Rockin’ With Raitt, Spritzin’ With Spider: Cambridge, 1971

In the fall of 1971, I shared an apartment in Cambridge with Jon Pousette-Dart at 888 Massachusetts Avenue, between Central and Harvard Squares. We didn’t have much work yet, so our routine was to practice much of the day and hit the bars at night. One evening, after going over songs with Jon all afternoon, I gratefully took my leave, descended the steps of the building’s stoop, hit the sidewalk and turned left. I stopped at the corner to peer into The Plough and Stars, which was crowded as usual, and continued half a block to Jacks. I entered.

My friend Reeve Little was on stage. Good. I went to the bar and settled in. His set ended when the place got busier and outgrew his sweet serenading (“…and I’m lookin’ for another girl…one who’ll love me and always will…”), and I waved him over. “Place is jumpin’, huh? Who’s headlining?” I asked. “Bonnie,” he said. “Bonnie who?” I replied. “Bonnie Raitt,” he told me. Oh yeah, I’d heard of her. Okay. We ordered another round and she took the stage with a bass player named Freebo. Bonnie had a shock of red hair with a white streak in it and Freebo, who appeared to be about seven feet tall, had a yard-wide explosion of black hair. “Wow, she’s good!” I told Reeve. “Yeah,” he said.

I moved away from the bar to get a better look, found a spot by the restrooms and noticed that the place was packed. I was standing there with a shot in one hand and a pop in the other when I noticed an audience member near the stage visibly jerk in his seat, hurriedly feel the back of his neck and look behind himself. I returned my gaze to the stage when it happened again to a woman a couple tables over, and yet again to someone else. I was puzzling over this when I saw the guy standing next to me convulsed in laughter and realized that I knew him. His name was John Koerner. “Spider,” they called him.

“Hey, Spider!” I yelled over the noise. He looked at me conspiratorially and put his finger over his lips to tell me to stay quiet. Then he showed me the yellow squirt gun he had hidden in his jacket, and I could see that the water level was down by a few squirts. He looked at me gleefully, aimed it at the stage while keeping it close to his body, took care to adjust for the proper trajectory and gave it another squeeze. Yet another person in prime real estate reacted spasmodically and searched vainly for the source. Spider and I yukked it up. “Don’t tell anybody!” he said.

And I haven’t. Until now.

(by John Troy)

John Troy was a founding member of The Pousette-Dart Band and has recorded and/or toured with Bonnie Raitt, Livingston Taylor, Natalie Cole, The Mamas and the Papas and Joe Cocker, among others.