Saturday, July 29, 2006

Wayne Cochran: Patron Saint of this Site

It was probably March 1967 when I first laid eyes on Wayne Cochran. I was a 17-year-old kid sitting on the bleachers in the packed and highly charged humid atmosphere of the North Miami High School gym. WQAM brought the "King of Blue-eyed Soul" and their DJ's (I think Rick Shaw was one of them) to play the coaches in basketball for God-knows-what. All I remember was his hair. It was all his and it was amazing-- especially when it didn't seem to move when he ran up and down the basketball court. The crewcut coaches looked at him as if he were some kind of freak (those poor bastards, they, like most parents and teachers back then, didn't know what to make of boys starting to grow their hair long). All I know is he had a major hit on the radio called "Going Back To Miami" that had everyone singing and dancing and as far as I was concerned, he was the most over-the-top earthling I'd seen up to that time-- and he would have held that position if David Bowie, Alice Cooper, Boy George, and Marilyn Manson hadn't made the scene. He's now a Harley riding ordained preacher for a church he founded in Miami called Voice for Jesus http://www.voiceforjesus.org/. God Bless him.

Special thanks goes out to SibLING SHOT ON THE BLEACHERS for his help and exposure to his way cool blog.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a blast from the past this is! I also grew up in Miami in the 60's and went to Miami-Palmetto High School. WOW, do I remember Wayne Cochran, I also remember listening faithfully to Rick Shaw on WQAM, via a little plastic transistor radio I took every where. Nice to know that Wayne is still with us and still able to ride a Harley! He found his calling in working for the Lord. I, myself am Jewish, but I respect him for what he's doing.

Naomi Hersh Clackum
North Central Fla

Anonymous said...

I saw Wayne in Champaign Illinois and at night club on 95th street in Chicago, early 70's. Great entertainer, wild as a March Hare!

Phil Smith.
Illinois