When the Stray Cats Added a Fourth Cat: Exclusive Book Excerpt

Rockabilly revivalists the Stray Cats hit 1982 album Constructed for Pace featured two Prime 10 hits: “Stray Cat Strut” and “Rock This City”. They adopted it up with Rant n’ Rave with the Stray Cats simply over a 12 months later. Regardless of yielding two Prime 40 singles, “(She’s) Attractive + 17” and “I Gained’t Stand in Your Method,” in addition to different songs that demonstrated that the band’s vary included types exterior traditional rockabilly, the band was challenged by the everyday difficulties confronted by younger rock and roll musicians making an attempt to keep up their breakthrough success.

In Christopher McKittrick’s e-book Howling to the Moonlight on a Sizzling Summer season Evening: The Story of the Stray Cats, the writer explores how a trio of throwback-loving musicians from the suburbs of Massapequa, Lengthy Island—guitarist/singer Brian Setzer, drummer Slim Jim Phantom, and bassist Lee Rocker—returned rockabilly to the worldwide pop charts because the Stray Cats. Over forty years and lots of traditional studio and stay albums later, the Stray Cats nonetheless epitomize the spirit of the founding fathers of rock and roll—a coolness that by no means goes out of fashion.

Howling to the Moonlight on a Sizzling Summer season Evening is now out there through Backbeat Books. Within the unique excerpt under, McKittrick recounts a little-known truth in regards to the closing weeks of the band’s preliminary run—the addition of Tommy Byrnes, higher recognized for his ongoing thirty-plus 12 months run as a guitarist in fellow Lengthy Islander Billy Joel’s band, to the group. Byrnes stays the one “fourth Stray Cat” to carry out alongside the in any other case unchanged Stray Cats lineup of Setzer, Phantom, and Rocker that has persevered all through the band’s varied reunion albums and excursions since their first breakup in 1984, together with most not too long ago the Stray Cats’ 2024 summer time tour. Although Byrnes’ tenure within the band was temporary, he would later work with Setzer on his first two solo albums (together with 1986’s The Knife Feels Like Justice) and has remained with Billy Joel’s band all through worldwide excursions and the Piano Man’s record-shattering Madison Sq. Backyard residency.

Chapter 8: The Cats Go Astray

The considerably decrease gross sales of Rant n’ Rave with the Stray Cats in comparison with Constructed for Pace appeared to have shaken Setzer’s confidence in the way forward for the group. Maybe influenced by the musical help he had not too long ago acquired on stage throughout exhibits on the final tour from Jeff “Skunk” Baxter and Mel Collins, when Stray Cats returned to the highway for a July 4 warm-up efficiency on the Rio Theatre in Valley Stream, Lengthy Island (an 1,800-seat movie show positioned fifteen miles west of the band’s native Massapequa that often featured concert events) for the primary of the ultimate twenty exhibits of the group’s authentic period, it appeared the members have been already trying towards a doubtlessly very completely different future. The obvious change was the line-up—becoming a member of Stray Cats on stage for all the efficiency was Tommy Byrnes as extra guitarist and backing vocalist.

Byrnes, who’s greatest recognized right this moment as a guitarist with Billy Joel’s band since 1989, is a local of Lynbrook and Oceanside, New York, two South Shore Lengthy Island cities positioned just a few miles west of Massapequa. Since he was a young person, Byrnes started taking part in the identical Lengthy Island membership scene as Phantom, Rocker, and Setzer. Within the early Eighties, Byrnes performed within the BMT’s, a neighborhood favourite band which at instances included Freddy “Frogs” Toscano, a fixture on the Lengthy Island scene for many years (in 1983 Setzer mentioned in a profile within the Lengthy Island music paper the Island Ear that Freddy Frogs & BMT’s have been his favourite group). The BMT’s performed quite a lot of music, together with Nineteen Fifties songs by Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, and Fat Domino, and ceaselessly performed Max’s Kansas Metropolis on Sundays. The BMT’s even performed exhibits in Europe within the early Eighties after their single, “Loopy Little Mama” (a canopy of the doo-wop track by El Dorados & Magnificents) reached the charts within the UK.

