Grit, Noise, and Revolution: The Birth of Detroit Rock 'n' Roll

5. The Village Is on Fire

5. The Village Is on Fire In the spring of 1964, Billy Lee and the Rivieras, a white rock band, were bringing down the house amid a roster of Detroit R & B talent on stage at the Village. Realtor brothers Gabe and Leo Glantz managed the club, and Gabe booked the talent.1 Located at 3929 Woodward Avenue, between Alexandrine and Selden, the venue was originally known as the Garden Theater, and later the 509 Club, before transforming into the Village at the start of 1962.2 Although often portrayed as either a shabby, dangerous bar or a run-down coffeehouse, the truth was somewhere in between. Entering the building from Woodward Avenue, patrons passed through a long hallway that opened into a room with theater -style seating and a dance ›oor right in front of the stage. The place held two to three hundred people paying a $1.50 admission. No alcohol was served, but food, coffee, and soft drinks were available at a concession stand. Local blues and R & B artists performed for an audience made up of black and white high school and college students, along with anyone else who drifted in.3 “The Village was all about ‹ghting for territory,” says William Levise Jr. in recalling his early days as Billy Lee. “Everybody down there was always plotting how to move up on the bill, how to get your ‹rst shot as a headliner.”4 The Rivieras’ lead singer was born in the Detroit enclave of Hamtramck on February 26, 1945, later moving with his family to the northern Detroit suburb of Warren, where he grew up to be a fan of black music, sampled locally on WJLB.5 Late at night he would tune in the huge skywave beaming in WLAC from Nashville, Tennessee, where disc jockey John R would play the newest and hottest R & B releases. After hearing the deep, gravel-voiced announcer spin “Tutti-Frutti” by Little Richard, Billy ran out to the store and bought a copy.6 Aside from music, Levise had an empa57 thy for black culture in general, possibly derived from time spent singing with his father in gospel churches around town. William Levise Sr. had been a singer performing professionally on Detroit radio in the mid 1940s.7 In high school, Billy Levise Jr. was part of a wedding and party band called Tempest. When that band broke up, he started hanging around jazz and blues clubs such as the Minor Key on Dexter, and the Tantrum on Haller near Joy and Middlebelt. Through his father, he met the Reverend James Hendrix, who owned the local gospel label Carrie Records. In 1962, Billy cut his ‹rst record there, as well as the label’s ‹rst secular release, an R & B effort titled “That’s the Way It’s Going to Be,” coupled with “Fool For You” on the ›ip side. The recording session took place in a garage, and according to Billy, “Nothing much happened with the record.”8 At about the same time, Levise had started bugging Gabe Glantz to let him sing at the Village.9 Once in, he hooked up with a black vocal group called the Peps, one of the most popular up-and-coming acts at the club. The trio was made up of former Northeastern High students Thomas Hester and Joe Harris, along with Ronnie Abner, who graduated from Miller High School. “Billy Levise was always hanging around, getting on stage whenever possible,” says Abner. “Billy was a fun guy. He was the type of person you just liked being around. He had lots of ambition. One night we were doing a number, and he was nearby and we said, ‘Come on, we gonna do this one together.’ And that’s how Billy started singing with us. It was never a real formal association.”10 Thomas Hester, who also recorded under the name Tom Storm, recalls that the entertainment at the Village was presented vaudeville style, with something like twelve to ‹fteen acts appearing on stage on any given evening. “Musicians from all over the city would play,” says Hester. “Everybody knew each other’s styles and material, so it really didn’t matter who was playing backup, it always sounded good. You’d have some of the older established performers like Nolan Strong onstage along with new artists such as Richard Street and his group the Distants. We worked with Emmanuel Laskey and David Ruf‹n, who was doing a solo act in those...