Cohen was graduated from the University in 1969 with a bachelors degree in English. "I guess I'd be teaching or substituting if I weren't doing this," he said. "But I wasn't looking forward to the prospect." He started singing in a choir in eighth grade and kept an interest in classical music through high school. Not until his senior year, though, did he start singing rock. The Beatles - an influence on so many musicians now starting to perform - influenced Cohen in getting over what he called a mental block against rock music. He joined a group called the Six Pence that sang Beatles songs in the high school variety show. "After that I just started listening to rock music and liking it," he said. Cohen is from somewhere in New Jersey, but won't be pinned down. "New Jersey isn't exactly the optimum culture spot" is all he will say.
Rick Chertoff, 20, is a junior history major. He plays the drums.
"I probably will teach, eventually," said Rick. "You know, when I'm 40. Maybe. I want to do it." What he wants to teach, maybe, eventually, is the cold war period of American history. Which, by the time he is ready to teach it, will be no longer modern history.
"I started playing drums around my freshman or sophomore year in high school (in New York). I played in a band called the Rhythm Method. I played bassoon for a long time, too. I was really into that because it wasn't a clarinet or a sax, but it was still a reed. I played trumpet for a time, but then I got braces."
Rob Hyman, the electric piano player, majors in biology. He is a junior and he attends every class. "That's about as far as it goes," he added quickly. He started playing piano at age seven or eight in Meriden, Conn. In the seventh grade, he bought a portable organ. "It was great. It was stolen the day before I got to Penn, so I didn't play for a while.
"Anything less than a Hammond isn't worth it, so I didn't buy another organ. I really like the electric piano. It's really light, easy to carry around. You want to buy it? (The group plans to buy better equipment.) I bought it on Long Island. The guy who sold it to me said it's one hell of a harmonica."
He demonstrated the piano's lightness by picking up the keyboard, which rests on an inexpensive base.
The three Penn students in the group profess to love the University. Levy's mother, father and sister are Penn alumni. When Levy protests that he is fed up with school, he is not fed up with Penn per se. "I like Penn very much. It's getting harder to relate to it, that's all." They are all eager to be performing full-time.
The five of them came from a variety of groups before Wax was formed: Market St. Subway, Mrs. Wiggs Cabbage Patch, Buckwheat, and others.
