The Bard's charted hit "Never Too Much Love" was released by Capital Records in 1967. Amazingly, 30 years later, the Best of the Bards unique and highly innovative sound has been rediscovered. The Bard's journey to success is a true study of serendipity meeting innovation.
Early in the 1960s, before the Beatles, about the time that the Wailers and Kingsmen were waking up Seattle and the three chords of "Louie Louie" were inspiring garage bands along the west coast, the "Continentals" evolved on the other side of Washington State. Consisting mainly of Moses Lake High School music students, the Continentals configuration was constantly being shaped by graduation, college, the army draft and parents.
When the final combination of Mike Balzotti on keyboards, Mardi Sheridan on guitar, Bob Galloway on drums and Chuck Warren on bass arrived a true band was born! Eight years of intense effort and creativity took the group with a new name "The Bards" to every dance hall, armory, radio station and recording studio in the Northwest. They created an immensely different and popular sound by setting classic and contemporary poetry to rock music. (The Bard name means an ancient order of lyric, minstrel poets.)
They quickly became a standout group among the popular Northwest groups of the 60's-sharing the stage with acts like The Dave Clark Five, Rascals, Animals and The Turtles. At the height of their popularity, featured in a series of concerts with Tommy Roe, they were paid the ultimate sixties compliment when in mid-set, police had to escort them off stage past screaming mobs of young teens. It was the glory days of Rock 'n Roll and a time of transition in American culture.
The Bards mirrored these changes as reflected in their music. They blended solid pop rhythms and some sophisticated chord structures against seductively memorable vocal melodies. They merged classic lyrics with psychedelic textures. The rewards of their innovative style came when the Bards ventured to Hollywood, packing their "garage" tapes.
Legendary pop producer Curt Boetcher, obviously amused by their lack of "Hollywood chic" introduced himself in an elevator and invited them to pitch their music. Boetcher's production partner at that time was Keith Olsen, who later achieved worldwide fame producing artists who've sold over 100 million records. This serendipitous meeting resulted in "The Moses Lake Recordings" a unique mix of distinctive songs including a 20- minute "Rock Opera," based on a poem called "The Creation."
This material, produced by the best in the business was never released because of the demise of the record label until now. In a recent documentary on Northwest music, legendary Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame DJ Pat O'Day was asked what NW group deserved greater national recognition. He answered, "The Bards." The Bards were both a product of their time and an unmistakably original. Like many originals there is a timeless quality that endures.
Bob, Chuck, Mardig, and Mike, February, 2002
Tracks
1. Rainy Days I Had With You (Mike Balzotti) - 2:26
2. Laredo (Mardig Sheridan, Mike Balzotti, Chuck Warren) - 3:55
3. Oobleck (Mike Balzotti, Seuss) - 2:39
4. Moses (Mike Balzotti, Chuck Warren) - 3:14
5. Reluctantly and Slow (Mardig Sheridan, Johnson) - 3:05
6. The Creation (Mardig Sheridan, Mike Balzotti, Johnson) - 14:18
....And the Light Broke - 1:42
....He Made the World - 3:42
....Seven Seas - 0:30
....Green, Green Grass - 2:17
....I'll Make Me a Man - 3:08
....Up From the Bed of the River - 2:27
....Amen - 0:25
7. Hollow Men (Mardig Sheridan, Mike Balzotti, Elliot) - 4:22
Since its rediscovery in the early '80s, Morly Grey's “The Only Truth” album has become known mostly as the quintessential hard rock/psychedelic collectable, skyrocketing in value and inspiring countless bootleg versions. For brothers Mark and Tim Roller, everything had been building up to Morly Grey since the Alliance, Ohio, natives both got into rock 'n' roll as preteens in the 1950s.
First came guitar-playing, then came the Beatles for initial inspiration and then came a series of late '60s bands: the Chads, Popcorn Treaty and Rust, As the brothers' first group to play professional gigs, Rust was a turning point for the Rollers (then in high school)—gigging regionally at clubs in Cleveland, Akron, Salem and their hometown as the quintet played an assortment of Cream, Hendrix, the Doors and similar covers.
It was a start, but the Roller brothers were getting bored. "We were just doing cover music iike everybody was doing, but we wanted to do something different that we weren't copying anybody, we were doing all our own writing/' Mark recalled. Consequently, when attrition reduced Rust to a core trio of Mark, Tim and drummer Paul Cassidy in late 1969, the three knew exactly what they wanted to do: original music. Adding ex-Coming Generation guitarist Randy Byron, the band was renamed Morly Grey.
