Behind a Pub and Taco, between an auto shop and an all-night laundromat, I remember hearing the sweaty strains of "He's Waitin'" known only then to The Sonics of the great northwest. As the Droogs set into a Shadows Of Night original "Light Bulb Blues", I moved to the parking lot, where some dude, Marlboro suspended from his lip, quipped: "Fucking amazing, huh?"

Actually, it was rockin' Ron Weiser who recorded their first single at his Ranch del Elvis in midsummer seventy-three. The second forty-five "Set My Love On You" and Ray's classic "I'm Not Like Everybody Else" was done at the deluxe Silvery Moon studios earlier the following year. That same session propelled the marimba-ladened "Get Away", held in limbo until "Ahead Of My Time" was written, performed and released in the fall of seventy-four.

Shipper, Shaw, Barnes and Bangs dubbed it "Punk", but visionaries often predestine. The band regrettably fell from sight after their fourth single, the Albin-Clay ode to the legendary Sky Saxon "Overnight Success" backed with the equally prophetic "Last Laugh". Except for the two tracks on Rhino's first couple of anthologies, I didn't hear from them again until seventy-nine.

Bending brews down at Blackies West, I was checking out Gary Stewart's copy of the new Psycotic Pineapple's cover of "Ahead Of My Time", when the show started. A garage/r'n'b band launched into a smokin' "As Much As I Want" and an hour later mopped the crowd with a definitely Droog's "Off The Hook". They were back and vicious.

You know if you followed them from dive to dive, they were on to something live this time. But I'll never forget Halloween '81 at the Cathay De Grande with The Unclaimed and The Last, when the Droogs debuted "Only Game In Town". Don Waller saved me a taste during their fifteen-minute improv of "Garden Of My Mind", and we smiled at their vengeance. The rest, as they say, is the future.