My Musical Journey

Ray Galindo & Friends Through The Decades

Guitars 1970s Tampa, Florida Ray Galindo David Carbonell Valentino * Jimmy Belote - Pegasus * Terry Cagle - Broadway Star; Battle of the Bands at Papa's Dream, St. Petersburg, Florida * Curt Smith Rick Wynn - WT Band * Tony Miranda - WT Band *

1980s Tampa, Florida Ray Galindo Gary Rexroad - The Ybor City News Experimental Music Ensemble * Nolan Canova - Ray Galindo & Friends: Hyde Park Avenue Album Eric Walters RIP - Ray Galindo & Friends Cosmic Dave Reid - 115 Hyde Park Avenue from Hyde Park Avenue Album Tom Dowen RIP - Dance Like You Love Me from Hyde Park Avenue Album Herman Dudley - The Count Bloodthirsty Show *

1990s New York City Tony Martinek RIP - The International Subliminal Feedback Society Viktor Jira RIP - The International Subliminal Feedback Society Daniel 'Narayan' Ramos - Godson Thomas Realm - Snottra Franks Mike Smith - The New Millennium Martian Band * 2000s New York City Darryl Thompson RIP - Choking Smokers * 2000s Tampa, Florida Devon Ramos - Performance at Hillsborough Community College * John Shea - Galindo Cerrato & Shea 2010s New York City Tommy Galione Jack McLean Bahama Kin - Ray Galindo & Friends Sid Moskowitz - The Offenderz Don Black Cat - Nine Lives Album

Bass 1970s Tampa, Florida Tim Burke - Broadway Star; Battle of the Bands at Papa's Dream, St. Petersburg, Florida* Dennis Nails RIP - WT Band * 1980s Tampa, Florida Scott Van Sickle - Ray Galindo & Friends: Hyde Park Avenue from Hyde Park Avenue Album Nolan Canova - You And Me from Hyde Park Avenue Album 1990s New York City Ray Galindo Marc West - She Fell Off A Bridge from The Bookstore Sessions 2010s New York City Tommy Galione Clift Arden Dave U Hall - The Offenderz 2020s Jersey City Nicola Stemmer - Nine Lives Album

Piano, Organ, Keyboards Ray Galindo Ralph Ferrera RIP Jennifer MacDuffee - Hyde Park Avenue Album Jim Christie - Facts Of Life Stefan Paolini - Nine Lives Album

Drums Matt Cerrato Chris Thurow - Broadway Star; Battle of the Bands at Papa's Dream, St. Petersburg, Florida * Steve Martin-Caro - 115 Hyde Park Avenue Lu Badura - The International Subliminal Feedback Society Tommy Galione Charlie Sub - The Offenderz Paul Mirto - The Offenderz George Morales - The Offenderz Bree Plaza - The Offenderz Mick Oakleaf - The Offenderz, Nine Lives Album

Trumpets and Trombones Daryl Wren - The Ybor City News Experimental Music Ensemble * Mark Wren - The Ybor City News Experimental Music Ensemble * Mac Gollehon - Nine Lives Album

Saxophone Seaton Hancock - Nine Lives Album: Thousands Of Years

Violins, Violas and Cellos Susan Mitchell - Nine Lives Album

* No recordings exist

Bands with guitars and drums are on the way out You can't have a string quartet or a sitar in a pop song You can't put a symphony orchestra tuning up in the middle of a song You can't release a double album with a plain white cover You can't record a song that's longer than 2 1/2 minutes You can't sing a song expressing sympathy for the devil You can't have two drummers in a band There is no such thing as a rock opera So please don't tell me that I can't have a harpsichord on my recording!