Tracks
1. Peace Office (T. Roller, P. Cassicly) 5:30
2. You Came to Me (M. Roller) 4:12
3. Who Can I Say You Are (M. Roller) 3:40
4. I'm Afraid (P. Cassidy) 4:32
5. Our Time (T. Roller) 6:29
6. After Me Again (M. Roller) 3:07
7. A Feeling for You (M. Roller) 2:33
8. The Only Truth (M. Roller) 17:02
... "When Johnny Comes Marching Home (traditional, arranged by Morly Grey)
9. None Are for Me (T. Roller) 10:21
10.Come Down (P. Cassidy) 8:59
11.Love Me (T. Roller, M. Roller, P. Cassidy) 3:39
12.I'll Space You (M. Roller) 3:47
13.Be Your King (M. Roller, P. Cassidy) 2:33
Bonus Tracks previously unissued from 9 - 13
2006 marked the 40th anniversary of the birth of the Patron Saints. 40 years. How could it possibly be that long? Back in 1966, we were five typical mid-sixties suburban New York kids, learning our musical craft by emulating our heroes: the Stones, Beatles, Hendrix, Cream, the Butterfield Blues Band, the Doors, Moby Grape, the Yardbirds, et al, all loomed large in our rock ‘n’ roll education.
By early 1969, the Saints were down to three members: Jon Tuttle, Paul D'Alton and myself. Jon and I had just started writing songs at this point, so we finally had some original music to practice and perform. Eventually, we recorded some demos together, using guitars and piano just to see what they sounded like. When we felt we had enough compositions under our belts, we decided to record some of this new material with Paul on drums. I owned a Sony 10255 reel-to-reel tape deck and Jon had a portable Sony reel-to-reel system. These decks were not, by any stretch of the imagination, professional recording devices, but that didn't matter to us...we had gotten pretty good at squeezing respectable results out of less-than-state-of-the-art equipment by this time.
It was at this point that I began to act on an idea that had been gestating in my little teenage brain for some time...why do we need to go to a record company with our stuff? Why don't we just record our own album and put it out ourselves? Sort of like those old Andy Hardy movies..."Say, let's put on a show in the barn!!!" My philosophy was (and still is, for that matter) that the music and vibes on a record were far more important than the fidelity. Our friend and contemporary, Chris Kubie, had recorded a live concert of his music in January 1969 and put out a limited edition record, so we knew it could be done. Jon and Paul readily agreed to the scheme; so, now what? How much would it cost? What did we need? Where would we record this thing?
Fate intervened when the Paul's family decided that when they went away for three weeks in June of 1969, we could record at the house in their absence. I don't think they really had a clue what was involved, but it sounded positive and harmless, so why not? With our "studio" problem solved, we scrounged up some extra equipment; a Roberts //oX (as I recall) reel-to-reel tape deck similar to my Sony, but of higher quality, a high-impedance Shure microphone and a mixer with built-in reverb! We had it made now. We divided up the responsibilities into three distinct sections: I was to produce and engineer the album, Jon was to do the cover artwork and Paul was head of distribution (whatever that meant).
Bit by bit, we set up our creative turf; amplifiers were hooked up, mikes (all three or four of them) were placed, levels were checked. It took a whole day, but finally, on June 25,1969, we were ready to make our creative mark on the world. Song by song, we captured our repertoire. Jon and I had done enough recording in the past to know our way around the basics of the process, but not enough to know what "wasn't allowed," so we constantly broke the rules (i.e., mike placement, reverb levels, sound effects, etc.) without even being aware of it. I truly believe our innocent "ignorance" is what gave the record it's charm. We often stopped tape when loud planes went over, when dogs barked, when phones rang (if we forgot to take them off the hook, which was fairly often).
If you listen carefully to the fade out of "White Light", you can hear the birds chirping outside. Not exactly a soundproof environment. Somehow or other, by July isth, we had finished the tracks for what was to become Fohhoh Bohob. We packaged, pressed and delivered our masterpiece to a waiting world. Or so we thought. Since we could only afford to press 100 copies of the LP, there weren't that many to go around. Some went to family and friends, a few to record companies and radio DJs, and the rest to...well, apparently, they eventually found their way into the hands of fans and collectors who, in the ensuing years, have made Bohob one of the most collectible independently produced LPs ever released, with original copies commanding absurdly high prices. Who would have guessed? Which brings us to this new reissue.
