No discussion of great debut records is complete without mentioning Zebra’s self-titled 1983 record. Featuring hits like “Tell Me What You Want” and “Who’s Behind The Door”, the record was the fastest-selling debut in Atlantic Records history when it came out. The band would put out two more records and Randy Jackson would continue to write, record and tour on his own and with Zebra. Randy talked with me recently about the history of this unique band and his rock n’ roll journey.
Please press the PLAY icon below for the MisplacedStraws Conversation with Randy Jackson:
On how Zebra formed – I met Felix (Hanemann), I just got out of high school and I was hanging out at a place called The Library. It was actually a bar and it was located on the corner of Elysian Fields and Robert E. Lee in New Orleans. I’d be going down there playing foosball and stuff and Felix worked at the clothing store right next door and his roommate, and bandmate, Eldridge Madaires, was the daytime bartender at The Library and we got to be friends. They were talking about a band that they had. I went to Felix’s house one day…and that was the first time we actually sat and talked about music. He told me his band was called Shepherd’s Bush and they were looking for a guitar player, so I went in and audition for the band and from there we played for about a year…We played all of Felix’s material all original stuff…Felix had borrowed some money from his brother, Buddy, and we got a PA system and when the band broke up we still hadn’t paid Buddy back anything. So the nighttime manager of The Library told me about a drummer that he knew in the French Quarter…so I went down and I met Guy (Gelso) at the club and I started playing with Guy… I told Felix, I said, “We don’t have a bass player”, I said, “You know, we could pay your brother back because there’s a lot of bands out there that are making some pretty good money doing covers and stuff”. He eventually, reluctantly, said he would do it. 1:00
On moving to Long Island rather than Manhatten – I think it was because of what we were doing. We played originals but we were doing covers We had met the Good Rats…we had met them in New Orleans at a show that we did together with them and they suggested Long Island. They said that the scene was just really great In Long Island, you could work a lot and that was what we were looking for. We were looking to work four or five days a week and that was what they were talking about. So we knew somebody who owned a club on Long Island and we got that person, Lee Feldman, to book us a gig and we lived in his house with him for a little while and he was nice enough to put us up in his attic. We played a place called the 1890s in Long Island and the subject of Manhattan never came up. We didn’t play Manhattan until I would say a year after we got up there. So there were two separate scenes completely. 5:38
“Who’s Behind The Door?”
On working with legendary producer Jack Douglas (Aerosmith) on the debut record – Jack’s a really funny guy, we hit it off right away and he had just a great personality. We were thrilled to be working with him. I just remember that he didn’t make a whole lot of changes to the songs. He liked them the way they were and he was really meticulous about making sure that things were right. He would have us come in there and play, do a couple of takes of the songs and then he would do his thing. He’d go do is editing and stuff like that and spend hours and hours getting the tempo and everything just right on songs. 8:12
“Bears”
On the pressure to follow up the debut – I think the problem for me was (that) I was the main writer and I hadn’t really been doing what I should have been doing on the road and that was writing songs. So when we came off the road, here we were and had to get all this material together. So it was kind of a scramble for me to get all the stuff together. We had some material that we hadn’t used to the first record, “Bears” and “Wait Until The Summer’s Gone” were two songs, but most of the other material was written right there, put together right there during that time period. I learned a good lesson at that point because the third record, when we went out on the road for the second record, I was writing all the time while we toured with Sammy Hager and stuff. 9:50
“Tell Me What You Want”
On being the touring guitarist for the 1989 Jefferson Airplane reunion – It was really interesting, I learned a lot. They were five completely different personalities. It was kind of like surreal because I didn’t really, I knew the Airplane when I was a little kid but I knew Hot Tuna from the club scene in Long Island and stuff, and they played around then. So trying to mesh the two of those together it just didn’t, but then once we were out on the road and I saw them play as the Airplane it made sense. Grace (Slick) was awesome, real sweetheart. Whatever craziness I’d heard about it was…those days were over obviously, pretty business-like and we just had a great time on the road. 12:20
“Take Your Fingers From My Hair”
On playing his orchestral tribute shows – Well the arrangements are really good and that makes all the difference in the world. With an orchestra behind it, there’s nothing like it. I mean it just takes the music to another level. Most of the orchestras around the country, they’re real pros and it’s always a great experience. I played baritone horn from the time I was in fourth grade all the way up through college so I was kind of used to the environment but not on that kind of a professional level. As the years have gone by, it’s been like 20-25 years we’ve been doing it, the orchestras themselves have changed, the age. So now most of the people in the orchestra are fans of the music we’re doing. In the beginning, it was a little half and half or even less than that. Some of them would be kind of reluctant, they really weren’t enjoying it as much but now it’s like you know everybody has a good time because we’re all in the same age group. 17:00
“Stairway To Heaven”
On keeping busy during the pandemic – Every day I play a show on Facebook Live and I’m working on a way for the band, for Zebra, to play. We’re gonna be doing that I think within the next couple of weeks from different locations and live, Actually I got a phone call just a couple of minutes ago about that so hopefully that’ll be happening. We want to get the material that I’ve got written recorded, and I think that’s gonna happen within the next couple of months. 20:46
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