Biography
In 1966 the small Wee label issued a bluesy garage rock single by Denise & Company, the somewhat risqué but only passable “Boy, What’ll You Do Then,” whose B-side carried an instrumental treatment of the same number. University of California at Berkeley student and lead vocalist Denise Kaufman, who also handled harmonica duties, cut the record with the Answer, a high-school band from Berkeley, California, for the modest imprint run by jazz musician Lonnie Hewitt. Kaufman later judged that roughly one hundred copies were manufactured and disclosed that the song addressed her former boyfriend Jann Wenner, who would co-found Rolling Stone magazine. Soon afterward she entered the all-woman San Francisco rock band the Ace of Cups, performing as singer, guitarist, and harmonica player while contributing much of the group’s material, although the ensemble produced no releases during its active years. “Boy, What’ll You Do Then” resurfaced in 2003 on Big Beat’s CD anthology It’s Bad for You But Buy It!, devoted to previously unreleased late-’60s Ace of Cups recordings.