And the Paragons delivered these sound effects that were incorporated into the suite.ĭaryl: I didn't have an interest in recording at all because Doug and Dennis were so into it. Remember Dad and that whole 'Santa Fe Suite' thing? Doug was out there recording trains and dynamite blasts on the Santa Fe Trail in New Mexico.ĭennis: I know when they performed the 'Santa Fe Suite' they had JBL Paragons - one on each side of the hall - along with a live orchestra. I was actually too young to be involved in it.ĭaryl: Well Doug - our older brother - was fascinated and was actually getting involved in helping our father. He'd come over and do a bunch of tech stuff - he even set Dad up with a way to cut records. Cam McCulloch, who was the recordist for the I Love Lucy show, set him up with it. He had a studio set up at the house where he could record to the 300. The only information I found on your parents was that your dad was a conductor and your mom sang.ĭennis: He dabbled in recording. I think I inherited the recording bug from my dad. He enjoyed recording all sorts of crazy stuff like sound effects. And that introduced me to the wonderful world of audio recording.ĭennis: Well, we were pretty young at that point. One day, when I was very young, Dad got a big, fat delivery - I think Daryl remembers this also - of Ampex tape machines!ĭennis: To be exact: an 300, mono, full-track a 350, half-track, mono and a 600, half-track, mono. My dad, Carmen Dragon, was sponsored by Ampex and JBL. I decided I needed to talk to these guys.ĭennis: My remembrances go back to the early 1950s. I found out that Dennis, Daryl and another brother, Doug, played in the psych/pop band The Dragons (a CD, BFI, recently came out) and later with the Beach Boys.

I started to notice the synth bits that appeared on the Surf Punks' records as well. I found some fun instrumentals on the same records with nutty synths and odd rhythm breaks. But I noticed that Dennis had credits on some Captain & Tennille records. At the time, I wasn't surprised they went in such different directions because there's usually rivalry with brothers.

At some point, I realized there was a brotherly link between drummer/engineer Dennis Dragon of The Surf Punks, one of silliest yet competent new wave/punk bands ever, and keyboardist Daryl Dragon, the Captain of Captain and Tennille, soft-rock superstars.

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