Ron Silva and Steve Potterf grew up as neighbors in Point Loma, California and began listening to records together in the ninth grade. Silva recalls of those early days: “After a while Steve started getting into the music I liked – Beatles, early Stones. I remember sitting in his room playing guitars along to my dad’s Chuck Berry and Elvis Presley 45’s.”
Ron Silva and Steve Potterf, together with Ron’s brother Russell Silva played rock and roll in the Silva garage all through high school. Ron Silva began obsessively studying album covers, magazines, vintage photographs, and other sources in order to authentically capture the look of the Sixties, from the hair to the clothes to the shoes; this desire spread to the other bandmembers as well over time.
As Ron Silva left high school, he advertised for a rock band that he was thinking of forming; after being contacted by vocalist Jeff Scott (who had just left the seminal punk band the Dils) and drummer Josef Marc, he instead became the guitarist in their new band called the Hitmakers. They quickly became part of the growing DIY music scene in San Diego. A joint show in 1977 at the Adams Avenue Theatre by the Hitmakers, the Dils and the Zeros was the first big punk rock concert in the city. Later Steve Potterf joined the Hitmakers as their second guitarist, and Joel Kmak became their new drummer.
The renown of the Hitmakers grew through the state, and the band decided to relocate to San Francisco. The day before they left town, the band fired Steve Potterf because they said that they didn’t like his attitude. About two days later, Ron Silva decided to start his own band that became the Crawdaddys.
Ron Silva connected with Mark Zadarnowski – who was just learning to play bass guitar – through a mutual friend and fellow Beatles enthusiast named Tim LaMadrid. The first gig by the newly formed band the Crawdaddys was at Abbey Road in September 1978, with Ron’s brother Russell Silva – who went by the name “Scuzz” – sitting in on drums. By their third concert at the Lions’ Club in North Park, the line-up was Ron Silva (guitar), Steve Potterf (guitar), Mark Zadarnowski (bass), and Dan McLain (drums); McLain ran a local record store called Monty Rockers.
Jeff Scott phoned Ron Silva, and they patched things up over Silva’s leaving the Hitmakers. Scott was about to go to L.A. to play their band’s demo tape for Greg Shaw at Bomp! Records, and he offered to bring him and Steve Potterf along if they could lay down some tracks first. The Crawdaddys assembled in the Silva garage and recorded two original songs plus Chuck Berry’s “Oh Baby Doll” and Bo Diddley’s “Tiger in Your Tank”.
Ron Silva says of the meeting of the Crawdaddys with Greg Shaw: “In my opinion it would be fairly safe to say that [Steve] Potterf and I blew Shaw’s mind that day. We walked in, and Potterf had this absolutely devout Brian Jones thing going with the hair, and we both had the complete Downliners Sect ’64 look from head to toe. It was totally ridiculous and great at the same time. Shaw said, ‘Go back to San Diego and make an album, preferably for next to nothing, if you don’t mind.’ We didn’t.”
As described above, the resulting debut album, Crawdaddy Express by the Crawdaddys was comprised mostly of covers of R&B classics by Bo Diddley, Willie Dixon, Chuck Berry, and John Lee Hooker; plus a few from other sources, such as the old Hank Snow tune “I’m Movin’ On” and the magnificent Van Morrison song “Mystic Eyes” that opened the first album by Them. Only a few familiar songs were included on the album, such as “You Can’t Judge a Book” and “Down the Road a Piece”. Just two original recordings were included on the album, the title song “Crawdaddy Express” and “Got You in My Soul” (both written by Ron Silva and Steve Potterf).
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Meanwhile, back in San Diego, drummer Dan McLain was in another band called the Penetrators that was being courted by major record labels; and Steve Potterf also played with the Upbeats, his side project with Paris Trent – this band was thinking of moving to Los Angeles. Steve Potterf left first in late 1979, and Dan McLain left the Crawdaddys in 1980. The 16-year-old guitarist Peter Miesner joined up on guitar, while the drummer was, briefly, Joel Kmak, who had previously been in the Hitmakers. Keith Fisher was added later on keyboards.
(January 2015/2)
