Larry Raspberry and The Gentrys
Posted: Sun Feb 22, 2026 9:06 pm
Who remembers Larry Raspberry, The Gentry's and "Keep on Dancing" (from the mid-1960s)?
These guys lived about five to ten blocks away from me in the neighboring rival high school district. Larry Raspberry himself lived in that district, but somehow he got a transfer to go to my school which was thought to be a bit better scholastically. My older brother dated his older sister for a while.
I'm pretty sure he was in the 11th grade when this song became a national hit. (I believe it peaked at #4.) I knew where Larry lived, because he basically lived across the street from some friends of my parents who published the local free advertiser (classified ads and display ads only - no news stories) paper (it was really thick, because realize there was no Craigslist, no eBay, and no marketplace), and we would go over there many Friday nights where my parents would play cards with them and then there would be snacks about 2/3 of the way through the night.
I'm pretty sure that Raspberry bought that Rickenbacker guitar from a place about four or five blocks from my parents house in the opposite direction called Paul Craft's Guitar and Drum City. I just don't know of any other stores in Memphis at that time that were selling hip brands like that.
Paul Craft sold that store fairly soon thereafter, his music producing and songwriting skills income eclipsed the income he was realizing from the retail store - as he was also spending more and more time in Nashville.
Before leaving Memphis, Paul led a superb blue grass trio called The Settlers, whereby he was the banjoist.
I spent many hours messing around that store which was basically a cubbyhole. They had cool stuff like those clear acrylic Ampeg guitars, and were also a Gibson dealer. They also had some of the first effects for sale, including that thing that you put in your mouth and make vocal consonants and vowels whereby you can basically make your guitar talk. There were so many things in that store brand spanking new that today are worth so much money. They didn't mind me picking them up and playing them, maybe because I took lessons there, because I never put any scratches on anything. (Kids were different back then.)
I bought an Epiphone dreadnought guitar there. That was about all I could afford on my pop bottle collecting income. It took me about a year of collecting pop bottles to be able to afford that instrument. I was a little short, and I think my dad chipped in the last 20 bucks (but I had to help him scrape the house so he could paint it, in exchange...OF COURSE it was oil based paint with lead). I think he was relieved that the guitar I wanted to buy wasn't electric.
These guys lived about five to ten blocks away from me in the neighboring rival high school district. Larry Raspberry himself lived in that district, but somehow he got a transfer to go to my school which was thought to be a bit better scholastically. My older brother dated his older sister for a while.
I'm pretty sure he was in the 11th grade when this song became a national hit. (I believe it peaked at #4.) I knew where Larry lived, because he basically lived across the street from some friends of my parents who published the local free advertiser (classified ads and display ads only - no news stories) paper (it was really thick, because realize there was no Craigslist, no eBay, and no marketplace), and we would go over there many Friday nights where my parents would play cards with them and then there would be snacks about 2/3 of the way through the night.
I'm pretty sure that Raspberry bought that Rickenbacker guitar from a place about four or five blocks from my parents house in the opposite direction called Paul Craft's Guitar and Drum City. I just don't know of any other stores in Memphis at that time that were selling hip brands like that.
Paul Craft sold that store fairly soon thereafter, his music producing and songwriting skills income eclipsed the income he was realizing from the retail store - as he was also spending more and more time in Nashville.
Before leaving Memphis, Paul led a superb blue grass trio called The Settlers, whereby he was the banjoist.
I spent many hours messing around that store which was basically a cubbyhole. They had cool stuff like those clear acrylic Ampeg guitars, and were also a Gibson dealer. They also had some of the first effects for sale, including that thing that you put in your mouth and make vocal consonants and vowels whereby you can basically make your guitar talk. There were so many things in that store brand spanking new that today are worth so much money. They didn't mind me picking them up and playing them, maybe because I took lessons there, because I never put any scratches on anything. (Kids were different back then.)
I bought an Epiphone dreadnought guitar there. That was about all I could afford on my pop bottle collecting income. It took me about a year of collecting pop bottles to be able to afford that instrument. I was a little short, and I think my dad chipped in the last 20 bucks (but I had to help him scrape the house so he could paint it, in exchange...OF COURSE it was oil based paint with lead). I think he was relieved that the guitar I wanted to buy wasn't electric.
), and got into the local wresting stuff (both on Channel 13 and at the Mid-South Coliseum. He was always one of the masked bad guys...never a name wrestler...all of the fake injuries, fake blood, a little bit of real blood (super-shallow razor blade cuts with the blade exposed out of a device held on a finger ring set at an extremely shallow level), etc., etc., etc...