All-American McCoy
In Which Rick Derringer Does Everything And Does It Well
Rick Derringer's house in lower Manhattan hides a lot of history in its walls. It was originally bought by the rough rider man himself, the late and great Teddy ("Charge!") Roosevelt, for his grandson Willard. Beyond the backyard is a little studio where young Willard would while away the hours playing his grand piano, which is still there. Will, who's still around (but is no longer young), dropped by soon after Rick had moved in and when he saw all the guitars lying around, asked him what he played. "Pop music," answered Rick in his most respectful manner. Quoteth Willard with a raise of the old family eyebrow, "You mean acid rock??!!"
Rick Derringer, nee Rick Zehringer ("everybody was always either prohouncing it wrong or spelling it wrong, so I thought I'd make it easier to remember") has been a mainstay of the national rock scene since 1965, yet he still giggles and chuckles and looks about the same as he did when we first saw him on Shindig, Hullabaloo and Upbeat leading the McCoys through "Harig on Sloopy," "Fever" and "Gotta Go Back (And Watch that Little Girl Dance)." Up on the wall over the mantlepiece is a gold record of "Sloopy," flanked on one side by a gold copy of Edgar Winter's "Frankenstein" single and on the other side by the gold album that it came from, They Only Come' Out at Night, ,both of which this perennial teenager produced.
