On this day, November 19, 1944, Bob Greenlee, bass player for Root Boy Slim, was born.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

"This Old Scarecrow"

http://fredsanford.fileave.com/Psychedelly%20radio%20spot.mp3

Monday, September 26, 2011

Root Boy Slim band members and alumni

On this blog I'll do my best to spotlight each musician who played along side the legendary Root Boy Slim.

Whether it be the the Sex Change Band, Cryin' Out Loud, Wretched Excess, New Hope for the Criminally Insane, Capitol Offense, and the Barbeque Juice Heads...

I'll try to include an image, a brief description, and a website link for all the fans to follow.

Introducing:
"The SEX CHANGE BAND"

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Robert Fargo Greenlee Jr.
born: 19 November 1944 at Daytona Beach, Florida
died: 12 February 2004 at Sanford, Florida

aka: Bob "Rattlesnake" Greenlee
aka: "Rattlesnake Rattles"
aka: "Bobby Uptight"

Husband, father, songwriter, musician, producer, engineer, and founder of Kingsnake Records.
Bob was musical director, co-writer, emcee and bass player of the Sex Change Band.
Bob was a native of Florida, graduate of Yale, football player, a self taught expert on the subject of American blues music, and loved to hunt and fish.
Bob always sang the Muddy Water's song "Birds Nest On the Ground", and occasionally sang "Got My Mojo Working" during the opening set of a Root Boy Slim performance.
Was also a member of the Lake Joanna Band, and the Midnight Creepers.

Root Boy Slim


Root Boy Slim relaxing in his Takoma Park, Maryland home in 1980

Root Boy Slim (July 9, 1944 – June 8, 1993) was the stage name assumed by American musician Foster MacKenzie III. He was born in Asheville, North Carolina but raised in Washington, D.C.'s Maryland suburbs. He was an exceptionally bright child with parents who were able to afford a series of costly prep schools, and he attended Yale University. He returned to Maryland upon receiving his bachelor's degree and was diagnosed with schizophrenia following an LSD-induced psychotic episode. In the 1970s, he formed his own alternative rock band (including musicians such as tenor saxophonist Ron Holloway) and an ensemble titled Crying Out Loud. Mackenzie's group was ultimately billed as Root Boy Slim and the Sex Change Band and The Rootettes. The band cultivated a dedicated fan base, largely confined to the Washington metropolitan area.

MacKenzie died in his sleep in his home in Orlando, Florida at age 48 and is buried in Fletcher, North Carolina. He was inducted into the Washington Area Music Association Hall of Fame in 2004.

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MacKenzie was an intelligent yet incorrigible youth, who was asked to leave several private D.C.-area prep schools, including Sidwell Friends School. He finally found his niche at Saint James School in Hagerstown, Maryland, a boarding school, where along with his studies, he played varsity football. He was accepted to and attended Yale University, majoring in African American studies, and graduated in 1967. He was a member of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity, where his fraternity brothers included future President George W. Bush. MacKenzie was a year older than Bush.

While at Yale, MacKenzie formed a band with classmate and fraternity brother Bob Greenlee, who was captain of Yale's football team. The band was named Prince La La and the Midnight Creepers. MacKenzie's growing dislike of authority and inner inclination to play pranks and his love of shock value expanded. Band members wore ermine capes, silver lamé hot pants and boasted that they were never invited for return engagements. The year after MacKenzie and Greenlee graduated, they returned to the DKE house during Yale's homecoming. Bush, who since their departure had become president of DKE, threw them out and banned them from the house.

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I saw him three times, all at the Grog and Tankard in DC. He put on the greatest show. He was such a source of joy. I miss him.

Bob Greenlee on Discogs

Bob Greenlee
Real Name: Robert Fargo Greenlee Jr.
Profile: American producer, engineer, bassist, saxophonist (sometimes known as "Rattlesnake" Greenlee) and founder of independent blues label King Snake Records.
Born November 19, 1944 in Daytona Beach, Florida and died February 12, 2004 in Sanford, Florida, he died at age 59 of pancreatic cancer.
Sites: williamvandyke.com
Aliases: Rattlesnake Rattles
In Groups: The King Snake Horns, The Midnight Creepers
Variations: Viewing All | Bob Greenlee
B. Greenlee, Bob, Bob Greelee, Bob Greenle, Greenlee, R. Greenlee, Robert F. Greenle, Robert F. Greenlee, Robert Fargo Greenlee Jr, Robert Greenlee

Bob "Rattlesnake" Greenlee
1944 -2004

I called Sonja Greenlee the other day to see how Bob was doing and she said he was all but gone. Later she called back and informed me that he had indeed made the jump to hyper-space. We of course new it would happen soon, but man I can't tell you how hard it hit when it came at long last. Margie and I went to ABC and got a half gallon of margarita's. We drank to him and cried a little while we listened to Ace Moreland sing the true blues.

