A History of Rock and Roll on Long Island
The Pariahs
Editor's Note: On Saturday, May 24, 1997 we received two letters from the brothers Hassman, Ken and Neil. Both letters concerned our incomplete retelling of the story of The Pariahs (which follows the letter below). Plus, they said, they had the pictures! We asked them to respond. The next day, we received the following letter. We feel that it is important to keep the spirit of "Beaches. Bars and B-3s" going and growing. We thank Ken Hassman (and even Neil) and you, dear readers, for your continued support.
"Here's The Pariah story as remembered by me, Ken Hassman, one-time lead guitar player of The Pariahs.
I was in a band in 11th grade called The Abbreviations. We played at all our high school dances and many of the dances at churches around Plainview. In order to get to play at the Plainview High dances there was always a competition held at school among the bands that wanted to play to see who would get to play at the dances. We, The Abbreviations, to the best of my memory always won. We were very popular. I played rhythm guitar in this band and took some lead guitar lessons from a great guitar player in a band called Billy Johnson and the Jaywalkers I used to go see at a place called My House (in the Plainview Shopping Center) and was getting good on the guitar myself.
One of the other bands that used to compete was The Aggregation, Russ Javors band. I really liked them. They were all little guys (being 10th graders and all). Another band that used to compete was The Pariahs. Warren Pudjak was the lead singer and he was very popular with the girls. Tommy Griffiths was one of the two co-lead guitar players, the main lead guitar player's name I can't remember, Paul Estridge was the drummer and John Manolakes was on bass. They did some songs that were unusual for the time-starting to move into the folk rock thing. They also did a couple of original songs using suspended chords which I was just learning (ala The Byrds, The Beau Brummels, etc.).
Somehow or other, Jeff Cleaver, the organ player (Farfisa mini-compact) from The Abbreviations and I were asked to join The Pariahs. Tommy Griffith stayed and the other guitar player was gone for some reason. I had a Fender Jazzmaster guitar and a Fender Deluxe reverb amp. Tommy and I worked out this style of playing dual leads with chords where we were both doing the same thing kinda, one guitar a bit more treble than the other and the timing between the dual parts slightly off and it sounded really good. We did what was considered off-beat music compared to what the other bands were doing at the time. Instead of playing all mainstream covers we did stuff like "Don't Bring Me Down" by the Animals, "Look Through Any Window" by The Hollies, "Summer In the City" by The Loving Spoonful. It seems silly to look at these songs as being "off-beat" now but at the time they were. We also did Beau Brummels songs and added some mainstream stuff.
There was going to be a big Battle of the Bands competition the summer of 1966. First, you competed on the local level at your local town pool. The winners of the local competitions would compete at the Gertz shopping center (is it still there?) [Ed.note: Gertz is long gone. It's now the "Broadway Mall" with an IKEA and a multiplex.] in Hicksville. At the local level we, The Pariahs, came in first, and Russ Javor's band (contrary to what Russ said), The Aggregation, came in second. We each got to play (whooptedo) at the Plainview town pool. The Pariahs got to go to the big competition. There were a total of 13 bands competing at the big Battle of the Bands competition. We did well-we usually did. We had worked out about 4-5 showcase songs using some form of footwork and dips. Like on "Don't Bring Me Down", when the line in the song goes, "Don't bring me doooooooown" as the word "down" would stretch out Tommy and I (co-guitar players) would go slowly down on to one knee. There were some good bands and when they called the name of the winning band and it was us we were all really surprised and really happy. We got our picture taken with the local councilman and it appeared in the paper, Newsday maybe.
From there, The Pariahs went on to do a summer of "really big things", like playing at drive-in movie theaters. One really great thing we did was to play at a place called The World which was a giant teen-age disco in a converted hangar, formerly part of Mitchell Field. It was GREAT. There was a playing stage about 8 feet off the ground and screens with images constantly flashing around the place and really loud music. The Standells, of "Dirty Water" fame were the main attraction and we, The Pariahs, were second. We did our main bunch of songs and threw in our version of "Dirty Water", which we thought we did better than The Standells.
