INTERVIEW Peppy “Magoo” Castro… THE BLUES MAGOOS
ATHENS CALLING: Hello from Athens.
THE BLUES MAGOOS: Hello ! Peppy “Magoo” Castro here.
ATHENS CALLING: You should know that THE BLUES MAGOOS have many fans in Greece. But they want to know what they are doing now all the members of the band… I mean about recordings and concerts.
Peppy “Magoo” Castro (THE BLUES MAGOOS):Well I’m happy to say that all the original Members are still alive. It’s nice to know we have fans who still enjoy what we did so many years ago. We don’t do too much these days but we do still do some occasional shows. It’s great to see people come out and enjoy us. 3 out of the original 5 still do the shows.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xic0317lxYE
ATHENS CALLING: What do you have, to tell us about the long life of the band I think that you have two periods of your music life 1964-1970 and 2008-present, so tell us about it? Really what is the secret, witch from 1964 until today, the band is still alive.
Peppy “Magoo” Castro (THE BLUES MAGOOS): As long as there are old fans and new fans then it keeps the band alive. We reunite here and there to show the people who love the Magoos that we love them back. The secret is the love of fans.
ATHENS CALLING: Many of the past years bands, returned today, with concerts and with albums! What is your opinion about it They return with a commercial purpose or artistic interest?
Peppy “Magoo” Castro (THE BLUES MAGOOS):The Magoos Didn’t re-unite for many decades. I wanted to make sure that if we did the fans and press knew it wasn’t for money but for the love of the legacy and the fun of the band. We are all so much older that most peoples careers are over at our age. I’ve made my mark and money over my life time. This is icing on the cake for me.
ATHENS CALLING: Now we would like to tell us about the creation of the music and the lyrics of your songs, what is the cause of creation?
Peppy “Magoo” Castro (THE BLUES MAGOOS):Well when the band first started in the 1960’s we were a creation of the times and what was going on in the world. However, we tried not to take our selves so serious and we made sure the audience knew we were there to have fun and even be silly at times. So we wrote things sometimes in code which made the listener wonder about us. For instance. Songs like “Love Seems Doomed”. Had the initials of LSD. Haha. The song “Albert Common Is Dead” Initials was “A.C. I. D.” All in all we were exploring all the time.
ATHENS CALLING: Until today I believe that we hear and of course we talk about two amazing THE BLUES MAGOOS songs.. ‘’We Aint Got Nothin Yet ‘’and ‘’Tobacco Road’’
Please tell us the story of these two songs .
Peppy “Magoo” Castro (THE BLUES MAGOOS):‘’We Ain’t got nothing yet’’ was written in the basement of the Albert Hotel in the village in NYC. This was a group effort. The hotel used to let us rehearse in their basement. Amazing. So the song just started to come together as we were all coming up with different parts in a rehearsal.
‘’Tobacco Road’’ was an old blues song written by John D. Loudermilk.
However no one ever did what the Magoos did to that song.
It still stands today in a class all by itself. We had an echoplex which was a tape delay box invented by Les Paul. People used it for delay effects for guitar. One day it fell on the floor. We thought it was forever broke but when we plugged it back in it was feeding back making crazy runaway sounds. We tried to stop it by moving the tape speed selector and it made the sounds go slower but it was still feeding back. We were so stoned back in those days smoking weed and God knows what else, LOL That we thought it was amazing and we incorporated the crazy sounds in to our music. Audiences the world over Loved Tobacco road. You never knew what was going to happen. The song could last a few minutes or be super long depending on how we felt at the time.
ATHENS CALLING: Tell us at first about the best and then about the worst moments of THE BLUES MAGOOS career.
Peppy “Magoo” Castro (THE BLUES MAGOOS):For me the best was hearing our selves on the radio for the first time. That was a thrill and then all the big national TV shows we did. The worst was seeing our follow up Single “ Pipe Dream” be banned on radio. The establishment was very afraid of The Blues Magoos Being a Psychedelic rock Group. This made the band be a One hit wonder at the time.
ATHENS CALLING: What is for you the genre of Psychedelic music.
Peppy “Magoo” Castro (THE BLUES MAGOOS):It was a sign of the times. Music was exploding. We were a reflection of life.
ATHENS CALLING: Before say good bye to you I want to give your message in your Greek fans .
Peppy “Magoo” Castro (THE BLUES MAGOOS):The Blues Magoos Played in Athens years ago. It was a wonderful experience. The people of Greece are fabulous and now Ι have some lifetime friends from Athens It touches my heart to see that The Magoos are still appreciated. The History of Greece and seeing the Acropolis etc. was a dream come true.
ATHENS CALLING: Thank you my friend. Peppy.
What a wonderful interview! Loved it and the hidden messages in the song titles! ❤️
Thank you Athens Calling for the interview with Peppy Magoo Castro. LOVE to hear the stories of such a great and influential band. Peppy has endless stories, and we want to hear them all. Thanks for keeping it alive!