Dispatch Politics

Back in the days when Under the Boardwalk, Back Stabbers and Yakety Yak hit the airwaves, the groups who sang them -- the Drifters, the O'Jays and the Coasters -- were faceless voices spilling out of the radio.

But when the nostalgia craze for '50s, '60s and '70s music developed in recent years, hundreds of musical groups hit the concert, festival and fair circuit. Some of today's touring groups contain original band members, but many don't.

Most concertgoers don't know the difference. But many of the original artists sit idle at home, or have gone broke pursuing lawsuits against knock-off bands that profit from their hard-earned musical reputations.

"We started rock 'n' roll in my era. Now, they're stealing from me," said Carl Gardner, 80, retired founder of the Coasters, whose hits included Poison Ivy and Charlie Brown.

"They owe me millions of dollars, and I didn't get it way back then," Gardner said in an interview. "Now, when I see these imposter groups, I become terribly mad."

The Ohio General Assembly stepped into the spotlight yesterday, as the Senate unanimously passed the "Truth in Music Act." The legislation, which has been approved in two dozen other states, would require performing musical acts to have at least one original band member in order to use the original band's name.

In other words, there must be at least one original Drifter on stage, or the group can't be called the Drifters.

"False, deceptive or misleading" advertising and performances could constitute separate violations, each punishable by a civil penalty of $5,000 up to $15,000.

Sen. Robert L. Schuler, R-Cincinnati, the sponsor of the bill, said he first got the idea two years ago while talking to Mary Wilson, an original member of the Supremes, at a reception for the Cleveland-based Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

"She said there were all these Supremes groups out there with none of the original Supremes in them," Schuler said. "The originals may be sitting home not working."

Tribute or salute bands still would be permitted to perform under the proposal, now headed for the Ohio House.

"The authentic artists have been ripped off all their lives by record companies, managers, etc., and to have had to now fight for their very identities is heartbreaking," said Jon Bauman, better known as Bowzer from the rock revival group Sha Na Na. Bauman is the head of a Truth in Music campaign mounted by the Vocal Group Hall of Fame, located in Sharon, Pa., just across the state line from Youngstown.

"It's a sophisticated form of identity theft that's been going on for way too long," Bauman said in a telephone interview. "I have watched them struggle with it. This is what they do.… It's their life's work, and work that changed our culture."

Bauman said in the states where the bill has passed, "The authentic artists are working a lot more and the impostors a lot less."

ajohnson@dispatch.com