The year is 1964 on Long Island, when a group of four high school friends decide to form a garage band called The Vagrants. Little did they know, this pet project would have a massive impact on the music scene within its four short years of existence. Its members would play with legends like Jim Morrison, John Lennon, and The Who. Their singles would influence everything from punk rock to metal to one of Aretha Franklin’s greatest hits. Their lead guitarist would even rise to classic rock stardom at Woodstock. So how is it that The Vagrants could so quickly fade into obscurity?
Like so many other bands. The Vagrants began because of the Beatles. In August 1964, friends Peter Sabatino and Larry Weinstein watched The Beatles play the Forest Hills Stadium and knew they had to start a band. The duo went around town to assemble a ragtag group of their friends to join. Peter would be lead singer, with Larry on bass guitar and backing vocals. They enlisted the best guitarist they knew, who just happened to be Larry’s brother Leslie West. They met future drummer Roger Mansour when their high school principal suspended him and the other fledgling band members for their long hair. Finally, they got Jerry Storch, a regular at the local bowling alley, to join on keys.
Storch’s bowling alley connection would save the band, as the local lanes would become their base of operations. From this headquarters, the quintet mapped out their plan for future success. As it turns out, Sabatino and Weinstein were as good entrepreneurs as they were musicians, networking to get early gigs across Queens and Long Island. They made the high school circuit, playing everything from sweet 16s to NYC nightclubs. On top of all of this, the band’s members were all still actively enrolled in an arts high school.
This early grind worked out for The Vagrants, as they soon caught the eye of a record label willing to promote and release their music. In 1965, representatives from Southern Sound approached the band, having seen their rudimentary press kit. The label offered to release The Vagrant’s debut single, an opportunity that would kickstart their fleeting career.
This debut single was “Oh Those Eyes” with b-side “You’re Too Young.” The A-side is a hidden gem of 1960s rock, starring Sabatino’s sneering vocals that sound straight out of “My Generation.” His vocals are backed up by Beatles-esque harmonies, eerie Hammond organ, and Leslie West’s reverb-laden surf guitar. All of these come together to create something punky and psychedelic, unlike much rock that had preceded it.
Their debut single propelled The Vagrants to greater stardom than before. Soon they had gotten residencies in Hampton Bays in the East end of Long Island, and the Rolling Stone in Manhattan. The single also pushed the group into movie-stardom, after gaining the attention of director Douglas Hickox in 1966. Hickox was in the process of making Disk-O-Tek Holiday, a film about an aspiring musician named Casey Paxton attempting to gain radio airplay of his song. Hickox thought that “Oh Those Eyes” would make a perfect musical number for a dance party scene, and hired the group to perform in his film.
The Vagrants soon became regulars on the “Good Guys” program of NYC’s WMCA radio station. Bolstered by its early radio support of The Beatles’ early singles, WMCA had become a haven for cutting-edge rock. The Vagrants, alongside legends like Eric Clapton’s Cream, and The Who, would often play sets for the station, broadcasting their singles across the NYC metro.
Until 1968, The Vagrants continued to release 4 more singles, which would later be collected in the 2011 compilation I Can’t Make a Friend. These singles are quintessential 1960s rock, melding influences from all of the decade’s most defining genres. “Hasty Heart” sees the band hearken back to early 60s surf rock. It combines melodic harmonies, exotica-esque organs, and reverberated guitars to craft a hazy, lazy tune that wouldn’t feel out of place at a tiki bar. Their next single, a 1967 cover of Otis Redding’s “Respect” is straight-up soul, with upbeat guitars and a catchy keyboard line. This cover allegedly caught the ear of producer Jerry Wexler who passed it along to his client Aretha Franklin.
