The Untold Story of Chicago’s Virgin Dog

The untold story of Chicago-based Virgin Dog, a band that played in the same venues as Mountain Bus, especially around the North Side and Loyola.

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The band’s repertoire consists of many classic rock tunes including those by The Doors, Jefferson Airplane, Creedence Clearwater Revival and others. I’m very happy to be able to abstract this little piece of history from the vortex of time.

“My time with Virgin Dog was the most exciting time of my life”

I was really pleasantly surprised when you mentioned that you played the same venues as Mountain Bus, a band from Chicago. Was your band, Virgin Dog from the same area?

Larry Yunker, lead guitar and vocals, grew up around 79th and Kedzie and attended St. Denis grammar school. Transferred to Brother Rice High School from Quigley South junior year (1966), Larry came to Brother Rice already lead guitarist in a band of 15-year-olds called Captain Crunch and The Seadogs, then on to Loyola in 1968.

John Bramfeld, bass, grew up in Chicago; Frankfort, Indiana; Des Moines, Iowa and the Morgan Park area of Chicago again. St. Cajetan parish for grammar school and Brother Rice High School. Then on to Loyola in 1968.

John Talbot, drums and vocals, grew up in St. Margaret of Scotland parish around 99th and Vincennes and then Brother Rice High School. Then on to Loyola in 1968.

Ron Rigoni, vocals and harp, grew up in Roseland at 117th and Michigan and went to St. Mary’s of Riverdale and then Mendel High School. Then on to Loyola in 1968.

Jim Klug, rhythm guitar and vocals, spent pre-teen years in Hometown (87th and Kostner) just outside of Chicago. In 1963, moved to 43rd and California in the Kelly Park neighborhood of the Southwest Side of Chicago. Attended Luther South High School (87th and Kedzie). First publicly played electric guitar (‘Sunrise, Sunset’) as accompaniment for a lady classmate at the Senior Talent Show, where a couple of garage bands also played. Formed a band soon after (The Last Words) but never performed and quickly disbanded, then formed The Reflected Images, which eventually led to joining Virgin Dog. After high school, attended IIT and graduated in 1972.

Larry Yunker, like many in 1963 and 1964, he was floored by The Beatles and asked for guitar lessons as a graduation present in June, ’64. He came home from that first lesson playing ‘Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue’. He got his first guitar that Christmas, a Kay double pickup, single cutaway and started playing with some guys at school- the first performance was at a talent show at Quigley. He doesn’t remember what they called themselves, but by second year, Captain Crunch and The Seadogs had been born.

As is likely true of every garage band, Virgin Dog’s roots are complicated. When Larry arrived at Brother Rice, John Bramfeld, John Talbot and two other classmates were forming a band, name not remembered. John Bramfeld was playing rhythm guitar and masquerading unsuccessfully as a lead guitarist. In fact, the reason John was playing guitar at all was punishment from his mother for burns and explosions suffered in basement experiments. He was given the choice of taking either piano or guitar lessons. Piano having already proven insufferable, guitar was chosen and The Beatles promptly showed up on WLS.

Larry’s band, Captain Crunch and The Seadogs, had signed up to play for a Battle of the Bands at Brother Rice and their bass player was not available. Larry asked John Bramfeld if he would play bass, so he borrowed his bass player’s guitar and amp (which John had built from hi-fi parts) and played bass for the competition. Captain Crunch and The Seadogs lost, but John was asked to be a permanent bass guitarist and he duly traded in his red Fender Mustang 6-string and Magnatone amp for a beautiful white Fender Mustang bass and Bassman amp. Some parents’ money was also involved in the transaction. (That guitar and Larry Yunker’s Gibson were stolen from their Rogers Park apartment in 1969.)

The loss of the lead guitarist (if you want to put it like that) broke up the band which also included John Talbot, the drummer (who rejoined Larry and John at Loyola to form Virgin Dog).

At Brother Rice, Captain Crunch broke up and the band reformed with a new singer from Brother Rice and was renamed Finders Keepers. They played grammar and high school dances and whatnot around the south side and once even St. Joseph College in Rensselaer, Indiana.

