Carl Raynes, Oklahoma State University graduate and lead singer for “Boss Tweed” in the 60’s.

Carl Raynes, Frontman
Born: Seagraves, Texas, April 3,1949
Graduated: Tulsa Will Rogers 1967
Graduated: Oklahoma State University 1971
Real Job: Representative for the Ben E. Keith Company
Married to: Vicki, November 24, 1970
One daughter: Heather Bradley
Two granddaughters: Blair Bradley age 8 and Emma age 3.

My first band was the “Road Agents”. I was in ninth grade at Clevelandjunior high. We did not own any equipment so we rented amps and a p.a. to play teen towns at Springdale, McClure and other recreation centers around town. We played Beatles, Buddy Holly, Freddy and the Dreamers, Rolling Stones, and Beau Brummels. I think we knew about 15 songs. Most of our gigs were about an hour long. That was about all the audience could handle. The coolest thing about the Road Agents was that it was my first paying gig. There were five of us, and we charged twenty dollars to play. The downside was that the equipment rental was twenty-five dollars.

My other high school bands were basically the same personnel with different names. We did this primarily to trick people into hiring us that had heard us before. My favorite band was called “Him and the Others”. We actually recorded a commercial for a political campaign that actually got airplay.

My freshman year at OSU I joined a band called “Crystalline Silence”. We won a Battle of the Bands at Utica Square that year. All the band members lived in Tulsa except for me. We were lined up to play the Rajah Rock at the Cimarron Ballroom. Two weeks before the big dance the lead guitar player called me and told me the band had broken up and would not be playing the event. Imagine my surprise when I went to the event and saw all the members of Crystalline Silence on stage but me. In my place were three black guys (great singers by the way). The new band was called “Soul Section”.

Every Monday night at OSU at that time the fraternities and sororities pledge classes got together for a little ordeal called “dance hour”. We would bring the sorority pledge classes over to the fraternity house for an hour of listening to records and talking. We decided it would be cool if we had a live band to play. Thus, my sophomore year, “Boss Tweed” was formed. My good friend and fraternity brother Lindy Gardner was instrumental in the founding of Boss Tweed. He was (and is) a great singer of soul music. He could tear up some James Brown.

Boss Tweed became more and more popular. We played local venues like Spav’s, the Wet Olive, The Family Dog as well as lots of fraternity and sorority parties. With the addition of Charlie Davis on lead guitar and Mike Bohnsack on keyboard, Boss Tweed really took off. Soon, we were playing all over Oklahoma and surrounding states. Lindy came down with strep throat and decided to quit the band. I think he actually came down with the realization that rock and roll and good grades in college did not mix. Another fraternity brother, Paul Felzke, replaced him. Paul is a great singer and is married to the former Donna Williams who sang around Tulsa for many years. Their son and daughter perform as Joe and Ellen and are really great. You need to catch their act sometime so you can say; “I saw them when.”

Anyway, back to the story: The highlight of singing with Paul was our performance at the Stillwater Rock Festival in 1970. The best rock bands in Oklahoma were all there. Ravi Shankar, (the sitar player) headlined the show. There were about 10,000 people there in a field where the Mercury Marine Plant is now on Perkins road. When we played “Higher,” by Sly and the Family Stone, the entire crowd was on their feet throwing the “peace” sign. My last gig with Boss Tweed was New Years Eve of 1970. Vicki and I were now married and I had one more semester of school.

Fast forward to May of 1997. Vicki answers the phone at our house and tells me there is a guy asking for the Carl Raynes that sang with Boss Tweed in the sixties. It was Jim Stunkard, our bass player, on the phone. He told me he had run across some guys who played in different bands around town in the sixties; and that they were looking for a lead singer and frontman. Although we didn’t know each other, I was familiar with all their bands and anxious to get together with them. We started out just getting together on Tuesday nights to play a little of the 60’s music. I convinced the “then president” of my company to hire us for our annual awards banquet at Shangri-la. Our first gig was gruesome, as most of my co-workers will be glad to tell you. However, we hung in there, practiced and began playing more and more. Pretty soon we started to sound decent. It has been a blast ever since. Who would have thought we would all be playing the music we love and having the time of our lives after a thirty-year hiatus?

With the support of a great many people who also enjoy 60’s music, we have gotten to do things and go places that we still have a hard time believing. The Mid Life Crisis Band will rock as long as we have the strength to climb up on a stage. Thank you for supporting us.