Bob Kuban was born in St. Louis, growing up in St. Ann before moving to Bellefonatine Neighbors. His dad worked for Pevely Dairy and his mother was a typist.

Kuban knew he wanted to play drums when he was 9 years old.  A friend gave him a set of sticks but he never had a chance to actually play until one night when, in junior high, he and some friends went to see Chuck Berry play. Chuck asked if anyone in the audience could play drums. Bob was selected from the audience to sit in. Berry was amazed to learn this was the first time Kuban had ever actually played on a set of drums.

Kuban’s first band was called Rhythm Masters. They performed at many teen towns and school functions playing music like the 4 tops, Temptations, or the Righteous Brothers. While in high school he went to see Ike and Tina Turner at Club Imperial. From then on his music was influenced by his sideman association with Ike and Tina Turner, including several stints with Ike's Kings of Rhythm band. Radio DJ’s would mention his band and where they would be performing over the air-waves until he had north St. Louis tied up.

Bob graduated from St. Louis Institute of Music in 1964 and went to work teaching music at Bishop DuBourg High School. He also formed the Bob Kuban and The In Men band.  Soon after, a good looking singer, Walter Scott, who had sung with the Pacemakers, joined Kuban’s band. In ’66 they recorded The Cheater which became an instant hit. On April 30, 1966 appeared on the Dick Clark Show. Kuban and his band believed they had made the big times.

But that’s not the way it turned out to be. The country was in the middle of the Vietnam War in the late ‘60’. Since Bob was a teacher he was classified as 4F and was not drafted. His song was number 1 on the charts and the recording company wanted him to travel. When he went to the service board to ask what would happen if he took a leave of absence from work they told him he would be drafted instantly. That pulled the rug out from under him. The band was disbanded and Walter Scott left. He returned a few years later and they remained friends until Scott’s demise.

In 1976, Kuban opened his own booking agency and his venture paid off, even leading to public recognition such as the St. Louis Businessman of the Year award. One of his innovations was the so-called Singles Night Out series of singles dances. He also started his own publishing company, Q-Man Music. His success in these music business endeavors have left him in a different position than many other '60s hit artists who never recovered from getting "ripped off" for their royalties. He always left some time for music, continuing to book his own combo as well as fronting the Bob Kuban Brass Band.

Besides Kuban’s big hit The Cheater, he had two other top 100 hits. The Teaser peaked at #70 and the remake of the lennon-McCartney song "Drive My Car" went to #93. He still remains a fixture on the St. Louis music scene. Bob Kuban and The In-Men performed for opening ceremonies of Busch Memorial Stadium, May 10, 1966 and The Bob Kuban Brass performed before the last regular-season baseball game there on October 2, 2005.

In an odd twist, Walter Scott, frontman for The In-Men and singer of the cheater (whose lyrics speak of the downfall of an unfaithful lover), was Murdered in 1983 by his wife’s lover, with his wife’s collusion.

Thirty years after his one Top Ten hit, he was honored at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame's tribute to "One Hit Wonders," because without him it could never have been complete.  Isn’t it wonderful to be able to grow up and live your dream. Story taken from:     Bob Kuban’s live interview

What story would you like to read about?

 

Fast Food Nation had me riveted to the book….I don’t know where to start with the review, so I will list praise that has been heaped on this book by journalist. I hope you will all read this book it will change the way you eat……and be the best thing you could do for yourself.

“This year Americans will spend more money on fast food than on higher education…Schlosser shows how the fast food industry conquered both appetite and landscape.”   -The New Yorker 

“All children who can read should be issued a copy of Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation.  Also all adults, so that makes just about everybody.  Here is an in-depth, hard-hitting work of investigative journalism that carries the seeds of social change.  If the idea of a three-story, illustrated Ronald McDonald strikes you as a blight on the landscape, this book is for you.” -Globe & Mail (Toronto)

“God strike me dead before I consume another fast food product…Fast Food Nation is the kind of book that you hope young people read because it demonstrates far better than any social studies class the need of government regulation, the unchecked power of multinational corporations, and importance of our everyday decisions.”  -USA Today

“Man is everywhere in chains-global franchise chains that will do pretty much anything it takes to save a half-cent on a pound of pork or potatoes and toe no line that contradicts cut-throat market forces.  Schlosser could do for the fast food industry what Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring did for the producers of pesticides.”    -The Times (London)

“Fast Food Nation” is not the diatribe of yet another health food advocate against the nutritional deficiencies of fast food:  it is a multifaceted examination of the whole phenomenon. . . .Schlosser documents this process with the meticulous passion of a historian. . .This book has the potential to turn a coach potato into an activist.  Certainly, it will be hard to look at a Happy Meal with much happiness once you’ve read it.”  The American Prospect