Byrnes first noticed Stray Cats carry out at one among their frequent Lengthy Island gigs, TK’s Place. “I used to be solely 19 years outdated, and I bear in mind watching them and I mentioned, ‘What the fuck is that this?’” Byrnes recollects with amusing. “They have been in all places. It was a three-ring circus, and so they have been animated as hell. All of them had the most effective strikes I’d ever seen on stage. I used to be an prompt fan. Behind my thoughts’s eye, I see Brian with an orange zoot go well with and a pink pompadour—which I’m unsure however was completely attainable—Jimmy standing on the bass drum whereas taking part in the snare and the cymbal, and Lee standing within the criminal of the upright bass. It was like an acrobatics present. It was enjoyable to look at and hearken to, and Brian, Lee, and Jim introduced a stage of musicianship to rockabilly that had by no means been seen earlier than.” Byrnes subsequently met the band after the present, and shortly afterward Phantom, Rocker, and Setzer departed for London.

After listening to the primary recordings by Stray Cats, Byrnes appreciated how effectively they have been capable of seize that sound and vitality on document. “I at all times thought Invoice Haley’s data have been the best-sounding data of that day, like ‘Rock Across the Clock,’ ‘See You Later, Alligator,’ or ‘Flip, Flop, and Fly.’ The way in which the stand-up bass and snare drums have been recorded, it’s unbelievable how nice it sounds and the way tight it’s. After which I bear in mind listening to the recording of ‘Runaway Boys’ for the primary time and saying, ‘That’s it proper there.’ Dave Edmunds completely nailed it with these guys.”
Byrnes recollects that Stray Cats returned stateside after their preliminary success in London, maybe in December 1980 when Setzer briefly returned to Massapequa for the vacations or across the time of their one-off efficiency on the Bond Worldwide On line casino in New York in January 1981.

“That they had a coming-home celebration for Brian—I don’t suppose it was a celebration for the entire band—and we have been the band [for the party],” he remembers. “He got here in, noticed that we have been there, and anyone went residence and bought his guitar and amp and that was the primary time we performed collectively.”

Even after changing into recognized for his work with Stray Cats, Setzer would often be a part of the BMT’s on stage for his or her native performances whereas he nonetheless lived on Lengthy Island. An October 1982 version of the Hofstra Herald, the newspaper of native school Hofstra College, famous that Setzer had not too long ago carried out with the band on the Massapequa bar Heckle and Jeckles and each Setzer and Rocker carried out with the group on the Bellmore bar Arrows. “Brian and I grew to become quick pals, and he would come down and jam with us at Heckles as a result of it was native for him,” says Byrnes. “He would deliver folks down, like Dave Edmunds, and the 2 of them jammed at Heckles. I’d simply hang around with him and go as much as his home and we’d play guitar.”

Regardless that he and Setzer grew to become pleasant, Byrnes admits that the supply to affix Stray Cats caught him fully unaware. Instantly earlier than becoming a member of Stray Cats, Byrnes was taking part in with an upstate New York-based group named the Velcros that opened for Van Halen on their 1984 tour (the Velcros had beforehand opened for Stray Cats in 1982). On the time, Van Halen sometimes took unsigned bands with them on tour as their opening acts, and Byrnes later shared tales about being pelted with rubbish by Van Halen followers to Eddie Van Halen when he met him backstage on the inaugural Farm Assist. “Sooner or later I went as much as Brian’s—he lived in Outdated Westbury on the time—and we went as much as the music room, and he began taking part in a Stray Cats track,” says Byrnes. “He mentioned, ‘What would you play if I used to be taking part in this?’ So I began taking part in with him and we performed completely different variations of the chords of ‘Stray Cat Strut’ and another songs. And he mentioned, ‘Good, how’d you want to affix the band?’ I used to be like, ‘What?’ and he mentioned, “You already know, I’ve been doing this three-piece for therefore lengthy and I’d actually like so as to add one other dimension to it.’ I mentioned, ‘I’d like to!’ I used to be an enormous fan, and Brian was like my first guitar hero that I ever truly met.”

