This 7″ 45 plus an old concert flyer for a Road Runners show in Fresno, CA passed through my hands at work recently.
Now, I know what you’re thinking: “Evan, who cares about some random garage 45? Where’s the prog-rock? Where’s the weirdo outsider shit?”
Well, let me tell about the Road Runners. It’ll make sense soon…
The Road Runners were a garage band from Fresno, California who released a couple 45s in the mid-60s on the Morocco label. According to the website Garage Hangover, “Morocco was located at 1415 W. Scott in Fresno, and judging by label numbers seems to have put out 20 or so records.” The comments section on that website includes a post from former-band member Larry Karagozian stating the Road Runners were actually formed in 1962 by himself and Ozie Georgner at Fresno High. “We just got together for a senior assembly for fun. The kids loved it so much, we decided to stay together. As the saying goes, the rest was history.”
So, who else was in the band? Denver Cross played guitar. Dale Samuelian played keyboards, Bob Trippell played sax, Randy Hall provided lead vocals and bass, and Steve Heitkotter played drums.
Heitkotter!?
Yes, that’s the very same Stephen David Heitkotter we know and love here at Swan Fungus. In fact, Heitkotter even wrote one song for the group, “Pretty Me” [MP3] before he was institutionalized and the self-titled Heitkotter album became an underground/collector scum “holy grail.”
Road Runners
Goodbye / Tell Her You Love Her
Morocco, 196?
MediaFire DL Link
A. Goodbye
B. Tell Her You Love Her