“Eric Schlosser’s compelling book, Fast Food Nation, will not only make you think twice before eating your next hamburger, but it will also make you think about the fallout that the fast food industry has had on the American social and cultural landscape:  how it has affected practices from ranching and farming to diets and health, from marketing and labor practices to larger economic trends. . .A fierce indictment of the industry.” –        International Herald Tribune

“Over the past thirty years, when I haven’t been eating, drinking and living to tell the tale, I’ve been teaching journalism. . . .I find myself wondering if, by the next century, people teaching the same profession I tried to teach will pay homage not to Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle but to Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation. . .What the author does in these pages is look at the biggest picture imaginable.  He tabulates the actual cost to life and culture (food-bourne disease, near-global obesity, animal abuse, political corruption, worksite danger) of an all-American industry founded on the premise and promise of cheap.  If we should decide as a nation to use Schlosser’s math, even the richest people on earth can’t afford that $1.99 combo meal.”  - Houston Chronicle

“A reasoned attack on the fast food culture. . .In the best muckraking tradition.”   Newsweek

“A book like Fast Food Nation is long overdue.  Eric Schlosser writes clearly and passionately about appalling working conditions, the waste of enormous stretches of range and cropland, the effects of food-bourne illnesses on children, and harsh economic realities in this age of the mega-corporation . . .Perhaps one day we’ll e able to look back on this period of history and marvel at how so many of us were led by the nose to feed at the same unhealthy trough.  Fast Food Nation may very well bring that day closer.”  -The Gazette (Charleston)

“A fascinating expose of what we are really picking up a the drive-through window.”    Francine Prose, US Weekly

I truly hope these comments from the journalist will encourage you to read this book….you won’t think the same way about food in general……for the best.

Please email me with your thoughts [email protected]

Thank you for taking the time to read the above, if you did, my passion is to get nutritional information to as many people I can.  Let your food be your medicine…..Good Health to all….

  A professor was giving a lecture on company slogans in a college advertising and marketing class. "Joe," he asked, "which company has the slogan, 'Come fly the friendly skies'?"

  "United Airlines," Joe answered.

  "Brenda, can you tell me which company has the slogan, 'Don't leave home without it'?"

  Brenda easily answered correctly, "American Express."

  "Now, John, Tell me which company uses the slogan, 'Just do it'?"

   And John answered, "Mom."

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   While enjoying an early morning breakfast in a northern Arizona cafe, four elderly ranchers were discussing everything from cattle, horses, and weather to how things used to be in the "good  old days."  Eventually the conversation moved on to their spouses. 

  One gentlemen turned to the fellow on his right and asked, "Roy, aren't you and your bride celebrating your 50th wedding anniversary soon?" 

  "Yup, we sure are," Roy replied.

   "Well, are you going to do anything special to celebrate," another man asked. 

   The old gentleman pondered this for a moment, then replied. "For our 25th anniversary I took Bea to Tucson.  I was thinking that for our 50th I'd go back down there and get her!" 

                                                        *  *  *  *  *  *

   One Sunday morning when my son, David, was about 5, we were attending a church in our community. It was common for the preacher to invite the children to the front of the church and have a small lesson before beginning the sermon. He would bring in an item they could find around the house and relate it to a teaching from the Bible.

   This particular morning, the visual aid for his lesson was a smoke detector. He asked the children if anyone knew what it meant when an alarm sounded from the smoke detector.

   My child immediately raised his hand and said, "It means Daddy's cooking dinner."

                                                      *  *  *  *  *  *

   I was nervous the night my husband and I brought our three young sons to an upscale restaurant for the first time. My husband ordered a bottle of wine with the meal. When the server brought it, our children became quiet as she began the ritual uncorking.

  She poured a small amount for me to taste, and then our six-year-old piped up, "Mom usually drinks a lot more than that!"

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It was on this day way back in 1655 - let's see, that's 354 years ago - that a man named Bartolomeo Cristofori was born. Mr. Cristofori had at least one brilliant idea in his life: He replaced the string-plucking mechanisms on a harpsichord with levered devices called hammers. This allowed the player to adjust the volume of the instrument by applying more or less force to the hammer when played.

  His original name for the new instrument was "Harpsichord-that-plays-soft-and-loud." (Well, no one said Bartolomeo was gifted in marketing.) As the instrument grew in popularity among musicians, the name was shortened to just "soft-loud" and eventually just "soft."

  In Italian, the word for "soft" is "piano." (Pianissimo)