An Exclusive Interview With Herm Henry of the San Francisco TKOs on Bay Area Funk

We met up with Herm Henry at the Park and Rec on Cesar Chavez and Potrero in San Francisco. There are pictures of Herm with Al Green, Kool and The Gang and many others taped to the walls. Amazing clips from local newspapers featuring pictures of Herm and his huge afro and the TKOs dressed in full-on funk gear are posted around his office. They're also all over the gym where he supervises local kids while they work out and train for boxing. He was a key player in the Bay Area music scene from the late 1960s through the mid 1970s. He took a few minutes off to tell us about picking the tunes at KSOL and playing live gigs in Golden Gate Park . . .

What was your role at KSOL?
I started as a drive time DJ between 6am and 10am in the week. Then I was made PUBLIC AFFAIRS DIRECTOR running the "Black Form" radio show. It was a show that covered what was happening with Black People. The title caused a lot of trouble, but the show was good! Billy Eckstein, Harold Melvin, Aretha Franklin, Smokey Robinson and even my future wife Dorothy Morrison were all guests on KSOL. I even wanted to talk to the KKK but they refused my request.

Sounds like a good show . . .
It was, but then I went on to become Station Manager, even that had problems. I had a huge argument with James Brown who got mad at me because I wouldn't pick him up at the airport when he came to San Francisco! Anyway, as Station Manager I was looking after the DJs and music.

What was the musical policy at KSOL?
It started out of a garage in San Mateo so the underground stuff was played from the beginning. But by my time it was a predominantly black R&B station. Being based close to Stanford there was a lot of very accessible stuff that got played. This mix made it the #1 station.

Wasn't Sly Stone a DJ at KSOL before he made it big?
Yes, he was the inspiration for me to get into radio. He persuaded me to go to broadcasting school.

How else were you involved in the Bay Area Funk Scene?
I booked talent at the Ghetto Club in San Francisco, which is now called the "Streets of San Francisco" at 4742 Mission. I hired a lot of people to play there.

And didn't you play live with other funk acts in the Bay Area Parks?
Yes, every week during the summer at the Golden Gate Park bandstand. Sugar Pie Desanto (who I went to High School with), Marvin Holmes, Jeannie Tracey, Eugene Blacknell, Wylie Trass, they all played. We got a really hippy crowd until the cops came and thinned out the drugs and booze.

These sound like pretty interesting parties!
Especially for me. Because of my reputation as a boxer I was hired to play the parks in all the rough neighborhoods, too! I guess that explains the name "Hard Hitting" Herm Henry . . . I was a heavyweight boxer. Not a big one, but I did win 22 out of 29 fights and had 13 knockouts. I quit when I managed to get a detached retina!

So how did the Bay Area Funk featured tune "Herm" come to be?
I was just messing around before rehearsal. So I'm playing the riff while warming up and the bass player joined in, then the drummer . . . and before you knew "Herm" was born! It's amazing that people are dancing to this as far away as England; it was just an idea we came up on really quickly.

What were the TKOs all about?
The TKOs were the kind of band that mixed white and black and good came out of it. There were lots of racial problems going on in the world, but the Bay Area was progressive. The hippies really helped because they brought everyone together. Anyway the TKOs made one album and two singles, including the single that "Herm" comes from.

What happened to the funk scene?
Eventually the hippie love-child thing took over! Underground went over ground for some artists - bands like Tower of Power. I guess if you're not in the limelight then the public forget about you. It's funny, for a while people would say, "Didn't you used to be "Hard Hitting Herm Henry" - I still am!

So how is your wife, the vocalist Dorothy Morrison?
She's great thanks. We've been married 26 years. She came out of the gospel scene and has a gold record for "Oh Happy Day".

And what's next for Herm Henry?
When I retire from the San Francisco Park & Rec Dept. I want to get my peers together in an organization that will push music as a way for people of all races to get along.

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