The Crabs

Robbie Leff was a guitarist for Houston garage band The Crabs. Collector’s of 1960’s rock and roll recall The Crabs for their classic garage tune “Chase Yourself” - a song Leff wrote purely as a joke for guys in his dorm. Although Leff has also written more serious songs - covered by the likes of Johnny Winter and Alice Cooper – he graciously agreed to provide 60sgaragebands.com with the story on his 1960’s teen combo.

An Interview with Robbie Leff

60sgaragebands.com (60s): How did you first get interested in music?

Robbie Leff (RL): Let me first say that it's an unexpected kick to be included on your website. I never imagined that there would be an interview about The Crabs, especially since we weren't very well-known back in the '60's.

There was one piece of music that first caught my ear when I was about five years old, Tchaikovsky's "Waltz of The Flowers", and it always brings back great memories. And this may seem kind of strange but another huge favorite from my childhood was Sousa's "The Stars and Stripes Forever". I guess I've always liked heavily orchestrated stuff. Perfect example: my all-time favorite record is Richard Harris's "MacArthur Park".

My mom had a record collection and so did my older brother, so there was always music playing in our house. I can remember being a little kid and playing 78s by Glenn Miller, Frankie Laine, Johnnie Ray, The Four Freshmen, Les Paul and Mary Ford. This was mostly pre-rock'n'roll stuff. Then my brother started bringing home things like "Maybelline", "Heartbreak Hotel", "Tutti Frutti"...that's when music started changing and I started my own little record collection. The first 45 I ever bought was "School Day" by Chuck Berry which is still one of the most exciting records I've ever heard. And until The Beatles started happening, it was Elvis Presley who completely blew my mind. He had the most versatile rock'n'roll voice and his songs from the mid-to-late 50's just killed me, especially the ones by Leiber and Stoller.

60s: Was The Crabs your first band?

RL: The Crabs was my third band. I started out on drums at age 13. My first band at that time (1960) was The Classics (with Arnold Richie and Barry Federman on guitars) and we played instrumentals only, Ventures-type stuff. Later on we had a girl singer, Linda Tish. The second band was The Fabulous Falcons. The Falcons had the most amazing lead singer, "Pookie" Binder, a white teenager who sounded black. Roger Badash was the leader and he played guitar, as did David Wadler and Randall Dollahon. I don't remember who played bass. In fact I don't even remember if The Falcons had a bass player. I think those bands lasted about two years each.

60s: Where was The Crabs formed, what year, and by whom?

RL: I had sort of known our drummer, Alec Smith, for many years before the band was formed. I think our friendship started back in the early 60's when I ran into him at a party in Austin where both of our brothers were in a University of Texas fraternity. The Bobby Blue Bland Revue was playing and I remember standing with Alec right in front of that incredible big band, with us looking at each other like, "Can you believe this?".

I started learning to play guitar after hearing The Beatles in December of '63, and when I got good enough at singing and playing, Alec suggested that we start a band. This was in 1966, right after I dropped out of UT Austin and went to work in my father's grocery store in Houston. Alec must've found Jerry and Ed because I never knew them before we all got together as a band. By the way, the band's name was suggested by my best friend from high school, Patti Dahlstrom, who later went on to a successful music career in Los Angeles. As a joke she suggested 'Lobster With The Crabs'. Alec and I thought that was pretty funny, so we shortened it and it stuck.

60s: The Crabs were: Robbie Leff (guitar/vocals); Alec Smith (drums); Jerry DeJong (lead guitar); and Ed Rudnick (bassist). Is that correct? Were there ever any personnel changes?

RL: Before Ed settled in with us we had two different bass players, Ricky Salisbury and Philip Bassist. I'm about 99% sure that Ed played bass on the record. He was always so quiet, it's kind of hard to remember.

60s: Where did the band typically play?

RL: It was mostly small private parties until we hooked up with Buddy Brock who became our manager and produced our record. Buddy had us playing at country clubs, society parties, debutante balls...at times alternating with his own big band. Those were really great-paying gigs for a bunch of teenagers still living at home.

60s: How would you describe the band's sound? What bands influenced you?

RL: We were basically a Top 40 cover band, so whatever the hits were, we tried to play 'em. Alec liked the more soulful stuff, so we did some Wilson Pickett, Sam and Dave, Roy Head and The Traits, etc., while I was more into the pop-rock stuff, so there were songs by The Yardbirds, Raiders, Kinks, Beatles, Stones, DC5, Johnny Rivers, etc. And we backed up Jerry on a few instrumentals...things like "Stoked".

60s: Did you play any of the local teen clubs?

RL: I don't remember ever playing a teen club in Houston, although we did play at the opening of one in Lake Charles, Louisiana. I think it was called The Cave.

60s: Did The Crabs participate in any Battle Of The Bands?

RL: No, we never played any of those. I don't think we even thought about doing it, nor were we ever invited to. But we were big fans of some of the local bands like fever tree, Six Pentz, The Coastliners, Thursday's Children, The 13th Floor Elevators, The Moving Sidewalks, BJ Thomas and The Triumphs. Those were our local heroes, fantastic bands. And Johnny and Edgar Winter had a band called Black Plague, playing every kind of Top 40 hit you could imagine. The most amazing thing ever. For example they would play Byrds songs and you'd swear you were hearing The Byrds.

