Duke Fish

This is pretty cool.

Duke Dewey (pic) is a guy I know from Yellow Springs. Before I knew him, he was just a familiar face at Dino's Cappuccinos. I used to see him pretty much every time I went there, and in time we began to acknowledge each other's presence--we'd nod or say hi--whenever our paths crossed.

Eventually Duke initiated a friendly conversation with me, and I learned that he is a drummer. Being a former passionate drummer myself, Duke and I had something in common, so our conversation flowed smoothly. However, in the weeks following that conversation, our weekly interaction devolved back into "Hey, what's up? See ya."

One day several weeks after our conversation, when I popped into Dino's, the tiny room was full of customers, so I had nowhere to sit. Seeing Duke alone at a table for two, I asked him if I could join him. He didn't mind, so I sat across from him and we began a new conversation.

As Duke and I talked drums and drumming, seemingly from out of nowhere he mentioned that he is in the Woodstock movie. Puzzled and curious, I responded, "W-W-Wait a minute... What!?!" I continued, "Are you IN the movie or are you just in the movie?" He then explained that he was the drummer for Country Joe and the Fish. (So he is IN the movie.)

I still didn't know Duke's name at this point, so I asked him. He answered, "Greg, but most people call me Duke." He also told me some of his aliases (or stage names), which include Duke DeGreaze and Dewey DeGreaze.

That was about a year ago.

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About a month ago I saw Duke for the first time since passing through Yellow Springs at the end of Aimless Leg 1. Because Country Joe and the Fish is from San Francisco, I asked him if he made it to San Francisco in September for the 40th anniversary of the Summer of Love. He said he didn't go, I think because he was not offered enough money. (Don't go thinking that was some kind of greedy rock star response, because it wasn't. Duke may have been borderline famous nearly 40 years ago, but he has to pay the bills just like everyone else.)

On this day at Dino's there was also a woman and her twentysomething daughter. The daughter didn't know who Duke is, but she had a laptop with her, so Duke and the girl's mother suggested that she visit YouTube and search for "Country Joe and the Fish." She did, and one of the search results brought up a western movie featuring Country Joe and the Fish as a saloon house band called The Crackers. I never knew Duke was in any movies other than Woodstock, so it was cool for me to see the YouTube video.

The movie is called Zachariah and I'd never heard of it. (In fact, I just found out the name of it today.) If you watch the video below, the blonde guy in the bar is a young Don Johnson (pre-Miami Vice).

(I didn't even know this exists, but Duke has a web site. It must be relatively new because I never found it when I googled his name after meeting him.)



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Aimless
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