Led Zeppelin opened with The Song Remains The Same at the 'rained out' concert at Tampa Stadium in 1977. I was there with a band-mate Rick Wynn from the WT Band; a black cloud appeared over the stadium after three songs, and it began to rain on the stage. Robert Plant announced that water was getting on the stage and that they were concerned about their safety. They never returned to the stage. We left and we found out later that a riot had ensued. I've heard that a group of Christians had gathered outside of the stadium and prayed for something to happen to stop this concert...even to the extent of praying for Jimmy Page's electrocution! I had the ticket-stub for years. I could have returned it for a the ten dollar refund. I wish I had it now! In my opinion, they are probably the ONLY band that could ever have been as important as The Beatles! Well, in a sociological sense, the Stones...I mean AFTER The Beatles. There were no more concerts at Tampa Stadium until The Who played there in the summer of 1989.

In 1979, I met Rev. Ralph in Ybor City. The next eight years were probably the most creative years in all of my years as a musician. I was writing a lot of songs and recording constantly with Ralph and with other musicians. It was a wonderfully mad time!

In the 1980s, Ybor City...the historic Latin Quarter in Tampa was fast becoming the Greenwich Village of Florida. Reverend Ralph the boogie woogie piano player wasn't an ordained reverend, but his raucous gospel revival style rock and blues show made one feel as though one was about to be slain in the Holy Spirit. Wearing his Cuban heeled Beatle boots, pomade plastered pompadour and always black too-tight clothes, he entertained night after night in the sandwich shops and small beer and wine joints that lined 7th Avenue which was the main drag in good old Ybor City Ralph lived in storefronts, and many nights were spent in these storefronts, drinking Cuban coffee and recording some song I had written and presented to the "reverend" for his scrutiny and approval. If we were recording it...he liked it.

Gloria S. Holloway

I always thoroughly enjoyed Rev Ralph.. even enjoyed the time that his gig didn't work out all that well. i went to see him somewhere in Ybor one time when there was a mix-up & the venue had booked Ralph & somebody else too. Ralph's piano was in the venue - but when he was informed that the other person was gonna play instead of him, he proceeded to dismantle his piano right in front of our eyes & haul it away. I'm chuckling right now as i recall that incident. ah.. Rev Ralph. I miss him."

Today at 3 pm, my friend, the late great Rev. Ralph Ferrera will be honored by his family, friends and fans at a memorial service in Tampa, Fl. I knew Ralph for 35 years. I have a lot of great memories and some not so great, but that's how friendships can be. He was an incredibly talented and creative individual. He was four years older than me, and when I first met him when I was 19, I was in awe of him. He played a baby grand piano, wore a top hat when he performed, knew tons of Beatles songs and wrote his own. The first original song he played for me was called, "Claudia" at Tony Miranda's house. At that time, they were in a band called The Kordz. I met him again a few months later when he dragged his piano out of the El Pasaje Hotel onto the street and played with a number of friends for passersby. It was amazing...such energy! I was hooked. For the next ten years, I was with Ralph just about every other day with my guitar trying to learn his songs, singing harmony with him, and getting involved in various projects with him. Sometimes we just sat around in his storefronts for hours drinking coffee, talking about Krishna, music, , recording on occasion, listening to Bach and Beethoven. We would often go to the Slide Inn and have hamburgers and Ham's beer. They had an amazing jukebox that was loaded with old blues and gospel records by the likes of Lightnin' Hopkins and Rev. Julius Cheeks. I received my classical, blues and gospel education from Ralph. He taught me to sing to the person at the back of the room without a mic. He viewed me as naïve but talented - he liked my high tenor voice and my melodies, a young man that he could mold into a performer on par with him. It never happened. I could never be what he was. No one can...he was one of a kind! More later...I will be spending the day remembering Ralph, listening to his music and posting here as the memories enter my head...but for now, more coffee! Here's to you Ralphie boy!

In 1984, I met and fell in love with a wonderful woman named Jennifer MacDuffee. She is a classically trained pianist with whom I wrote a number of songs. We lived together for four years in Hyde Park, Tampa During that time, there was always a piano in the apartment and I wrote mostly on the piano.

