In 1965, I was 15 years old, I was in my second year of high school, my life was full of health and music and I had made friends who, I was convinced, would be friends for life.

1965 was a benchmark year for popular music, a year where everything exploded. We had, at the same time, Dylan’s “Like A Rolling Stone”, The Rolling Stones’ “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction”, The Beach Boys’ “California Girls”, Gerry and The Pacemakers’ “Ferry Cross The Mersey”, The Beatles’ “Ticket To Ride”, The Righteous Brothers’ “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling”, James Brown’s “ Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag”, Del Shannon’s “Needles and Pins”, The Temptations’ “My Girl” and many other unforgettable songs. All this wonderful music enveloped us, like the air we breathed.

Back then, I had started to play guitar, as had two of my best friends, Martin Cunningham and Pierre Lafleur. Another friend, Roch Tassé, played drums. Why not form a band!!? And that’s what we did. We mustered the courage to play at one of the high school dances and we called ourselves The Ravens, all four of us dressed in black – black turtle necks, black pants, black socks, black shoes. We played for maybe half an hour and that was our one and only gig!

More than 50 years later, I was at least right about one thing – the friends of my youth in 1965 are still my friends. Friends for life. Roch played with The Ravens, he played on my first recordings in the 70s and, of course, he still plays all percussion instruments on my current recordings. He is the very definition of a true friend. Martin still plays guitar, we meet regularly and our breakfasts are part of our routine. Pierre doesn’t play anymore and we’re separated by many kilometres and one big river but we’re still close, even though we don’t see each other as often as we’ed like.

This summer, Martin asked me to play on one of my recordings. I saw right away that this was something that meant a lot to him. Martin has been there for me all my life, ready to give me the shirt off his back and the last thing I could ever do is to refuse him anything. So it was a done deal. It was Alrick’s suggestion to bring back The Ravens for the web site and here we are (minus the black duds), the photo taken in my back yard in early September. Martin and I are currently talking about collaborating on a Beatles piece!

For this recording, I’ve chosen a very popular song from 1965, that most superb of all years – The Rolling Stones’ “The Last Time.”

Richard Séguin – voice, electric guitars
Martin Cunningham – voice, acoustic guitar
Alrick Huebener – upright bass
Roch Tassé – drums, maracas

 

The Last Time