Big Dipper reveal the story behind "Ron Klaus Wrecked His House"

Always a Dippah fan favourite, "Ron Klaus Wrecked His House" goes back to Bill Goffrier's Embarrasment days in Wichita. 

Here's the story...

Hey there, Dipper fans! We’re back with our monthly dive into the Dipper song catalog. We’ve recently featured some of our deeper cuts. Those were fun to share with you. But, in this month’s installment, we turn to what some consider to be our Magnum Opus, the King-Daddy Ditty, the Pièce de Résistance. It’s “Ron Klaus Wrecked His House,” and boy, is there a story behind it.  Set your Wayback Machines back 43 years. Location: Wichita, Kansas. Our own Bill Goffrier, then a guitarist and eyeglasses model with The Embarrassment, was there, as was his bandmate, Brent “Woody” Giessmann. Bring us back, Billy and Woody!

Bill: Ron Klaus wrecked his house in July 1979, in Wichita, on Indiana Street. He thought it would be fine, because the landlord stated that the structure was being demolished, and that’s why Ronnie was being evicted. And WHO WOULD LIE ABOUT THAT? The band members were particularly sad to leave, because his dining room was the band’s practice space. So, taking lemons and some other ingredients and making HARD lemonade, Ron threw a house wrecking party, with the help of his friends, their bands, and maybe some strangers on motorcycles. Even the police understood the reason given for the noisier than usual neighborhood complaint. People who lit fires very responsibly extinguished them. 

Gary: Kansans have always instilled in me a sense of awe. Their decency, honesty and willingness to allow, with nary a complaint, most aircraft to fly right over them and not land makes them aces, in my book. And the communal pride that Ron Klaus and his friends and Embarrassment bandmates exhibited on that July night is the ace-iest ace-ness of all. I just love the story. Can you begrudge a guy for wanting to spare his landlord unnecessary demolition expenses?

Bill: Next morning, Ron’s shocking, lawless destruction was front page news. All was well until the landlord found out and then denied he was demolishing the house.

Woody: I remember sitting around the dining/band meeting table (at the house I shared with friend Henry) feeling sad and unsure about where Ron was hiding. We wrote a story and melody, with a harmony inspired by Neil Young. It was shocking to think Ron was in trouble for a party that got “out of control”. He showed up for rehearsal after being in hiding for a couple of days.

Bill: At that point we needed a new rehearsal space and we became a bona fide garage band, in Henry and Brent’s garage. As for the song, having a catchy chorus isn’t a bad way to start such a song, but we weren’t motivated to continue it. We had let it flow out half-jokingly, and didn’t dwell on it. 

Gary: As has been chronicled elsewhere, Bill and I met not long after he moved to Boston to study art. It was late ‘83, early ‘84, I think. He came to see Volcano Suns at Storyville. I was such a huge Embos fan. At first, we swapped the obligatory lines: “Hey, man, we should JAM sometime.” Embarrassing. We weren’t in bands that “jammed” as such. But, a year or two later, we were strumming guitars on his Allston porch. 

Bill: When Gary and I were satisfied that we had a creative, collaborative agreement and could write and record songs BUT NOT BE IN A BAND, the Ron Klaus chorus was one of a few bits I could offer up. 

Gary: So “She’s Fetching” was first. Then, one evening, Bill played this funny little snippet for me: “Ron Klaus/wrecked his house/Down on Indiana Street.” It was so good. I had to know more! He told me the story, which dazzled me, of course. But the song had no verses. This perplexed me. 

A couple years later (I don’t know why it took that long), Bill and I were hanging out in my Brookline aerie. I casually mentioned that, because the Klaus story was so memorable (and true!) that it would be cool to write verses and complete the song. 

Bill: In Gary’s first home studio, with the use of a reel-to-reel 4 track, we fleshed it out musically. We co-wrote the verses and, naturally, figured we could alternate singing them.

Gary: The ideas flew and, about 43 minutes later, “Ron Klaus Wrecked His House” was mostly written and recorded. The audio record of that is “Ron Klaus Demo’d His House” from our Supercluster anthology on Merge Records. That was me and Bill, playin’ guitars. And singin’. Life was so simple back then.

Steve: When Gary and Bill brought the song to the group, I was impressed. I don’t think a new song had been introduced to us that way before. Usually someone would strum some chords and we’d eventually bash it out but the demo was very nearly a finished song, and there was no way to improve on it really. Gary had very specific ideas about the bass part and, despite wanting to put my own stamp on the song, I had to admit that it was a great part and so I had to reacquaint myself with the ‘E’ string on the bass and keep my mouth shut. 

