Greg Miller - John Alexander - Clifton Buie - Bill T Miller
The name THE ELECTRIC ONION was a mutation taken from the just released
BEATLES - White Album (November 1968) with the song GLASS ONION, combined with the
word ELECTRIC, via an Electric Prunes/Electric Flag inspiration.
When I moved from Virginia to North Carolina, I met John Alexander.
John and I had started to jam a bit in summer 1968 and now with a band
name and the addition of Clifton on drums (around x-mas '68) rock stardom
was moments away. Notice in the picture above that John and I both have guitars. John did LEADS & RHYTHM GUITAR and I did
RHYTHM GUITAR and BASS parts on my guitar, later adding a Mangus Chord Organ
to my arsenal. The Beatles Abbey Road album was released in fall 1969 and the song "I Want You"
was one of the last tunes added to the The Electric Onion set. By early 1970 the band sorta
fizzled away because of a LACK of sex and drugs and rock-n-roll and band members took off
various on solo careers and the quest for enlightenment.
Actually the FIRST BTM "band" was a few years earlier in 1966, when we lived in Virginia,
BUT our "instruments" were tennis racquet guitars, plastic trash
can drums, one actual plastic guitar, broom stick mike stand with
a dixie cup for a mike all set-up to lip-sync to records and have
fun. It started with myself (Bill T Miller) and my younger brothers David and Greg
in the living room and then later moved the garage. I added bandmates Carl Dickoff and David Simpson
who were my own age (nine years old) and the rest is history.
No actual audio recordings were made of The Electric Onion or Racquet Band, but there is
rare short 8mm silent film that my MMMom shot of the original Racquet Band line-up in 1966 with brothers "Bill David Greg" rocking out.
BILL T MILLER * THEN & NOW
1968 & 2011
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