Clockwork Orange – "Your Golden Touch" (1967)

I was a fool to cry so much

I was a victim of your golden touch

Bill Ashley taught himself to play the drums in 1965, when he was a 15-year-old living in Paducah, Kentucky.  His first group was Clockwork Orange, which released a single titled “Your Golden Touch” in 1967.

I heard “Your Golden Touch” on Steven Lorber’s “Mystic Eyes” radio show in 1980.  He’s not sure how he became acquainted with the record – which didn’t sell enough copies to make the Billboard “Hot 100” – but he did.

After a fair amount of Googling, I was able to track down Bill Ashley and interview him about Clockwork Orange and “Your Golden Touch.”

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2 or 3 lines: One of the most memorable and disturbing movies I ever saw was A Clockwork Orange.  I initially assumed that your band took its name from that movie, but you formed Clockwork Orange several years before the movie was released.

The first edition of A Clockwork Orange

Bill Ashley: Danny Powley, our singer, had read the book the movie was based on – we had no idea when we formed the band that there was going to be a movie.  Originally the band was named “The Clockwork Orange,” but we dropped the “the” at some point.

2 or 3 lines: So how did Clockwork Orange get its start?

Bill: The group was organized by Elliott Payne and Terry Frasier.  Elliott moved away and leadership of the band was taken over by Terry, a gifted guitarist who had been playing since he was five.

2 or 3 lines: Was everyone in Clockwork Orange from Paducah?

Bill:  Yes, we were.  In addition to Terry and Danny Powley, the members were Barry Yancey on bass, Steve Rudolph – who played the Hammond B3 organ and trumpet – and me.

2 or 3 lines: Did you play a lot of live gigs?

Bill: We were in high demand at colleges in the area – all the way from southern Illinois to Nashville.  We were gone every weekend playing, and we developed a great style and became very close.

2 or 3 lines:  What kind of music did Clockwork Orange play?

Bill: We were influenced by the psychedelic music of the day – groups like the Electric Prunes and Strawberry Alarm Clock, to name a couple. 

2 or 3 lines: “Your Golden Touch,” which was written by Terry Frasier, certainly has a psychedelic feel.

Bill:   Terry had begun to write his own songs and suggested that we record “Your Golden Touch” when we decided to release something original.

2 or 3 lines:  I had no idea until recently that “Your Golden Touch” was produced by Doug Kershaw, who was a fiddle player from Louisiana who sold a lot of record in the seventies – I guess “Louisiana Man” is his most famous song.  I understand that he wrote the flip side to “Your Golden Touch,” which was a song titled “Do Me Right Now.”

Doug Kershaw (circa 1969)

Bill: Doug Kershaw wrote that song on the way to the studio because we had no other material to record.  

2 or 3 lines: I take it that “Your Golden Touch” didn’t sell very well.  

Bill: We sold very few recordings, so we went back to doing live performances.  But the band just wasn’t the same without Steve.  He eventually did recover, but it took a long time. 

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2 or 3 lines: Do you keep in touch with the other members of Clockwork Orange?  Are any of them still involved with music?

Bill: All of the original members of Clockwork Orange are alive and well, but none of them are still performing today except myself.  Terry Frasier still lives in Paducah, where I saw him several years ago – but quit playing guitar decades ago for some reason and never returned to it.  Danny Powley

went to Vietnam and never returned to performing. He lives in Paducah, too. Barry Yancey moved to Texas and never returned to performing.  Steve Rudolph eventually recovered from his motorcycle accident and lives in New Orleans.  I look him up whenever I play in New Orleans.  I last saw him this past January.

The Clockwork Orange (circa 1968)

2 or 3 lines: So you are still drumming?

Bill: Yes, I’m the only original member of Clockwork Orange still performing – 55 years after we formed the band.  I’m 70, and still perform regularly, mostly in Florida and along the Gulf Coast.  I often play with Steve Hopper, who is a very popular tropical rock, or “trop rock” performer, and have been on some of his albums – including Anywhere There’s a Beach, which was recorded in Muscle Shoals in 2017, and went to #1 on the trop rock charts.  

[NOTE: Click here to listen to the title track of Steve Hopper’s Anywhere There’s a Beach album.]

2 or 3 lines: So you’ve left Paducah for warmer climes?

Bill: I left Paducah in the early seventies and moved to Florida. I lived on Anna Maria Island, which is near Bradenton, for many years. The music scene on the west coast of Florida in those days was great. I usually played six nights a week with many excellent musicians.  I’m very glad I was able to keep performing music, and I’m sorry the others in Clockwork Orange decided to quit. I really miss the great times we had and the music we created.  I will never forget those times. 

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The next 2 or 3 lines will feature a never-released demo of “Your Golden Touch” that Clockwork Orange recorded before they met Doug Kershaw.

Bill Ashley thinks that recording is superior to the Doug Kershaw-produced recording that I heard on the “Mystic Eyes,” and I tend to agree.

But I’ll let you and your fellow 2 or 3 lines readers decide that for yourselves.

Click here to listen to the Doug Kershaw-produced recording of “Your Golden Touch.”