Free And Easy: A Kaplan Brother's Story

Preamble:

I was super privileged to be able to consult former Kaplan Brother Larry Andes on the group’s history, albums, and sound. The Kaplan Brothers are one of my favorite oddball groups and "Nightbird" is one of my favorite albums. The following are excerpts from an "interview" through text I had with Larry. I cut out the unimportant bits (such as talk about my website, me introducing myself, etc.). I decided to let his words speak for themselves rather than paraphrase or cut up what he said. As well, I have linked his information below if you’d like to order a CD from him. He’s still recording and writing in his home studio. I would like to thank him for his patience, providing unseen photos of him and his “brothers” for the site, and his extremely valuable time. 

To contact Larry for a CD, you can reach him at his email: larryhumanbeing@gmail.com

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Interview:

AJ:

Alright. Can you tell me a little bit about your background, where you grew up, how you first got into music?

Larry:

Sure. I was born in 1947 and grew up in Brooklyn, Iowa in the 50's and 60's. Loved music from the beginning and sang all the top 40 stuff I heard on the radio,...from Doo Wop to Chuck Berry, Little Richard through Elvis Presley. Took Piano lessons like everyone else but it didn't stick. Fell in love with the guitar sounds that I heard on the radio like the Ventures. And in 7th grade I convinced my Dad to get me a guitar so somehow he managed to trade some golf clubs for my best friends Harmony guitar and amplifier. Mike never liked the deal but the guitar definitely stuck with me. The Beach Boys and Beatles really turned my head and in 1967 I bought my first real guitar and amp, a Fender Jaguar and Super Reverb.

AJ:

That's neat, what a great trade on your father's part for that guitar, ha. The Beach Boys and Beatles really got me into playing guitar too, as well as the stones. So, how did you first meet Ed and Dick, and when did you join the group?  

Larry:

I met Ed and Dick Kaplan in May of 1971 in Des Moines, Iowa. I had just finished the semester at Drake University and a 9 month gig with The Elmer Yadkin Trio at the Holiday Inn so I was free to go,...and the timing was perfect. Dick called the Musicians Union in search of a bass player and they called me so I went out to the club and sat in with them for a set. The next morning I met with Dick and we talked and decided that I would be their bass player for a 3 week trial period. I remember asking Dick how long he'd been with the group and he replied, "I am the group",...and boy was he right about that. I met them in Waterloo, Iowa 3 weeks later and we went on the road together for the next 3 years. The Kaplan Brothers were out of Des Plaines, Illinois. 

AJ:

Well that's certainly interesting. Really good timing for sure. Dick seemed like he was in charge huh? What were they like, Ed and Dick, both as musicians and individuals? 

Larry: 

We liked to call ourselves The Three Man Electric Hebrew Band. Dick played an Ovation 12 string guitar and sang most of the lead vocals and was the leader. He controlled a crowd speaking of simple things and I never grew tired of his dialogues. Ed played congas and flute and controlled the lighting. I played bass and sometimes a Mel[l]otron.  Our main thing was three part harmony. 

Dick was the older brother, Ed was about 25 and I was 24. All of us were physically strong young men. Ed and I were best friends and explored each new town we performed at on our trail 70 honda motorcycles. We were very competitive with each other in sports. Handball, basketball, tennis, and volleyball. Ed was not good with authority. One night in Waterloo, Iowa after our gig the police arrested him for having loud mufflers on his beloved Mach 4 Mustang I believe it was. He was ok until they impounded his car then he snapped and threw a rock through the police station window. You know, the one with all the printing on it. 

We traveled most of the Midwest states and from Tennessee to Michigan and out to California hitting all the states in between. My last gig with the Kaplan Brothers was at the San Diego Hilton on Mission Bay. We had just finished singing "Hava Nagila" and were taking a break when a rather irate Jewish lady chewed me out for us singing the wrong pronunciations for that song. So I asked Ed what the correct pronunciation was and he had no idea. He said he started mimicking the words when he joined his brother Dick years earlier as a duo. Just as I had been doing since I joined them in Des Moines, Iowa. Turned out that Ed had gone to a Catholic school and Dick went to a Jewish school. Their Father was Jewish and Mother was Catholic. So what did I know. I was a Methodist. Haha. 