As an interesting aside, at the same time Finders Keepers was playing, there was another active band at Brother Rice called The LDs. This band was led by Kevin Cronin, later of REO Speedwagon and his very talented lead guitarist. They were a year behind us. Those of us from Brother Rice can attest that they were about as amazing a group of high school musicians as we ever saw.

Upon graduation in 1968 John, John and Larry found themselves headed for Loyola. Larry and John Bramfeld were excited to have John Talbot finally drumming, and began to jam a little that summer. At Loyola they put it about that they needed a singer and Ron Rigoni showed up. He had played trumpet at Mendel for 4 years (interestingly, along with a guy who ended up in Styx).

Here’s what Ron remembers about joining the band:

Well, the only musical experiences I had were 4 years of trumpet in Mendel’s concert band and a brief turn at singing with Rich Fryzel and Ricko Lambert that resulted in a gig at a small coffee house, coincidentally just a few blocks from JB’s house. I think we did 3 tunes by Cream before the police arrived to shut us down…neighbors had been quick to call and complain. When I contacted the three Brother Rice members at Loyola, they mentioned that they wanted to do a number of Doors’ tunes and some quick thinking prompted me to mention that I could sing and owned a pair of leather pants to boot! That earned me an invite to a session at JB’s house and I was dumbstruck when they decided I was “in”! [From John Bramfeld: I can assure the readers that leather pants played no part in our excellent decision.]

Jim Klug describes his “induction” as he calls it:

Before joining Virgin Dog, I was playing rhythm guitar for my 2nd garage band, The Reflected Images. The Reflected Images played a few high school parties and such, but nothing more. The drummer for The Reflected Images was a dude named Bill Binder, who was an across-the-alley neighbor of Larry Yunker, Virgin Dog’s lead guitarist. The Reflected Images had a practice session one day in Bill’s parent’s garage (around 73rd St and Kedzie on the southwest side of Chicago) and Larry, apparently hearing all the music clatter from down the block, wandered over. I think he may have even played with us for a song or two. He was either impressed with my rudimentary mostly barre style rhythm guitar playing, or my 4-speaker Fender Concert amplifier (or both) and afterward asked if I’d be interested in trying out for a spot in his band. With The Reflected Images being very dysfunctional at the time and on the verge of collapse, I thought…why not? Within a few days we met in a garage at Ron Rigoni’s (Virgin Dog’s lead singer) parents’ house – near 117th and Michigan in the Roseland community of Chicago. I remember a couple of the songs we worked on – including Otis Redding’s ‘(Sittin’ On) the Dock of the Bay,’ The Beatles’ ‘I Will’ and ‘Bootleg’ by Creedence Clearwater Revival. As I struggled mightily with the strumming pattern to ‘Bootleg’ (John Bramfeld, Virgin Dog’s bassist, repeatedly had to demonstrate it to me). Eventually I got it, apparently my big Fender amp and cool cherry red ES330 Gibson hollow body electric were sufficient to overcome the rhythm drawback and there I was, a member of Virgin Dog (but unnamed at the time)! Additional practices followed at other locations, including one in JB’s parents’ basement, where I distinctly remember working up Jimi Hendrix Experience’s ‘Manic Depression’ and The Doors’ ‘Light My Fire’. I believe that’s also where the name Virgin Dog was agreed to by all, but not sure of the origin. Soon thereafter we had our first gig. Eventually, as I became more comfortable with the band, and they with me, I proposed a number of off-the-radar deep cuts to the band. Examples include: Jefferson Airplane’s ‘If You Feel,’ Jethro Tull’s ‘We Used to Know,’ Lovin’ Spoonful’s ‘Lovin’ You,’ and Youngblood’s ‘Grizzly Bear’. Everyone thought them to be cool songs, and we added them to the repertoire.

What clubs did you play and what are some other bands that you shared stages with?

From Jim Klug:

We played clubs only a few times. Names and circumstances are hard to come by. We had a booking to play a club in Lafayette, Indiana and upon arrival were told the booking was cancelled because of some motorcycle gang threat, but that there was another club in Lafayette where we could play a gig; which we did. One particular club/bar I remember was next to some railroad tracks along Glenwood-Dyer Rd off of IL-394, I believe called Shawn’s Pub. This was apparently a freebee, since no payment is shown in the diary.