Despite their best efforts, none of these singles were radio hits. Desperate for success, The Vagrants called in Cream producer Felix Pappalardi to record “Beside the Sea.” This single is a stark departure from their earlier soulful style of garage rock. The track is a slow psychedelic dirge, with guitars so distorted they almost don’t register as instruments. The harsh, raucous guitars foreshadow the later metal, industrial, and noise-rock genres. “Beside the Sea” mirrors the growing psychedelic and acid rock scenes expanding across late 1960s America. Despite this, the track was not the hit The Vagrants were looking for.
While The Vagrants didn’t find much success in their studio output, they became infamous for their fiery live performances. In 1966, they became the house band at The Action House in Island Park, NY. The Action House was a Mecca for the Long Island live music scene. Owned by Lucchese mafia family associate Phil Basile, the venue was infamous for its drug use, fights, and overall chaotic atmosphere. Despite its ill repute, it attracted bands both local and national. Bands like The Doors, The Hassles–with a young Billy Joel on keys–and Vanilla Fudge all played The Action house alongside The Vagrants.
The Vagrants’ live sets fit right into The Action House’s chaotic atmosphere. As the house band, they were paid $1,500 to perform 28 nights every month. Eager to earn their pay, The Vagrants cranked up their live antics to eleven. They padded out their sets with slowed-down, distorted covers of popular songs, like The Beatles’ “No Reply.” These covers, along with those of their Action House colleagues Vanilla Fudge, would lay the foundation for early heavy metal that would emerge soon after.
Their antics went beyond just musical experimentation, with the band often incorporating pyrotechnics into their performances. They timed fireworks so that they would go off at the climaxes of their songs. One night, extra fireworks stored under Storch’s organ ignited after the show. The explosion set the stage, along with the band’s instruments on fire, destroying them. The Vagrants were so popular, however, that their show set for the next night couldn’t be delayed, so their label replaced their instruments and repaired the stage in less than a day.
Despite their live success, The Vagrants’ future was far from set in 1968. None of their singles had become radio hits like they had hoped, and the band was growing restless. As a result of this restlessness, the band members began fighting more and more, worsened by their increasing drug use. Joey Ramone, who went to school with The Vagrants and followed their career, recalls that Larry modeled himself after “Jim Morrison at that point – just like permanently f—-d-up.” By summer 1968, things were beyond repair, with Jerry Storch leaving. Less than one year later, Leslie West also left, starting a new band with collaborator Felix Pappalardi, leaving The Vagrants all but dead.
While the Vagrants died in 1968, West’s new band Mountain was born, launching him to guitar god status. Mountain built off the distortion of Vagrants tracks like “Beside the Sea” to create heavy, psychedelic blues rock. The band got off to a running start, playing at Woodstock less than one year after its founding. At 9:00 PM on the second night of the festival, mountain played an eleven song set to over 500,000 people: a show that was only their fourth gig ever.
With albums like Climbing! and Nantucket Sleighride, Mountain became legends of classic rock radio. West used his newfound fame to collaborate with some of the biggest names in rock. He went on to record a demo jam with Eric Clapton and John Lennon, as well as playing guitar on the Who track “Baby, Don’t You Do It.”
While West soared to superstardom with Mountain, the other members of The Vagrants remained quiet for the next few decades. Drummer Roger Mansour became a missionary in Haiti, and keyboardist Jerry Stroch became a rabbi. Peter Sabatino started a local catering business, but still remained hopeful of a Vagrants reunion.
In 1990, Sabatino reformed The Vagrants with no other original members. These “New Vagrants” made the rounds of NYC and Long Island venues, with regular shows at Amityville’s Odyssey Club. After years of live shows, the group began recording their comeback/debut full-length LP 21st Century Vagrants in 2002. The recording was cut short, however, when their drummer Joe Forgione died of a heart attack during a live show in 2003. Any hopes of a Vagrants comeback died alongside Forgione in 2003, and the band broke up for good. For the second time in their history, The Vagrants had ended before they really got started.
Enjoy The Vagrants performing a cover of The Rolling Stones’ “Satisfaction” at The Action House.