To combat the number of sonically sub-par Bohob bootlegs which had appeared on the underground music scene over the years, we released a reissue LP and CD a decade ago, which were culled from original sources and processed to the best of our abilities using 1996-7 technology. Since that stock of reissue LPs/CDs is now virtually depleted, it seemed the right time to put out a new edition. Enter Nemo Bidstrup, owner and founder of Time-Lag Records, and, conveniently, a big fan of Fohhoh Bohob. Based on Nemo's urging, we decided to put out the ultimate Bohob reissues, with the LP being as close as possible to the original in terms of look, feel and sound (only infinitely better), and the CD with an additional four previously unavailable bonus tracks, for a total of sixteen.
This time, the transfer from the original master tapes (which, remarkably, still sound as good as they did back in '69) is a close to perfect as possible. For instance, the transfer of the song "Flower" on the first reissues used a de-clicked version from an original Bohob LP. The version used on the new reissues, however, is about 85% original master tape, 15% de-clicked version. The continued demand for Fohhoh Bohob is astonishing and truly heartening for the Patron Saints, who are still together in 2006 and releasing new music. It should also be an inspiration for bands offering their music to a difficult-to-break-through business, the lesson being, of course, "you just never know"! Grateful thanks to all of you who have loved this album enough to keep its spirit alive.
by Eric Bergman, October 2006
Tracks
1. Flower (Eric Bergman) - 4:28
2. Nostalgia Trip - 3:32
3. Reflections - 3:44
4. Do You Think About Me? (Eric Bergman) - 3:11
5. White Light (Eric Bergman) - 5:41
6. Relax - 6:13
7. My Lonely Friend - 4:03
8. Andrea (Eric Bergman) - 5:58
9. The Goodnight Song - 4:43
10.Shine On Heart - 7:01
11.Do It Together - 4:01
12.Do You Think About Me (Live Version) (Eric Bergman) - 3:50
13.Nostalgia Trip (1975 Version) - 3:43
14.Reflections On A Warm Day (1975 Version) - 3:34
15.Do You Think About Me (Demo Version) (Eric Bergman) - 3:33
16.The Goodnight Song (Alternate Version) - 4:04
All song by Jonathan Tuttle excpet where indicated.
To the uninitiated, the name Oxford Circle may only be recognisable from a faded Fillmore or Avalon poster, where they once shared the bill with the Dead, Quicksilver or Big Brother. Amongst the cognoscenti, however, their name is mentioned in the hushed, awed tones reserved for only the truly great. Amazing to think that such immense repute stems from the outfit's sole recorded legacy, the $500-rated single Foolish Woman / Mind Destruction. But all it takes is one listen to this masterpiece of throbbing punk hysteria, and its demented, off-the wall flipside, to vindicate the legend of the Circle.
Contrary to public opinion, the Circle were not in fact a San Francisco band. Rather, they hailed from the university town of Davis, just outside state capital Sacramento. Gary Lee Yoder, Dehner Patten, Jim Keylor and Paul Whaley had been kingpins in the over-populated northern California teen scene ever since they got together in late 1964 as the Hide-Aways. One year later they had become the Oxford Circle, in deference to their trademarked interpretation of the blueswailing English punk sound. Patten tore off spiky, spindly leads with dexterity; bassist Keylor and drummer Whaley constituted one hell of a powerhouse rhythm section; and the Circle were fronted by the soulful, full-blooded warbling of Yoder, who was also not averse to writhing around the stage floor or coaxing ear-splitting electronic noises from his Gibson.
Sensing the constrictive nature of their immediate environs, the Circle frequently journeyed south to San Francisco. There, their tight and dynamic stage show quickly got them booked at the ballrooms, and the combo would regularly blow their more illustrious contemporaries off the boards. No further evidence is needed than Live At The Avalon 1966, where Family Dog honcho Bob Cohen's dynamic recordings capture the Circle at the peak of their powers.
From the nine-minute improvised feedback assault of Mystic Eyes that opens the disc, via ripping takes on punk staples such as You're A Better Man Than I, Baby Please Don't Go and I'm A Man, through to Yoder's tuff originals like Soul On Fire and Since You've Been Away, Live At The Avalon firmly establishes the Circle as the pre-eminent psychedelic garage band, bar none. And it crystallises that brief but magic moment when punk fury took on an experimental zeal and mutated into something quite breathtaking indeed.