Many of our gigs were Loyola related. We played at Loyola on 10/31/70 and shared a stage with Wilderness Road (who released two albums on major labels), Flyte and the Jim Eaves Trio (have heard nothing further about them). We played at Mertz Hall at Loyola a lot. So did Mountain Bus. We opened a concert at Loyola for Siegel-Schwall Band and B.B. King. We played at the annual Freek Ball (sponsored by Loyola) at the Orrington Hotel in Evanston twice.

One relic of the 2nd Freek Ball performance exists in the form of a signed contract (copy attached) for the 4/2/1971 performance. It is noteworthy that the contract references the fact that Virgin Dog was NOT a union band. The fact is, we were approached by the union while performing at the same location at the same event the previous year, which is documented in the diary. No serious issues arose, and we did finish our performance, but we were strongly advised to get our union cards before performing there again, which advice was ignored. However, it was NOT forgotten and thus the attempt at including “protective” language in the contract. Lots of dances (sock hops), a couple of fraternities, one wedding, some outdoor concerts including on the first Earth Day.

We played on the North and South sides. On the South side we were playing the same high school type dances as TW4 (went on as Styx), Brown Paper Bag and many others. On the North side we were playing some of the same venues as Mountain Bus.

 

 

How did you get the name Virgin Dog?

We were practicing at John Bramfeld, the bass player’s house, in Morgan Park and afterwards were sitting around the dining room table. The family dog, Pete, made an appearance and the subject of him having been “fixed” came up. Ron Rigoni suggested that meant he was a virgin, which cracked us up for some reason. This was shortly before Jim Klug joined the band on rhythm, so he shares no blame. Up to that time we had been using Blue True Dream.

You enjoyed Mountain Bus? What are some of your favourite memories?

Mountain Bus was a truly gifted group of musicians. It was always fun and more than a little intimidating to hear them. We spoke with them occasionally, and they were a nice group of guys. They deserved lots more success than they found.

Here is an interesting aside from Jim Gilmour, a friend of the band:

The Mountain Bus article in It’s Psychedelic Baby Magazine mentioned a guy named Stephen Titra, who hung out with the Mountain Bus folks for a short time, and wrote some songs for them. I have known Stephen for probably 25 years or so, he is a friend of my brother Peter, and always present at the Thanksgiving get-together that my brother has hosted for many years, along with the north side Gilmour cousins and their offspring. Stephen is a commercial artist, a very talented one actually as well as being a musician. Only a couple years ago I learned of his involvement with Mountain Bus. It’s a small world.

What did the Virgin Dog repertoire look like?

You will see a fair amount of country influenced stuff that gradually became more pronounced later on.

Our repertoire consisted of:

The Doors (‘The Spy,’ ‘Light My Fire,’ ‘You’re Lost Little Girl,’ ‘Break on Through,’ ‘Take It As It Comes,’ ‘I Looked At You,’ ‘My Eyes Have Seen You,’ ‘Love Me Two Times,’ ‘Roadhouse Blues,’ ‘Back Door Man’.

B.B. King (‘Why I Sing the Blues’)

Jimi Hendrix’s version of Sam Cooke song ‘Come On (Let the Good Times Roll)’ and also ‘Fire,’ ‘Manic Depression,’ ‘Purple Haze’

Cream (‘Spoonful,’ ‘I’m So Glad, ”Sunshine of Your Love,’ ‘Outside Woman Blues’)

The Rolling Stones (‘Live With Me’)

Otis Redding (‘(Sittin’ On) the Dock of the Bay’)

Jefferson Airplane (‘Volunteers,’ ‘If You Feel’)

Lovin’ Spoonful (Lovin’ You)

Leslie West (‘Blood of the Sun,’ ‘I Am a Child’)

Buffalo Springfield (‘For What It’s Worth,’ ‘Bluebird’)

 The Youngbloods (‘Grizzly Bear,’ ‘Get Together’)

Jethro Tull (‘Aqualung’)

Crazy Horse and Neil Young (‘Cinnamon Girl’)

Crosby, Stills & Nash (‘Long Time Gone,’ ‘Helplessly Hoping’)

It’s A Beautiful Day (‘Don & Dewey’)

(‘Keep On Chooglin’,’ ‘Good Golly Miss Molly,’ ‘Bootleg,’ ‘Proud Mary’

The Who (‘We’re Not Gonna Take It’)

The Troggs (‘Love is All Around You’)

Did you record or even release anything as Virgin Dog?

