The Tompo of the Ringing: A Rock and Roll Memoir
The Tompo of the Ringing answers this question—if an eclectic garage and roll band earning three dollars a night split five ways explodes in an empty Tenderloin bar at 3am, does it make a sound?
Tracy Santa offers evidence that someone was listening to that ping in the cosmos. And furthermore documents the journey of a pre-adolescent naturist whose buddies—like Nashville Cats—all play guitar twice as better than he will, out of the tail end of the 60s, through mixed-up confusion in the 70s, rising and crashing in the D.I.Y. free market of the 80s.
Rock bios chronicle the triumph of the chosen few. What of the rest of us? Tracy Santa’s story of a life in and around the music of his youth works to fill that gap. Thrill to the origin story of Joe Doy, weird scenes inside the sex mine, and being ignored by the Go-Go’s.
Misunderstandings, marching out of step, and not quite getting it right dominate The Tompo of the Ringing. We’ve read about playing the Hollywood Bowl doped to the gills. Isn’t it time we examined the simple pleasures of watching cartoons with Dee Dee Ramone? Or the strand of dental floss connecting “Wooly Bully” and Caesar’s Gallic Wars? And just what—when all is said and done—is The Tompo of the Ringing?
April 1, 2022
174 pages . 5.83 x 8.27 in. black and white
ISBN# 9781943829415 Paperback
$16.95
“The Rock and Roll lifestyle could be unforgiving, promising nothing . . . and often making good on that promise.”
Tracy Santa is a recovering academic. His recent recordings with the Wild Hares on Pill Pauper Records can be accessed on Bandcamp . . .
Warren’s Word
“I’ve noticed that many of those who gave themselves to rock and roll didn’t get a lot in return. The rock and roll lifestyle could be unforgiving, promising nothing . . . and often making good on that promise. What rock and roll did offer, whether you played clubs, stadiums, or backyards, was stories. And every band generally had one or two members ready and able to tell them. Maybe it was the result of long drives between gigs, long silences between songs, or just the age-old thing of wanting to leave a painting on the cave wall after the kill.”
— Warren Zanes, From the Foreword
A Friend Speaks
“A memoir that bottles the spirit of the times and the essence of being a rocker–and maybe a bit of a mocker. After a while I forgot that I was laughing–the humor is intrinsic to the observations. At times, it seemed like a new genre–coming of age meets music criticism with points in between.”
— Steve Woodhams, I Stand Corrected
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