Hands of Time (Devotions)

The following information was provided by Bobby Caldwell (ETHS Class of '64), with photos furnished by Phoebe Richard Bradford.

The members were Billy Giles, Barry Young, Lenard Perkins and Bobby Caldwell. Barry was in the class of '62 and the rest of us were class of '64.  Billy, Lenard and I started singing with other guys at Foster School in about the fifth grade. The group names were the Spyders and later the Satellites.  There were so many of us in these groups that we had substitutes for each voice.  If you were popular or tough nobody wanted to turn you down from being in the group. Apart from singing on the playground we sang at talent shows and parties.  The Satellites were good and usually won.

When Jr. High started we were mostly split up among the various schools.  Most guys were at Haven like Billy, Max Motton, Carl Ledford and Ryan Strong.  They formed a group called the Parliaments at Haven and were still together when they entered ETHS in 1960. They sang tight doo wop harmonies and were the envy of other guys who sang. Over time, some fellows dropped out and others joined the Parliaments...including me.  Billy and I were now back singing together.  In 1964, we were joined by Mark Conner and Shirlene Gibson (both juniors) and senior Ryan Strong.  The group was named "Shirlene and the Lords".  We sang in a lot of local talent shows and civic events around Evanston.  We also won a division of the Coca Cola sponsored Talented Teen contest.

In 1964, we seniors graduated and so ended "Shirlene and the Lords" as a doo wop group.  I joined the Army and then Billy joined the Army.  I went to Germany and he went to 'Nam.  I believe Ryan went off to college.  When our enlistments were up we came home to Evanston and to jobs.  One day, I ran into Lenard and started talking music with him.  Eventually we both agreed we would like to  start up a vocal group and go pro.  A few guys came to mind but they weren't serious enough.  Billy was around and we talked to him and he was fired up about it.  Now we had three and wanted a fourth guy.  Our old friend from ETHS, Mark Connor, came to mind as did Barry Young who was a  good friend to Billy and Lenard.  We settled on Barry...and the Devotions were formed.  We rehearsed almost everynight with songs and choreography.  Our efforts paid off with gigs in the soul clubs around Chicago's south and west sides.  Sometimes we had our own band of local musicians from Evanston, but mostly the house bands backed us up.  We would perform usually two shows a night. Thursday thru Saturday.  The Devotions held their own with known recording artists of the day even though we did not have any records on the market.   We learned a lot from those musician and singers.  Working nightclubs was hard work but a labor of love.

We wrote and had writers writing and arranging original songs for us.  Our style was cover songs when we sang in public.  Our mainstay were songs by The Temptations, Four Tops, Miracles, Blood Sweat and Tears, Stylistics, The Originals and others.  Being flexible was a good idea.  We had a manager at one time but it didn't work out, as he was greedy.  So we managed ourselves, not always a good idea.  Our group name of Devotion was changed to the Hands of Time because another group from Chicago was using it.  Tyron Davis had a hit song out at the time with a hook..."if I could turn back the hands of time" and we said no one can turn back the hands of time!  Get it:  No one can stop us, The Hands of Time.  Chicago media person Merry Dee had a tv show on UHF Channel 26 back then.  We had a spot on the show and sang one number...I think "Spinning Wheel" by BST.  It was a live show (no tape), and I remember being glad when it was over.

The group was together about four years and last performed about 1972.  We met some very interesting people, and had some great experiences along the way.