The Duplex Planet*
Number 5, October 1979
Concert review: Ruthie & Rainbow Rhythm
September 19, 1979
Terry Wollman- guitar
Danny LaVictoire- acoustic bass
Ruthie Ristich- voice

* David Greenberger has been exploring issues of aging and decline as well as
our culture's avoidance of the subject since he started publishing The Duplex Planet in 1979. Since then, the ruminations, conversations and interviews which fill its pages have been collected into books (Tell Me If I've Stopped, Duplex Planet: Everybody's Asking Who I Was, Trees Breathe Out People Breathe IN) and CDs (the most recent CD is The Duplex Planet Radio Hour with music by Terry Adams of NRBQ). They've also been performed as monologues, been the source of two documentary films and adapted into comic books and a play. His stories and musings are featured on NPR's All Things Considered. More information about the Duplex Planet is available at the website: http://www.duplexplanet.com

Ken Eglin: Thank you very much. I was gonna cry because I loved it so much.

Herbie Caldwell: It wasn't bad. Pretty good. I could hear it again sometime.

Frank Hooker: Very good band. The singer, the star, she's very nice, very attractive. And the orchestra she had there was very nice.

Pete Kondell: It was good, very good. Very good indeed. I appreciate it. Thank you Dave. You're the head of it all. I did all right today - bowling and a concert. Did I have a 60 or a 70?

John Colton: It was okay, good. It was watchable.

Arthur Brown: It was good. It was nothing out of the ordinary, but it was reasonable. It was a nice little surprise to hear it.

Bill Sears: It was all right. She's the girl that went to the museum with us, ain't it? I was surprised. I heard her make sounds when we had coffee at the museum but I didn't think she could sing this. She's a good singer.

Fergie: Very good. Good band. A damn good band. What, did they do that for free?

DBG: I gave them a donation.

Fergie: Would five hundred be a good donation? Or would a thousand be better? I can make it a grand. What do you think? You know, I'm worth millions. Do you think five hundred would be a good contribution?

Bill Lagasse: The patients enjoyed you. We want you back.

Tom Lavin: It was beautiful. I heard some before but I couldn't pull it out of the bag. I couldn't say which bag.

Edgar Majors: It was very good. I like it very much.

Larry Green: It was all right! Where'd they come from? I used to sing Sweet Adeline. I was waving and she winked. I asked her to play Sweet Adeline and she just winked.
George MacWilliams: It was very good, very good. I could hear perfectly from here. I can't clap my hands like everyone else so I don't want to look like a dummy or like I don't appreciate it, so I stay away. It was very good, very good.

Bill Thivierge: Very good. Very nice. I enjoyed that very much. I want to thank you for wakin' me up and takin' me out there. It was very good. I don't know how she does it, I honestly don't I says, "You've got a good voice and it would be a shame to waste it so you take care of it," and she says, "I will". And the other two were very good. I told them, "I don't know how you do it." I like music very much.

Arthur Wallace: Hey is there any coffee left?

DBG: There wasn't any coffee.

Arthur: What'd you have?

DBG: It was a concert.

Arthur: Oh yea, I heard some of the music.

Walter Kiernan: It was lousy. The Philharmonic in Salem, that's good music. A blind man could do what they did. In fact, I knew a blind piano player once.

Justin Strassinskus: Good!

Bernie Reagan: It was nice. I like that kind of music.

Hugh Ferguson: It was good. I could hear it pretty good. They were singing loud.

Abe Berkover: It was interesting. It's not the music I usually listen to, but I liked it just the same.

Bill McGinn: I loved that, believe me. I missed a piano, but those boys are all right! They're swell. Damn good singer.

Ken Eglin: Everything was perfect. I know bands. I know bands from way back, for Christ sake. One of the best bands - there used to be two of 'em - one of 'em was Chick Webb. He died. He's the one who got Ella Fitzgerald started, way back in the early thirties. And Jimmy Lunceford - he died, too. But these kids wouldn't know about them. I don't think they were even born then, it was the early thirties. These two were the best bands at that time. And Cab Calloway came along with a pick- up band - you could hire guys from different outfits.

And there was Fats Waller. He died - early part of World War II. What a great man he was. Best piano player I ever heard - and FAT - oh Jesus was he fat!

And there was Duke Ellington...Earl Fatha Hines - he's still alive. Big tall man - he's taller than Surgecoff. But very neat. But ugly! If he came in the door he'd scare the shit out of you. If you were laying in bed and he came in and turned the light on, you'd scream! I call him the Monster.
Now this band, they're very good. Let them stay the way they are. They don't need to go and put a horn in there. Stay the way they are. If they stay the way they are they'll do all right. But they've got to spread themselves. They've got to go around to the barrooms. But it'll be rough on them because they've got the strippers in the bars now. They've got to keep pushin' themselves, keep going. Get a sponsor, a manager. They gotta keep ongoing. Maybe they'll end up with someone else in that band - a horn player, and maybe they'll get a drummer in there and a piano player. They're young. I want to see those kids get ahead. And you can see she's had an education - you can hear it - she's good. But she's got to keep going. Keep learning. Keep pushing. She's got it but she can't stop now. Keep going. Keep getting better and better.