In the late 1960s, a group of Seymour High School students formed a band with a unique name and an iconic sound — Crape Soul.
Two original members of that band — vocalist Fred Booker and drummer Duane Zimmerman — recently sat down with The Tribune and discussed the history of the band that came together and brought its brand of soul music to Seymour.
The two said they just want to clear up a lot of misinformation about the formation of Crape Soul, its history over the years and to set the record straight about a few things.
One of those things is the spelling of the band’s name.
“When we had our cards printed up, it was misprinted, so we went ahead and used the cards,” said Zimmerman, who was the band’s only drummer.
Zimmerman and Booker were two of the original members of Crape Soul along with guitarist David “Hawk” Hinton, saxophonist Dennis Blair and bass player Rod Chavez, but there have been many others over the years.
Another misconception is the role Rock and Roll Hall of Famer John Mellencamp played in the formation of the band.
“John has always said he got this band together,” Zimmerman said. “There was a Crape Soul before Mellencamp and after Mellencamp. The thing of it was when we finally got with John Mellencamp and J. Art Johnson (guitarist), that’s when we started going out and playing. So really, when we organized the first Crape Soul and named the band and everything like that, there were a couple of people in that group that weren’t able to go out and play.”
Booker said Hinton was the driving force behind the band, but he left early because he had to serve a one-month stint with the U.S. Army Reserve. Dick Morrow, who was a vocalist, also had departed before the band ever took to the stage for a paid show.
“So we had to find another guitar player and another singer,” Zimmerman said.
That’s when Mellencamp came into the picture, Booker said.
“I think John was running around with Art Johnson’s brother, Rick Johnson, at the time,” he said.
The Johnsons were originally from Atlanta, Georgia, Booker said.
“They kind of brought some of that Atlanta style up this way,” he said. “He (Art Johnson) just kind of fit right in with what we wanted to play.”
Booker said back in those days, everyone was into playing a little bit of every kind of music in the Seymour area.
“It wasn’t just R&B or just Motown,” he said.
It was a turbulent time in America as the country was in the midst of the unpopular Vietnam War and racial strife. The band played to an audience of blacks and whites, which was pretty much unheard of, especially in 1968 when Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. At that time, a local minister pointed to Crape Soul as an example of racial harmony, and Booker told The Tribune in 1993 that that harmony with the band members remained in place.
Zimmerman said the members of Crape Soul listened to WAKY out of Louisville, Kentucky.
“ … and that’s what we played — top 10,” he said.
“We used to practice where the mayor (Matt Nicholson) lives now down there on the corner of Brown and Chestnut (streets),” Booker said. The building housed Fisher’s Small Engines at that time.
Booker said Blair worked at the shop at the time, and the band practiced upstairs.
“We were there one night and trying to figure out a name for this band,” he said.
The group had picked out a couple of names that Booker said he no longer remembers because it has been so long ago.
“We were going to flip a coin to see what we were going to name the band,” Booker said. “Hawk just yells out, ‘Well, if the coin lands on its edge, we’ll call it Crape Soul.’”
So that became the third choice, Zimmerman said.
“So the coin went up. We were practicing on a hardwood floor. The coin came down and landed in a crack on its edge,” Booker said. “This is a true story, but it did.”
So it became Crape Soul.
Zimmerman said that was before the band had started playing out in public.
“But once we got J. Johnson, John Mellencamp and then Tom Sutton, who played one time with us, our first gig was over at the city pool,” he said.
The event was a splash dance at the pool during a Last Exit event at Shields Park on July 19, 1968. The rest was history.
Booker said he really wants everyone to know he was the lead singer of Crape Soul.
“They built this band around me, not John Mellencamp,” he said. “I want people to know that. I am not trying to put him down or anything, but he was second vocalist.”
Zimmerman said the band played a lot of places over the years, including school dances, after-proms, sock hops, wedding receptions and battle of the bands.
Crape Soul was able to bring home a trophy for finishing eight among the 45 or so bands at a battle of the bands at the International Speed and Custom Auto Show at the Kentucky Fair and Exposition Center in Louisville, Kentucky.
“Back in the day, for a band to get more than $100 was big,” Booker said.
Zimmerman said Crape Soul was limited to where it could perform because the members were all kids and couldn’t play in the bars.
Booker said he can remember times when the band had to turn down requests to play.
Mellencamp did bring a couple of things to the table.
Zimmerman said after the band got kicked out of Fisher’s Small Engines, it needed a place to practice, and Mellencamp had a place to practice. That would be his uncle’s cabin on Redding Road.
Booker said Mellencamp also had a public address system, and back in the day, it was one of the bigger ones that had a pretty big price tag.
Mellencamp remained with the band for about a year and a half, but Crape Soul continued on until 1971 when it played its last gig at the National Guard Armory.
“We had three booking agencies that were wanting to sign us, but none of them would work out,” Zimmerman said.
“From Day 1, Crape Soul has been the best band in Seymour, bar none,” Booker said. “That’s not putting anybody down or tooting our own horn. That’s a fact.”
Booker and Johnson got together for a while in 1993 and played a couple of gigs, according to a newspaper account.
At that time, Booker said Mellencamp often mentioned his time with Crape Soul.
In the summer of 2005, the band got back together thanks in part to Larry McDonald, the longtime owner of This Old Guitar Music Store in downtown Seymour. He died in February.
“Larry got wind of us wanting to get back together, and boy, he took off with it,” Booker said. “I mean, he really promoted us.”
That reincarnation led to the band staying together until 2010.
Booker is still singing with Soul Express, and Zimmerman has spent the past eight years playing at The Point, a church on the city’s east side.
There’s little chance of Crape Soul ever getting back together, Booker said.
“I don’t think any of us got it in us now,” he said. “This is my last hurrah. I’ve been through several things healthwise, and it’s not getting any easier. We go out and do a four-hour gig, and it takes me two days to get over it.”
He said his band has always been No. 1 for him.
“We’re pretty good,” Booker said. “We get the same reception that we would have gotten with Crape Soul. This band is that good.”
Soul Express is scheduled to play on New Year’s Eve at Garage Pub & Grill in Columbus.
Crape Soul was probably one of the first integrated bands in southern Indiana, Booker said.
“… and that didn’t help us at times,” Zimmerman said.
“Because there was a lot of racial stuff going on at that time,” Booker said.
Zimmerman said the members of Crape Soul were a bunch of misfits.
“Not a one of us was popular in school,” he said. “You think about all the other bands in Seymour at the time.”
He said the members of those other bands often were the popular kids.
Booker agreed.
“The guys I played with in Crape Soul, I give them so many props because they were that good,” he said. “We put time in together, and we became like a family.”
Booker said he wants members of the band to be known for who and what they were back then.
“We played benefits to help people. Just this last time we were together, we did a benefit with TOG (This Old Guitar) Band. We handed a lady $8,500,” he said. “This band had a lot of caring people that care for Seymour and the people in Seymour. We did a lot of good in this town. I know I have donated my career of 50 years to this town, and when I was with them (Crape Soul), they were doing the same thing. Duane is giving back right now.”
Booker said he also is proud of the fact that he was part of Mellencamp’s musical history.