Friday, November 16, 2007

DEstories

Yo! If y'all have any favorite stories about David Enloe, I'd loved to read them and maybe use them for a scrapbook. I ain't sayin'....I'm just sayin'.....
If you feel like sharing just Email me...www.terryandersonrocks.com
...or just leave it here, on the comments.

Thanks.

7 comments:

Jeff Hart said...

david enloe. i think i met him at a knobs gig, maybe in the fall of 1980 at the only band gig i ever saw at ed's grocery on hillsborough st. in raleigh (probably right after free advice closed). younger brother mark enloe was in my first semester spanish class at state. we sat next to each other, were always called out for talking when we shouldn't be (just like high school). i had a keith richards poster inside my spanish notebook and that led mark and i to the subject of local music . he told me about his brother being in the knobs. i was mightily impressed. i later got to know them better when he and mark shared an apartment on peace st. as i was just learning guitar that very year, david was my first real live guitar hero that i could stand 10 feet from and study in those smoky bars like the cafe deja vu and the pier. getting to know david in the next few years led me to get to know terry and jack (and keith) better. i remember watching the woods rehearse on jane lane. later, ron bartholomew and i both auditioned for the woods' second guitar slot and eventually sat in onstage that night in 1987 at under the street in durham. that led directly to the hanks forming. it would not have happened without this friendship with david. the chain reactions over the years all sprang from that. by feeling more comfortable with them led me to drop a hanks demo tape in jack's mailbox. one thing led to another and our first really big gig was opening for the woods on new year's eve, 12/31/87. seems as if the right profile couldn't make the gig and we got the nod. was the best new year's gig i've ever been a part of and as long as i live, that show will go down as the most memorable. if it hadn't been for the friendship of david originally, i never would have gotten to know you woods/knobs folks and it would have taken me much longer to meet the circle of friends which became part of this close knit and almost 3 decade long circle. it's really been the longest sustained group of friends i've had. david's responsible for that. that and a keith richards poster. not sure if he knew that, but i know he'd approve that keith had a hand in this.

Jeffrey Foster said...

I had a terrible headache one night in Boone, NC. What else does one do when your head is splitting but go to PB Scotts and get some volume therapy from The Fabulous Knobs. My headache was cured and I never stopped watching David’s hands and to a slightly lesser degree his gravity defying hairdo. I distinctly remember the Chuck Berry via Keith licks finally making some sense to me and going home and doing my best imitation. Years later The Right Profile played with the Woods and all of them very generously complimented me on my singing and guitar playing (if you could call it that).
The Woods were THE best singers and my guitar playing was a crude third understudy version of David’s playing. I told them how I used to go and study at their feet and that it was all their fault.

We opened for the reformed Knobs as our alter glam ego “Lipstick , Powder and Paint”. We played David Bowie, Jimmy Reed, and The Yardbirds loudly and loosely. In the Knobs set David blew up his amp and I rolled mine out for him. No fuzz boxes needed, David just turned it up to 10 (I know that sounds like a rock cliché, but I watched him turn it to 10) and coaxed sounds out of it that I had never been able to find.

When The Right Profile was going to record in Memphis with Jim Dickinson we recruited David to come and play. During rehearsals for that Steve Dubner quit onstage at the Brewery. He’d done it before but this time we didn’t talk him out of it. The David augmented group would have to wait.

After The Right Profile completely fell apart, Jon Wurster, Tim Fleming and I finally had our chance to have David in a real band. The Carneys were my first real guitar rock and roll band all because of David’s big fat guitar tone and taste. We played Ronnie Wood’s club in NYC, recorded at the Hit Factory with Steve Jordan (even using some of Keith Richard’s gear) and played with Bob Dylan. I NEVER worried about David playing anything that wasn’t true. Very little flash, just soul. He did however show up one day in a pair of rust colored short pant overalls, but he even made that almost work.

A couple of times I got to be a 4th Wood. I was christened Billy Lee and I’ve been that to them ever since. At one of their New Year’s Eve gigs I made a bunch of noise on “Let It Rock”, “Battleship Chains” and few more. What a way to spend a New Year’s Eve. They say that you should be doing on New Year Eve what you’d like to be doing for the rest of the year. That year I got it right, standing between David, Terry and Jack (our version of Ronnie Lane).

