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Ray is one of my best friends. I don't remember exactly how we met but Ray was a great guy; very charming and funny. I was always impressed with him. He left home at 15, hitchhicking to Toronto with nothing and became a self-made man. He educated himself, had a room full of art books, and was a very good painter. He made one of me, I think my mom still has it. We both had a kind of zany sense of humor and loved Marx brothers movies, especially Chico. One night we stood accross the street from Honest Ed's which stands out like a Los Vegas nightclub on Bloor street with a million lights flashing and twenty different signs saying for example 'This is the place, come in and get lost', etc. Ray and I happened to be standing accross the street and as people passed by Ray would say. 'Excuse me, do you know where Honest Ed's is?' They would look at him, like are you serious? Then point accross the street. Ray would jump in surprise 'Wow' thanks a lot.'

He was a great Blues singer; not mellow and sweet, but just raw emotion. He really lived his music and you knew he meant everything he was singing. One of my favorite memories was at the King of Hearts Club where we played often. We would end the night with 'Who Do You love' by Bo Diddley. I would do my wild monster solo, turning around and jumping on the piano with my backside. The next night in the same solo Ray pulled off his shoe and through it to me. I grabbed his shoe in one hand and hammered it on the piano as part of the solo. The next night he pulled out of his pockets two bananas. He brought them to me and I hammered the piano with two bananas. The next night, he through me two oranges. The finale on Saturday night I knew he would come up with something I didn't expect and sure enough in the middle of my solo he went off stage and came back with a duffle bag. He reached inside and pulled out a watermellon. It was amwazing but it actually worked, I made a fabulous piano solo using the watermellon. The crowd of course loved it. He is still making beautiful art works and playing music in Windsor. If I was rich I would bring him to Israel and play some blues again. Check out his paintings.

By the way on the top left is Keith McKie who you will see more of in later chapters. We originally met at the King of Hearts. He was a big star from the 60's and I was a new kid on the block. My original piano was the Wurlitzer (right side) but due to the kindness of a lady (I forget her name Anne?) anyway, she had this baby grand electric piano that she didn't use much and gave me an unbelievable deal. For the next number of years I would lift this huge monster up and down staircases to gigs. The worst was the Cabana room with the Basics, we would carry this sraight up a two floor fire-escape, crazy!

By coincedence I happened to live at 88 Oxford in those days (88 keys). Connie needed a roomate and so I moved in with my cat Ginzburg (long before I met Allen Ginzburg - next chapter). Connie was very wordly; an ex hippie activist from California. No one ever suspected under those secretary glasses that she was a wild radical. Still don't know exactly where she went on those secret trips. She went on to become a prosecutor and me the King of Jewish Reggae; the ironies of life.