Since I had nothing to do with writing the song, I feel that I can be somewhat objective, and I think this is a really well-written song that sounds like nothing else in our catalog.  

Jeff: I remember Gary and Bill bringing in a 4-track demo of Klaus to rehearsal one cold evening. The demo was very simple and catchy. The song sounded like an anthem. In my mind, I  could hear audiences in massive arenas belting out the chorus.

Steve: It was definitely one of the last songs that we wrote for Craps and I remember debuting the song at Nightstage at the St. Patrick’s Day lunchtime show for WBCN. The station took an hour out of their schedule in the middle of the day and broadcast a lunchtime concert from a local band every month. 

Bill: That must have been the time I met Nick Lowe, who was just hangin' out at the club. I was starstruck.

Gary: I don’t think we had been playing the song live for very long by the time we were in Fort Apache North in the summer of 1988. So the trick was getting the drums and bass chugging along just right, getting the harmonies real smooth, polishing up the lyrics and then messing with the guitar arrangements. Which we did. That ping-pong, call and response stuff was fun to come up with and play, and I think Bill and I nailed that one. The rhythm dudes are rock solid. It’s a really good performance and recording. And how about that Dm7 chord, outta nowhere, at the 3:20 mark?!?!?

Bill: That chord change always escapes me. Gary, you’re my Sir Elton.

Gary: It’s like a Dm chord, only with a 7th. I studied with several classical geniuses before that stuck with me. 

Anyway, when Craps was released in the fall of 1988, I remember one review (CMJ?) stating the following: “‘Ron Klaus Wrecked His House’ sounds like The Hollies on downers.” 

Steve: WBCN played the stuffing out of the song, and it won their Jukebox Jury contest a couple of times. I don’t know if we ever properly thanked those guys but, man, that was some serious support. 

Gary: In retrospect (because, with me, there’s always something that I wish I’d done differently), “Ron Klaus Wrecked His House” should have been the debut single from Craps. As such, it would have been best to eliminate the lengthy intro, middle section and coda, which never did that much. The song would have been shorter and tighter, more immediate. Somewhere, there’s an edit I did of the song with those sections out, and it’s compelling. It’s, like, 3:00 minutes long. The longer, LP version is 5:10.

Jeff: We once tried to play the song by cutting off the intro, and going right into the verse. The fans were upset, and comments flew from the front row. “Play the entire song.” It’s a difficult drum beat to play live. I do a 16th beat for over 5 minutes. Crushes the arms!! 

Steve: I’d love to hear an edit of the song, brought down to “radio-size.”  Did we even discuss this? Honestly, were we that dumb back then?

Gary: Even dumber! Because you don’t need to have seen the cinematic disaster that was the “Meet the Witch” video to know that it was a colossal mistake not to make a video for “Ron Klaus” — Rampaging teens, destruction, fire, collapse, subterfuge, recrimination, apology, forgiveness — the song had it all. I have never been a fan of the rock video medium, but what a video it would have made. Plus, we were very handsome back then. Go ask anyone.  

Bill: But it can’t be undone…

Steve: Given the monumental $500 Homestead video budget, we would have been lucky to afford some Fritos and dip.

Gary: But we would have been wrecking stuff. How expensive could that be? 

Jeff: If we had done a video for that song, it would have been a smash hit. Think about it. A huge party where you get to destroy shit?! Pills, booze, women, grass! Oh,wait, it's the Dipper — I meant books, chess, and early to bed.  

Steve: This, to me, is still our “coulda, woulda, shoulda” song. I agree with everyone else who said it should have the single, the video, and the song that got us some more listeners. No use crying over spilled melon juice, however. 

Gary: Yeah, but all these years later, here’s what really bothers me: should the chorus have been laying at his feet, rather than lying at his feet? I’d hate to think that bad grammar prevented us from attaining superstardom. 

Jeff: Klaus is Dipper's most popular song. It’s my second favorite Dipper song on Craps, after Bells of Love. It got lots of airplay in Boston, and Gary did an interview with Mark Parenteau of WBCN in 1988, and the song was featured.

Steve: The last set of verses always get to me. It is, without question, my favorite Big Dipper song.

Bill: I have added several update verses since 2006, to extend the story of Ron, the legend. The myth. The Embarrassment performed a ukulele version at 2006 reunion shows, and an acoustic 2008 version. If memory serves, and it often does not, I performed solo versions as well. Hell, I’d do it, do it, do it all again!

The land the infamous house was on is a parking lot now. Yes, they paved paradise. But that’s another song.