Omo the Hobo remembered

Making his living as a musician was more than a novelty for Omo the Hobo.

A Delta County native, Omo was born Wellman W. Mohundro on October 13, 1917, just a month before the end of World War I.

He grew up on a family farm at Fayette on the Garden Peninsula and as a young man did his duty in the service of his country. His military records showed his surname as Omohundro, the additional letter creating his non de plume, Omo.

Following World War II, Omo decided to make his living as a traveling musician. Beginning in 1948 until his retirement, Omo the Hobo worked from coast to coast, with the nightclubs and bars of California and Las Vegas being his favorite destinations.

Hobos, it turns out, are embedded in American folklore. The hobo community fostered street musicians, as well as artists and writers, who enjoyed the freedom of a transient lifestyle. Probably the greatest hobo musician was Woody Guthrie, famous for "This Land Is Your Land."

For his part, Omo not only traveled extensively, but recorded prolifically. He sold 45s, record albums and tapes during his shows. He billed himself as Omo the Lobo on his 1968 release "Do You Cheat on Your Wife" and took a songwriting credit as Smiley Joe Omohundro on a 45 called "Alky-holic Is My Name."

In the late sixties, Omo issued a series of "party albums" which he sold for $4 each. Always wanting to give good value to his customers, he sold two for $6 or all four for a mere $10.

A one man band, Omo wrote and sang his many songs, accompanying himself on guitar. He was a master of both double entendre and innuendo, with much of his material for adults only.

But, wanting to appeal to everybody, Omo also produced songs for children in a multi-volume set entitled "Family Album." A 45 record aimed at young people, including "I'm Not Complaining, Just Explaining," and "Teenagers Hall," was released on the Metor label in 1973.

In a flyer, Omo described himself as a "sexy senior citizen. A funny chap who likes to make folks laugh. Not a legend in his own time, but I'm a legend in my own mind."

Omo played five to 15 minute sets during "band breaks, clam bakes, honeymoons, clubs and saloons. You name it and I play it. I sing and tell jokes to the folks and after that I pass the hat. If I don't make a dime, it won't b d (sic) first time." Thus, he earned his living playing songs with titles such as "I'm Just a Hick From the Sticks," and "Vitamin Juice Puts Lead in My Snoot."

By the late eighties, the traveling troubadour returned to Escanaba and resided at 1411 3rd Ave South. Although he was retired at this point, performing was still in Omo's blood.

Clad in western wear and carrying his acoustic guitar, Omo made the rounds in Escanaba. He appeared at the Record Rack on various occasions performing inside and outside the store. He also entertained folks at the Delta Plaza shopping center. Omo and I had several engaging conversations during which he related stories about his childhood and life on the road.

His song "I'm a Police Officer," has been featured on several national radio programs which spotlight novelty recordings. Dr. Demento played the song in 1999, while Irwin Chusid and Michele Boule aired it on their program "Incorrect Music" two years later. They broadcast Omo's "Hey, Fireman," as well.

Omo also received a brief mention in Chusid's book about non-mainstream music, "Songs in the Key of Z."

In addition, Omo's records have changed hands on EBay, the giant Internet auction house.

Omo died in 1996 at the D. J. Jacobetti Home for Veterans in Marquette and he's buried in the family plot at the Garden cemetery. While Omo's hobo travels have ended, his recordings live on as collector's items and he remains a memorable character.

Garage artifacts reveal secrets

Cleaning out my garage a few weeks ago was like an archaeological dig. But, in organizing the garage for the first time in years, I discovered a few "lost" musical artifacts including a dusty mug, a rusted pinback button and old wooden sign.

Those time-worn curios might not seem like much, but together they tell a decade-long story.

The handmade sign, constructed from an old door sawed in half, said simply "Used Records Here." My wife Sue and I posted this primitive notice at curbside when we wanted to advertise record sales in our garage during the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Sue and I scoured rummage sales during this period looking for LPs to add to my record collection. Some people didn't treasure their albums as much as I did and we were able to bring home hundreds of great titles for prices as low as a quarter or 50 cents each. New albums, at department stores or record shops, cost about $6 or $7 each so this was an ideal way to collect inexpensively.

Once we carted our garage sale finds home, we examined them more closely for keepers and stored the duplicates and other unwanted titles in crates in the garage. Occasionally we'd throw open the door, put out the sign and sell gently used records to other music fans during a lazy weekend day.

Generally, we attracted enough interest and sales to finance my record collecting hobby. Where I had a few hundred discs in my college days, that had grown to several thousand just a few years later. Finally, I had to have a special storage unit constructed by Cretens Bros. Furniture just to house them.

