
In The Beginning, There Was Music: Larry Shaeffer’s Legacy
Music Life & The Best Music in Oklahoma
Rhinestone Revelation
Let’s start from the beginning, shall we?
The Day Rock n’ Roll Came To Town.
Taking The Stage
“We were gigging on weekends and going from school bus kids with three dollars in our pockets to having $100-150 on Monday mornings after the shows.” That was a lot of money in the late 60s. He said, “it changed the way we saw life.” Being able to afford cars and perform songs in front of live audiences at sock hops and local functions fanned the flames of desire within these young rockers. It was just fun and exciting for a bunch of kids to be on stage and get paid for it. Having money to ditch the school bus probably felt good too for these teens.
But for Larry, there was more to it than just playing gigs. He saw an opportunity, the writing of song lyrics on the wall if you will. There could be a real future in music. Since that performance by The Beatles, young musicians began popping up everywhere. This was not a fad that was going to fade away.
Calling Dr. Shaeffer…
Nor was it going to fade to black after he graduated high school, but college, not rock n roll seemed to be in his future as far as his parents were concerned. They wanted him to go to medical or dental school and so Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, Oklahoma is where he wound up…for a while anyway. It wouldn’t take long for the 17-year-old Shaeffer to realize that the pre-med classes were of absolutely no interest to him. Nor was pulling teeth and treating ear infections.
“Wait a minute,“ he thought. “I don’t want to be a dentist, doctor or sell life insurance. I don’t want to be a school teacher either…I want to be in the music business,” he told himself this back in the late 1960s. By his own admission, he didn’t even know what the music business was, but he knew that whatever it was, he had to be a part of it. However, it would still be a while before he could make his pitch into the music business world.
Unwillingness To Adapt
By mid-December 1970 he had graduated from the University of Tulsa. The day after graduation, he was on a bus headed to the induction center for the US Army having received his draft notice. Although he was willing to serve his country, in his heart, he knew that he marched to a different drummer than most others.
“They wouldn’t run the [email protected]& !^%n army the way I wanted them to,” Larry joked. He and the army’s problem of not seeing eye to eye soon led to an early honorable discharge for Unwillingness to Adapt to Military Life. (For more of Larry’s opinions and thoughts on the late 1960’s political status, the Vietnam War and his college degree, tune into the upcoming podcast due out soon.)
By June of 1971, he was out of the Army and it was “reality time” as he called it. He had a college degree which was not worth the paper it was printed on as far he was…and is still concerned. So with college and the Army behind him, he began hauling hay for a company out of Terlton, Oklahoma receiving three cents per bale.
It’s Elementary My Dear Larry
“At this time, I had no idea as to how I was going to get into the music business. All I knew was that I was not thinking about hay bales. I didn’t have any desire or hopes that I could be a professional musician either.” With pressure from his parents and others asking about his future plans, the winds of fate blew an idea his way. An elementary school friend reached out to him after having moved back from Texas. His old friend David Miller was now a barber working in Prattville, Oklahoma. He had been a rock n roll singer in Lubbock, Texas with a band called The Tracers and was interested in keeping a foot on the stage in the music business.
After returning, he had heard that Larry had had the band The Undertakers. Larry’s band would perform until 1969 when the drafting of members and other issues forced them to quit. So with no band, no prospects and a job baling hay, Larry was eager to hear what David had to say. Miller tells him of a man he had met while in Lubbock who had been a friend of the famous musician Buddy Holly. What he tells him about this man was just what Larry needed to hear…his way into the music business. Miller told him how this man he met had become a local concert promoter and made trunkloads of cash.
Long Distance Longing
“That conversation with David was the first sign of light of me taking some serious direction toward anything musically oriented. We partnered up and decided to promote a show,” Larry said. Larry started calling agents in New York and Los Angeles but was not hearing anything that was music to his ears. The two were using Miller’s barber shop as an office using a shower curtain to separate two of the six barber chairs as an office and the outside payphone as their business phone.
For an entire year, not one single booking agent would take his call. Although frustrated, he kept pumping dimes and quarters into that payphone. Finally, an agent named Bill Elson from Premiere Talent in New York City did take his call. More than that though, he listened to Larry’s pitch and agreed to take a chance on him. Although Elson had some of the biggest names of the time on his roster, he found one band to offer him. After that call, both men borrowed some money, had posters printed up and called themselves concert promoters. Elson had agreed to let Larry bring Black Oak Arkansas to Tulsa. And with that came Jim Dandy to the rescue and the birth of Little Wing Productions.
Please check out part two of this story. Thanks for reading!

C. L. Harmon
Lead Author
C.L. Harmon a journalist and author.
He Has worked for several newspapers as a reporter and was the managing editor for a daily before starting his own paper, The Mannford Reporter in Mannford, Oklahoma.
The Mannford Reporter came with many life lessons and experiences that I may share one day. For now my focus and my love is Uniquelahoma!
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