely funny and, jeepers creepers, they're from Los Angeles. You know, the City of Laughter.

Initial reports on the Bus Boys were also impressive, if you care to believe what you read. The Wall Street Journal called them "a remarkable black band...launching a good-natured assault on the musical mainstream." Playboy likened them to "Sly Stone fronting the Talking Heads at a shindig in the Twilight Zone...making a mockery of black American stereotypes, both musically and visually." The week before I met the Bus Boys, Time called their LP "one of the year's standout albums." Nearly everything printed about them made consecutive orgasms over the fact that rock 'n' roll was being played by blacks. Or spades, as the Bus Boys call themselves in song.

The Bus Boys' tour came to Detroit in mid-December. I interviewed Brian O'Neal —the group's chief songwriter, keyboard player, and all-around .mastermind—in their dressing room at Bookie's, where they were the only act on the bill. Playing two sets, no less. Hey, maybe they really didn't know this was 1980.

O'Neal is an articulate, talkative, sarcastic 24-year-old. We slalomed through the interview like a couple of old friends who can't stand to see each other more than once a year. The conversation ranged from fairly intelligent commentary to doubledistilled jive. At times, the mood was blatantly uneasy. This may be partially due to the dressing room at Bookie's; it has all the ambience of a toilet. Which it is. It might be due to O'Neal being a bit worn out from the grind. It probably had more to do with O'Neal and me looking at each other in the eye for a couple of hours.

The minimum wage rock 'n'roll concept is about starting at the bottom but working your way to the top. -Brian O'Neal

The only ground rule for the interview was that I refrain from smoking cigarettes in the dressing room. The Bus Boys greeted me amiably as I entered, and O'Neal and I and my $20 Panasonic cassette found a corner where we could do the do.

CREEM: What's the big deal about being a black rock 'n' roll band? What's so shocking?

O'NEAL: Well, it's not that shocking. It's just that we're the first black band to get national prominence to accurately reflect an Anglo influence on pop music through black musicianship.

CREEM: In Time, you were quoted as knocking [Parliament/Funkadelic guiding light George] Clinton.

O'NEAL: They got it wrong. It says "mindless music for mindless people;" that was wrong. It's mindless music; the people aren't necessarily mindless but that's all they got to listen to. And they like it.

CREEM: What's wrong with that? O'NEAL: Nothing. Mindless music is fun. I figure Clinton probably took it as a compliment.

CREEM: Your album is already charting in the 130's in its third week. (Assorted noises of approval from the assembled Bus Boys.) Hey, look, I've done my homework, Bus Boys!

O'NEAL: All right! All right, John! Can you sing a harmony note? Let me hear you... doo...

CREEM: Doo... (Cries of "he's a white guy!" from the group.)

O'NEAL: All right, you can audition for the Persuasions. I mean, I could start a group with you, cut your hair back a little bit, get you right and you'll be the first white guy to sing this kind of new music.

CREEM: And I can use Murray's Pomade on my hair, too.

O'NEAL: Who told you about Murray's?

CREEM: My black girl friends. I was asking them about you, but they're into jazz.

O'NEAL: They're straight. They're straight.

CREEM: Hey, Ronda gets down on me for eating pork.

O'NEAL: (Ominously) We do, too. No smoking and no pork jn here. (He sees someone wearing a B-52's button.) It says B-52's, huh? I hate that group. They're no good. I remember them when they were nothing but rookie pilots.

CREEM: I don't even know who they are, really.

O'NEAL: No, I'm just'kidding. The Talking Heads are my favorite group.

CREEM: How about Little Richard? O'NEAL: Little Who?

CREEM: You know, the guy that started rock 'n' roll. (The Bus Boys start talking all at once, telling me that Richard is doing some sort of gospel TV show in LA. I look for more fruitful ground.) Well, how about you., .are you doing as well as you might've hoped?

O'NEAL: Yes. We're getting international attention for what we're doing.

CREEM: I understand you have complete artistic control.

O'NEAL: I do. We do.