While we were testing the retail music climate with our garage sales in those pre-compact disc days, another sales opportunity arose. I was reminded of that when I found a button in a garage drawer which said simply "Beatle Faire '80 Neenah, Wis." Sue and I had traveled to the city's Labor Temple on Sunday, April 27 to sell memorabilia at one of the country's earliest Beatle conventions.

The event featured records, tapes, books, magazines, dolls, bubble gum cards, films, video tapes, posters and picture sleeves. We displayed our merchandise, sold enough to pay for the trip, and hob nobbed with other dealers.

Among the items we brought with us was a five-foot tall cardboard stand-up of the Beatles wearing Santa hats, a Capitol Records promotional item from the 1964 or '65 Christmas season. Foolishly, I traded this item to the organizer of the event for a Beatles 45 picture sleeve. I've never seen any reference to the stand-up, which I know now was incredibly rare.

As the years passed and we built up our amateur sales skills, Sue and I decided to set up shop for real.

From my mid-teens onward I had been drawn to record shops and their exciting inventories. I visited stores in Green Bay, East Lansing, Marquette, Mt. Pleasant and other cities. The experiences were often so vivid, I can still remember which shops I bought certain albums in.

One of my favorites was Boogie Records in Mt. Pleasant, which was opened by a young man named Jeff. In those days Musicland was the largest national record store chain but even in college towns, most shops were mom and pop operations.

Those independent stores were supplied by wholesalers, known as one-stops, because the retailer could purchase his product from a single source instead of half a dozen different record companies. Jeff, the record shop owner, had grown to fill that demand. He opened Vinyl Vendors in Kalamazoo and supplied hundreds of merchandisers in Michigan and the upper Midwest, including us. Business thrived for years as the compact disc became more and more popular.

Vinyl Vendors celebrated that success by sending its retail accounts coffee mugs as Christmas gifts in 1987. One of those cups survived in our garage for the last 18 and one-half years. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for Vinyl Vendors. As the music wholesale industry consolidated in the 1990s, the company went out of business, leaving only a handful of similar distributors remaining.

So, there you have the music secrets revealed by an old sign, pinback button and ceramic mug.

U. P. played role in MC5 tale

John Sinclair, one time manager of the MC5, refined his rock 'n' roll vision in the Upper Peninsula, but not by choice. That he served time at Marquette's branch prison is just one chapter in the fascinating saga of the greatest punk band Michigan ever produced. St. Ignace figures prominently in the story as well.

The MC5 (short for Motor City Five) were at the forefront a self-contained rock scene which developed in southeastern Michigan in the mid-sixties to early seventies. Other forces driving this surging independent scene included the Bob Seger System, Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels, Ted Nugent and the Amboy Dukes, Frost, Frijid Pink, SRC, the Rationals, Iggy Pop and the Stooges, as well as a few other home-grown bands.

But the MC5 went beyond creating explosive music, they threw their rebellion in the face of the "establishment" and couldn't have cared less about the consequences. And, there were consequences.

They first received national attention when Sinclair arranged for them to play a free outdoor concert at Chicago's Lincoln Park during the riotous 1968 Democratic Convention. The show was filmed by the FBI, evidence the feds were paying close attention to the band. Their initial long-play, the incendiary "Kick Out The Jams," was recorded live at Russ Gibb's Grande Ballroom in Detroit two months later.

Released as a single, the title track had its raw opening line censored to "Kick out the jams, brothers and sisters," at the insistence of Elektra Records. Still the record stalled nationally at number 82 on the Billboard chart in 1969. In July, Sinclair was sentenced to a lengthy term at Jackson Prison for selling two marijuana cigarettes to undercover officers.

He was later transferred to Marquette and wrote the radical manifesto, "Guitar Army," while incarcerated. Sinclair was allowed a record player while in prison and listened to Big Brother and the Holding Company's "Cheap Thrills," Jimi Hendrix's "Are You Experienced" and the MC5's first album, of course.

Sinclair was released on appeal bond on Dec. 13, 1971, three days after a "Free John Now," rally was held at the University of Michigan featuring a performance by ex-Beatle John Lennon and Yoko Ono. The event drew attention to Sinclair, and the Michigan Supreme Court later overturned his conviction

Another member of the MC5's inner circle, Lawrence (Pun) Plamondon, referred to as "minister of defense" on the group's first LP, had another unpleasant experience with the law in the U. P.

Plamondon, a revolutionary activist, founded the White Panther Party with Sinclair and established a commune at 1510 Hill St. in Ann Arbor. He later went underground when he learned he was being charged with conspiracy in the bombing of the local CIA office.

The first hippie to make the FBI's "Ten Most Wanted" list, Plamondon covertly returned to lower Michigan after traveling to various foreign locations. On July 23, 1970, he headed to the Upper Peninsula, where a hide-out had been arranged. Plamondon and two White Panthers were drinking beer as their Volkswagen bus, allegedly filled with guns, moved north, toward the Mackinac Bridge. When a State Police trooper noticed empties being thrown from the vehicle, he pulled it over and forced the occupants to retrieve the cans. Later, when police discovered Plamondon used a fake ID, the fugitive was arrested 50 miles west of St. Ignace.

