Stephen B Martin

Stephen B. Martin's first book, 'Thumper,' evokes growing up in Worcester in the 1950s.

Martin was a member of the Worcester rock band Orpheus which had early success before breaking up.

'Thumper' depicts a sensitive only-child of troubled working class parents.  

What was it like growing up in Worcester in the 1950s and '60s?

In Stephen B. Martin's book "Thumper," there are glimpses it could be a tough place for a child of working-class parents. "Especially if you were different," Martin said.

But the setting also helps paint the portrait of an artist as a young boy. 

'Mostly true'

Martin, 79, is a singer-songwriter, former member of the famed Worcester rock band Orpheus, journalist and sociopolitical activist who now lives in Hull but grew up in Worcester and was part of the cultural scene here in the 1960s.

"Thumper," his first book, is a combination of novel and memoir. "It's a childhood memoir. It's mostly true. It's kind of both. I think they're calling it 'autofiction' now," he said.

"Thumper" is the nickname of the child who the book brings to life by using the second-person "you" to put the reader in Thumper's shoes. Early on, the 4-year-old Thumper can't sleep. "The city is silent except for your father's heavy breathing and the ticking of the kitchen clock," Martin writes.

In the morning Thumper's mother, a creative and loving person, will have a sudden collapse while the washing machine overflows in the family's small apartment at 80 Chandler St. His father, a laundryman who gave up his job as a substitute teacher to pay the bills, seems to resent the boy for reasons that become clear near the end of the book. While his mother recovers, Thumper spends time at the Blue Belle Diner on Chandler Street (most recently Dinky's Blue Belle Diner in Shrewsbury) where Charlie, the short-order cook, keeps an eye on him.

Thumper is a bit "different," or sensitive. The book follows the young boy's progress in the years that follow as the family moves many times, including to Fountain Street, Oberlin Street and May Street. A preview at the end of the book to Martin's planned sequel, "Thumper Grows Up," finds Thumper now at 18 and arguing with his father right after the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963. Thumper is about to be told to leave the home.

While the book depicts a tough upbringing, it also has some charming vignettes and eye-catching details. There is a depiction of "the last ragman" clopping with his mule and car near Belmont Street and asking people to bring out their rags. On Belmont Street, Thumper visits the Gypsy Shop, although he's been told to stay away. The family hurriedly goes to the Grange for shelter when radio reports belatedly warn about what would be the Worcester tornado of 1953.

'A precocious troubled kid'

"Thumper" was self-published last year. "It's been doing moderately well. We really have not done any publicity in Worcester about it (yet)," Martin said.

The book is available at Amazon.com and at local bookstores, including TidePool Bookshop, 372 Chandler St., and Root & Press, 156 Shrewsbury St., as well as at Union Music, 142 Southbridge St., and the reading room at the Museum of Worcester, 30 Elm St. "It is historical," Martin said.

Martin is at work on "Thumper Grows Up." "I'm on the fourth rewrite. I'm almost done with it. It is also Worcester-centric," although the canvas expands to places such as San Francisco, just as it did in Martin's life.

Robert I. Bradford, a professor at Dominican University of California, praised Martin's second person use of "you" in his blurb for "Thumper." It puts the reader "deep into the self of a precocious troubled kid navigating the travails of growing up in a fractured family in a gritty New England factory town in the '50s," Bradford said.

Martin had written "Thumper" in the first person initially but switched to the second person. "I think it's more effective," Martin said.

In the book, Thumper's mother is ultimately diagnosed with multiple sclerosis with an uncertain prognosis for how long she is going to live.

In life, she "lived a lot longer than anyone expected her to," Martin said.

Martin was a sensitive child. "Yes, I was introverted and didn't make friends easily. When the other kids were out playing I'd be home writing," Martin said. "My father told me I was ill-behaved and had tantrums. My father told me I was shortening my mother's life. I grew up feeling guilty about that," Martin said.

In "Thumper" his mother is protective and stands up for him when his father becomes overly threatening. His father does listen to his mother.

"I still love my mother. I owe her a lot,"' Martin said.

Including music. Thumper's mother used to play mandolin and glockenspiel in a string band and still has two mandolins on the top shelf of her wardrobe. "She'll teach you how to play some day," Martin writes.