CREEM: I'm curious about "Johnny Soul'd Out" being chosen as the single. It seems you have four or five good potential singles on the album. Some of them...

O'NEAL: Right. That's the problem. That's the problem. Well, I feel right now, especially in terms of the concept being so new, the music and the identification being new, Top 40 is the hardest nut to crack. CREEM: If somebody hears "Dr. Doctor" on the radio, is he going to say, "Oh fuck, I'm not gonna listen to that because those guys are black?"

O'NEAL: It has nothing to do with that. It has to do with the programming direction and the public awareness and their first buying impulse. You know, I really have the awareness that there's not that initial, "Oh, I heard the Bus Boys; I know that song, I'll buy it." That first (snaps fingers) thing. It takes a while. But this is a grass-roots American effort and there's nothing in the world that stops as grass-roots American. (We argue over this last statement at some length.)

You're still/wrong.

CREEM: You think so?

O'NEAL: I know so. You look around down there (gestures towards where the audience looms beyond closed doors) and what you can say is that blacks can relate' to the Bus Boys a lot easier than they can relate to AC/DC.

CREEM: I hope so.

O'NEAL: Even though we cross some familiar lines with AC/DC and will do so even more in the future. We haven't even begun to explore a lot of the heavy metal aspects black people get into. Ask another intelligent question.

CREEM: OK, what do you think about people taking rock musicians seriously enough to kill them?

O'NEAL: That was just one fucking lunatic's idea of making history. (Three or four Bus Boys are singing "Ticket To Ride" very slowly in the background.) Johq Lennon and the things he accomplished both musically and socially will forever give me the strength to be weak.

CREEM: Do you think you're going to drop some of this stereotypical bullshit? O'NEAL: To a degree, yes, we will drop it.

Equal opportunity does not exist, but opportunity does. -Brian O'Neal

But it will always be there...

GREEM: What really intelligent material is out there now? Outside of your own album. O'NEAL: Not a lot. Thank you. I'm blown away. 'Cause CREEM is like...

CREEM: The bottom of the barrel? O'NEAL: No, the ID for rock 'n' roll, in a way. 'Cause they're just as stereotypical as any fucking magazine can possibly be, on a certain level. But for that same reason it's important. So at least the point is getting across. People can fucking say, "It's this, it's only this, it's that and that." I mean, I'm out there... I'm working. We've been on the road for four weeks and we've already done about 26 cities. Two sets a night. And! ain't goin' home until it's time to record the next album. (A club employee pops in and asks "Are you ready to go on?" O'Neal says, "No, we're never going on.")

CREEM: "Bus Boys Cancel!"

O'NEAL: Right. To do the CREEM interview.

CREEM: "Massive returns of Minimim Wage ensue; album goes osmium." (O'Neal excuses himself to visit the facilities. / address singer/dancer Gus Loundermon.)

So how do you feel about Brian being a Nazi?

LOUNDERMON: BEING A NAZI? CREEM: Did I say that?

LOUNDERMON: That's intense.. .you see, being a Nazi here...

CREEM: I never wrote a sc/ng called "KKK." (O'Neal has reappeared and has evidently decided to play the always popular "interview the interviewer game. ") O'NEAL: Do you like Bruce Springsteen? CREEM: Not particularly.

O'NEAL: Who do you like; do you like Cheap Trick? \

CREEM: I like the Beatles.

O'NEAL: Aw, that's safel All right, do you like the B-52's?

CREEM: No.

O'NEAL: Do you like the Talking Heads? CREEM: I like the National Enquirer. O'NEAL:-Do you like Devo?

CREEM: Naw. I think Devo's a one-joke band. I hope you guys don't fall, into the same trap.

O'NEAL: They're just starting to hit, though.

CREEM: Yeah, it's odd, isn't it?

O'NEAL: I (pause) think (pause) you're (pause) wrong.

CREEM: I didn't know it was a test; give me another chance. You just asked me what I thought.

O'NEAL: We like you, that's why we're giving you a hard time. You like Van Halen?

CREEM: I never even heard of him. What am I supposed to do, go out and buy albums? You guys talk about minimum wage...

