A friend of mine sent me this link today... it's a 1951 Cadillac Hearse that used to belong to the Ottumwa, Iowa '60s garage band MADD, who I've never heard, but were idolized by Craig Moore & his band GONN (who were also from Iowa). Anyway, this thing is in Memphis, Missouri and is for sale for just $650! (Yeah, it needs a little work...)

http://stlouis.craigslist.org/cto/3033875179.html

Offically no ,Madd didn't but Casey an I reworked a song of long lost love that I penned as Falling Waters...no copyright of course.It became the first few stanzas of "Go Back" ...We sat at the Mill bar in Iowa City a short time before Casey Fautz's demise and hummed and laughed about my lame lyrics.Without Crabby Appleton this short tune would have fallen into obscurity.

CRAIG MOORE said:

MADD didn't make a record, to the best of my knowledge they never wrote a song, but they were the ultimate garage cover band. SO good, they knocked us out totally. We were still beginner's in the Pagans. I don't think we had met Rex & Brent yet when we first saw MADD, and I had only been playing bass for a couple of months. Barry the bass player looked like McCartney & played a Gibson EB-1 violin shaped bass left handed. He was amazing as were all of them. I asked him how long it was going to take me to get a handle on bass and he told me "oh about 6 months and you'll start to get it, start to 'hear' things." We were practing & learning songs and listening to records 24/7 of course, and I literally watched the calendar and at that 6 month mark 'viola!' I started hearing octaves and such on the records, started to decipher the 1 from a harmonic note, etc. Still had a LONG way to go but that remark was magic. MADD did "Rain" letter perfect when it was NEW, at a time when most bands could only listen in awe to the record. The organist was Casey Foutz who eventually left Ottumwa with Phil Jones (Enoch Smoky) and were founding members in LA of Crabby Appleton, "Go Back" etc. MADD evolved into THE UPSTAIRS PLAYGROUND in 1968 and got very very psychedelic, California acid drenched, guitarist Mike Sexton was beyond fabulous as a guitarist & vocalist, last time I saw him was 1968 or 1969 and he looked exactly like a taller version of Dickie Peterson (Blue Cheer). He's either a highly paid session musician with a huge ranch in Montana, a rocket scientist, born again, or dead. I have no idea. David Bernstein the drummer was one of the greatest unknown shit kickers you could imagine. We did LSD together once, I think David got a little wierded out by that scene. I heard some vague rumblings about him in the early 70's but never knew where he ended up. I hope he's fine and I hope he never lost his love of music, he was great. But MADD's bass player had a huge impact on me personally, and the band was idolized thoroughly by The Pagans and GONN, and in fact they inspired both the spelling of our name AND the fact that we adamantly enforced the "no 'THE'" rule, as did MADD. The fact that we had our own hearse was as close as we could get to being as cool as MADD, in our minds. Until we made a record, anyway.  I saw this hearse ad about 6 months or so ago and sent it out to Phil Jones just as a reminder of the good old days back here in the midwest.  I saw Casey back in Ottumwa about 1983 when my band Ready Steady Go was playing a club there. He had been playing with Pacific Gas & Electric in LA and had a heart attack, moved back to the home town to recuperate and get his head together. It was great to see him, he always reminded me of Gene Clark, but he seemed pretty down and not very happy. I was pleased that he remembered me and the band and all the times we hung out with them. Not too long after that I heard he had another heart attack and died. Very sad. So all you fans of records by GONN, you need to say a 'hail Mary' for Casey and never forget there was a band called MADD that maybe didn't make a record but their impact is with you still, every time you hear GONN or hear another story of the Iowa scene 1965-1968. There were the ultimate Iowa garage band. 

I'm glad to know i had a positive influence on someone back then.I remember the first night that we did a long rave up to I'm a man in Keokuk.my fingers were bleeding by the time we loaded equipment and got back in the pictured Madd hearse.I contacted a VERY talented garage band from the Netherlands a couple years back called "The Madd" told them I too was a left handed guitar player in a U.S. band in the early 60's by the same nameI .heard no reply.I'm sure they thought the poster was photoshopped.Odly enough I went on their myspace music site and the logo on the drums and keyboard are almost an exact copy in lettering style that's on the old rusting Madd hearse. LOLNice to be in contact again after half a century Craig.

CRAIG MOORE said:

