{"id":4669,"date":"2015-06-04T13:27:47","date_gmt":"2015-06-04T20:27:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.williamstout.com\/news\/journal\/?p=4669"},"modified":"2015-06-04T13:37:06","modified_gmt":"2015-06-04T20:37:06","slug":"preston-ritter-1949-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.williamstout.com\/news\/journal\/2015\/06\/04\/preston-ritter-1949-2015\/","title":{"rendered":"Preston Ritter 1949 \u2013 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"

Preston James Ritter<\/strong>, mostly known for his being the drummer for The Electric Prunes<\/strong>, died on March 30 of this year (I only just found out about his passing when I read his obit in the current issue of MOJO<\/em><\/strong>) at age 65.<\/p>\n

Preston was one of my best friends at Reseda High School<\/strong> (I attended Reseda — a great school — for one year, then my family moved to Newbury Park<\/strong>, CA where I attended Thousand Oaks High School<\/strong>). We were both drummers. Even though it was our first year in high school, Preston was already working as a professional musician. He played in a popular cover band, The Dantes<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"Dante1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We walked to school together nearly everyday. Drumming and music were all we talked about. We shared the same drumming philosophies and were both big fans of Buddy Rich, Gene Krupa<\/strong>, and the Dave Clark Five<\/strong> and Dave’s drumming (which I later discovered was Bobby Graham<\/strong>‘s drumming on those early DC5 records).<\/p>\n

\"PrestonDrumming\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Until writing this obit, I never realized we were both at the Buddy Rich Disneyland<\/strong> concerts (I put myself through art school painting watercolor portraits at Disneyland during summers). Preston met and became friends with Buddy (no easy task, especially for a drummer. You had to be damn good). Buddy’s gorgeous daughter was attracted to me back in the 1970s but I was too intimidated by her dad to pursue the relationship (I thought I was a good drummer — I wasn’t — but nowhere near Rich’s league).<\/p>\n

\"PrestonBuddy\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Buddy Rich and Preston Ritter, around the time we saw Buddy and his band perform at Disneyland<\/em><\/p>\n

Even back then, Preston was pretty conservative. He hated long hair. So I was very surprised when I recognized Preston on the cover of the first Electric Prunes LP while rummaging through the record bin at my local supermarket in Newbury Park. There he was — but with long hair! Even today I suspect it might have been a wig in that shot.<\/p>\n

\"Preston1stLP\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Electric Prunes’ 1st LP. That’s Preston, center (with the Prince Valiant bangs).<\/em><\/p>\n

Preston played on their first LP, on some of their second LP (Underground<\/em><\/strong>) and on both of their big hits, “I Had Too Much to Dream Last Night”<\/strong> and “Get Me to the World on Time”<\/strong>, before being replaced by the band’s very first drummer, Michael Weakley<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"PrestonPrunes\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Who’s not happy here? Preston with the Prunes and an unidentified female.<\/em><\/p>\n

After the Prunes, Preston played with the Beach Boys, Linda Ronstadt, James Brown<\/strong> and many other music stars. He credits Dobie Gray <\/strong>with giving him his first big musical break. Preston became good friends with Sandy<\/strong> (“Let There Be Drums”<\/strong>) Nelson<\/strong> and jazz great Louis Bellson<\/strong>. Bellson mentored Ritter and amazed Preston when Louis gave Preston a set of Bellson’s own drums.<\/p>\n

I lost touch with Preston after moving away from Reseda. Once I saw he was in the Electric Prunes I tried to keep tabs on him. After he left the Prunes I discovered he had joined the Los Angeles Police Department<\/strong> (he played drums in the police band) and L. A. County Sheriff’s Department<\/strong>. From current obits I found out that he had worked his way up to detective. He later became a private investigator and then a non-denominational Christian missionary in Korea.<\/p>\n

\"PrestonNow\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Recent photo of Preston<\/em><\/p>\n

It’s frustrating. I had given up on trying to find Preston decades ago. Now I find that with the internet age, I could have easily looked him up and contacted him. I discovered that he, like myself, had become a big blues fan. We would have had a lot to talk about. That chance is now lost forever. Damn.<\/p>\n

