Brownsville Station - Yeah! [3]

Title: Brownsville Station - Yeah!
Year/Genre/Sub-Genre/City: 1973, Hard Rock, Boogie Rock, Ann Arbor, Michigan 10/26
Matrix #: BT 2102 (Big Tree, US, Bell distributed orange label); runout not legible in photo
Condition: EX (LM) | Members: Cub K (48' - 00'), Mike L (N/A), Henry W (N/A) | Producer: Doug Morris, Eric Stevens
Cultural Facts: [3]

1. Born Michael Uszniewicz: Cub Koda was born Michael John Uszniewicz in Detroit, and in 1957 his father George changed the family name to Koda, his mother's maiden name. He was already playing drums at five, and in high school in Manchester, Michigan his band the Del-Tinos put out a cover of Roy Orbison's Go Go Go in 1963, six years before he started Brownsville Station in Ann Arbor.
2. The Fake Oldies Band: In the mid 1970s Koda and the Brownsville Station road crew invented a deliberately terrible oldies act called King Uszniewicz and His Uszniewicztones and pressed a real 45 of Surfin' School. The band quietly planted copies in Midwest thrift stores while on tour so record collectors would think they had found a lost group. Norton Records later issued four whole albums of it, each with a photo of Koda's father George on the cover.
3. A Future Label Boss Produced It: This album was produced by Doug Morris, who was running Big Tree Records at the time and later became chairman and CEO of Universal Music Group and then Sony Music. Smokin' in the Boy's Room, written by Koda and Mike Lutz, went to No. 3, sold over two million copies, and became a hit all over again for Motley Crue in 1985. Koda later wrote the Vinyl Junkie column for Goldmine and co-wrote the All Music Guide to the Blues.