keyboardist Ted Pine

Jerome Deupree had been the drummer for the Decoders, and followed the sax player from that Harvard University new wave act- Russ Gershon -into the Sex Execs in the early '80's, replacing the band's original drummer Danny. Jerry's drumming added a distinctly professional sheen to the band which had heretofor been lacking. His arrival coincided with the growth of the horn section from it's original configuration of just Sean Slade playing sax on a few numbers, to the full-blown ensemble work of Gershon on tenor, baritone sax player Jim Fitting and Slade on alto. For a few of the more important gigs, and recording, the band even lured hot-shit New York pal Lee Z away from his jobs playing the Latino circuit, and a trombonist-paramedic named Pat.

When the Execs broke up, after a strong run for the roses that saw them make it to the finals of the Rock and Roll Rumble (they lost to ex-punk chanteuse Ammie Mann's atmospheric dance-pop band 'Til Tuesday), Jerry Deupree and Ted Pine hooked up with Mr. Happy. That band was, sadly, short-lived, although we managed to record one of the first complete LP's at the old Fort Apache South, a strange pastiche of songs written by myself (Joe Harvard) and Ted Pine, entitled Love and Music...Play!Play!Play! (a title lifted from the absurd lyrics of "Rock and Roll Band" by the band Boston). Besides Pine, Deupree and myself, the band included future Soul Coughing bass player Sebastian "Bash" Steinberg and Dave "Bone" Pedersen, former bones guitarist and bass player, and future John Felice cohort in one of the reformed numerous versions of the Real Kids. Highlights of the Mr. Happy experience included a highly memorable guest appearance by vocalist Syd Straw at the Rat, commemorating the night of the long-awaited Harmonic Convergence (moon in the 7th house, Jupiter aligned with Mars) with balls-to-the-wall performances of "Age of Aquarius" and Zep's "Four Sticks", plus Ted Pine's pioneer sampling efforts as Brian Jones' Pipes of Pan on "Baby You're A Rich Man". Before Mr. Happy had kicked the bucket Jerome had begun to do double duty with Gershon's latest project, the amazing revved-up big band Either-Orchestra. During the years he played with the 11-piece Orchestra Jerry proved that his jazz chops were just as strong as his dance pop and straight-ahead rock talents. From there, Deupree became the original drummer in indie super-group Morphine, sticking around long enough to help the band establish themselves as one of the most promising, unique and talented bands of their time; when Jerry left he was replaced by former Treat Her Right drummer Billy Conway. In response to my mistakenly accrediting Jerry as an early member of John Cougar's band, Mr. Deupree sent me this missive, quoted in part:
"I have been having fun reading and remembering,,, or not remembering I can't recall which. Just thought I'd drop you a line and correct a couple ah thangs.... I never played in John Cougar's band ... I DID however play on his very first album, Chestnut Street Incident, which is hillariously bad and should be heard for the lame Demo tape which never should have seen the light of day... Also the Humans (no z) are often confused with Human Sexual Response, at least in boston, I belive it was how locals shortend the name...Any way the story goes that We {humans from santa cruz ca} played at a club called the Main Act which I belive was out in Lynn or some other north shore locale. We were opening up for the Neighborhoods and in the audience were some of the future members of the Sex Exces???? I recall the drummer of the Hoods changing his drum heads during sound check, and actually punching them to try and improve the sound.. I thought this was the dumbest thing Id ever seen, as the sound of the drums was already no different than before the change had occurred. What strange planet had I gone to???? So the show went on and we did not go over at all with the crowd. But then this was July fourth weekend 1980.....And the Hood's at that time Fucking Ruled Dude!!!!!! So there you have it.."

Below:the Sex Train / Strange Things release.
Engineered by Thom Moore
Recorded at Synchro Sound

Ted wrote the locomotive powered riff for "Sex Train" at 117 Columbia Street one morning after a tough night of partying. He woke up with the riff in his head, turned on the drum machine and entered the riff into the bass line "sequencer" of his little white plastic Casio and - voila -instant song! Sometimes the simplest tunes are the finest.

Ted Pine - Keyboards, Vocals
Walter Clay - Lead Vocals
Andrew Barnaby - Guitar
Sean Slade - Guitar, Sax, Vocals
Jim Fitting - Baritone Sax
Jerome Deupree - Drums
Paul Kolderie - Bass