Jupiter
Rey Band and Lilly Rose
and,
here's how I found about Lilly Rose....I was monitoring posts at a
Drag History yahoo group and found these two:
I
just wanted to say thanks for the recent posts. Tanya, keep
digging. James, I got to rooting around your site and discovered the
pics of
the Gay March on Washington in the 1970s. Though I did not go, it
got me to thinking about some of the kids I knew back then.
Lilly Rose was
a queen my age (mid 20s) who, like me, loved to wear
vintage clothing. At that time, Denver, Colorado thrift stores
and garage
sales were loaded with old 20s and 30s clothing for next to
nothing. We both did shows and sang live to instrumental
recordings. She would have been one of the kids who did the
Wednesday nite amateur shows like i did at the Back Door Three, the
best drag club of the time in Denver, with Peaches (real woman
Marlene Clymer) as the hostess.
Lilly hooked
up with a rock band called Jupiter Rey, and they cut at
least one album, a vinyl LP, probably distributed at their club
dates in the mid 1970s, and I had a copy. Lilly loved to sing
blues and in her
falsetto voice sounded just like Billie Holiday. What a find
that
would be if you are all out there rooting around. Just a heads
up
for you collectors of queer music out there. I'll never forget
the
time she talked me into going to the Tamale Queen in Denver on
Colfax, a mexican soulfood eatery, where she dumped green sauce
on
one of my tacos and I ended up spending an hour in the bathroom.
Have fun with
the group -
Thanks for your
contributions
Chris
Your Moderator
Well 'dude,
your training brings to mind about 20 years ago I was part
of a very avant disco jazz band called the Jupiter Rey Band (give's
you an idea of its
namesake's self-vision). It was very hip, w/lots of media attention.
These guys blew in
from LA, I think, altho why Denver was beyond me at the time and still
is. An example
of the idiocy afoot, despite some very hip original groove music,
was Jupiter's appearing
one night in pajamas, go figure. Heavy sax use sort of predated smooth
jazz, in a dance context.
The singer was none other than Lilly Rose, who, shall I say, actually
embarked upon the kind
of training to which you allude. Sax player, Mitch, wowed me with
what I came to suspect was
handed-down hippage, "there are no wrong notes, just wrong connections"
-- a musical truism
of the highest magnitude no matter its source. The disco stuff wound
up driving me mad,
tolerable for a drummer only because of the melodic strength of the
original tunes. There
were a couple of non- or abberent-disco numbers on which I opted to
stretch a little
rhythmically; this got me kicked outa the band just before a set in
front of some label
scouts. That, and the prime time TV news coverage (which actually
went on at great length
for that medium), in which the voiceover sounded mostly over footage
of -- me! (or, more a
ccurately, my hi-hat [remember, this was disco, and before the days
of drum machines]).
Drove Jupiter mad (and I thought it was lazy camerawork, m'self).
Anyway, you
just keep visualizing Lilly Rose, however you think s/he looked, and
we'll
see you in 05, brother, er, baby, eh...
Bart ...
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////
May 2007: Kalessen,
a site visitor told me that Lilly's real name was Lillian Taber and
kept her "male name"
to himself, as he preferred to remember Lilly as female. Also, she
formed a band in Phoenix called
Band W.O.W. in the mid-80s. It stood for "Band Without Wave."
Her cohort was Jimmy C., from Sha-Pink
and Everybody in the House. Before Lilly died (in 2000), she got into
traditional Renaissance music.
I also thank Kalessen
for the photos below: the first, taken by Kalessen (1985) and the
others, by Carol Brunner, circa 1983/84.
February 2011
Below,
more Band WOW pics, from JIm Qubig Saccoman (Jimmy)
More
info, September 2009, courtesy of Dalton Rasmussen, who graciously
provided me a copy of the CD he and Joseph Pope produced "Rocky
Mountain Low," that featured among it's 31 tracks two by Lilly
Rose & the Thorns
http://rockymountainlow.com/
any additional info
would be appreciated