I met Bob 25 years ago when I made my first recordings. We discovered that we both liked fishing and hunting and related sports early on and a deep and true friendship formed between us. Bob had been captain of the Yale football team at the same time I was serving in Viet-Nam. I think he, like a lot of folks, carried a little guilt about the way some of us Vets were treated when we returned home. He sure made me welcome at King Snake even before it was King Snake. I told him that I had enough Viet-Nam Vets in my life but him and Root-Boy were the only Yale guys I ever really got to know up close and personal and that was no small thing to a guy like me.

Bob Greenlee was a good guy and I know I am a better man because he was in my life. Even though I can't call him up anymore on the phone to talk things out, I hear his voice echoing deep in my mind and I kind of know what Bob might say about the most important things, that is, where the red fish are running and the virtues of a good pointer. And to Bob I say rest easy Brother, Sonja and the kids are strong and well, they honor you my Brother...

This article appeared in The Orlando Sentinel Thursday February 13, 2004

Musician and Blues Record Producer Bob Greenlee dies at 59
By Jim Abbott | Sentinel Pop Music Critic

They boast about the blues in Chicago, but the music was embraced no less passionately at Bob Greenlee's converted garage apartment on an old family celery farm in Sanford.

Greenlee, the founder of independent blues label King Snake Records, died at home Thursday at age 59 after a battle with pancreatic cancer.

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A Daytona Beach native, Greenlee developed a musical interest playing in high-school rock bands with Duane and Gregg Allman. ... The music overwhelmed the lure of other careers. Greenlee earned an undergraduate degree at Yale and was accepted to law school there. He also was a fourth-round draft pick of the Miami Dolphins in 1967. He passed on both.

If others were surprised by a blues label in Sanford, it was a perfect fit to Greenlee. "The blues lives here, grows here," Greenlee said in 1990. "Kind of like okra and collard greens; its natural place is the South."

Copyright © 2004, Orlando Sentinel

DUANE ALLMAN
©2010 Jas Obrecht

THE BOB GREENLEE INTERVIEW
http://jasobrecht.com/young-duane-allman-bob-greenlee-interview/

JAS OBRECHT:
Young Duane Allman: The Bob Greenlee Interview
(first published on 'Jas Obrecht Music Archive')

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[GReedDiamond]

1. I saw Root Boy Slim & the Sex Change Band & The Rootettes...

...at the annual (well, it used to be) Washington D.C. Yippie! Smoke-In, July 4th, 1978.

That was an...interesting...performance - what I can recall of it.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

2. Local musicians will perform benefit for guitarist Ernie Lancaster

Local musicians will perform benefit for guitarist Ernie Lancaster

By RICK de YAMPERT / [e-mail]
Posted Jun 27, 2014 at 12:01 AM

In the 1970s bassist and Yale graduate Bob Greenlee, guitarist Ernie Lancaster and one of Greenlee’s Yale fraternity brothers, Foster McKenzie III, formed Root Boy Slim and the Sex Change Band. ... The outre punk-blues group’s self-titled 1978 debut album included such songs as “Boogie ’Til You Puke,” “My Wig Fell Off,” “You Can’t Quit My Club” and “I Used to Be a Radical.”

“Half the things on Root Boy’s records are things that Ernie would say and then Root would use ’em for the lyrics,” says area drummer and former Sex Change Band member Scott Corwin. “Ernie probably doesn’t get enough credit for it, but that’s the way that happened.“

Lancaster, a Mount Dora resident who’s been a fixture on the Central Florida music scene ever since his Root Boy days, announced in May that he has stage IV cancer. A posting on ernielancaster.com says the guitarist “has been diagnosed with a very aggressive cancer that has attacked his pancreas, liver, lungs and bones.“ ... Area musicians have rallied around Lancaster, and on Sunday June 29 the Blues for Ernie Lancaster Festival will feature five bands performing at five venues in the Flagler Avenue area of New Smyrna Beach. ... Performances will begin at 4 p.m. Here’s the schedule:

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After Root Boy Slim and the Sex Change Band disbanded, Greenlee went on to found the Sanford-based blues label Kingsnake Records. Greenlee, Lancaster and others formed the Midnight Creepers, Kingsnake’s house band.

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