No original songs and no recordings, except for a practice or two have survived. There are some practice tapes – affectionately dubbed ‘The Great Lost Virgin Dog Tapes’ that, in addition to current “playlist” songs, contain a couple rudimentary original songs. These originals, all instrumental tracks, have a jazzy, folksy and even Grateful Dead-ish feel to them, but they are too raw for outside ears!

‘Henry’ (1971)

‘If You Feel’ (1971)

‘Bus Rider’ (1971)

‘Bluebird’ (1971)

‘Helplessly Hoping’ (1971)

‘Slammojammin”

‘Light As Air’

‘Jazzin’ Around’

How long was the band active?

1968 through 1971.

Are there any unreleased songs?

No.

What happened after the band stopped? Were you still in touch with other members? Is any member still involved with the music?

Ron Rigoni, the singer, continued playing with several completely different bands for a while. From his own description:

The next band, after Virgin Dog, that I played in was Sky Naked from about 1974 thru 1977. This was a cover band that included Ed Cragin on keys, Frank Broz on bass, Rick Wenthe lead guitar, Grif Birkner on drums, and me as lead vocalist, rhythm guitar, harmonica, and the occasional trumpet/sax. We were the house band at Gold Digger’s Lounge located about 5900 N. Ashland Ave. Toward the end of that span of time, we began doing a lot of Disco as well. In the early 80’s, Frank, Ed, and myself formed an original band that included Rob Weiner on rhythm guitar and Mac McCullough on drums. We played Lincoln Ave. street fairs and many other venues including Tut’s, where the Quiet Night had formerly resided on Belmont Ave.

The rest of us were in no further bands until later in life. Larry Yunker is and has been playing in the Fort Myers area as a solo and with other groups. John Talbot, drummer, is gigging occasionally with his son in a band and for a while played with a country band. Jim Klug, rhythm guitarist, has recently become active with his church related band, and his association with Larry Yunker mentioned below. John Bramfeld, bassist, never played in another band, or even touched a bass until an 80% reunion of the band in Riverside, Illinois about 5 years ago. Only John Talbot couldn’t make that reunion. He was sorely missed.

The band members started emailing regularly in 2013 and eventually found Jim Klug via LinkedIn in February 2014. Jim, who frequently vacations in Florida, soon discovered that Larry lived a couple miles from where he stays. They have since re-connected musically and Jim has shared a stage with Larry at his gigs on numerous occasions. Some cell phone recordings undoubtedly exist. Via email, we all still occasionally share memories, opinions and new music with each other. Larry Yunker lives in Venice, Florida; Ron Rigoni lives in Galax, Virginia; John Talbot lives in a Denver suburb; Jim Klug lives in Tinley Park, Illinois; and John Bramfeld recently moved to Valparaiso, Indiana from Champaign, Illinois, where he lived with his wife (who was there through all of Virgin Dog’s history) and children for 44 years. A lot of miles separate, but the mutual love of music, and memories of the Virgin Dog still hold us together in many ways.

Looking back, what was the highlight of your time in the band? Which songs are you most proud of? Where and when was your most memorable gig?

From John Bramfeld: Our first concert was at the Academy of Our Lady, also known as Longwood Academy, back on the South Side on 95th street in Beverly. That was memorable for several reasons. First gig, of course, but also, some south side drama. We came out roaring with a completely new song list. We were heavy on The Doors, Creedence Clearwater Revival, and other fairly heavy rock, except that we had discovered B.B. King the previous summer and added ‘Why I Sing the Blues’. It was our only blues number and we believed we were knocking it out of the park. The dance was heavily attended by two racial groups backed up by two gangs. One of the racial groups took exception to our cultural appropriation of B.B. King, and our lack of cultural appropriation of current soul music. The matter was handled by splitting the dance between sets from Virgin Dog and sets from a record player. We understand that after the rather tense dance an actual gang fight took place. We were gone by then, thank the patron saint of garage bands.