I’ve still got the memories, though, of my dear friend and great fellow drummer, Preston Ritter. RIP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Preston James Ritter, mostly known for his being the drummer for The Electric Prunes, died on March 30 of this year (I only just found out about his passing when I read his obit in the current issue of MOJO) at age 65. Preston was one of my best friends at Reseda High School (I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-misc"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8TM5S-1dj","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":65,"url":"https:\/\/www.williamstout.com\/news\/journal\/2008\/04\/29\/the-first-time\/","url_meta":{"origin":4669,"position":0},"title":"The First Time","author":"Bill","date":"April 29, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"You always remember your First Time. The first album I ever bought with my own money, the first LP I ever recall owning, was The Dave Clark Five's \"Return!\" I purchased it at our local Newbury Park supermarket's record bin in 1965. I was a drummer and loved the upfront\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Misc."","block_context":{"text":"Misc.","link":"https:\/\/www.williamstout.com\/news\/journal\/category\/misc\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6213,"url":"https:\/\/www.williamstout.com\/news\/journal\/2020\/07\/17\/the-annotated-2002-john-arcudi-interview-part-three\/","url_meta":{"origin":4669,"position":1},"title":"The (Annotated) 2002 John Arcudi Interview – Part Two","author":"Bill","date":"July 17, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"NOTE: All Stout annotations are in italics. ARCUDI:\u00a0You were born in Salt Lake City, right? WILLIAM STOUT:\u00a0Yep. My dad was Mormon. He had to convert to Catholicism to marry my mom. I was born in Salt Lake City on the way back to L.A. from Idaho, which was where my\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Misc."","block_context":{"text":"Misc.","link":"https:\/\/www.williamstout.com\/news\/journal\/category\/misc\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.williamstout.com\/news\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/ManningStoutTarzan.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":387,"url":"https:\/\/www.williamstout.com\/news\/journal\/2010\/05\/31\/memorial-day\/","url_meta":{"origin":4669,"position":2},"title":"Memorial Day","author":"Bill","date":"May 31, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"I received an e-mail yesterday morning from Curt Wittenberg, the son of my fifth grade teacher Eliot Wittenberg. I dedicated my book THE DINOSAURS\u2013A Fantastic New View of a Lost Era to Eliot Wittenberg. I was sorry to hear that Mr. Wittenberg had passed away. I thought the situation that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Misc."","block_context":{"text":"Misc.","link":"https:\/\/www.williamstout.com\/news\/journal\/category\/misc\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2888,"url":"https:\/\/www.williamstout.com\/news\/journal\/2013\/05\/07\/ray-harryhausen-1920-2013\/","url_meta":{"origin":4669,"position":3},"title":"RAY HARRYHAUSEN 1920 – 2013","author":"Bill","date":"May 7, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Happy day\/Crappy day. We often live in a bittersweet, yin and yang existence. On what should be one of the happiest days of my life (the official release date of my new book, Legends of the Blues), I just got hit with the devastating news of the passing of my\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Misc."","block_context":{"text":"Misc.","link":"https:\/\/www.williamstout.com\/news\/journal\/category\/misc\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.williamstout.com\/news\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/StoutHarryhausen-450x364.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":686,"url":"https:\/\/www.williamstout.com\/news\/journal\/2010\/11\/26\/william-stout-tv-show-broadcast-date\/","url_meta":{"origin":4669,"position":4},"title":"William Stout TV Show Broadcast Date","author":"Bill","date":"November 26, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"I am more than happy to announce that the childrens television show I designed, Lilly's Light, will be broadcast (appropriately) on Christmas Eve at 7:00 PM on southern California's KVCR (channel 24). Designing a kids TV show had always been one of my dreams. I am happy to say that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Misc."","block_context":{"text":"Misc.","link":"https:\/\/www.williamstout.com\/news\/journal\/category\/misc\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":657,"url":"https:\/\/www.williamstout.com\/news\/journal\/2010\/10\/27\/the-firesign-theatre\/","url_meta":{"origin":4669,"position":5},"title":"The Firesign Theatre","author":"Bill","date":"October 27, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Phil Proctor of the Firesign Theatre invited my wife and me to a Firesign Theatre show last Saturday night at the Barnsdall Gallery Theatre. The Firesign guys and I go way back. I was a fan, first and fourmost, of their first four LPs (1968-1971). They were the audio equivalent\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Misc."","block_context":{"text":"Misc.","link":"https:\/\/www.williamstout.com\/news\/journal\/category\/misc\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.williamstout.com\/news\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.williamstout.com\/news\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.williamstout.com\/news\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.williamstout.com\/news\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.williamstout.com\/news\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4669"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.williamstout.com\/news\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4669\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4690,"href":"https:\/\/www.williamstout.com\/news\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4669\/revisions\/4690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.williamstout.com\/news\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.williamstout.com\/news\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.williamstout.com\/news\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}