e were always Manhattanites, beautiful stores out there, wide streets; the Bronx was a completely different world. But it was a time of discovery, so as years went by, I remember going on Prospect Avenue, there were four theaters, The Berlin Theater, The RKO, The Loews and The President. And we used to see three movies for thirty-five cents. I remember seeing the Beatles, A Hard Days Night, we saw Hercules on Chains, and James Bond.

 

That was the big thing in those days, I remember going to Woolworth in those days. Woolworth was the best place to get your ice cream soda and that was the time when the Beatles first hit the scene. They were selling wigs at Woolworth, and we used to buy them, everybody bought Beatle wigs including our black friends. We bought the wigs and we just put it on and we pretended to be the Beatles.

 

Later on we became the junior Beatles. Everyone knew us in the community for singing a lot of harmonious songs; we give the credit to Alvin and the Chipmunks. That's where we developed our harmony, from Alvin and the Chipmunks. When the Beatles hit the scene, we started to listen to their songs.

 

I remember my oldest brother said to me, "listen, there are four guys coming from Liverpool, They are four homos." Back in those days they didn't say gay. He said, "you're going to hear about them, they are called the Beatles."

 

So Raymond and I, one day we were on Prospect Avenue, we went Raymond’s uncles’ restaurant, and what do we see there in the jukebox, a picture of the Beatles. And I said, yo, they look cool. So then Raymond put the coin in the slot, the first song, I want to hold your hand. We fell in love with the songs immediately.

 

Then Raymond and I went to the train station, and they had the old newspaper stand, and they sold the Beatles manual with all their songs.

 

We bought it. We even bought the first album of the Beatles, and what we did, we started to listen to the songs, and emulate them. In those days we didn’t know how to play guitar, we would clap our hands. We had a cowbell, a snare drum, and one symbol.

 

 

 

As time went on we started learning all the Beatles songs. There was this young black guy named Theo, and everytime he'd see us, he would call out the window, "hey guys sing me that song this boy". He would always start to cry, cause it reminded him of his girlfriend. So he said, "that boy took my love away". So we sang that song, everybody in the community and they calledl us the junior Beatles. Then one day Raymond and I were playing, marbles, and then two men came up to us and said, "listen we are looking for a group of young boys, called the Junior Beatles." Raymond and I Look up, and we said, "that’s us."

 

So you know what they did, they showed us a ticket, it said junior Beatles. We opened up for Tito Puente, and a lot of these musicians at the time. And the first place we played was at the Colgate gardens in '64. Right when the Beatles were already hot on the scene. I remember when the host of the show, he says, "Los Beatles Los Junior Beatles, and w had suites on with sneakers.

 

And we started to sing, and the crowd went insane. It was like stardom back in the days, we were already coming up. After the Embassy Ballroom, they invited us to the Tropicana on Prospect.

 

Then you had the American Legion, and then we played for the Colgate Gardens, so they had us playing in different areas. The girls used to chase after us. They would run after us, remember the Beatles " Hard Days Night" When everybody would run after them, well the girls would be running after us too.

 

So we felt awe that was such a good feeling. But then after that, as we were getting older, the Rolling Stones came onto the scene, James brown came onto the scene, sly and the family stone, Grand Funk Railroad, so we started to emulate a lot of this music. My Brother Victor and Robert started putting a mixture of all these tunes together.

 

So instead of just singing Beatles songs, we were known for the harmony anyway. Why don't we add a little James Brown, why don't we add a little Sly and the Family Stone, why don’t we add a little Latin over here? And this is before Santana.

 

So we were playing Beatles songs, and all these type of tunes, singing with congas, maracas, guitars, before we even heard of Santana. So we were already rocking it, and then when Santana came out, we said hey, this guy took this from us man.

 

Santana had his own thin, but we were doing rock n roll, with Latin and soul mixed at the time. You heard of the expression, you couldn’t please and satisfy everybody. My brother Victor the drummer said, man got to be kidding.

 

Yes you can. I looked at him and said, how do you figure? Look, you put a little soul, a little rock n roll, and a little salsa, mix the together. Whoever likes rock n roll is going to hear it. Whoever like soul, they are going to dance over there. And whoever likes salsa or whatever, everybody’s going to hear their tune in our music.

 

 

So that’s what we did, we incorporated all the sound, and then whatever the persuasion of people was there, they heard their music. They heard the congas for the Latin, they heard the bass for the soul, and we did everything. I remember saying to myself and friends of mine in the past, ya know, if you're thirsty, you can drink all the juice, all these colored flavors of sodas, but notice the only one that quenches you is water. So everybody can go to water and get satisfied. That’s what we did with the music. We felt that our music was like water, it satisfied everybody. And everybody loves us for that.

 

So remember if there were messages we had, what we couldn’t say verbally, we did it in music. And music is what brings people together, and they remember by the tapping, they remember by he bass line, they remember the drumming, they saw the gestures, like yo man, I see myself in there. Yo that’s me man.

 

That was the best part of the band, when we were coming up. We weren't called the Ghetto Brothers then, we were still Junior Beatles, its only after when, like I pointed out before, when these other bands come in, The organization got together prior to that, we were Ghetto Brothers, and I said you know what, originally when I started the ghetto brothers, I wasn’t even thinking of a gang. I wasn't even thinking of a social organization, I was just thinking of my brothers.

 

We were brothers from the Bronx, you didn’t say inner city in those days, and we said the ghetto. So we live in a very poor community`, with parents that loved us, who took care of us, and always told us, mind your business, working ethics is very important, go to school, treat people nice, always with a smile. Don’t let older person, cause and me find out you’re disrespecting you are going to get it from me. That was my father.