One beautiful evening in 1985 in Hyde Park, Tampa, and Jennifer and I decided to take a walk. We found ourselves on Kennedy Blvd where we ran into Rev. Ralph. He was hanging out with Steve and his wife Heather. They had just landed at Tampa International Airport from Ohio a couple of days prior. Ralph introduced Steve to me as the guy who had sung the 60's hit, Walk Away Renee by The Left Banke. Steve seemed displeased with the way he was introduced to me and reacted by saying, "Aw, Ralph, I told you not to tell anybody!" Steve seemed a bit anxious and he really wanted to smoke a joint. We became good friends and he spent a lot of time at our house. He had become disillusioned with the music business, but he had fun with me and Jennifer. We ran a lot of tape.

I eventually left the nice comfortable 'apartment on the river' life I'd been living with my girlfriend for the last four years to rent my own storefront so I could live my bohemian musician lifestyle. I rented it out as a rehearsal space to local bands during the week and opened it as a coffee house on the weekends to raise the rent which was never paid. Hey!...I was in business and I was a bachelor! I christened it ARTS ALIVE!, and it caught on quickly. It was voted 'Hip Pick of the Week' on the cover of Creative Loafing...a local entertainment and lifestyle weekly newspaper. All these old hippies started showing up with their wooden flutes; neo-beatniks brought their cosmic- subversive poetry., sculptures, paintings - things were hanging and growing out of the walls...spinning in the window...skinheads and ghetto blacks on the same stage pounding out some kind of insane Punk/Blues/Rap that was fueled by lots of reefer and beer. It was an experiment. People as the tool by which creative expression; planned or spontaneous through different mediums can be presented simultaneously to an audience who are also a component in the final unveiling of a living object de'arte.

I acquired my first 4-Track cassette deck in 1987. Before that all recording was done with whatever was available at the time - Walkmans, old reel to reels and cassette decks...with a couple of trips into a recording studio. I have hours of recordings and I am editing and compiling them chronologically into a comprehensive document of that eight year period beginning in Ybor City, continuing in Hyde Park and culminating in my return to Ybor City when I founded ARTS ALIVE!. 115 Hyde Park Avenue was Ralph's address at that time, and It was a magical time! I hope that my friends here who were there will enjoy it!.

Marty was a chubby and very lovable Jewish guy who showed up at ARTS ALIVE! one day armed with a guitar and a head full of ideas. He had played King Herod in a travelling production of Jesus Christ Superstar. Rap was a new medium and Marty wanted to write and stage the world's first Rap Opera. He called it a Rappera and he wanted me to help him record it

Knock knock..."Wha?"...BANG BANG BANG!...it's the front door. Sounds like the cops!. Bang Bang Bang!!…I get up still feeling the effects of last night's over-indulgences..."Ohh...my head"...The first thing I see is a large McDonald's bag with a large round belly as its backdrop. It's 7:00 am and there's Marty with a big smile.

"Ready to record?"

"Marty...it's 7:00 am!"

"I know...I brought you some breakfast!"

I was a vegetarian at the time having just read a book by Bhaktivedanta Swami Sri Prabupadha called The Higher Taste...so I wasn't too impressed..BUT!...it was free food.

All covered in bad karma.

At 4:00 every Friday the Hare Krishnas would show up with Prsadm which was Holy Food prepared for Krishna who would then give us the leftovers which was usually more than enough for the old Hippies and Neo-Beatniks who had no money for food and were looking for a Spirit of the Sixties Maharishi type of experience to colour their otherwise drab work a day ordinary lives. I was told that even if the Holy Food was poisoned, it would be rendered harmless by Krishna's mercy. We called it The Love Feast. I'd play an Evening Raga by Ravi Shankar as the Temple Priest floated to the stage which appeared to be throbbing from the combination of make-shift stage lights and fans and sat down on a large cushion covered with saffron cloth. After much chanting, proselytizing and feasting,. our bald headed friends would load their empty pots into their van and fly away on their Karma free cloud satisfied that they had fed and won a few converts go to bother Reverend Ralph.

