![]() ![]() The band called the Smog City Six would rehearse in Lloyd’s garage but soon his parents complained so they went on the road to appear on neighborhood lawns for short concerts until they had to flee from potential cops. Soon they had recruited trumpet player Buzz Leifer a Glendale High acquaintance of Spence’s, a trombone player and a friend of Lloyd’s Faith Jackson on piano and a banjo player. One day Lloyd walked up to the end of Royal to Spence’s house and heard a full drum set which Spence had acquired and was playing Baby Dodd’s solos to perfection even the difficult nerve sticks. Miller would pump his player piano, play cornet or clarinet and Spence would bang out beats on the drum. Since Spence didn’t have a drum set, Miller fashioned Dryden’s first drum by thumb tacking an old inner tube over a wooden barrel with no ends. Miller said they should start a band and encouraged Spence to play drums. In the late 40s Spencer became friends with jazz fan Lloyd Miller also born in 1938 and living down the street on Royal Boulevard in Rossmoyne in Glendale. His parents divorced in 1943, but Spencer fondly recalled playing at his famous uncle’s Hollywood studio as a child. His father, a British actor and director, was a half-brother of Charlie Chaplin but Dryden carefully concealed his relationship to his celebrious uncle, preferring his talents to stand on their own merits, rather than on any potentially nepotistic influences of his uncle Charlie’s name. Janu– Spencer Dryden was born in New York City on April 7, 1938. ![]()
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