“I chose this road and I traveled early. Nothing in my head but some sounds and old dreams.” - Tiran Porter
As a young child I found comfort laying my head on my grandmother Muna’s floor to hear the velvety crooning of Nat King Cole and Frank Sinatra. Here, I could relax without being watched by my mother, in a safe den of acoustic harmonies. Both Cole and Sinatra could tell a story with their baritone voices and perfect pitch. I was easily hypnotized, and this kept me in one place. The comfort I felt not only came from their voices but from Nelson Riddle's orchestrated arrangements of Sinatra's music. Riddle's arrangements took me on a journey, kind of like being on a river. Imagine floating down a river and a rock comes close and then another one, accentuating Sinatra's voice. What Riddle was able to create around Frank Sinatra was amazing. I didn’t know about arrangers or conductors, but it fascinated me because it was beautiful. I always sang as a kid and would mostly sing along with the radio. I knew I had near perfect pitch and I liked singing the harmonies or along with the lead vocal. But I didn’t really relax and open myself up to enjoy singing until later in my adolescence. I am naturally a baritone low tenor with a soprano falsetto.
In 1963 I started hearing about a band called The Beatles. Up until then I listened to only black and white AM radio - James Brown, Chuck Berry, Burt Bacharach, Carole King, and others. I was used to hearing the sophistication of rhythm and blues artists, but the Beatles had a different kind of sophistication with their guitar-based music. Some of their music was jazz-ish. When they played on the Ed Sullivan show I saw the girls fainting and I thought “That’s for me!.” With $3.98 in my pocket, I rushed out to buy Meet the Beatles! right after it was released in January of ‘64. Fueled by Beatle Mania at fifteen years old, I began to teach myself how to play guitar on a Sears Roebuck guitar my parents bought for me. I spent hours in my room trying to mimic my new rock and roll idols.
During high school I regularly sat on the sidewalk outside my classroom and read science fiction books before class started. One day a student stopped and said, “I've read that book, are you interested in that?” And I said, “Yeah!” This is how my lifelong friendship began with Marc Bailey. Marc and I formed a band, The Greenwich Meantimes. Our quartet consisted of myself, Marc, Jennifer Ball and Melody England. I was still learning to play guitar but wasn’t learning at the pace that our band was forming. Marc told me to try bass since I was playing the bass line anyway on the guitar. My first bass ended up being a Teisco. We played together through high school. This was the 60’s and bands were forming everywhere! We were a tight group of friends experimenting with music and learning together. These are some of the best memories, the kind you have when you're playing with the friends you’ve grown up with. Playing music and starting a band was really something cool that I got to do with my friends. Few people share something like that. Years later, upon hearing Jeff Beck make his guitar feedback musically with the Yardbirds, I fell in love with loud, loud music and my course was set. My motto is “I like it low and loud.” I played in eight different bands around LA from the time I was sixteen and into my early twenties. I would soon join a band that would drastically change my life.
In 1969-70 my friend Mike Mindel, who I played with in our band The Six Penny Opera, phoned and invited me to come up to San Jose. He wanted me to play with him and a guy he had met, Pat Simmons. Feeling ready to travel out of LA, this was an easy yes. Mike, Pat, and I played as a trio called Scratch for about six months. At the same time, Pat met some guys in a band called Pud: guitarist Tom Johnston, drummer John Hartman, and Dave Shogren on bass. They wanted a second guitarist and singer, and Pat filled the bill. So, Scratch ended, and The Doobie Brothers began. I was sidelined and went back to LA and joined a band called Earth Light. When bass player Dave Shogren left The Doobie’s after their first album, Pat called and asked me to come up and jam. They sent me a plane ticket, and I officially joined the band. My first album with The Doobie Brothers was Toulouse Street. I was just 24 years old. The rest, as they say, is history. Or is it his story?