Byrnes started rehearsing with Setzer and remembers that he taught him lots about a number of the musicians who had impressed Stray Cats. “I knew Elvis, Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Gene Vincent, however I didn’t know Cliff Gallup, who was Gene’s guitar participant, and I didn’t know who Scotty Moore was, who was Elvis’s guitar participant,” he recollects. “I knew who Jimi Hendrix was as a result of I knew guitar gamers, however I didn’t know the insides of what made these data so nice.”

Byrnes’ function because the “fourth Stray Cat” introduced a brand new dynamic to the group each visually and sonically, and his temporary tenure of lower than two dozen exhibits over a interval of two months on the finish of the band’s preliminary lifespan has even come as a shock to devoted Stray Cats followers after they study Byrnes’s temporary tenure within the band. He was by no means formally introduced as a member of the group, although he did seem in just a few posed images with the opposite band members which can counsel he was destined for a everlasting function within the group had the band not formally damaged up on the finish of 1984.
After the Fourth of July efficiency on Lengthy Island, the four-piece Stray Cats performed two extra U.S. exhibits—July 6 at Milwaukee’s annual Summerfest music competition and July 8 at Trout Aire Amphitheatre in Minneapolis—earlier than heading to Europe for 3 competition exhibits (two in France and one in Switzerland). At each U.S. exhibits the band opened for George Thorogood and the Destroyers, a fellow roots-rock devotee (although extra inclined to Bo Diddley and John Lee Hooker than rockabilly) who was additionally an EMI America artist on the time. One of many songs the four-piece Stray Cats carried out at Pageant D’Exilir in St. Pabu, France, “Rebels Rule,” was broadcast on tv. The clip stays the one recognized professionally filmed footage of Byrnes performing with the band.

Stray Cats returned to North America for his or her closing exhibits of the tour with a efficiency at Kingswood Music Theatre in Toronto on July 29. “The primary time I noticed them was at Kingswood Music Theatre at Canada’s Wonderland, simply north of Toronto,” recollects Lee McCormack, musician and host of the Tramps Like Us music podcast. “I used to be 10 years outdated and two years into my fandom by then. Tremendous excited that my father took me, he was additionally a fan. The main points are considerably obscure, however I do bear in mind having the best time, listening to these songs carried out stay and seeing the fellas in individual. I bear in mind they got here out in leather-based jackets, hair greased again and searching cool. I bear in mind the stripped-down, naked stage. Fairly a distinction to the bands of that early period with the large stage exhibits—I used to be into heavy steel and people stay exhibits have been all about huge phases and partitions of amps and pyro and lights and extra is extra. A small stand-up drum package for Slim Jim and a few amps for Brian was all there was. I vividly bear in mind just a few trash cans on stage, full with spray paint graffiti. I believe they really might have served as guitar stands—you possibly can see the neck of a Gretsch guitar protruding. I bear in mind the group was filled with rockabillies and punk rockers. I had discovered my folks and my scene. That second when the music turns into actual and tangible. After listening to the data for the final two years, the music had come to life.”