Although he spent 32 months in prison, Plamondon's conviction was also overturned when the government admitted to wiretapping without a warrant. The case later proved crucial when Nixon resigned following the Watergate break-in.

Plamondon, of Ottawa descent, went on to work for Bob Seger as a bodyguard and also drove semi for Kiss and Foreigner. The author of a memoir on his life, Plamondon now lives in Barry County, and is a respected tribal elder.

Sinclair later formed the Blues Scholars as an outlet for his poetry and has released several compact discs. He emigrated to the Netherlands two years ago.

The MC5, meanwhile, played their last gig on New Years Eve, 1972, at the Grande Ballroom. They were paid $100 each. The band disintegrated amidst heavy drug use, their revolutionary dream unrealized.

While they released only three albums during their brief lifespan, interest in the MC5 remains unflagging today.

Ringo Starr saves the world

You know Spiderman, the Fantastic Four, Hulk and the X-Men, characters created by Stan Lee. Now meet Lee's latest superhero: Ringo Starr. Yes, the man who sang "Yellow Submarine" and drummed on countless Beatles classics will appear in an animated DVD to be released later this year. Ringo will provide his voice and soundtrack music to the project but Lee hasn't specified what secret powers the character will possess. However, it's a good bet he'll battle evil, save the world, and use sterling rhythm to do it.

Ringo actually has some "experience" in the area of animation. Old-timers will remember TV's Beatles cartoons, which haven't been seen since they originally aired in the 1960s. The feature film "Yellow Submarine" has been released on DVD and continues to thrill audiences young and old with its groundbreaking psychedelic sequences. Don't forget Ringo's appearance on "The Simpsons," during which he finally answered Marge's fan letter from 1964.

Besides appearing as a superhero, Ringo will undertake a 22-date tour during June and July. This version of his All-Starr Band features special guests Rod Argent (of the Zombies), Edgar Winter, Billy Squier and Richard Marx. Regulars including drummer Sheila E, musical director Mark Rivera and Starr-collaborator Mark Hudson will return.

The tour will originate with two dates at Casino Rama in Orilla, Ontario, where the band will rehearse. That will be followed by just two shows in the Midwest: Detroit on June 16 and Chicago June 17.

In both recording and touring, Ringo will tell you he has gotten by "with a little help from my friends," as one of his song titles says. His 1973 "Ringo" album was the original all-star affair featuring his three ex-Beatle bandmates. Ringo applied the same idea to touring when he launched the first All-Starr trek in 1989.

Ringo's musical friends that year included saxman Clarence Clemens; Rick Danko and Levon Helm from the Band; Dr. John; Nils Lofgren; keyboardist Billy Preston; drummer Jim Keltner and one-time Eagle Joe Walsh. My wife Sue and I were in the audience for a show at downstate Charlevoix. Seeing such music luminaries on stage together made for a fast-moving and entertaining program which included Walsh's "Rocky Mountain Way" and plenty of Ringo's hits. Flashing "victory" signs with both hands, Ringo appeared to be a superhero in the making.

The 65-year-old musician's nostalgic good-time formula created another memorable show for us at Marcus Center's Uihlein Hall in Milwaukee during 2003. All-Starrs this time out included Paul Carrack (Mike and the Mechanics); Colin Hay (Men at Work); John Waite (the Babys); and Sheila E ("The Glamorous Life"). Ringo surprised the crowd by performing his "Don't Pass Me By" from the Beatles "White Album" for the first time in concert. Fans also heard the drummerman polish his image with "It Don't Come Easy," "Honey Don't," "Boys," "No No Song," and "I Wanna Be Your Man."

Also in 2003, Starr began recording for independent label Koch Records and produced "Ringorama" that year. He followed that album with "Choose Love" in 2005. Both discs have been warmly received by fans and critics.

Ringo, of course, has been recording for over four decades. He generally had a song on every Beatles album (except "Let It Be") and scored 14 hits as a solo artist. He topped the Billboard singles chart in 1973 and 1974 with "Photograph" and "You're Sixteen."

Despite achieving seven consecutive Top Ten hits, recording a dozen top-notch studio albums, continual touring and other creative endeavors, Ringo has yet to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist. That's a shame. Fellow Beatles John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison have already been accorded the honor.

So, Ringo stands ready to save the world, but does the Hall of Fame have room for a superhero? Perhaps Ringo's new status will elevate him to membership. After all, comic book mogul Stan Lee promised Ringo he'd do his "best to make him famous."