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The end of the sixties decade was marked by the decline in the popularity of soul music and rhythm and blues. Top artists of the 1969 included The Supremes, the Temptations, James Brown and Sly & the Family Stone. In 1970 the top 20 artists for the year featured the Carpenters, Bobby Sherman, Glen Campbell and Tom Jones, while Wilson Picket had left behind "Funky Broadway" for an embarrassing remake of the Archies "Sugar, Sugar". If you were a professional musician and wanted to work, you got your hair styled, picked up a couple of stylish tops, a few jump suits and ruffled shirts, bought a Shure Vocal Master PA system and a Hammond M1 and began playing bowling alleys, bars, hotel lounges and nightclubs. |
1970 - 1971
Bumble
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Bob made that transition with help from former Caretaker and high school buddy, Lauren McArthur, who had formed a trio and began performing at small nightclubs, resorts and bowling alleys around the Midwest. They called themselves "Bumble", with Jim "Kozy" Kozan on the Hammond B3 playing keyboards and kicking bass pedals and Lauren on the drums, Bob Burtis played piano, and later hired Andy Loveless to take over on drums, when Lauren switched to guitar.
This popular quartet was a regular attraction at the world reknowned "C.C. Tap" in south Minneapolis and they made many trips in their orange band school bus to Bemidji for shows at several northern Minnesota hotels and resorts.
Up until this time in his musical career, Bob had played piano, saxophone and trumpet, but had never considered himself a singer (and thirty years later, many still challenge such a premise). Upon joining the original trio, though, Lauren informed him that "There's only three guys in this band - and everyone sings." And so began Bob's adventure into the world of rock & roll singing, beginning with a chart-topper from 1971 by "The Stampeeders" entitled "Sweet City Woman".
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Jim "Kozy" Kozan |
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Andy Loveless |
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Lauren "Larry" McArthur |
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1972
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