ENTER THE POETS!!!...The poets were the life blood of ARTS ALIVE!. They' usually went on when I was opening for the weekend. ARTS ALIVE! wasn't open for the evening. It was open for the weekend.5:00 pm Friday until 8:00 Monday morning when the Travel Agency next door opened. Everyone would shower in the sprinkler system in the parking lot for the bank across the street unless there was a nice warm rain. Skip was The Beach Poet Freeze-dried Doggie. Mike Moore was The Hectic Eclectic and Norman Bie was The Devious Deviant and The Rockapella Poet. What a cast! The poets never balked at the $2.00 donation and were always happy to exceed it ten fold. They wanted a place where they could hear themselves over the monitor system. Poets love to hear their own voices. I noticed that people didn't usually stick around for poets so ...

One afternoon, a bus pulls up. "Hey man ,we're The Neo-Bohemian Society. You said we could do our thing here.". "I did?" "Yeah. We talked on the phone three months ago." "Oh yeah...come on in." "We're not allowed to play anywhere ... we always get thrown out!"... "Well come in!!"' They proceeded to unload from the bus the instruments of their craft - oil drums, chainsaws, slide projectors and a fat guy who could scream like Yoko Ono.

He Yokoed for at least 30 minutes and didn't clear the room. Amazing!

Kanye was rude to Taylor Swift when she was basking in her moment of victory, Justin thinks he can drive his car at 100 mph in a zone where children live and then threaten to kill the father of one of his fans, and Jay-Z calls Paul McCartney some old white guy who can rock! Idiots...all of them! Is anybody whistling their tunes? And why was Kanye wearing a skirt at the 12/12/12 concert? Why was he even there?

Patrick McCormick: Beatle's shit. You're tooobsessive. Told ya before, John Lennon himself would tell you to give it a rest

Galindo: Sure, Pat. My internet bill is 80.00 a month. Where should I send it?

I just woke up from a most unusual dream. I was walking with my friend, Jism, the singer for the NYC punk band Ism. As we passed by a barber shop, I looked in and saw my late friend, Rev. Ralph's father sitting alone. I asked Jism to wait a moment while I went inside to talk to Ralph Sr. I asked him if he remembered me. He said that he did not. I told him that I had gone to his house as a young man with his son on a number of occasions and that he had once given me a haircut at his home. His eyes were teary, but he smiled and 'pretended' to remember me. I told him that his son was a good friend of mine and that he had been a huge influence on my life - as a musician and as a man. I guess I wanted him to know that someone still remembered and cared about his son, and I wanted to reassure him that Ralph was someone who had left a lasting impression on someone else's life. I shook his hand and told him that one day I may come in for a haircut. Ralph Ferrera Sr. was a barber by trade. He passed away in 2008. His son, Rev Ralph was a fine musician and a great entertainer. He passed away in 2014. RIP gentlemen!
My mom died in November and Ralph inFebruary. They were the two
most important people in my life. Ralph has been in my life since I was eighteen. I don't know an existence without them and it is very weird...surreal living on this planet without their presence. My mother has not come to me in my dreams. Ralph has. I spent more time in my life with Ralph than I did with my own mother. Ralph was five years older than me, so I looked up to him as an older brother. Basically, between mom and Ralph, I am who and what I am because of their influence. Looking back, Ralph really taught me many of the values that I would have adopted from my father if I had had one in my life. Of course, he got it from his Pop. So, I guess in a way your Pop was my Pop too!