From Jim Klug: Of all the songs we performed, the one that was most fun to play, sounded great, and drew the biggest and best audience reaction was the ‘See Me Feel Me’/’We’re Not Gonna Take It’ medley from The Who, so that would be my pick. (From John Bramfeld: I was never a big Who fan, but the audience reaction to this medley was undeniable. I assume Jim brought this to the band, for which I thank him heartily.)

Personally, my highlight was getting to play the lead solo for Long Time Gone. Being 95% rhythm player, getting the opportunity to stretch out on a solo like that was always a thrill.

From John Bramfeld: I personally enjoyed playing bass on ‘Why I Sing the Blues’. It was the only bass I played with a strong groove and the pleasure I derived from playing it was perhaps not matched by the benefit of it being included on our song list. Without regard to my personal playing, songs that were just plain fun to hear for me included ‘The Weight,’ ‘Lovin’ You,’ ‘Grizzly Bear,’ ‘Bluebird,’ ‘Cinnamon Girl,’ ‘Lovin’ You,’ most of The Doors songs, especially ‘Love Me Two Times,’ ‘Roadhouse Blues’ and ‘Back Door Man’…this list could go on until our whole repertoire was included.

Thank you for taking your time. Last word is yours.

From John Bramfeld: My time with Virgin Dog was the most exciting time of my life. It is no small thing that my wife, then girlfriend, was there through all of it. I don’t think she would believe the stories I have about it otherwise. I made friends I will never forget and memories that entertain me to this day. These memories are so good and the experience so unbelievable I sometimes have trouble believing it really happened. I want to thank Larry, John, Ron and Jim for that wonderful experience.

From Jim Klug: I want to thank the members of Virgin Dog for rescuing me from garage band hell! Who knows where The Reflected Images would have landed, but it certainly was not a happy place. On the other hand, the Virgin Dog experience was great. The music we played, although not original, was a mix of things you wouldn’t hear from any other band at the time. I’ve always considered Virgin Dog to be a “deep cuts” band. And we covered them well and had a loyal and energetic following. It was a great partnership while it lasted! Thanks JT, JB, Ron and especially Larry who “found” me in that alley garage, and with whom I still have a musical relationship today when visiting Florida. The rest, as they say, is history!

Post Script: Even though Virgin Dog played together for three years and we were in earlier bands, also, other than a lone concert poster, we have no pictures, movies or recordings of any of our performances. We know pictures were taken and recordings made. If anyone out there has a line on anything like that, please let us know.

Klemen Breznikar

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Headline photo: Ron Rigoni in 1972 at Akasha headshop | Ron Rigoni: There are some VERY INTERESTING anecdotes associated with the head shop. The “boutique” 4 Heads was very likely the first head shop on the North Side of Chicago and was originally owned by Matthew Berman, a storied denizen of the Chicago counterculture. Really, if you mentioned 4 Heads and Akasha in one of your publications, I believe you’d get many responses from the Loyola crowd (1966-1973) and much of the North Shore/Evanston and beyond. The shop was at 6744 North Sheridan Road, a few blocks north of Loyola Lakeshore Campus where all Virgin Dog members attended with the exception of Jim Klug. Just writing about it brings back a flood of memories that I’m sure would be appreciated by others from that time and place. Just to whet your appetite, an anecdote: Within the 1st 6 months of running the store after acquiring it from Matthew Berman, we became so comfortable with the fact that customers would often comment on the seductive scent of “the weed” that we had just exhaled upon reopening the door for business, that we decided to not even bother any longer with locking the door at all. Almost all of the pipes we sold had already been “broken in” by us or were about to be by the prospective customer at our suggestion. So literally, we were often openly getting high in the store with our customers. 4 Heads was very much under surveillance during Matt’s ownership and hence, we were mystified that we somehow never got into any trouble for doing this…good Karma perhaps.

Mountain Bus interview