HOWLING WITH THE WOLFMAN; SOUTHEAST'S FAMILY WEEKEND WILL TURN INTO A '60S PARTY

The Drifters

The Shangri-Las

Reminded of Wavy Gravy's famous observation that the '90s are just like the '60s except upside down, Wolfman Jack loosed a howl that might have been heard all the way from Minneapolis.

That is where he was calling from, on tour with the Wolfman Jack Fabulous '60s Party.

He will bring both the famous gravelly voice and the party to the Show Me Center Saturday night to help Southeast Missouri State University celebrate Family Weekend.

Show time is 8 p.m. Tickets are $16 general admission, $13 for Southeast students, and can be purchased at the Show Me Center or by calling 651-5000.

Sharing the stage with Wolfman Jack will be '60s stalwarts Gary Lewis and the Playboys ("This Diamond Ring," "Count Me In," "Everybody Loves a Clown") and Dennis Yost of the Classics IV (:"Spooky," "Stormy", "Traces", "Every Day with You Girl").

Also, the Drifters "There Goes My Baby," "Save the Last Dance for Me," "Up on the Roof," "Under the Boardwalk," "This Magic Moment") and the Shangri-Las (Remember -- "Walkin' in the Sand," "Leader of the Pack").

The current generation's infatuation with the '60s does and doesn't surprise the Wolfman. The surprise, to him and the '60s acts, is just how popular they are. They are making much more money and drawing larger crowds than back in their heyday.

But nobody is amazed that young people are listening to these old songs. "People treasure this music," Wolfman Jack said. "The Eagles are an Oldies act, the Stones are an Oldies act. They're doing millions of dollars worth of business."

He thinks MTV is responsible for the supposed shortage of new radio classics being produced over the past decade. On TV, he says, sexy pictures can compensate for mediocre music but sometimes the music falls flat on the radio. In other words of true Wolfmanese, "The visual thing is always stronger than the audio thing."

That is no criticism of MTV, he cautions. "I'm not putting down nothing."

Wolfman has a book coming out soon. Titled "Have Mercy: Confession of the Original Rock 'n' Roll Animal," it details his journey from what he calls a "crummy childhood" in Brooklyn to becoming perhaps that best-known personality in the history of radio.

Wolfman Jack wasn't exactly a household name before he became a TV star hosting shows like "Friday Night Special" in the 1970s and 1980s. In the '60s, he was better known in cars, especially those belonging to teenagers coasting down Broadways from Maine to California.

"You could go from New York to L.A. and wouldn't lose the signal," he said of the Mexican 250,000-watt clear channels that beamed his voice and the rock 'n' roll music loathed by so many parents.

The station made almost all its money through mail order and its primary deejay, a lover of rhythm and blues who had been known as Daddy Jules on radio stations back on the East Coast, developed an underground following as Wolfman Jack.

"I was anti-establishment and I wasn't," he says. "I wasn't doing anything wrong but I sounded like I was doing something wrong. Everybody loves a rascal."

The howl, the goatee and the black clothes may go with the Wolfman stage persona, but he turns out to be "a real nut on wolves. They're amazing animals. Damn close to humans. They're honorable, they stay in the same territory, they keep the same mate for life, they're great hunters and they take care of their family," he said.

The 1973 George Lucas movie "American Graffiti" immortalized Wolfman Jack, his voice a beacon of truth to the confused teenagers roaming the nighttime streets. But Wolfman says, "I'm not trying to teach anybody anything. I'm just trying to give them a good time."