His biography, written by Larry Gott, has this:
Tedd Armstrong, (born Tedd Alan Gott) always knew in his mind that he was a musician. Spending hours and hours as early as two and three years old listening to his mothers record collection of Duke Ellington, Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, Raymond Scott, etc. Tedd began playing drums at the ripe old age of five. His Mother, Beverly Armstrong was a recording artist for Capitol Records, and was featured on the weekly television and radio programs "The World Tomorrow." where she sang sacred classical music for her televangelist father Herbert W. Armstrong.She noticed when Tedd was only three, that he was playing along with her Duke Ellington records with wooden spoons on pots and pans and empty Quaker Oats boxes,and actually playing many of the Louis Belson riffs on songs like "Skin Deep". So for his 5th birthday,she purchased him a small set of drums behind which he spent much of his childhood playing along with jazz records from his mothers collection.At the age of 12, Tedd saw The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show and it altered his life forever! He formed his first rock and roll band at thirteen, and began playing junior high dances and backyard parties. His first paying gig was at age 12, the 1964 Christmas show at The Acadamy Theater in Pasadena Ca. Playing hits like, Wipe Out by the Surfaries and She Loves You By of course, The Beatles... Tedd continued to play in rock cover bands throughout Jr. high and high school, mostly with much older musicians, playing in night clubs like Gazzaris,The Whisky A Go Go, and college campuses, and at the Hollywood Palladium in 1970.After High school Tedd began playing guitar / bass / keyboards / harmonica / sitar / 4 string banjo / ukelele, pretty much anything musical he could get his hands on, and taught himself to play them all by ear, having no formal training nor ever learning to read music. By the mid Seventies he had started writing songs on guitar and piano, and recorded his first self titled solo album with the help of Track Records owner, musician, song writer and producer Robert Safir. The album was an ambitious project of 13 original songs on which Tedd played most of the instruments and sang all of the vocals himself.One night, while driving to the studio during these sessions, Tedd came very close to losing his life when he rolled his 1970 Charger at very high rate of speed. This of course slowed production of the album for several weeks. Tedd, however managed to complete the project with the a broken back.
Read more here:
It is Techno rock so it may not appeal to some. He has more music and pictures here and on Soundcloud here.
8 comments:
It is nice to see that a member of the Armstrong family was able to live his dream with the support of family members who had not imbibed of the Kool Aid.
This biography by his dad contained material that was all new to me. Obviously, having lived on planet Earth all my life, I was aware of the Beatles, Wipeout by the Surfaris, and Shakin' All Over by Johnny Kiidd and the Pirates. I had also heard of The Trip. Most of the other bands and all of the musicians were not in my lexicon.
I haven't listened to any of the music yet, but it appears that at least one good thing has come out of the Armstrong family. If nothing else, music was most certainly an important part of their lives.
BB
Can't understand a goddamned word of it. Anyone care to translate? Gary...?
Good on him. He avoided getting sucked in and followed his dreams.
For those who didn't have time to listen: The first cut contains dialogue typical of our own commentaries here regarding HWA. Tedd would fit right in! You can certainly hear some heavy Frank Zappa influence.
The second cut is more accessible, mainstream end of the 1980s rock. In fact it could very well have been recorded by the group "Badlands". Very similar style.
BB
I remember Larry Gott who is mentioned here as being Tedd Gott's brother. I befriended him at Ambassador College in Pasadena in the early 70'. He was not a believer when I knew him but was respectful of his grandfather and the Church. I think Larry was a bit of a lost soul at this time and probably in his late 20's or maybe 30 and not very successful. I think HWA felt sorry for him and invited him to attend AC. I spent quite a bit of time with him and found him a real breath of fresh air. At that time I was a true believer but for some reason felt allegiance with Larry Gott who didn't really belong with all the true believers. He was short and quite round and had a great sense of humor and fun. He dated the only Chinese girl on campus because no one else was allowed to, and he said the race rules didn't apply to him cause he wasn't in the Church. I do wonder what happened to him. Anyone out there know? He was just a normal guy, nothing like the religious Armstrongs.
Tried to listen but it was giving me a headache. One would think that if you have a message to get across that you will ensure that the other person would be able to understand it. Not be blown away by noise.
Too bad.
Anonymous#1, that's pretty much the way I remember Larry Gott as well. He was irreverent and respectful at the same time. For example, I talked to him before the 1975 AC Pasadena graduation ceremony. He was wielding a large camera. I asked him who he was planning to photograph, and he replied, "Oh, I'll nail the old man a few times." I was jealous that he could get away with talk like that and the rest of us couldn't.
As for Larry's brother Tedd, I didn't know until now that he even existed.
Larry Gott is 70 years old, retired from the aerospace industry and is listed as a member of the Atheists Community of San Jose. He looks so much like his granddad.
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