CARMEN-G. DUNNE

000-BEGINNINGS

AUTHOR: So, before we begin, you agree that I can use all this evidence as source for my book?

CARMEN: Of course Chickadee. But everyone agreed to do this? Everyone?

AUTHOR: Everyone Carmen. I wanted this to be as real as you guys were back then, but I couldn't pursuade Warren to leave his boat. (Laughs) I had to board ship.

CARMEN: I'm glad everyone's doing this Chickadee. Really.

000

𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄 𝐈𝐓 𝐁𝐄𝐆𝐀𝐍

AUTHOR: So, before the Dunne Brothers, how did it all begin for you?

CARAMEL CARMEN (bassist and backing vocals in The Six): I never really remember things from when I was really little, unless they're significant. I think I must've been about four when Eddie had some friends over our house. I was sat in the garden watering my flower patch. (Laughs smiling at the Author) I loved that little lump of petals and earth. Eddie and his two friends; Graham and Chuck Williams. They were kicking around a ball, playing piggy in the middle too. This time, Graham was piggy.

GRAHAM DUNNE(lead guitarist in The Six): I hated being piggy.

CARAMEL CARMEN : The ball was thrown to far, by Eddie of course, Graham fumbled and accidentally whacked it over towards me. In my flower patch.

GRAHAM: I still remember her big brown eyes sloping as soon as that ball hit her flowers.

CARAMEL CARMEN: I wasn't that upset.

EDDIE ROUNDTREE(Rhythm guitarist and backing vocals in The Six): She started crying.

CARAMEL CARMEN: Graham came over to me, he picked up one of my flowers. It was a brown Angel Amber Kiss Pansy. He gave it to me, in my tiny hand. And said something like "Look, it's caramel like you. I mean Caramel like Carmen."

GRAHAM: It was brown like Caramel.
I'm pretty sure I said  "It's a brown colour. Caramel like Carmen, you're a Candy." Then I stopped talking like a blubbering five year old and actually apologised. (Laughs)

CARMEN: We went and ate lunch, I was fine after I ate Mama's Con Carne.

GRAHAM: I like to say my pick up lines got better.

EDDIE: He never got better at verbally picking up girls.

GRAHAM: I felt bad for the rest of the day, it was better after lunch. Carmen came and played with us and vouched to be piggy in the middle for me.

CARMEN: I always liked being in the middle.

EDDIE: About two years after that I picked up a guitar. (smirks) It was love at first sight. My Grandpa was something of an entrepreneur so when he got his hands on a Gibson Acoustic it seemed effortless. I mean they aren't cheap. I remember it in the corner of his front room. Just sat there, all polished and I don't know. Calling for me. Yeah, that's it. I asked him if I could play, he told me.

"Go ahead kid, but I haven't a clue of how to play one."

I picked up that guitar and strummed like how I saw Elvis play on the radio shop TV. My fingertips hurt like a bitch, but I realised that all came with time and practise. My Grandfather said I was a natural, what did he know? (Laughs) I sounded like a screaming tyre. Either way, thanks to my Grandfather's dodgy hearing he bought me a chord book. It all really sprouted from there.

AUTHOR: What song did you first learn?

EDDIE: Must've been. Ah, the chords to All Shook Up by Elvis. Yeah that one.

CARMEN: My big brother was playing guitar. Little me thought he was so cool. When Eddie was in his room with the Gibson I'd sit at the foot of his bed and watch. It was always me and Eddie when it came to music. I wanted to be just like my big brother.

EDDIE: I feel bad now for what I said.

CARMEN: I said to Eddie, "I want to play guitar too."

Eddie replied with.
"I play guitar, you can't aswell."

EDDIE: I told my seven year old sister she could play Bass. Or Sing. Or play the recorder.

CARMEN: I did all three. And I learnt guitar. It took a while to get hold of a bass, until then I played the Gibson. Eddie didn't know I took the guitar every Wednesday when he had scouts, until he came home early from cancellation. And I was sat in his room with the Acoustic on my lap and he strolled inro his room, stopping dead in his tracks upon the sight. He wasn't that angry, I can't really remember, all he said was.

"Play me something."

I did. I played Tutti Fruiti. God, I loved that song. I messed up the second verse but it didn't matter. I think Eddie enjoyed it because he asked me to play another, that's when I played All Shook Up which was the song circled in red crayon in his chord book. Eddie never clapped, only nodded his head.
Of course that was the only approval little Carmen needed from her amazing brother.
That's when I knew I was good. Never a lead guitarist, but I could give you a solid rhythm section. Easy.

EDDIE: She was no good at the recorder. My sister is a very talented woman, wind instruments were not her forte. But strings, yeah there was something there for sure.

CARMEN: I always used to think Bass was boring. It was the version of guitar no one hears, or so I thought. When I started listening real hard to songs I could hear the thrum of the bass. Soon, I'd hear it over the drum beat. Bass was groovy, and free. I could reside with that. When I first got my little hands on that Fender Bass and my tab book, I should have been more excited. It was red and black, with a mahogany neck. After ten minutes or so, I really started to feel like Paul McCartney. I got into the groove. That's it with bass, you carry the song so you gotta enjoy it.

EDDIE: When I started playing guitar with the boys, I struggled to stand with my feet apart and have some sort of presence. For Carmen, she swayed with it, her head bobbed and her feet tapped to the beat of whatever track she'd play along to. My sister, Carmen Roundtree, knew her shit.

CARMEN:  It was natural, Eddie could keep his 6 string, I had something far better.