Patrick McCormick
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Patrick McCormick
Ray Galindo What do the Beatles have to do with your fkn internet debt? Have we both gone soft, Ray?
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Ray Galindo
Patrick McCormick There is no such thing as Beatles SHIT. I am a life-long fan. I enjoy posting them on MY page. I have many Beatles pages on Facebook. I can do or post whatever I wish on my page and in my life. Whoever doesn't like it, can keep scrolling. I offer no apologies.
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Patrick McCormick
Ouch. Glad you're not into Barbies. The pink would be too much.
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Patrick McCormick
Hangin with MY PALS on Hyde Park Avenue......
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Ray Galindo
You've been listening...Thanks!
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Patrick McCormick
Ray Galindo No!. Just remembering. I used to give you shit about how that tune was so "Beatles derivative".
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Ray Galindo
Patrick McCormick Cool...maybe that's why you remembered it.
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Patrick McCormick
Ray Galindo I remember the piano lick and the bass line. "Tell me how you manage to make ends meeee-eeeetahhhh". Gayle n Company called Ralph, Richard, n Jack "The Fetid Ones". You called 'em "pals". I did too. THAT I remember....
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Patrick McCormick
Linda Grimm was probably the best sex I EVER HAD. Can't find her on FB. Hope she didn't kill herself. God knows she tried enough.
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Ray Galindo
Patrick McCormick Actually, the 'pals' in the song are Rev Ralph, Ralph Diaz, Steve Martin-Caro, Cosmic Dave, John Hearing and you.
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Patrick McCormick
Ray Galindo Diaz lived across the street after Robin n I gotta place together. Hyde Park. We had a fire place in the BEDROOM! Saw Steve and hung with him for a few months (years after our time) in Clearwater. Doin phone room shit n living with a mud ugly Jerry Springer lookin broad. He would always say " How can a coupla guys like us make it in this Brave New World." Gayle always bitched about how childish he was. "Get over it n move ON" was her mantra.
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Patrick McCormick
I miss those years.
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Ray Galindo
Patrick McCormick It was a good wild time. I think fondly of those days. I recorded a lot of music back then! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRx1H7I9zyc&t=132s
YOUTUBE.COM
Ray Galindo & Friends ~ Hyde Park Avenue (Full Video Album) 1984 - 1987
Ray Galindo & Friends ~ Hyde Park Avenue (Full Video Album) 1984 - 1987
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Patrick McCormick
When she got breast cancer, I was poleaxed. Suzie moved to Ithaca NY with her and....she died. No more Couvassier! I think Suzie's lost her mind. She was always tilted in that direction. A shame. Such a gentle spirit.
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Patrick McCormick
You, the guys from that era, were the fellows I had the best time with. I get wistful for it with my liver spots n my cirrohsis.
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Ray Galindo
Patrick McCormick Of course you remember my girlfriend at the time, Jennifer MacDuffee
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Patrick McCormick
Ray Galindo You were cattin on the streets of Ybor when you were with me. Hence, the STD black chick. I met Robin at Rough Riders. Lee and Paul Wilborn introduced me. I settled into domestic life for the next 4 YEARS. All the shit goin down aat Arts Alive was AFTER my time. That's when I started drinking with Jack Herbert on the reg..
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Patrick McCormick
Although Jack n Ralph n me went through a case of champagne years earlier when he divorced Rue. Remember when Ralph had the store front next to a breakfast joint on Kennedy?
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Ray Galindo
Patrick McCormick Wasn't that 115 Hyde Park Avenue?
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Patrick McCormick
No. Some pancake n eggs joint on Kennedy. Near the intersection of Howard Ave
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Ray Galindo
Patrick McCormick That was the piano and organ shop?
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Patrick McCormick
Gone now. A grand piano n two mattresses. Jack showed up in the bag n said"Me n you n a dog named Rue."
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Patrick McCormick
Jack
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Patrick McCormick
Nope. Just a warehouse then. The acoustics we're SUBLIME
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Ray Galindo
Patrick McCormick He had so many storefronts. I remember a few
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Patrick McCormick
We're like old fucks feedin the pidgeons on a park bench.
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Patrick McCormick
Ray Galindo I know. No real bathing. Hence the bad feet
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M1talSrp4hoc1hs 019, 20lad18

Shared with Only me

I have always been hated for being a musician. I wonder why that is. I'm not sure if that's it...maybe because I'm a songwriter. Yeah! That's it! They hate my songs!
Now that I have figured it out, I feel better!

