Discovering The Cryan’ Shames: A Fan’s Recollections
by Katie A. Jones

My introduction to the Cryan’ Shames came in a roundabout way through my teen pinup fixation. My mother worked in Hinsdale, IL — the area from where most of the ‘Shames hailed and just a couple of towns away — and mentioned to a coworker that I was just nuts about all of the rock groups and had their pictures plastered all over my walls. This guy happened to be promoting this new group called the Cryan’ Shames, and one day my forever cool mom came home with an autographed photo for my wall. There was something very strange about that black-and-white photograph, though — something that piqued my Anglophile hair fetish curiosity: here were six boys all right — and yes, they had lots of hair … but they all had their BACKS to the camera! And — what’s THIS? — there was this pointy hook thing on this guy’s arm! From that point on I was — quite literally — hooked on the Cryan’ Shames. I HAD to find out what they looked like. What they sounded like was almost an afterthought. I was in for a very happy discovery.

Mom finally broke down and hauled me off to a Cryan’ Shames sock hop one very hot, soggy summer evening. Despite my efforts to appear cool and grownup, I was actually a little … petrified. After all, this WAS my first time, and I was so naïve — and this is the truth — that I was quite curious as to why people weren’t dancing in their socks at the sock hop.

Then I saw THEM — Toad, Hooke, Grape, Stonehenge and two blokes oddly named Jim and Denny. I shimmied my way through crowd and glued my shins to what was passing as the stage; the guys scrunched together on a small, minimally raised platform, the audience within touching distance. I was so close I could hear them breathe. And, oh God, I was breathing THEIR air!!

The first thing I noticed after several mesmerizing minutes of watching the guy with the hook leaping about the stage wildly flailing a tambourine, was that curly-headed Grape was playing a Hofner Beatle Bass. I was impressed. On the opposite side of the stage was Jim Fairs (who I considered might actually be a Cyclops, as his hair completely covered one eye), nimbly picking a large Gretsch Chet Atkins Country Gentleman guitar ala George Harrison. Now I was really impressed. Somewhere in the back was Denny, pummeling his drum kit with sticks moving so fast that I couldn’t see them, his straight blonde hair bobbing with his able beat. Then, in the hands of the temporarily stoic Stonehenge, I saw what amounted to the Holy Grail — a Rickenbacker fireglo 12-string electric guitar like that made famous by George Harrison and Roger McGuinn. Now … NOW I was in teenage heaven.

What set the Cryan’ Shames apart from the many other bands with Beatle guitars is that the ‘Shames could actually play them — very well, accomplished to the man. Their early sound was a sprite, jangly Beatles-Byrds influenced mix, as were their rich, multi-part harmony vocals, but clearly they were developing their own sound which also echoed the Animals, Rolling Stones, Association and Motown. The ‘Shames were a hell of a cover band, but they were ultimately to prove very capable with finely crafted original pop. That band really COULD kick ass, Big Time … which is where they were inevitably headed.

"Sugar and Spice" — a sped-up, adrenaline-fueled reading of the British hit from the Searchers — exploded onto the Chicago scene on the tiny local Destination label and ate up both the WLS and WCFL charts — to the tune of some 400,000 sales, which was a huge amount in those days, especially with distribution that was largely hand-to-hand, at the hops, and through small record shops.

Those hops were essentially the Cryan’ Shames’ Cavern — just a bunch of kids having a great time groovin’ to cool tunes. It wasn’t about the past or what was to be, it was about NOW. This was the essence or rock and roll in mid-‘60s Chicago, a catharsis happening simultaneously across America and ultimately the world. But it was soon clear that winds of change were in the air.

As 1966 rock and rolled toward 1967, the Cryan’ Shames were picked up by Columbia Records, and were well on the way to the big time, sharing the stage with such royalty as the Byrds, ultimately scoring several hit singles and three albums. As exhilarated as we were with the ‘Shames’ success, it came at a price. Through personnel changes, an eventual relocation, and the heady metamorphosis of pop music into Rock, we lost "our" Cryan’ Shames. I clearly remember feeling a sense of detachment upon seeing 16 Magazine Editor Gloria Stavers’ rave liner notes and the quaint line drawings the back of the A Scratch In The Sky LP, recounting the boys’ Hinsdale beginnings and their subsequent success. Although Hinsdale was nearly next door, it might as well have been Liverpool. In retrospect, maybe it was.

Some 36 years on, I still play the Cryan’ Shames’ music, and am just as thrilled with the headlong rush of "Sugar and Spice" as the first time I heard it. The ‘Shames still play, and consistently receive an enthusiastic welcome. And, I still remember that hot summer night hop in 1966 that changed the way I looked at the world. It was one brief moment, but the memory is timeless.