Royce Koch

Royce Koch was a cover band that flourished in the late 80s/early 70s, known for “obscentizing” songs. Hits included “Stairway to [censored],” Lucy in the [censored] with Diamonds,” “YM[censored]A,” and “It’s the [censored] of the World as We [censored] it, and I [censored] [censored].”

Drummer Hanson Griddle had this to say about the band:

We’re not obscene. I mean we are, but that’s not the point. Well, it is, but look, there’s more to us than just dick jokes and tit jokes. We’re like the Henry Miller of pop music. Not the real Henry Miller, I mean the one in that movie with Uma Thurman.”

Lead singer Redmond Ritting founded the band in 1971 with Griddle, Slappy Beaut on lead guitar, and Pieter Pipen on bass. The band was virtually unheard of until a lawyer for ASCAAP happened to be in a bar where they where performing, and brought a lawsuit. The case was thrown out, however, when the judge realized that ASCAAP was the International Au-Pair Association (Asociación Colombiana de Agencias Au Pair) as opposed to ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers). But enough attention had come to the band at this point to launch a semi-profitable three-city tour of some of the largest towns in south-eastern Idaho.

Royce Koch is the patron saint of JustBeCousins.

Here’s an example of the kind of thing they did: Joe’s version of Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car.”