Unless music will be a career, it is challenging to maintain success as an avocation – graduate studies for example consume punctilious attention – and so it was with The Bravados.  Gene on bass returned to Ithaca and Cornell.  Larry Laufer, who was a genuine talent, just drifted on to other musical pursuits, although he joined Bruce giving music lessons to students at the Lawrence School of Music in downtown Far Rockaway.  So, with a replacement for Gene, the guys played the mentioned Cy Coleman party in the Fall of 1966 as a four piece group, guitar, bass, drums and vocalist, Bruce on guitar and Mongo as the singer the only holdovers  This band played freshman parties for Fordham at the Rose Hill campus, for NYU at the Bronx campus and for Columbia University. Their business card  accurately touted “the collegiate sound in rock”.

But the magic was somehow diminished.  The fraternity party sound was still fine at fraternity parties, somewhat less well received at clubs.  A harder edge had arrived for rock and The Bravados’ approach was perhaps imperceptibly fading in popularity, at least to the wider audience. They played “Jumping Jack Flash”, “The Sunshine of Your Love”, “Kicks”, a number of Dylan hits-“Just Like A Woman is fondly recalled- and many other songs of the day, but their metier remained party music like Barrett Strong’s “Money”, the Isley Brothers’ “Shout”, earlier Marvin Gaye and other Motown tunes with a slice of fifties and early sixties oldies – material of that style.

An audition in Queens at the very busy Community Gardens yielded nothing.  But a band manager in attendance recognized Bruce’s bass work; he switched on some songs from guitar when a more intricate bass line was required. This led to successful freelance bass playing for a few years, including a time with The Classics (“Till Then”, number 20 on 1961 Pop Charts), by which time the remnants of the original Bravados were just apart.

Then, In the Summer of ’67, some Five Towns Bravados’ fans and musicians (guitarists Don Rodgers and Michael Hyman, Lawrence ’62), Mike’s brother Jeffrey Warren Hyman on organ, together with drummer Rick (Doc) Gerard, were playing at Satan’s Club, a bar in Baldwin, Long Island.  This being the time of Vietnam, Mongo Booth had been drafted and so, engaged in service to Uncle Sam, was unavailable. When their bass player left, Bruce Bergman was asked to rejoin and a new version of The Bravados emerged.  With the creative Dan Sommers sometimes on Farfisa, and with Stephen Kneidel  later on drums, they became regulars at the Pizza King in Rosedale, Queens, The Continental Lounge at the corner of Myrtle and Gates Avenues where Queens meets Brooklyn, and even played return engagements at The Straw Hat.  In addition to an affair at the Craig Penn Estate in Suffolk County, an outdoor political party on Northern Boulevard in Manhasset for a congressional candidate,

At a congressional candidate’s event on Northern Blvd, Manhasset. From left to right: Don Rodgers, Bruce Bergman and Doc Gerard in the rear.

a soiree at The Officer’s Club, Fort Hamilton in Brooklyn,

From left to right: Bruce Bergman, Jeff Hyman, Doc Gerard (rear), Don Rogers (below) and Mike Hyman

From left to right: Bruce Bergman, Jeff Hyman, Mike Hyman, Doc Gerard and Don Rogers

a gig at Cookies Restaurant in Valley Stream, an event at the Jones Beach Coast Guard Station, appearances at Nobody’s Inn, Elmont, and some weekends at the Monroe Country Club in Monroe, New York,

Bravados Bruce Bergman, Don Rogers, Jeff Newman, skinny dipping at the Monroe Country Club.

various bar gigs on Long Island continued through 1968.  

1968, back at the Straw Hat, Mineola. Left to right: Michael Hyman, Bruce Bergman, Don Rogers, Doc Gerard and Jeffrey Hyman

By the spring of 1969, though, with the bar exam, followed by six months’ active duty in the army looming, it was over for Bruce as the last original Bravado.

Early 1969, Continental Lounge, Queens County, last photo of the Bravados with an original member. From left to right: Don Rodgers, Michael Hyman, Steve Kneidel, Bruce Bergman, and Jeffrey Hyman

There was to be one final pure rock band job for Bruce, though.  In 1984, he teamed with Russ Nagy the drummer from the Bellnotes (“I’ve Had It”) and Larry Vanatta, the keyboardist and vocalist from the Aquatones (“You”) to play a sock hop for parents in the gym of the Brandeis School in Lawrence where Bruce’s children were students.

Although Bruce left the group that spring of 1969 (to later become a freelance guitarist, bass player and singer in the club date scene, the wedding and cotillion circuit), this coincided with the return from the service of the wonderful Mongo Booth who was joyously reunited with the band, now abetted by the outstanding Mike Axelrod on bass, a talent who actually jammed with Jimi Hendrix. They retained the Bravado name and continued for a few years playing numerous clubs, among them Mistero’s in Inwood for a two-year run, the Club 25 in Valley Stream and the El Caribe Country Club in Brooklyn.

Spring 1971, informal Bravados reunion, Long Beach, NY. From left to right: Bruce Bergman, Don Rodgers, Gary Gross, and Michael Hyman