Jeri Sauls and 1 other

32 Comments

Christine Altman
media1.tenor.co
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Martin Dalmasi
Me too!!!!!!......people hate someone that has some creative talent. Remember the librarian at HCC?
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Ray Galindo
Her name?
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Martin Dalmasi
She wanted to kill me after I did a show in the student center. She was angry because I "showed off" on several instruments
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Martin Dalmasi
I mean highly angry. Not just a joke or something. Like ballistic
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Martin Dalmasi
She went ballistic on me in the library
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John Gabriele
Maybe your just an asshole ...most of us are ,we just dont know it...
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- Martin Dalmasi
  Oh wow. I don't even know you. But thanks for the "encouragement "
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- Martin Dalmasi
  WTF?
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- John Gabriele
  Thats alright ..its just the one thing we almost never consider ..
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- Martin Dalmasi
  Hmmmmm......go to hell?.......
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- Ray Galindo
  I just got home, and I wasn't expecting this.
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- Martin Dalmasi
  Yea, I don't know this man and he started insulting my responses to your original message
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- Martin Dalmasi
  Called me an asshole
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- Ray Galindo
  I think he was responding to my post, Martin. I know John. He wouldn't insult you like that.
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- Martin Dalmasi
  I told him to go to hell
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- John Gabriele
  Sorry guys , l wasnt trying to insult anyone , it was just an attempt at humor, sorry if anybody was offended ...but if you dont appreciate off the cuff responses like mine, ya really shouldnt post absurd statments onto my notification board .... I just thought it was an attempt at self deficateing humor and was playing along
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- John Gabriele
  Thanx for vouching for my motives Ray ...l really thought l'd just get a chuckle , l never meant no harm guys ,reall ,like you said Martin , l dont even know you and l apologize for overstpping my bounds
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- Martin Dalmasi
  Did you even bother to actually read my incident in the library?
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- John Gabriele
  Yes l did ,and it led me believe l could lighten the moment with humor ...l guess l was mistaken ....
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- Ray Galindo
  John, I sent you a hello to your message box about a month ago.
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- Martin Dalmasi
  I post those things to illustrate how musicians get all the shit dumped on them by people like her, like we re all show offs and bad people. Musicians work hard. We never master the music ever. It's hard.
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- Ray Galindo
  And these fucking DJ's!
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- Martin Dalmasi
  And so what? It's called a SHOW after all
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- John Gabriele
  I was away on location on a job doing a lot of hours on a film ,l must have missed it ...sorry ,i usually respond to messages ,especially from names l recognize
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- Ray Galindo
  Martin Dalmasi Can't do it without a sharing heart and the confidence to 'show it off'
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- John Gabriele
  Im really confused here and feeling like an interloper...l think it best l just wish you gentlemen a good night..
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- Ray Galindo
  John Gabriele You're fine, John... don't worry about it. Look at the comments below.
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- John Gabriele
  Thanx Ray ..stay cool bro..
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Ray Galindo
Look at all this time and energy that was wasted. I posted a bunch of my videos. Maybe we could have spent time on that...or am I the only one who checks out my friends' work? Don't believe me? Check out My Friends Rock
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Ray Galindo
I think the point of my post has been proven.
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Ray Galindo
The only reason that I post this stuff is to make it permanent before it all falls off of the tapes and before I croak. Maybe someone will give a shit then. It is always my hope that some musicians will take an interest in my work and help me get it onto the stage...but it will never happen because, as I said, everyone hates me for being a songwriter...maybe I should regress to playing Jimmy Buffett songs. How many were there...two?
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