MADD didn't make a record, to the best of my knowledge they never wrote a song, but they were the ultimate garage cover band. SO good, they knocked us out totally. We were still beginner's in the Pagans. I don't think we had met Rex & Brent yet when we first saw MADD, and I had only been playing bass for a couple of months. Barry the bass player looked like McCartney & played a Gibson EB-1 violin shaped bass left handed. He was amazing as were all of them. I asked him how long it was going to take me to get a handle on bass and he told me "oh about 6 months and you'll start to get it, start to 'hear' things." We were practing & learning songs and listening to records 24/7 of course, and I literally watched the calendar and at that 6 month mark 'viola!' I started hearing octaves and such on the records, started to decipher the 1 from a harmonic note, etc. Still had a LONG way to go but that remark was magic. MADD did "Rain" letter perfect when it was NEW, at a time when most bands could only listen in awe to the record. The organist was Casey Foutz who eventually left Ottumwa with Phil Jones (Enoch Smoky) and were founding members in LA of Crabby Appleton, "Go Back" etc. MADD evolved into THE UPSTAIRS PLAYGROUND in 1968 and got very very psychedelic, California acid drenched, guitarist Mike Sexton was beyond fabulous as a guitarist & vocalist, last time I saw him was 1968 or 1969 and he looked exactly like a taller version of D***ie Peterson (Blue Cheer). He's either a highly paid session musician with a huge ranch in Montana, a rocket scientist, born again, or dead. I have no idea. David Bernstein the drummer was one of the greatest unknown shit kickers you could imagine. We did LSD together once, I think David got a little wierded out by that scene. I heard some vague rumblings about him in the early 70's but never knew where he ended up. I hope he's fine and I hope he never lost his love of music, he was great. But MADD's bass player had a huge impact on me personally, and the band was idolized thoroughly by The Pagans and GONN, and in fact they inspired both the spelling of our name AND the fact that we adamantly enforced the "no 'THE'" rule, as did MADD. The fact that we had our own hearse was as close as we could get to being as cool as MADD, in our minds. Until we made a record, anyway.  I saw this hearse ad about 6 months or so ago and sent it out to Phil Jones just as a reminder of the good old days back here in the midwest.  I saw Casey back in Ottumwa about 1983 when my band Ready Steady Go was playing a club there. He had been playing with Pacific Gas & Electric in LA and had a heart attack, moved back to the home town to recuperate and get his head together. It was great to see him, he always reminded me of Gene Clark, but he seemed pretty down and not very happy. I was pleased that he remembered me and the band and all the times we hung out with them. Not too long after that I heard he had another heart attack and died. Very sad. So all you fans of records by GONN, you need to say a 'hail Mary' for Casey and never forget there was a band called MADD that maybe didn't make a record but their impact is with you still, every time you hear GONN or hear another story of the Iowa scene 1965-1968. There were the ultimate Iowa garage band. 

I think that whole 'doing everything together' actually was a result of and came straight out of "A Hard Day's Night", that made a major league impression on just about every aspiring musician around the world. Garage bands weren't so much just 'a band' as we were a bunch of gangs with guitars thanks to The Beatles!

Yes we have one or two, I'll see about that. Something else I recall about MADD, by the time they became UPSTAIRS PLAYGROUND they had a band house and lived together, the first such thing I had heard of and it sounded like the ultimate lifestyle to me at the time. As MADD they did everything together and went everywhere together, and GONN did as much of that as possible. It wasn't too hard since Fort Madison & Keokuk were only 21 miles apart and we went back & forth continually. But no GONN band house! But in those days that would have been like locking the Irish & the British in the same house anyway. Ha!

kopper said:

Great story, thanks. Craig, if you've got any photos of the GONN hearse, you should post 'em here!

Hearses rule, especially band ones.

Great story, thanks. Craig, if you've got any photos of the GONN hearse, you should post 'em here!

MADD didn't make a record, to the best of my knowledge they never wrote a song, but they were the ultimate garage cover band. SO good, they knocked us out totally. We were still beginner's in the Pagans. I don't think we had met Rex & Brent yet when we first saw MADD, and I had only been playing bass for a couple of months. Barry the bass player looked like McCartney & played a Gibson EB-1 violin shaped bass left handed. He was amazing as were all of them. I asked him how long it was going to take me to get a handle on bass and he told me "oh about 6 months and you'll start to get it, start to 'hear' things." We were practing & learning songs and listening to records 24/7 of course, and I literally watched the calendar and at that 6 month mark 'viola!' I started hearing octaves and such on the records, started to decipher the 1 from a harmonic note, etc. Still had a LONG way to go but that remark was magic. MADD did "Rain" letter perfect when it was NEW, at a time when most bands could only listen in awe to the record. The organist was Casey Foutz who eventually left Ottumwa with Phil Jones (Enoch Smoky) and were founding members in LA of Crabby Appleton, "Go Back" etc. MADD evolved into THE UPSTAIRS PLAYGROUND in 1968 and got very very psychedelic, California acid drenched, guitarist Mike Sexton was beyond fabulous as a guitarist & vocalist, last time I saw him was 1968 or 1969 and he looked exactly like a taller version of Dickie Peterson (Blue Cheer). He's either a highly paid session musician with a huge ranch in Montana, a rocket scientist, born again, or dead. I have no idea. David Bernstein the drummer was one of the greatest unknown shit kickers you could imagine. We did LSD together once, I think David got a little wierded out by that scene. I heard some vague rumblings about him in the early 70's but never knew where he ended up. I hope he's fine and I hope he never lost his love of music, he was great. But MADD's bass player had a huge impact on me personally, and the band was idolized thoroughly by The Pagans and GONN, and in fact they inspired both the spelling of our name AND the fact that we adamantly enforced the "no 'THE'" rule, as did MADD. The fact that we had our own hearse was as close as we could get to being as cool as MADD, in our minds. Until we made a record, anyway.  I saw this hearse ad about 6 months or so ago and sent it out to Phil Jones just as a reminder of the good old days back here in the midwest.  I saw Casey back in Ottumwa about 1983 when my band Ready Steady Go was playing a club there. He had been playing with Pacific Gas & Electric in LA and had a heart attack, moved back to the home town to recuperate and get his head together. It was great to see him, he always reminded me of Gene Clark, but he seemed pretty down and not very happy. I was pleased that he remembered me and the band and all the times we hung out with them. Not too long after that I heard he had another heart attack and died. Very sad. So all you fans of records by GONN, you need to say a 'hail Mary' for Casey and never forget there was a band called MADD that maybe didn't make a record but their impact is with you still, every time you hear GONN or hear another story of the Iowa scene 1965-1968. There were the ultimate Iowa garage band. 

More photos here:

http://millerag.net/sale/s174458297/1951_Cadillac_Hearse

Wow.