Around that same time, my friend Andy Chapman, who first took me to see Black Plague, brought Johnny Winter over to my house to listen to some of my original songs and Johnny ended up recording a Dylan-type song of mine called "Avocado Green" (with brother Edgar on organ). I was at the session and it was an incredible thrill, because in 1966 Johnny was already a big name in Houston and Edgar was just an unbelievable talent. Still is of course. And by the way, Andy Chapman, who I've known since we were about 5 years old, was the lead singer in the 70's group Bloontz and he's still writing and singing great. Andy used to sit in with The Crabs sometimes and I think that's when we sounded our best. I keep going off on tangents but this is bringing up a lot of fun memories.

60s: How did The Crabs hook up with Buddy Brock? How active was he in promoting the band?

RL: I had to ask Alec about this when I saw him recently because I couldn't remember how we got with Buddy. Turns out Alec wasn't too clear on it either. But Alec was always trying to get us good representation so we could move up to better paying gigs, so I'm sure he had a lot to do with it. If I remember correctly, Ed Rudnick's dad played in Buddy Brock's big band. If that's correct then there's gotta be some kind of connection through Ed. As far as promoting the band, Buddy was great. I remember working a lot more, and for a lot more money, after he signed us. He was a real gentleman too, a really nice man.

60s: How popular locally did The Crabs become?

RL: I don't remember our gaining any significant local popularity. I'd say we were barely known at all until record companies started reissuing the single many years later. I think it first resurfaced on a Bomp compilation in the 70's or 80's. I remember record shopping at Tower Records in L.A. and I couldn't have been more shocked and happy to discover our song on an album.

60s: How far was the band's "touring" territory?

RL: I originally thought that we only played in Houston except for that one gig in Lake Charles, but when I asked Alec he reminded me that we also played in Beaumont, which was one of the few radio markets that actually played our record. We never got any significant airplay in Houston. I think it was played once. Houston radio was not the least bit interested in The Crabs.

60s: Your group released one single that I'm aware of. Where was the 45 recorded? What do you remember about the recording session?

RL: I think it was recorded at a studio named ACA because I remember returning there by myself about a year later to record some demos. What I remember most is Buddy Brock insisting that we play the backbeat a lot harder on "Chase Yourself"...he was convinced that that would be the key to its success! And I remember being excited about getting to double-track my voice in the studio for the first time. I'd been doing that at home for a year or two with a "sound-on-sound" tape recorder. So my lead vocal was double-tracked and Jerry and I sang the background vocals. I doubt we did more than a couple of takes of the backing tracks because we already had the songs down pretty well from playing them live so many times.

60s: You wrote both "Chase Yourself" and "Bye Bye My Little Girl"? Did you write many original songs during that time? What was your inspiration behind the songs?

RL: I wrote a ton of songs at that time, most of which I just barely remember. "Chase Yourself" was written purely as a joke for the guys in my dorm at UT. One of my best friends there, Tom Stankowski, would always use that expression, "chase yourself". I thought it was funny...that expression was the only inspiration for the lyrics...it was completely made up around the title, not written about any one girl at all. I don't remember writing "Bye Bye My Little Girl" but I know who it was about. The lyrics are pretty juvenile but I still like a couple of the chord changes.

60s: Do any (other) '60's Crabs recordings exist? Are there any vintage live recordings, or unreleased tracks?

RL: No unreleased tracks...we recorded only those two songs in the studio. But there are two or three live recordings and home rehearsal tapes buried somewhere deep in moving boxes at my storage facility. I'm in the process of trying to find those. Unfortunately a lot of my old reel-to-reel tapes were ruined in Tropical Storm Allison and I don't know if The Crabs stuff survived or not.

60s: Did the band make any local TV appearances? Does any home movie film footage exist of the band?

RL: No home movies. We appeared on a live tv morning show when we played that teen club in Lake Charles. We did an interview plugging the opening of the club and then a lip-sync of "Chase Yourself". Someone in the booth mistakenly started the record at 33 rpm, so we must've looked pretty ridiculous for the first 5 or 10 seconds. We just clowned around until they started playing it at the right speed. Too bad it doesn't exist on video because I'd sure love to see that.

60s: What year and why did the band break up?

RL: In 1967 I got a phone call from my old high-school friend, Patti Dahlstrom, who was by then living in L.A. and seeing Bruce Johnston of the Beach Boys. She had played him a tape of my demos and he got on the phone and suggested that I come out to L.A. to pursue songwriting...and a few months later that's exactly what I did. At that same time Alec was off to college in El Paso. That was the end of the band. No big breakup...we just stopped playing and went our separate ways. I know Jerry was teaching guitar for a number of years but it's been a very long time since I've heard from him or Ed.

60s: Please tell me about your career today. How often, and where, do you perform (if at all)? If not, what keeps you busy?

RL: In the late '90's and early 2000's I sang in a duet called Speedy Mancini with Dale Marks before he moved to L.A. to work in the film industry. We did mostly '60's pop stuff, two-part harmony, some Everly Brothers, lots of British Invasion stuff. About two years ago I started writing songs again with lyricist Jeff Bleiel. An illness last year screwed up my vocal cords but I hope to get back to writing and singing soon. I have a 24-track digital recorder set up in my bedroom and it could use some exercise.

60s: How do you best summarize your experiences with The Crabs?

RL: Lots of laughs and lots of fun. But Alec Smith was a slave-driver! I wanted to stay at home and watch Shindig and Hullabaloo...he somehow forced me to go out and work. But he's still one of my best friends. And everything worked out ok...I've got Shindig and Hullabaloo on DVD!



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