O'NEAL: (Amid cries of "Tdm Petty? Led. Zeppelin?") You ran down our favorite heroes.

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CREEM: And I'm sorry.

O'NEAL: Do you like women?

CREEM: Don't ask me; ask my wife. Actually, I think I like your album better than most of the stuff you've mentioned. O'NEAL: Bless you. Bless you.

(After a few more shenanigans, the Bus Boys had the dressing room cleared— excepting myself. O'Neal asked me to "join them;" we formed a circle and held hands, O'Neal on my left and Loundermon on my right. O'Neal gave a rather lengthy thanks to "Jesus Christ, Our Lord" for their success and good health and asked Him to remember their loved ones. It was pretty nice. The interview resumed after the first set.)

CREEM: Why do you like Talking Headseo much?

O'NEAL: The Talking Heads are my favorite band because, likd the Bus Boys, they mix two different styles of culture and music.

CREEM: What styles do they mix? O'NEAL: Especially their current album, because it's a totally unique synthesis of different black and Anglo influences... there's a culmination of both ethnic and thematic influences that creates a unique entity and is therefore revolutionary music. Yet, it still makes sense. The minimum wage rock 'n' roll concept is about starting at the bottom but working your way to the top. With a positive outlook.

CREEM: This kind of sounds like the American Dream.

O'NEAL: Well, I mean, this is largely an American effort. And this band and myself has had more than their share of the American Dream. You know, my parents came from different parts of the country to California with, like, zero money and knowing nobody—and they both got their master's degrees and and are middle-class Americans.

CREEM: You'll admit it's kind of unusual for a black band to be espousing the American work ethic. If you call minimum wage rock 'n' roll the work ethic.

O'NEAL: Yeah, I think a lot of blacks have a long way to go towards getting the proper attitude. A lot of minorities, too, towards how to make it in this country.

CREEM: A lot of people, period.

O'NEAL: Yeah, right. But since we're on the subject, a. lot of minorities are still revelling in the fact of being disadvantaged and so therefore they are owed. But there's no such thing as equal opportunity in this world. It goes against the pure existence of the world. Hey, it doesn't work...equal opportunity fucking does not exist. CREEM: So you won't feel guilty about becoming rich beyond your wildest dreams? O'NEAL: I'm not gonna be rich beyond my wildest dreams. \

CREEM: Just a metaphor.

O'NEAL: Making money. No, I don't feel guilty about working and making money. CREEM: You're not a socialist.

O'NEAL: No.

CREEM: You're a capitalist.

O'NEAL: Yes, I am.

CREEM: That might work if you're as talented as you are. But a lot of people don't have that talent.

O'NEAL: Talent. This is the whole thing about the Bus Boys: this is one country where you can be a bus boy yesterday... CREEM: Hey, c'mon, you guys, aren't bus boys, you're a goddarrjned rock band. O'NEAL: Quit talking! Who's doing this interview?

CREEM: I am. Or Bill Buckley.

O'NEAL: Wait a minute. It's one place where you can start out in a particular socio-economic class and build and progess towards the next one and it's not even thought of as an unnatural thing. The President was an actor and a nobody; he didn't come from a royal family. The President before him was a peanut farmer; he didn't come from a royal family. This isn't a caste system and that's very progressive.

CREEM: What if Arista hadn't handed you X amount of dollars? How would you have progressed?

O'NEAL: I would've got it from Columbia. CREEM: I'm just thinking of people^who Can't progress.

O'NEAL: There are very few people who are born in this country with a good sound mind and body who can't progress to some extent. Equal opportunity does not exist, but opportunity does. There's a lot of opportunity. You could be the editor of your magazine ("Whitall Dies Under Mysterious Circumstances" by J. Kordosh) or the editor of your own paper. If you could put together the work.

CREEM: And I didn't want to pay my bilte and sundry other annoyances.

O'NEAL: That's one way of looking at it. But remember, this was a country started by religious criminals.

CREEM: To a certain extent. And it's also a country that's run by criminals to a certain extent.

O'NEAL: True.