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FEBRUARY 2024
Former Smiths Falls rock and roll band featured in RCA Victor showcase paper dream memorabilia featured in rca victor showcase at cornelia court
A poster, 45 record and CD from the 1960s rock and roll band The Paper Dream can be seen in the RCA Victor showcase at 91 Cornelia Court in Smiths Falls. Photo credit: Laurie Weir.
Band members Dennis Staples (lead guitar), Jim Knapp (bass), and Rick Frizell (drums) said they were honoured to be remembered in such a way. Photo credit: Laurie Weir.
Smiths Falls - Laurie Weir editorial@pdgmedia.ca It’s not the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but it’s close. For three members of the former band The Paper Dream having their 45 record and poster join other memorabilia in the RCA Victor showcase is “a real honour.” Dennis Staples said it was nice to be remembered in such a way. Their record was pressed at the RCA Victor plant in the late 1960s. “After 55 years, to be part of the RCA era’s history, it’s a real honour,” Staples said. “And it should be here until this building is demolished,” said Jim Knapp. Staples, who played lead guitar, along with Rick Frizell on drums, and Knapp on bass, gathered at Cornelia Court on Monday, Feb. 4, to tell stories of their lives in this popular rock and roll band when psychedelic prints and hippy vibes were all the rage. Harold Frizell (lead vocals), Claire Porter (replaced Knapp on bass in later years) and Greg Brook (keyboards) have all since passed away. “We always wanted to do a record,” Frizell said. These three men are all in their 70s now. They grew up in town and played instruments as young men, as they lived close to each
other off Queen Street. They said there were a lot of kids back then who enjoyed playing instruments as much as they did any sport of the season. There were about a dozen guys who all lived within a block of each other who played various instruments, including the Doherty Brothers. “We recorded it in Toronto in 1968 at Sound Canada,” Staples said of his first time going to Toronto. It took them 10-12 hours to do one side. He thought they’d get it all finished in one day, but the cost prohibited that. Small Faces' “My Mind's Eye” was the last record ever issued on Sir John A. The B side – “She’s No Good” written by Harold Frizell — was recorded in the basement of the Frizell home in Smiths Falls. “If you listen closely to the record, you hear a washing machine going in the background,” Staples said, and with a laugh, nodded to Frizell, “You played loud enough to drown it out.” The band was originally called “Purple Haze” but there was already another band by the same name. They had to change it to record. The band was a crowd favourite at the Rideau Ferry Inn – a popular place
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where young people hung out. They performed at a variety of high school dances, and also enjoyed entertaining at Hanley Hall in Smiths Falls and at Scott’s Ballroom in Westport. “We did a lot of teen dances,” Knapp said. “We were popular enough, I think.” He met his wife Marilyn through a friend. She said she was only 14 at the time. “It wasn’t until I went away then came back and then all of a sudden, I was noticed,” she said. Some of the band’s influences included the Doors, the Platters, the Drifters, and the Trogs. The two songs on their 45 are also on a CD, “Ottawa Rocks,” produced in the mid-1990s. There are 26 songs on the CD and their two songs are the only ones from a band outside Ottawa. Frizell said he’d love to still play “but I’ve never been asked!” Knapp has not played for some time, but Staples still performs with a band, the Continentals. The only thing left standing of that former plant is a memorabilia showcase located at 91 Cornelia Court. On the walls of the halls – which now houses physicians, Service Canada, a restaurant, and a Life Labs office — there are photo-
graphs of the inner workings of the old plant that employed about 400 people, three quarters of whom were women. The plant opened in 1953 and closed 26 years later. In its heyday, there were eight million records pressed annually, including those of Elvis Presley and the Beatles.
Members of Smiths Falls rock and roll group the Paper Dream, (circa 1960s) were recognized this year with their memorabilia going into the RCA Victor display case at 91 Cornelia Court in Smiths Falls. Photo credit: Laurie Weir.
Perth Mayor Judy Brown on leave of absence after taking a tumble Perth - Laurie Weir editorial@pdgmedia.ca The Perth mayor will be on a leave of absence for one month while recuperating from a fall. During the regular meeting of Perth council on Tuesday, Jan. 30, Mayor Judy Brown informed everyone that she took a tumble while visiting her daughter. She was on vacation at the time. “I went away for holidays to visit my daughter and fell on the stairs and incurred quite a few injuries,” Brown said. “I also have a concussion. At the encouragement of the CAO and the deputy mayor I decided with reluctance to take a leave of absence.” As always, the mayor said she has the best interests of the citizens of the
Town of Perth at heart. “I wouldn’t want to speak with my comments because of my concussion. I really wasn’t saying what I thought I was saying. I have every confidence in the deputy mayor to fill in for me. I will be sitting in on meetings by Zoom as much as I can. That will be somewhat limited by how much I am in pain … it is with regret that I have to take a leave.” Brown took in the council meeting via Zoom, and said she’d try to stay abreast of what is happening in town virtually while she recovers. In the meantime, Deputy Mayor Ed McPherson said the mayor calls herself “an old farm girl,” and “everybody knows that people who grow up on a farm are hard workers and don’t want to back down no mat-
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Perth Mayor Judy Brown. Photo credit: Submitted.
ter how badly they’re feeling. It took quite a bit from us to convince her to look after her health first.” McPherson said he’d keep the mayor up to date on what’s happening with the town and council. McPherson has been appointed mayor for the duration of Brown’s absence. @HometownNewsLC