Classic Song 30 - Dixie Dregs "Take It Off The Top"

Let's talk about classic musicians....

...guys like Steve Morse and fellow University of Miami

alumni, Rod Morgenstein, Mark Parrish, Allen Sloan 

and Andy West, together comprising the first 

and arguably best lineup of Dixie Dregs.

I first heard the 'Dregs' when I was on tour with 

Alfie Zappacosta in our EMI band, Surrender. 

At the time, we were in high demand on the 

club scene, with hits on Canadian radio 

and fans cueing up to see and hear 

us wherever we played. 

It was the early fall of 1979. Surrender was heading

west, after our first, weeklong stay in Winnipeg,

playing for the denizens of the Norlander Hotel,

and following a weeklong residency in Portage

la Prairie's finest local watering hole... 

and I mean HOLE.

I remember somebody (maybe guitarist, Steve Jensen)

loading a cassette into the van's cheap, in-dash player,

announcing that this tape was totally "the shit"....

Before I knew it, the opening guitar harmonics-led 

riff from "Take It Off The Top" filled the inside 

of our little jam packed rust-bucket, instantly 

transporting me from the back seat of a 

smelly van to the far reaches of the 

known rock universe.

Song after unbelievably well played song assaulted

my ears and - once the album was over - left me 

emotionally drained and begging for info....

anything of interest... about this new 

band of rock superheroes.

Needless to say, that tape never once left the van,

staying safely inside the cassette player for the 

duration of our western-Canada-and-back tour. 

Thirty-two years later, I'm still awed by the Dregs,

especially "Take It Off The Top", one of my 

all-time favourite rock anthems.

Here's the original album recording, following

a snapshot of Surrender, playing the legendary

El Mocambo in the sweaty summer of 1980.

Mozz the Elder

www.vapormusic.com