Last week Marin IJ correspondent Paul Libertore reviewed Joe Tate’s memoir of his days with the pirate rock band the Redlegs.
The Last Voyage of the Redlegs, which the Floating Times announced back in December, recounts the days before and after the houseboat wars of the mid-70s, and Libertore’s review presents a succinct history of the formative days of Sausalito’s waterfront Gates community.
Joe, who now lives in an ark at the head of South 40 Dock, told Libertore how his band got its name, when they were squatting on drydocks which had been abandoned in the middle of Richardson Bay:
“We moved everything out to the drydocks and started living out there,” said Tate with some disgust. “It was a really crummy scene. I don’t know how we lived there.”
The drydocks, emblazoned with “Redlegs” across the side, were so moldy and wet that the seams of the musicians’ jeans would rot out.
“Someone had the brilliant idea of painting the seams to preserve them,” Tate said. “The kind of paint we had just happened to be red.”
When Frank Werber, then manager of the Kingston Trio and owner of the ultra-hip waterfront restaurant the Trident, banished the unruly band from his trendy establishment, he blasted them as “just a bunch of rednecks.” When a local wit corrected him, saying, “They aren’t rednecks, they’re redlegs,” the band suddenly had a name.
The article concludes with a notification that Joe is hosting a book signing party from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. March 9 at the Sausalito Cruising Club. Joe will perform with his current band, The Hippie Voices, which also features Maggie Catfish, vocalist for the Redlegs back in the day.
The Last Voyage of the Redlegs can be ordered online.