Category Archive

By Max Conroy

Towards the end of the summer, I went home.  In this case, home is where the stuff is, as my mom sold the home where I grew up a few years ago and we moved everything to our house in northern Michigan, where my mom grew up.  So every time I go up north, I rummage through neatly labeled boxes in the basement, under the stairs, that contain all the crap I’ve left behind over time to see what I can bring back with me.  This strikes fear into my girlfriend’s heart because I have a tendency to accumulate books, movies, and records and she’s worked very hard to thwart my progress.  There were a few books and records that I was specifically looking for that I found right away, and I noticed a box that had my dad’s old 45s, and took it upstairs to look through while watching some of the Olympics.

I really didn’t have much hope for what I’d find in my dad’s records.  I’ve gone through them dozens of times and have taken everything that I thought might possibly be cool long ago.  But in the past year, I’ve gained an appreciation for the 45 and have learned a lot about what to look for.  Also, my dad didn’t like cool music.  I specifically remember asking him when I was a teenager what his favorite band was and he said the Eagles.  He liked stuff like the Oak Ridge Boys and the Pointer Sisters and the 1970s Elvis. 

Everything in the box from the 70s on was of no interest, but I started to notice some R & B records from the early to mid 60s; stuff on Chex, Tamla, Wand, Nasco, even Stax.  I also started to notice that there were duplicates of certain records, which I thought was odd.  This was like stepping into the Twilight Zone because I could have sworn these records weren’t there the several times that I’d looked through them before.  Could my dad have liked real Soul music at one time?

Eventually I came across a 45 where there were about a half dozen copies, which seemed very strange.  The band on the label, Lee Records out of Lansing, Michigan, was the Marauders; and the songs Lovin’ and Nightmare.  Garage Rock?  With a name like the Marauders and such moronic song titles, it had to be.  I was weirded out for a second, put a couple copies of the record in the pile to take home and forgot about it till I made it back home to my turntable.

My mind was blown when I put it on: rudimentary guitar, monotonous vocals, primitive drums, unbelievably simple lyrics.  This was quintessential Garage Rock, akin to the best stuff found on comps like Pebbles and Back from the Grave.  I attempted to do some research online, but couldn’t find anything on the Marauders of Michigan.  I found a bunch of references to bands throughout the Midwest called the Marauders, but none were from Michigan or mentioned this single.  One article even states that a group called the Marauders decided to change their name mid-tour because there were so many bands with the name in the area.  I tried searching for information on Lee Records from Lansing, Michigan and the songwriting geniuses responsible for this masterpiece, Remington and Anschuetz, but found nothing.  There are two listings of the record on Popsike, both from 2004, with no information about the band or the label.

Unfortunately my dad past away a few years back, so I’ll probably never know what in hell he was doing with at least six un-played copies of such an unusual record.  Maybe he knew the guys in the band?  He used to own an appliance store that sold some records, so maybe he bought someone’s collection, maybe one of the guys in the band?  I doubt very much that he would have thought the record collectable back in the day.  I asked my mom about it and she didn’t have any idea, but said that she remembered my aunt saying something about some of her records getting mixed in with my dad’s when he took them from my grandmother’s house.  Perhaps I’ll ask her about it; perhaps I’ll just assume that my dad was young once and bought some records that seem cool 40 plus years later…but six copies of one very, very rare 45? 

Lovin’

Nightmare

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