{"id":301,"date":"2012-09-21T16:15:52","date_gmt":"2012-09-21T20:15:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mcelfreshmap.com\/tammynoriepress\/?p=301"},"modified":"2012-09-21T16:16:51","modified_gmt":"2012-09-21T20:16:51","slug":"ben-smoky-hewitt-buffalos-lost-legend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mcelfreshmap.com\/tammynoriepress\/ben-smoky-hewitt-buffalos-lost-legend\/","title":{"rendered":"Ben “Smoky” Hewitt: Buffalo’s Lost Legend"},"content":{"rendered":"
Note:\u00a0 Most of the material contained in the following Blog was derived from the book All Roots Lead to Rock<\/em> edited by Colin Escott specifically Chapter 12 by Colin Escott and Hank Davis, entitled “I Heard You Died in ’64”<\/span><\/h6>\n

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Rock & roll and Buffalo are not strangers. The Goo Goo\u00a0Dolls, Annie DiFranco, Rick James, have shown brightly in the rock & roll firmament. Buffalo radio stations and DJ\u2019s have been fervent purveyors of the culture and sounds of rock & roll.<\/p>\n

But lurking in the footnotes of Buffalo\u2019s rock & roll history is one of the great might-have-beens, one of the most intriguing and most engaging of rock\u2019s lost souls. \u00a0The one who never got what every hustling performer wanted, the thing even the one-hit-wonders got \u2013 the thing our rocker did not. \u00a0No Cadillac for Ben Hewitt.\u00a0 However Ben Hewitt does get some serious attention in my e-book Sidereal Days The History of Rock and Roll A Romance.\u00a0<\/em>He looms as a Buffalo and Western NY performing legend to the fictional producer at Gobi Desert Records.<\/p>\n

He was born September 11, 1935 in a log cabin on the Tuscarora Indian Reservation. Things went smoothly for him until about 1948 when a $12.50 Stella guitar appeared in his life. A few years later, in a Buffalo venue called the Zanzibar Club, Ben Hewitt came down with a fever he never got over. \u00a0Little Richard and his band played the Zanzibar for a week. \u00a0Ben caught every show as well as the aforementioned fever.<\/p>\n

The next thing. Ben had his own show and took it on the road. \u00a0He\u2019d put a little band together. \u00a0They were playing a bar called DeFazio\u2019s in Niagara Falls. \u00a0Ben, as he described it, was \u201cshakin\u2019, carryin\u2019 on, doing flip-flops.\u201d Though he was doing his idol Little Richard, he was coming across as Elvis. Up comes a gent who looks remarkably like the notorious Colonel Tom Parker, Elvis\u2019s manager. This gent writes songs and wants someone to help him. He wants to make a demo record so he can shop his songs around. Ben agrees to make the demo with a couple of stipulations. \u00a0This, that and the other thing and \u201cYou supply the booze.\u201d Perhaps not the most astute career move.<\/p>\n

According to Ben, this Colonel Parker look-alike writes a bunch of different songs but all of them sound the same. \u00a0At the end of the demo tape, Ben adds his own self-penned song, You Break Me Up<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Wonder of wonders and within about a week, Ben\u2019s songwriting friend has Ben Hewitt and Ben\u2019s remarkable guitarist Ray Ethier in the recording studios of Mercury Records in New\u00a0\u00a0York City. \u00a0Unfortunately, Ben has already signed a contract that ties him up in legal knots. \u00a0And Mercury Records isn\u2019t interested in any of the quote unquote \u201csongwriters\u201d material. They like Ben Hewitt\u2019s song. They like You Break Me Up<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Then Ray Ethier\u00a0called it quits. The chance of a profitable career in New\u00a0York City as a session guitarist didn\u2019t mean a thing to Ray. His reason was as simple as the excuse he gave to Ben Hewitt. \u201cI don\u2019t know anybody here.\u201d That was that. Ray headed back to the Buffalo area. He had to choose between his guitar and his girl. He wanted to get married and he couldn\u2019t marry that guitar.<\/p>\n

So Ben Hewitt was off and on his own. Nicknames proliferated but the name \u201cSmoky\u201d caught on and Ben kept it. Unfortunately Ben\u2019s music never really\u00a0caught on. He had a checkered and luckless recording career. He signed with one record company and a lawsuit laid them low. A postal strike in Canada\u00a0killed off an ambitious promotional campaign. A case of mistaken identity irreparably soured his relations with Mercury Records. The ultimate career killer was the fact that Ben was legally handcuffed to the Colonel Tom Parker look-a-like. Opportunities to sign with Musicor, Capitol Records, United Artists, fell through because of it.<\/p>\n

Ben\u2019s relationship with DeFazio\u2019s kept him going as a performer and a musician. \u201cSmoky,\u201d in his one smart contractual decision, deliberately excluded DeFazio\u2019s from any deals he made. It was the only gig he kept to himself. For thirteen years he played there and no matter where else he ever played, as far afield as Okinawa, someone in the crowd recognized him as \u201cSmoky\u201d from DeFazio\u2019s. Some of them were surprised to find him still with us.<\/p>\n

But alive he was. And there\u2019s a grainy video proving that he had what it took to wrangle a crowd. He was still rock & rolling in his late fifties, doing the great old hustle-bustle for the hundred millionth time. Hewitt still had it, he was still kicking up the dust.<\/p>\n

Ben \u201cSmoky\u201d Hewitt took the big bow December 8, 1996. He was sixty one.<\/p>\n

Ben Hewitt\u2019s recordings are characterized by his methodical, prominent, rhythm guitar playing. Some of the most interesting samples of his work:<\/p>\n

Whirlwind Blues<\/em>\u00a0is, all considered, not bad, with a nice little lead crescendo, by, I assume, Ray Ethier.<\/p>\n

You Break Me Up<\/em>\u00a0vocally channels Ricky Nelson through Elvis Presley with some tasty lead guitar work, presumably by Ray Ethier, and the very pleasant, steady chug of Hewitt\u2019s rhythm guitar.<\/p>\n

I Ain\u2019t Given Up Nothin\u2019<\/em> is well recorded, a good song, with strong echoes of Elvis\u2019s recording,Kiss Me Twice<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I Need Your Kind of Love<\/em> is the best Ben Hewitt recording I\u2019m aware of. A spare recording, no percussion, almost a folk song approach, with an Elvis inspired vocal performance, a decent set of lyrics and a compelling rhythm guitar accompaniment.<\/p>\n