Madness and demonic possession, the legend goes, comes in the elegant form of a blood red Rickenbacker bass. It was back in the summer of 1969, the Summer of Love, that the Red Rick possessed it's first soul. Evan McCue, bass player for Fallic Fish was the first victim. Nobody knows where the bass came from, but Evan brought it to a gig at the Troubadour one night and played like he had never played before. But, his bandmates say, he became a different person. Within a few months, he disappeared altogether, never to be seen again.

The Red Ric passed through many hands; each owner, in turn, slipped into darkness, madness or worse — possessed by demons nobody can explain. Its terrible power could even be felt onstage by others. Some bands quickly fell apart once The Red Ric appeared, even though audiences would sometimes dance to the point of hysteria.

Nobody knows why The Red Ric brings madness, what evil possesses it or where it came fromÉ and officials at the Rickenbacker company flatly deny the very existence of such a bass. But the stories are all there. Year after year, bass players come into possession of a beautiful Red Rickenbacker bass, only to slip away.

copyright 2006 MoPac and the Blue Suburbans