In MKE Music Rewind we revisit notable Milwaukee music that was released before Milwaukee Record became a thing in April 2014. In this installment: The Mustard Men’s “I Lost My Baby.”
Milwaukee-area music history is loaded with fantastic ’60s garage-rock bands. Think The Shag. Think The Robbs. Think an entire book dedicated to the subject. While some of these groups have transcended time and found second lives in the 21st century (think Abby Jeanne’s scorching 2020 cover of The Shag’s 1967 banger “Stop And Listen”), many of them have become footnotes to footnotes. That’s just the way things go, but it also means there are plenty of buried gems (or would that be “nuggets”?) just waiting to be unearthed.
Enter The Mustard Men, a teenage band straight out of Brookfield Central High School that was active from about 1964 to 1967. The group’s 1965 single “I Lost My Baby” is ’60s garage rock through and through: a little bit surf-y, a little bit psych-y, liberally spiked with reverb and organ. It’s the kind of era-specific song that sounds instantly familiar yet strangely alien. It’s the kind of ’60s garage-rock song you might imagine in a dream. It’s a buried gem/nugget that definitely deserves to be unearthed.
The Mustard Men included Warren Wiegratz on organ and sax, Stan Kellicut on lead guitar, Keith Paplham on rhythm guitar, Jerry Wimmer on bass, and George Welik on drums. Wiegratz also served as the band’s manager. If his name rings a bell, it should—years later, in addition to achieving oodles of other milestones as an in-demand and award-winning horn player—he fronted the long-running Milwaukee Bucks house band Streetlife. Hell yeah. Shout-out to Streetlife.
Beyond that, only snippets of Mustard Men lore survive. The group was initially known as The Imperials. (The eventual name change referenced the members’ mustard-yellow outfits.) “I Lost My Baby” was backed with “Another Day,” written by band friend Don (Donne) Grede. The group played a bunch of school dances. They won a local battle of the bands competition in 1965. They split up soon after high school. Life went on.
Oh, but plenty of memories survive. Do some internet digging and you’ll find a 20-year-old Garage Hangover page dedicated to “I Lost My Baby.” It’s filled with warm and nostalgic comments from folks who knew—and, more often than not, went to school with—The Mustard Men. Some examples:
“I learned my first guitar licks from Stan from The Mustard Men in a little music shop in West Allis, Wisc. He was a really nice guy.”
“The Mustard Men were in my graduating class of 1966 at Brookfield Central High School. While not exactly friends with any of the guys, I did know them from sharing classes, etc., over the four years and do remember that each of them were really nice people. They played a number of times up on the stage of Central’s cafeteria at Friday night sock hop dances. They were a great band.”
“While attending Immaculate Heart of Mary ‘Grade School’ I saw the Mustard Men perform at one of our CYO dances. I believe that I was in 8th grade (’65-66). I thought they were a bitchin’ band!
“I absolutely LOVE ‘I Lost My Baby’ by The Mustard Men! This song is just PERFECT, what a joy!!!!”
That last one says it all.
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