Towards the end of that summer, I was leaving The Pariahs (I can't for the the life of me think of why-we were all great friends) and I think it was at that point that Ira Newborn, who was really a very good friend of mine was going to join the band. Ira and I used to play guitars together and hang out together a lot. I remember sitting in someone's basement (maybe at Ira's parents house) and I was trying to teach Ira the way I played the great guitar intro and back-up to "Look Through Any Window", and as good as he was on the guitar, he wouldn't get it.
That's all I can remember about The Pariahs. I ran into Warren Pujak and Jeff Cleaver in the early 1970's. Also, I ran into Ira Newborn in an Indian restaurant called Sitar in Huntington many years ago. I know he's gone on to become famous. I've watched Russell's success with great fondness. It was especially great to see him on Billy Joel's videos. It was very disappointing to me to find that Russell and Ira selectively forgot the truth.[Ed. note: Listen, Ken. Given the time frames involved and the passage of time, give 'em a break.] Here's a neat Ira Newborn story. One day Ira and I went to Korett Music in Huntington. I don't remember if we were actually going to buy anything or just to play guitars. We each had a guitar and were sitting on a ledge playing and in walked a black man that I didn't recognize. Ira said (this is a paraphrase) "Oh my God, that's John Coltrane." And then Ira proceeded to start playing jazz riffs on his guitar. After a couple of minutes he walked over to John Coltrane (who had come in to purchase some reeds) and introduced himself and shook his hand and John Coltrane said to him, "That's mighty fine guitar playing son."
I'll pull out my Pariah picture(s) and either have them scanned and upload them to you or just send you the picture or something. It'd be real fun to read all this on the Internet. It has brought back a lot of memories. I presently am teaching elementary school in Vallejo, CA. Please use anything I've said. I love your site. It was really fantastic to read it all. I used to go to the Action House all the time. I used to go anywhere The Rich Kids played-I loved them. I used to see The Good Rats and Pepe all the time. I had friends that played in all these bands. I used to see The Hassles all the time and got to be friends with Howie Blauvelt (who I didn't know died until I read it here). There are some other great L.I. musicians who's names belong in the stories. Lenny Schaller and his Hammond B-3 was in a band with a great drummer named Bob Robertie and an amazing sax player named Jeff Shellof. Lenny was on the road for years with Gary U.S. Bonds. He still plays and is a superior musician. He lives outside of Atlanta (or at least used to). Jeff was in the band that toured with some Broadway show or other and last I heard he was still playing sax on L.I.
Much Love,
Ken Hassman
The Battle Of The Bands competitions featured many great bands, bands that would yield future stars. But who knew then? Among those bands were The New Rock Workshop (with Liberty DeVito, hero of My House. Russell Javors says, "The first time I heard him play, I knew I had to be in a band with him."), The Gents (with Kenny Holly), The Aggregation (with Frank Byer, Dom Cinecropi and Russell Javors) and The Pariahs (with Ira Newborn and Warren Pujdak). Although Seaford's DeVito was held in awe, The Pariahs were the most respected group in the fold. Kenny Holly, lead guitarist of The Gents, recalls, "Ira Newborn was definitely instrumental in the development of The Long Island Sound. His style, something about just the way he played, had a real impact on guitar players...especially me." Russell Javors, vocalist and guitarist with The Aggregation: "Ira was a virtuoso, I certainly never was...but we used to beat them in the battles all the time! (laughs)"
Ira Newborn, now a successful film score composer with many credits to his name (including the films "the Blues Brothers", "Into The Night" ( B.B. King performed his compositions), "Ferris Bueller's Day Off", "Planes, Trains and Automobiles", the 3 Naked Gun movies and a favorite of the Long Island Globalink staff, "Mallrats"), has this to say, "I don't think I was ever thrilled about the competition of The Battle Of The Bands. What was the point? But it was an excellent outlet for a youthful, primitive art. I remember going to them and having fun...I can also recall forty or so guys at the edge of the stage watching me play..."
The information presented here desperately needs to be updated and that's where you come in. If you have stories, historical anecdotes, memories, pictures, additions to the discography or anything devoted to this subject, upload it to us and we will include it. We want this to be the definitive database on this subject so please add to it.
If you have any questions or comments, send us e-mail or include it in the forum section.
Thank you.
Click here to return to the Index
© Richard Arfin 1991, 1997
Revised 1995
All Rights Reserved