Beau Jones ("John's really my first name, but who wants to be called John Jones. My parents nicknamed me Beau.") agreed with Levy's remark, adding, "There's something exciting about just coming together down here and working on a song - just jamming together."
Levy and Jones go back about eight years together when they were both pupils at Allentown (Pa.) High School.
Levy, 21, is a senior majoring in sociology at the University. ("I was really into it for a couple years," he said about his studies. "Now I am really fed up with school.") He has played guitar for nine years after going through "a million instruments - trombone, drums, accordion. I wasn't getting results quickly enough. Then I fell into the guitar. In the last year, I've been working on my own style. People may hate it, but they say it's an interesting, unique style."
Jones, the bass player, is the outlander in the group - he has no connection with the University. He is serving a three- or four-year hitch at Fort Dix in the Army ("Things are vague because some papers are messed up.") Anyway, the important thing is not how long he's been in, but how he can get out. He has some plans for that, but won't discuss them lest his top sergeant catch wind of them. Jones attended three colleges in three years - Albright, Gettysburg, and Ursinus. "I have a difficult time handling reality," he said about his college experience. He now has a lot of short hair, because of his military servitude, which makes him stand out against the group's generally hirsute appearance.
Jones and Levy played together in a high school rock group called The Limits. Jones said he started bass because "I always enjoyed low frequency sounds. I like the harmonic information it gives me about chords." Of the five, he is the least serious and most likely to make an off-hand black humor remark. But when he is playing, he seems totally involved in his music. Bass players in rock groups tend to have a certain mystique. One friend of mine, for example has a theory that Casady, the bass player from Jerfferson Airplane, never talks. Jones isn't quite Casady, but he does seem to have an other-worldliness about him.
Back to Pennsylvania: David Cohen, 22, is the lead singer. He plays no instrument except his voice, which is more a part of the group than something the group backs. (One of the differences between pop music and rock music is that in rock - as in the big band days - the singer is not a big star in most groups. He is just another member. Only occasionally do singers emerge as stars such as Joe Cocker and the late Janis Joplin.)
