Chips & Co.

Band memories from 1965. Classic rock n roll, British Invasion.

14/07/2024

Happy Summer!

28/05/2024

A MEMORY ABOUT JOEY:
On a recent flight home from Minneapolis to New Jersey I watched a great movie titled “Once were Brothers.” A bittersweet story about “The Band” from its formation to their final days together. The movie is narrated by their lead guitarist Robbie Robertson. For me this movie brought back many memories of Chips & Co. and how we “were once brothers''.

I would like to share a personal memory about our lead guitarist and friend Joey Zagarino on his birthday today, May 28. At one point during the movie they illustrated several of the Band’s album jackets. One of which, a brown cover titled ‘The Band”. This album was recorded by our own Joey Zagarino during his time as a recording engineer with Capital Records. I paused the movie and recalled a story about Joey. I remember one night in Buffalo, NY, while on our Chips & Co. tour. It was 1965 and steel manufacturing mills were in operation and Buffalo was loaded with them. Our hotel was one block away from a steel mill with a large open and fiery blast furnace you could see from our hotel.

As we were relaxing in our room about 10 PM, Joey said to me “let's go for a walk”. I looked at him and said “are you crazy? '' We were somewhere in the back alley boondocks of Buffalo. I told him no. He kept insisting and grabbed me by the arm and pulled me out the door through the corridor and out the front lobby entrance. As we walked down the driveway ramp toward the street you could see this huge flame of the blast furnace. About halfway down the ramp Joey stops, turns to me and says “they’re doing something really bad up in the room”,(referring to some of the older guys who were part of the entourage of our tour group) “and... if I ever catch you doing this, I’m going to kick your ass.” That being said, I told Joey I had no idea what he was talking about. Joey said “they were doing some kind of drug.” I still had no idea what he was talking about. I didn’t even know why anyone would use drugs unless you were sick. I did know that Joey was very serious and was protecting me like a big brother. I told Joey, not to worry I would not partake or ever think of doing such a thing.
Happy Birthday my friend..

28/05/2024

Happy Birthday Joey!

28/03/2024

WILLIE THE WEEPER Lyrics Words text trending Drug dope addiction sing along song music

27/03/2024

Another recollection about Gene Pistilli. We used to play at a club, called The Fountain in Fairview, New Jersey. It was a nice club and we played there every Wednesday from 9 PM to 3 AM. After the gig, we would always bring our equipment back to Tommy Brannick’s house and store everything in the basement where we had our practice room. Tommy had an area where he would set his drums up on. Gene would take out his acoustic guitar, get a chair and sit up on the drum platform under a spotlight and start playing while we all sat on the couch and listen to him. He would play until 4 or 5 AM until everybody was exhausted. One of the songs that he always sang was “Willy, the weeper” and the lyrics start out “Willy the weeper was a chimney sweeper” I didn’t know much about the song but looking it up today. I found that it’s it’s about a person who is on drugs and has these phenomenal dreams. I loved that song not knowing anything about it.
Gene sang it soulfully. Miss you Pistilli.

WILLIE THE WEEPER Lyrics Words text trending Drug dope addiction sing along song music Hark to the story of Willie The WeeperWillie the Weeper was a chimney sweeperHad a hop habit and he had it badListen to the story of a dream he hadof a dream...

27/03/2024

On Gene Pistilli’s birthday I would like to recall some of my favorite memories of Gene from when we played together in Chips and Co.
Gene was very particular about a lot of things, he always would talk about having something light to eat for the first meal of the day. Several nights we would play late night gigs while on tour. Then we would be out with radio personalities having late night dinners in fancy restaurants all through Fort Lauderdale Florida. Next day we wouldn’t get rolling until late in the afternoon. We had a pancake house next to our hotel where we had open credit for our meals. We’d stagger in one by one and sit down together Some of us would have a sandwich or a burger but not Gene. Gene always wanted something light, something sweet and coffee. That’s how he would start the day. I still remember this clearly in my mind, and I follow the same philosophy even today.
Happy Birthday Gene.

27/03/2024

Happy Heavenly Birthday to
Gene Pistilli
❤️