Amnesia

Tampa, FL 197x-1976

New York, NY 1976-197x

Amnesia was a rock and roll band from Tampa, Florida, that gained local popularity in the bay area in the mid 1970s. They also made news many times in the underground zines of the time like Bomp Magazine and Phonograph Records Magazine.

Ralph Raymond Smith (guitarist, keyboardist and main songwriter, often referred to with his initials RRS)

Gary Heson (drums)

Robert Watkins (bass).

History Goes Here

• Ahh
• Bricktwister
• Up The Laundry Schute
• Cry Uncle
• Over And Out
• Chiropractially Yours
• Close To The Late Great Me
• All In Fun
• It All Comes True
• Invited
• Requests
• Where The Hell Is My Boy
• What A Corker
• All In Time

• It’s My Party/Judy’s Turn To Cry (Leslie Gore)
• Jean Genie (Bowie)
• Dirty Water (Standells)
• All Right Now (Free)
• Dancing In The Streets (Martha Reeves and the Vandellas)
• TV Eye (The Stooges)
• Kinks Medley

Ahhh/Bricktwister/Up The Laundry Schute - 1974 Earshot Records

Cry Uncle/Over and Out - 1975 Earshot Records

Terry Carolan was briefly in Amnesia as the 2nd guitarist but didn’t record with them, just played a few live gigs. When he left he formed Just Boys.

Somewhere I have an Amnesia live tape where they played a medley of kinks tunes live. As I remember quite a few early and mid-period kinks tunes nicely strung together as a 3 minute medley. One of the things I loved about Amnesia was that you didn’t really know what to expect. Oh Susanna sandwiched into the middle of an original song like “Where The Hell Is My Boy”, or unexpected covers like It’s My Party and Judy’s Turn To Cry. Clever twists all over the place. For me they were as interesting as any band I ever saw, and RRS was as eccentric in his own right as Roy Wood or mid-70’s Bowie. They were a radical and welcome contrast to the lame bar boogie or southern rock of the time. - Gary Littleton

The first time I heard Ahh was amazing. A 3 chord anthem that was musically as good as others I loved like “Do Ya”, and with attitude and clever playful lyrics that you could tell were being channeled at the speed of light... Something interesting that I could relate to, unlike all the lame ass Foreigner, Kansas, Boston, Styx, etc that people wanted me to listen to every day. - Gary Littleton

Amnesia were one of those bands LONG on the list of BOMP mentions that me and my friends were curious about. It’s great to finally hear the tracks too. Ahhh is especially a killer - Collin Makamson, Writer for Power Pop Zine http://totalrockmania.com

After 10 at night, I knocked off for the day, and rode down to the local tavern, the Collage Saloon and Cinema, one of the world’s great hippie bars, and drank 25 cent drafts ‘til midnight. The North Tampa neighborhood which was fast growing around USF had supported student watering holes before, The Wild Boar and Rasputin’s were active before my drinking days, both had mysteriously burned down during police raids. The Collage survived and spawned a host of imitators, the Wit’s End, Mi Back Yard and the Losers (a genuine rock and roll glitter palace that occasionally hosted some big name acts). The local bands weren’t bad either, the Outlaws got their start at the Collage, and I remember fondly two other very heavy three-piece rock outfits, now defunct, Albatross and Amnesia - ER

First off, yes, “Dirty Water” was not only a great freakin’ song, LOTS of fun to play, but also “thank you very much, good night”. You won’t remember and will never hear “Them Changes”. When I was a roadie with Tacks, Robert, Ralph and I were screwing around in Gerry Mulaney’s dad’s shop (where Tacks practiced) waiting for the slackers to show up. I had recently been to the Buddy Miles, Uriah Heep, Deep Purple concert at Curtis Hixon. Needless to say, Buddy was NOT my fave. So, I plopped behind Larry’s drums, gave my best rendition of the BM hit with the R’s laughlingly joining in. Another classic moment living only in memory. Like the Watkins/Heslin Blues Sessions. - Gary Heslin (reply to a question from Gary Littleton)

“Them Changes” did have a single live rendering as I recall. 1:30am, St. Petersburg, Dr. Feelgood. The tiny audience hated us with particular gusto that evening. Red-headed tart Jean Lamm and her Satanic boyfriend huddled at the bar as we careened thru crowd faves like “What A Corker” and “TV Eye”. Mr. Heslin, fueled by boredom and/or free beer, took to the ‘stage’, bashed out a relentless take on “Changes” (the longgggg version), then berated what was left of the audience and threw his beer mug at the PA...An excellent performance.

and tv eye/louie, louie was cut at WFSO with Dave Rennie and Glenn, the station manager giving it a bewildered ‘thumbs up’... RRS (reply to above July 2006)

http://www.garylittleton.net - Gary Littleton’s Place Has several Amnesia and RRS songs for play or download.