'I was outraged'

Martin was about to have his first on-stage performance at the Worcester Memorial Auditorium in the First Worcester All-Collegiate Hootenanny but it was called off after President Kennedy was assassinated that same day.

"I was outraged by what was happening nationally. The assassination of John F. Kennedy was a major turning point in my life. My father was an Eisenhower Republican who wanted to bomb other nations. He was representative of what the majority of people in Worcester thought," Martin said.

Martin became a folk singer and spent some time in San Francisco, including the 1967 "Summer of Love." When he returned to Worcester he said he founded what was known as Congress Alley, an enclave of young Worcester rock musicians, artists and free spirits who lived on Congress Street off Pleasant Street. Congress Alley was a dirt road, albeit with street signs, off Congress Street. "It was a social experiment. A lot of creative people moved in," Martin recalled.

Martin's song "Congress Alley" was one of 15 of his original compositions that were recorded by Orpheus, a group with a number of Congress Alley connections. Orpheus co-founder Bruce Arnold, "lived around the corner," Martin said.

Orpheus ascending

Orpheus was formed in Worcester in 1967 and released four albums between 1968 and 1971. While together, Orpheus toured the country and played on the same bill with a number of major acts of the era, including Cream, Janis Joplin, Led Zeppelin, The Who and many others.

The group had a hit with the semipsychedelic single, "Can't Find the Time," with Arnold as the lead vocalist and writer. The song had re-releases and various interpretations, including one by Hootie & the Blowfish heard in the movie "Me, Myself and Irene."

The original Orpheus core was Bruce Arnold and Jack McKennes (guitarists/ vocalists), Eric "The Snake" Gulliksen (bass guitarist) and Harry Sandler (drums). There were, however, quite a few subsequent changes of personnel. Martin was one of those who joined a slightly later version of Orpheus as vocalist and on rhythm guitar. Meanwhile, three of his songs were on the group's first album, he said.

"We broke up due to ego problems, not mentioning any names," Martin said.

In 2004 a group called Orpheus Reborn was formed by McKennes, Gulliksen, Sandler and Martin. Separate from that effort, Arnold continued to write songs with Orpheus in mind. In 2014, Arnold, who lived many years in Marin County in California, returned to Worcester to perform a concert titled "Orpheus: The Homecoming" at Mechanics Hall. The concert included an ensemble from the Massachusetts Symphony Orchestra. Martin was not part of the concert, although the show featured a couple of his songs. Arnold died in 2022.

There has been a feeling that Orpheus was close to the big time but somehow didn't quite make it.

Martin doesn't put that down to egos. Rather, "I think it was more promotional problems," he said.

MGM Records put out the first three albums, but the fourth was released by Bell Records and "was not supported and very few people knew about. It became too difficult to go on," Martin said.

Meanwhile, "I developed a heroin habit," he said. "I dried out in the Worcester County Jail in 1971 and haven't touched it since."

'It had a rebirth'

In 1973, Martin returned to San Francisco, where he played in several popular groups and worked as a music therapist and later worked in market research. Back in New England in 1987, he continued writing, performing and recording, and was special projects coordinator at the New England Wildlife Center in Weymouth.

Martin and his wife, Kathe Donlan, have hosted the Catbird Cafe coffeehouse, which raises funds for the New England Wildlife Center, for the past 18 years. Since the pandemic the Catbird Cafe has been a virtual open mic but has performances every Saturday night. Over the past 15 years Martin has also produced eight CDs.

Martin said he regularly comes back to Worcester to see friends and always stays at the Beechwood Hotel.

The city has seen quite a few changes since the early days depicted in "Thumper." "Worcester was still a thriving industrial city, then the companies went belly up and left a vacuum. Much of downtown was empty. It became a postindustrial slum but then it had a rebirth," Martin said.

"Now I consider it a thriving cultural center. We always had the colleges but now there are plenty of clubs and art and it's fun to go back."

Martin said he had always wanted to write a book and has kept a journal almost all of his life which he dipped into for the novel/memoir.

Worcester came back to him when he began "Thumper," he said. "To me it was a therapeutic process."