Images: Courtesy of anonymous private collector
Provincetown’s History Told Through Artifacts
by Steve Desroches
The 1965 concert Nina Simone performed at the Atlantic House was the stuff of legend. Already a titan of music by then, having such a giant of American culture in the Atlantic House did not go unappreciated by the town as folks packed the place to the rafters. But this poster advertising Simone’s appearance also tells the story of a home-grown musical phenomenon; The Barbarians. The band, consisting of Victor “Moulty” Moulton, Bruce Benson, Ronnie Enos, and Jerry Causi, formed in Provincetown in the summer of 1964. The group was invited to play the Rumpus Room, a nighttime hotspot on the beach behind the Old Colony Tap, and became an instant hit in town with their garage-band-meets-surf-guitar sound.
They were such a sensation that word reached New York City, which led to a deal with Joy Records. The album featured covers of “Mr. Tambourine Man,” “House of the Rising Sun,” “Memphis, Tennessee,” and “Suzi Q.” But it would be an original that would go on to be to make the charts in1965 with “Are You a Boy or Are You a Girl.” The song is a playful joke about young men growing their hair long to emulate The Beatles, which The Barbarians did, and the chorus is the mocking tone they received from conservative jeers, with the line “You’re either a girl or you come from Liverpool” making the song’s story quite clear.
The band’s big break came with an appearance in The T.A.M.I. Show (Teenage Awards Music International), a concert documentary filmed live at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium in October 1964. The Barbarians appeared on the same bill as The Beach Boys, Chuck Berry, James Brown, The Supremes, The Rolling Stones, and more. It was such an important cultural event that in 2006 the documentary was added to the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry. From 1964 until the band broke up in 1967, The Barbarians played almost weekly in Provincetown at the Rumpus Room and the Atlantic House, as well as Town Hall and in the Provincetown High School gymnasium to adoring fans, who in particular loved the instrumental original, “Linguica,” a peppy nod to Provincetown’s Portuguese heritage. These artifacts, held in a private collection, are a reminder of when four sons of Provincetown achieved rock-and-roll fame.
