Chuck E. Weiss

Chuck E. Weiss grew up in Denver. A rebellious child and adolescent, he always felt alienated from others his age and just slightly left of the mainstream. "I felt, " Chuck E. recalls of those days, "like a Ubangi dropped in Times Square on New Year's Eve." Chuck E. loved music and found himself greatly influenced by what he heard on the radio and by the music his father listened to, an eclectic mix of boogie-woogie, sabre dance, sambas, mambos, and Hank Williams. He acquired an extensive record collection from his father, who was in the salvage business, and from the neighborhood trash collector who left Chuck E. his vast collection of old albums. When Chuck E. was nine or 10 years old, he got a job at the local movie theater where he swept floors, popped corn and ushered. He spent his money on records and hung out in the local nightclubs listening to musicians like Charles Brown. Gatemouth Brown lived in town and performed often. Chuck E. liked a lot of music, basically anything that