AJ: Wow, you guys got around. You probably entertained thousands! I love that police anecdote. What a rebel. These two paragraphs answered a lot of the other questions I wrote down. I just have a couple more about the albums the group recorded. Can you describe the recording process of The Kaplan Brothers album you played on? Who wrote the original tracks “Happy” and “Free And Easy”? Where was it recorded? Did you like the finished product?

Larry: In those days, the recording process was reel to reel tape recorders. The only editing that could be done was with a razor cutting the actual tape and splicing back together. So no editing was done. The white album with the pictures of us on the front [The Kaplan Brothers / Electric-Three Man Hebrew Band] was the only album I recorded on. I believe the recording took place somewhere in Wisconsin, in a guy’s garage who had set up a small recording studio. It was a one take session. Dick wrote “Happy” and I [Larry] wrote “Free And Easy”. The mixing was horrible on “Free And Easy”. I have since re-recorded it. I have three CD’s out, one is all originals. In addition to that album, I played on two singles with The Kaplan Brothers. [“Happy” / “Free And Easy’], “Nightbird” / “Sweet Little Mama”. They [“Nightbird” / “Sweet Little Mama”] were recorded in San Diego, but I don’t recall the name of the studio. 

My goal in music was to be an acknowledged songwriter like Jimmy Webb with other artists performing my songs. When I started out with The Kaplan Brothers, I gave myself to the age of 26 to get there and if not on my way by then, I would do something else. My last gig with The Kaplan Brothers was on a Saturday night at the Hilton Hotel on Mission Bay in San Diego, in 1975 I believe. From there, I went back to school to complete some premed courses and was accepted to the school of optometry in 1978 and graduated in 1981. [I] practiced optometry in Phoenix, Lake Havasu, Bullhead City, and Kingman, Arizona til retirement in 1996. I’m 75 now.

There were so many wonderful memories of my days with the group that I could never retell them all. But a funny one I remember well: We were at The Back Room on Chicago’s Rush Street and had been invited across the way on one of our breaks for some wine and [a] smoke. After the break, we were performing “A Horse With No Name” when I noticed that Ed was not singing his harmony part. I looked over and saw that Ed was kind of slumping down over his congas not really intending to sing. I thought it was hilarious and as the song progressed, he slumped down even further until his head was laying on one drum and one hand was still thumping the other. Soon Ed was totally out of sight and on the floor with only one hand visible and still thumping one drum. Dick was visibly concerned and asked me what was wrong with Ed. Too much wine I said. We made it through the song and Ed quickly recovered.

AJ: My last couple of questions involve the Nightbird album. You said you recorded two singles "Nightbird" and "Sweet Little Mama". I've never seen or heard of these until today [*I forgot “Nightbird” was of course on “Nightbird”, but not released as a single*] and I think they [the single] are unreleased. However, Nightbird did become the group's last album after your departure. Did you have any involvement in it at all? Did you write any of the songs? Songs include (that i believe are originals) "Ode To Life", "Vodka and Caviare", "Life and Me", "Love is Life", "Night Bird". 

Larry: I recorded both "Sweet Talkin' Mama" and "Night Bird" with the Kaplan Brothers. They included "Night Bird" on their next album after I departed. Not sure what happened with "Sweet Talkin' Mama". Dick wrote both songs. The only change I made on "Night Bird" was the rhythm pattern on the chorus. I played bass on that and mellotron.  We bought the mellotron from England as it was not available in the USA. The Moody Blues introduced the mellotron to us in their album. Very interesting keyboard. Cassette type player. 

Correction. The song title was "Sweet Talkin' Mama". 

AJ: That answers my last question! Mellotrons are super uncommon to see, so it's super special that you and The Kaplan Brothers utilized it. I look forward to seeing the pics you send me through email! 

Larry: One more thing. The replacement for me was a keyboard player who played a bass line from the keyboard.  Listening to Night Bird on YouTube I could hear they overdubbed some of his keyboard parts onto the original "Night Bird". I think Dick chose to go with more synth sounds after me but I feel they lost some free wheeling fluidity without a bass player [*This statement is half true. John Kaplan played Bass lines from both a Moog Synthesizer and a Bass Guitar. Both are heard when listening to isolated tracks*]. 

AJ: Firstly, thank you for the tidbit on your replacement. His name was John, but I have no idea what his last name is since he used the "Kaplan" pseudonym. I assumed he performed all of those funky keyboards on Nightbird. I think the direction Dick chose was certainly interesting and the heavy synths were certainly ahead of their time.