David has always been a wise cracking joker but underneath that was a heart of gold with a love for his friends in and out of rock and roll. We put the miles on 1-40 between Raleigh and Winston-Salem learning songs together. To have him patiently learn my songs and then put his touch to them meant the world to me. Not just because he always added the right note but because he is a terrific songwriter and singer on his own. After these long rehearsals or after gigs when we would put on something quiet to fall asleep to (Enya, believe it or not) the goodnights were Walton-like. “Good night Billy Lee, Good night David Lee”.

Love,
Billy Lee Foster

Unknown said...

I got to know David via two avenues, his fellow band member Jack, who I worked with at Wake Med, and his younger brother Mark, who attended NCSU with me. I don't really have any funny stories to share, just fun times. I too am a big Stones fan (I once drove to Cleveland Ohio to attend a Stones concert. We stayed with a girlfriend's parents - her dad came empty handed to the US from Yugoslavia and became a successful restaurateur. He offered us a shot of tequila before breakfast the day of the concert - that's too hardcore for even me!). The first time I heard the Knobs play, I knew I found something that appealed to my Stones-esque tastes. David never inspired my musical talents - I have none (nor does my husband). I took my son, while in utero, to hear David and the Woods play. My son plays Sax and guitar and enjoys a wide variety of music, including classic rock. Is that partly due to David's influence on impressionable ears???

David's second most frequent quote after "take a damn drink" was "where's the party?", with his wide-eyed expression. I still have my 'Where's the Party?' button, along with my black and white, and my black and pink Fabulous Knobs buttons.

I have some great memories: ...of hearing the band (Knobs/Woodpeckers/Woods/etc.) play not only in Raleigh, but all over the state, and at least once out of state....driving around Raleigh during one of our rare snow storms with David, Liz, and (my future husband) Mark. We went to Robert Kirkland house and according to Mark, almost got stuck in the snow...when the bachelorette party joined the low-key bachelor party at Terry's house and became a throw down - something about doing shots of rum???...staying in West End with David's mom and step-brother, also named David....trips to the beach....

I'm pissed off that no-talents (i.e. Brittany Spears) have so much money and media attention thrown their way when true talents like David get neither. What does it say about the taste of the general public? I pity those who've never experienced a live band performing original music!

Jeff Hart said...

becky, your beach comment reminds me of when we were at atlantic beach and saw the first night the woods played battleship chains around '85 or so. was at clawson's. i think terry said he wrote that after a dream. he had just gotten a new van or something. the trip to david's mom's with you and mark enloe in west end was a fun time as well. thanks for jogging up these memories. other early david memories come to mind like him singing his "romeo and juliet", "fool for your love", "being with you" to the tune of "beast of burden". everyone taking a vocal on "party hat". all the "plays" that they put on at various shows. the "it was LOAFA bread!" and the "heart of columbia - bunch of damn drunks" play. the k-mart hot dogs tape will always be one of my favorite woods-knobs-david mementos. songs like "hair net", "pretty little new wave (with the chopped up hair)". those guys were always good for several laughs at any given moment. really wishing the moths had not eaten my "collard boys" t-shirt.

TA said...

...and the list goes on and on. What a stupid fun time it was playing with both The Knobs and The Woods. OMG! If I had blog back then!
BTW Jeff, the rats shit on mine..

David Johnston said...

My introduction to Dave, and all the Woods, was through Bobzilla Davis when I was working for Bob & Sherry. Those days, those shows, those antics and that whole era are pretty much legendary in my mind. I was 19 and knew I’d touched the third rail of fun, partying, and just damned good people.

I’m listening to Dave’s guitar on ‘Sign of the Times’ as I write this. More than a few times I’ve been asked who I thought the greatest guitar players were, and every time, my top three include Richards, Gilmour, and a guy named David Enloe. “Who?” I get a lot… and like other people here have said, it galls me every time that only a damned too few people know who and why.

Hauling gear around NC, Kathy B begging me to stop the car so she could take a leak and my reply of “take a damn drank” (stolen shamelessly), Knobs reunion shows, the “It’s Like This” t-shirt that I still have, though you can see through it (and it’s less-famous re-issue with red accents), like Jeff said- the plays (“And she looked at me like I was the dumbass!”)… wow.

The enduring image through all that is Dave onstage with a cigarette hanging out of one side of his mouth, eyes closed, making that Fender (which could be Micawber’s long lost brother) sing and every so often giving the crowd and/or the band a knowing look that seemed to say “I’ve got a huge fucking secret amusing the hell outta me, and if you’re lucky I might let ya in on it…”

Anonymous said...

i got one... he told me he'd give me 50 cents to take his socks off one time... i was about 6... puts him at about 12...

i did it but he refused to pay... i told on him and got my money.

so if he owes any of you any money...