By Sal Giarratani
As someone who grew up in the South End and lower Roxbury, I grew up loving soul music, R & B and the blues. Back in the 60s I was part of a rock and soul band named the SilentSirs. My brother and I,Skipper
White ( sometimes his little brother Stevie), Buster Reeves and John Silva from East Springfield Street near Boston City Hospital thought our band had a bad*#@ name. We actually stole it from a Dean Martin
movie called “The Silencers” starring Dean Martin which we all saw on Good Friday for which Father Regan chastised us. But the name stuck.
We practiced all the time, sometimes if you can believe this in old Boston High School building behind the Immaculate Conception church or up the street in the rear of St. Philip’s Church. All of our parents were happy to see us anywhere but practicing at home.
This is how we ended up buying our vinyl records down on Washington Street at Skippy White’s Record Shop. Skippy’s first place was on Washington Street half-way between Louie’s Lounge and Basin Street South. His second shop was beneath Northampton Station still on Washington Street close to Mass. Avenue. He had the best supply of great soul music which we all loved to play along with the Beatles, Dave Clark Five, Paul Revere & the Raiders, etc.
Recently, I heard that Skippy White appears to be getting ready to retire from a business he began back in 1961 when he was about 26 years old or so. He’s moved a few times and is currently holding fort over in Egleston Square still in Roxbury and down the street from the zoo. He actually once had a shop in Central Square Cambridge which I didn’t even remember
I remembered Skippy White wasn’t his baptismal name. He was born Fred LeBlanc and at some point between owning the shop and spinning records, he became Skippy White. I mean like would anyone ever thing of buying records from Fred LeBlanc? I think not. Funny thing, except for people who really know who he is, everyone else still thinks he’s an old Black guy.
When you walk into his shop today, except being a bit larger than his other storefronts, it is still just as cluttered and he still lords over his records behind the counter as if he were preparing to deliver a sermon behind his pulpit .
Skippy White is a piece of Rare Earth which by the way was the group Rare Earth’s great rock version of “Get Ready” by the Temptations. Today, he’s 83 and I still 12 years younger than him.
However, walking into Skippy White’s place is like stepping back in time to the good old days when records were the best. If it wasn’t for his record shop, where would the SilentSirs have bought all those old classic tunes all on vinyl records to practice over and over again?
Skippy White Record Shop and Skippy White the record dude have been a Boston tradition going back to 1961 and for me, it will remain alive forever inside me.
While the SilentSirs went into moth balls decades ago, I can still bang a beat on a restaurant table waiting for my order to arrive. Once a drummer, always a drummer. My Ma was so overjoyed when I never practiced on my drums at home. She felt the same way about my brother Dominic and his Paul McCartney violin shaped bass guitar.
While Skippy White may be readying to shutdown his record shop soon, he isn’t really disappearing. You’ll still be able to hear him on The Time Tunnel on the radio Saturday mornings from 8 am to 11 am
on WZBR 1410 AM and 98.1 FM. Also online at HEAT981FM.COM with
Professor Skippy White in the College of Musical Knowledge, Old
School R & B, Soul, Doo Wop and Blues.
Long live Skippy White!