The group additionally radically reworked the setlist for the tour, greatest evidenced by a recording of the August 6, 1984, live performance on the Park West in Chicago. Whereas “Rumble in Brighton,” “Runaway Boys,” “Stray Cat Strut,” “(She’s Attractive) + 17,” “Fishnet Stockings,” “One thing’s Mistaken With My Radio,” and “Rock This City” remained the usual originals within the setlist and “Double Talkin’ Child,” “Somethin’ Else,” and “C’mon Everyone” have been the compulsory doses of Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran covers, the band skipped forward a technology to incorporate two covers of Creedence Clearwater Revival songs, “Hey Tonight” and “Lookin’ Out My Again Door,” plus an surprising rendition of The Mary Tyler Moore Present theme track, “Love Is All Round” (Stray Cats beforehand recorded and launched “Lookin’ Out My Again Door” because the B-side to the “Rebels Rule” single, although the sleeve misidentifies the track as “Lookin’ By means of My Again Door”). However maybe most shocking have been three as-yet-unreleased authentic songs, “Time Is on My Palms,” “Barbwire Fence” and “Bobby’s Again.” The primary track of the three, “Time Is on My Palms,” is a slower blues jam and options an prolonged guitar solo by Byrnes. Rocker carried out the lead vocals on the track and it later appeared on the primary Phantom, Rocker, and Slick album (credited as a Phantom-Rocker composition), with the guitar lead reworked by Earl Slick.

The latter two songs ultimately surfaced on Setzer’s first solo album, The Knife Feels Like Justice (each credited to Setzer alone). “Barbwire Fence” as carried out by Stray Cats is nearly absolutely shaped because the track that seems on Setzer’s solo album. It offers with extra severe materials—the lyrics make the most of the barbwire fence as a metaphor for what separates humanity from each other as we harm the earth and our fellow man (Setzer later instructed Guitar World that he wrote “Barbwire Fence” in regards to the Chilly Battle). Whereas Setzer would play banjo on the model for his solo album to spotlight its nation affect, the Stray Cats rendition is a full-on rock blast.

In distinction, “Bobby’s Again” differs in components from the model ultimately launched by Setzer. The soul-influenced track options barely completely different lyrics than the completed model, together with an incomplete refrain. The track is in regards to the singer’s acquaintance, Bobby, who simply will get out of jail and discovers that a lot of the life he had recognized earlier than going to jail has modified—his girlfriend has moved on and pals have settled down. The track ends by revealing that Bobby dies in a automotive accident a number of years later (dashing in Stray Cats model, excessive on medicine and alcohol within the later Setzer model) and the singer laments his destiny. Like “Barbwire Fence,” it was actually heavier content material than the everyday Stray Cats track through which dashing in a automotive was sometimes highlighted as an gratifying pastime. The track, buoyed by Byrnes’ concord vocals, hints at what a circa 1985 Stray Cats album might have appeared like because it appears completely attainable that each one three of those songs have been thought of for inclusion on the following Stray Cats album as a result of they have been being debuted stay. If Stray Cats recorded demo variations of those songs throughout the breaks of their excursions in 1984, they’ve but to floor.

The lyrics of the 2 future Setzer solo songs undeniably handled extra mature themes than the lyrics of any of the songs on the band’s earlier three albums, one thing that Setzer had expressed earlier within the 12 months to Trouser Press. “I do know that with the following album we’re gonna must make a little bit of a change,” he defined in regards to the band’s then-hypothetical fourth album. “I can’t be singing about sizzling rods and Harleys my entire life, and I gained’t wish to. I’ll wish to change and write some various things.” Whereas Setzer did take that method on his subsequent album (his first solo album), the other truly occurred in the long term—even forty years later, Setzer remains to be largely writing, recording, and performing music in the identical thematic vein because the hits he grew to become recognized for within the early Eighties.

And but regardless of these indicators pointing to the band’s future a full 4 years after the band’s lightning-bolt arrival on the London music scene, there was no denying that the group’s recognition had considerably waned within the UK, the place the group skilled a virtually two-year head begin. Due to that, it was arguably logical to anticipate that the band’s recognition could be equally fleeting in North America over the approaching months as effectively. “If one among your albums sells two million copies and the following one sells solely 500,000—neglect the truth that that’s sufficient to make it gold, which is greater than most data do—it’s thought of a failure,” Rocker instructed the Pittsburgh Put up-Gazette two years later. “Your document firm, your administration, and everyone else who anticipated to make some money out of your success are bummed out. Essentially the most tough factor to do on this enterprise is preserve.”