Sha Na Na's Bowzer Fights Music Rip-Offs
By JOHN GEROME
Associated Press Writer

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- As the rubber-faced frontman for Sha Na Na, Jon "Bowzer" Bauman brought doo-wop to the hippies at Woodstock. During the days of disco, he took his '50s schtick to TV. Now, nearly 60 years old, Bauman is still championing the golden age of rock-n-roll, this time as point man for a push to keep impostors from ripping off his musical heroes.

He's been lobbying states on behalf of the Vocal Group Hall of Fame for laws to prevent phonies and fakers from passing themselves off as authentic members of groups like the Platters, the Coasters and the Drifters.

Tennessee's legislature passed Bauman's "Truth in Music" bill Thursday, and it now goes to the governor. Nine other states have already enacted the law; two more are also waiting for the governors' signatures.

Bauman says dozens of acts with no connection to the authentic groups perform under their name, misleading fans and stealing the income and glory due surviving members.

"For the people who made this music to be suffering this indignity at this point in their life when they should be recognized as pioneers is just heartbreaking," said Bauman, chairman of the hall's Truth in Music Committee.

The law he helped enact requires that for a group to call itself by a successful name from the past it has to have at least one member of that group and be legally entitled to the name.

Bauman and others have been working on this issue for about 10 years. They first tried changing federal trademark law. When that failed, they approached it from a consumer protection issue, one state at a time.

His interest stems from the music that inspired Sha Na Na to form at Columbia University in 1969. With slicked back hair and a muscle shirt, he became famous mimicking the singers he's now trying to protect.

"In some ways I think we were more successful than the original artists because of the time. It was later in the game and conditions had improved so much. So many of these people were in a maverick business. They were ripped off by record companies and managers and nobody protected the names properly," Bauman said.

Doo-wop wasn't that distant when Sha Na Na performed at Woodstock, but in the musical and social context of the late '60s, it must have seemed a quaint anachronism.

The original singers - mostly black men recording songs marketed to white teenagers - were faceless to the public, making them vulnerable to unscrupulous promoters, agents and performers now capitalizing on their name.

"It has stopped me from working," said Herb Reed, founder of the Platters, 1990 inductees in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. "I used to pick and choose. Now I have to take whatever I can get because they're out there calling themselves the Platters."

Reed says the impostors perform for far less than the real groups, diluting the market and hurting his livelihood.

"They don't have the correct uniforms; they don't have the correct sound. They're using our name, using our music. They've demeaned everything we worked for," he said, estimating he's spent close to $1 million on lawsuits trying to stop them.

Bauman calls it a sophisticated form of identity theft and has spent his time and money fighting it. Between his own performances - he left Sha Na Na in 1983 and does about 75 dates a year as a solo act - and his volunteer work for the Vocal Group Hall of Fame, he's on the road all the time.

A recent stretch looked like this: New Jersey for a court hearing, California for a show, Florida to meet with lawmakers, Nashville for a legislative hearing, Michigan for another show, then out to Nevada to meet with lawmakers and perform in a show.

On Thursday, moments after the Tennessee House had passed the "Truth in Music" bill unanimously, he was jubilant. He even paused to do the silly deep-voice intro to the old Marcell's hit "Blue Moon" for a star-struck government official.

"I feel really invigorated and vitalized," Bauman said. "We are succeeding. And this is something that needs to be done."

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More info: http://www.vocalgroup.org/


tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431

very interesting


I go to alot of "Super Oldies" concerts and in many cases,the groups are fake....it's not the original members,just a group of imposters.A few years ago,I saw a "fake" version of the Delfonics Two of the guys in the group looked about MY age,so I knew something was wrong,lol.

I was at the Ultimate Doo Wop show last month in Atlanta, and it was rampant.....

I hope Bauman is successful....

I've experienced Drifters that weren't Drifters and Coasters that weren't Coasters.

There's a current day Who's Who? involving the group War.

War - 1 original member. Lonnie Jordan - keyboards.
Lowrider Band - 4 original members. Harold Brown - drums, Howard Scott - guitar, Lee Oskar - harp and B.B. Dickerson - bass.

If you had a choice who would you see (both groups playing the same material)?
The group with the name and only one original member or the group without the name consisting of 4 original members.


tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431

I like that someone is out there trying to represent some of the classic artists, but this brings up another issue; what about bands who break up, yet one of the members of the band hires a whole new set of artists and performs under the name of the old band. Who gets the right to use that name? Cases in point, Pink Floyd without Roger Waters from the late 1980s thru 2005, or Klymaxx. Do the remaining members who were part of the old band get rights to royalties? That's what I wonder about.

728huey said:

It's that legal question of "Who Owns The Name".
This could be determined by the terms of a partnership agreement when the group was formed.
That's if they even had one. A typical band "pot-hole".



tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431

728huey said:

That's similar to what's going on with the Temptations. There's Dennis Edwards' version, which I think is called Dennis Edwards and the Temptation Revue...and then there's another Temptations that tours, which I think Otis is affiliated with.
[Edited 5/17/07 8:57am]

theAudience said:

I would rather see/hear "the group without the name consisting of 4 original members".....however, there are cases where virtually all of the original members of a group have died and there is only one left alive, or there is only one left who kept their chops can still sing/play.....

There are two version of the Stylistics right now

Original lead singer Russell Thompkins Jr. has his own version.It's him and some "new" members,touring as "Russell Thompkins Jr and the New Stylistics"

Meanwhile,the original members are touring too,with a new lead singer who sounds just like Russell.He's young and has cornrows.They are billed as simply "The Stylistics".


I just wanted to post this info so if you go see them,you'll know which version you're getting It's crazy that it has to be this way.