The personnel may have graduated to projects more feted - Whaley to Blue Cheer, Yoder and Patten to Kak - but the Oxford Circle was its constituents' finest hour. Live At The Avalon tells the story of this fascinating band in an exhaustively annotated and lavishly illustrated package.
In addition to the incredible live material, both sides of the crazy World United single are included, as well as a further two tracks from an aborted 1967 demo session held in Hollywood (and featuring Mac 'Dr John' Rebennack on organ).
A must-have for the aficionado, but essential too for any fan of well-recorded, kickass 1960s garage rock & roll. Check it out!
by Alec Palao
Tracks
1.Mystic Eyes (Van Morrison) - 9:11
2.Since You've Been Away (Gary Lee Yoder) - 2:16
3.You're A Better Man Than I (Mike Hugg, Brian Hugg) - 5:00
4.Soul On Fire (Gary Lee Yoder) - 2:33
5.I Got My Mojo Working (Preston Foster) - 3:44
6.Baby Please Don't Go (Joe Williams) - 5:16
7.Foolish Woman (Gary Lee Yoder, Dehner Patten) - 3:53
8.Troubles (Gary Lee Yoder) - 5:14
9.We Gotta Get Out Of This Place (Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil) - 3:34
10.Today (Gary Lee Yoder) - 4:08
11.Silent Woman (Gary Lee Yoder) - 3:53
12.Little Girl (Van Morrison) - 4:44
13.Hoochie Coochie Man (Willie Dixon) - 4:44
14.I'm A Man (Elias McDaniel) - 3:50
15.Foolish Woman (Gary Yoder, Dehner Patten) - 2:34
16.Mind Destruction (Jim Keylor, Paul Whaley) - 5:16
17.The Raven (Gary Lee Yoder) - 2:42
18.Troubles (Gary Lee Yoder) - 2:38
The Oxford Circle
*Gary Lee Yoder - Vocals, Guitar, Harmonica
*Jim Keylor - Bass, Vocals
*Paul Whaley - Drums, Vocals
*Dehner Patten - Lead Guitar, Vocals
*Mac Rebennack - Organ
San Francisco psychedelic folk-rock unit It's a Beautiful Day was primarily the vehicle of virtuoso violinist David LaFlamme, born April 5, 1941 in New Britain, CT but raised in Salt Lake City, UT. After beginning his musical education at age five, LaFlamme later served as a soloist with the Utah Symphony, following an army stint by settling in the Bay Area in 1962. There he immersed himself in the local underground music scene, jamming alongside the likes of Jerry Garcia and Janis Joplin; after his short-lived Electric Chamber Orchestra splintered, LaFlamme also co-founded an early incarnation of Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks before assembling It's a Beautiful Day in mid-1967.
The group -- which originally included LaFlamme's keyboardist wife Linda, vocalist Pattie Santos, guitarist Hal Wagenet, bassist Mitchell Holman, and drummer Val Fuentes -- issued its self-titled debut LP on Columbia in 1969, scoring their biggest hit with the haunting FM radio staple "White Bird." Linda LaFlamme left It's a Beautiful Day soon after, going on to form Titus' Mother; keyboardist Fred Webb signed on for the follow-up, 1970's Marrying Maiden, while Holman exited prior to 1971's Choice Quality Stuff, recorded with new guitarist Bill Gregory and bassist Tom Fowler. In 1973, ongoing disputes over royalties forced LaFlamme out of the group he created, and upon installing new violinist Greg Bloch, the remaining members issued It's a Beautiful Day...Today before dissolving in the wake of 1974's 1001 Nights. LaFlamme mounted a solo career in 1977 with White Bird, continuing his protracted legal tussle with ex-manager Matthew Katz for years to follow.
Creed of Love is a live set recorded in Frisco's Fillmore West, on July 1st 1971, band in full form playing some of their classic stuff, with David's unique violin expressiveness, the tapes have been remastered and the sound quality is very good.
Tracks
1. Creed Of Love - 4:27
2. Good Lovin' - 5:45
3. Imagine - 4:45
4. White Bird - 8:44
5. Don And Dewey - 8:34
6. Wasted Union - 11:41
7. Bulgaria - 7:12
8. Time Is - 10:47
Julie Felix has come a long way since her unheralded first public appearance in Britain at a Royal Festival Hall folk-song concert about two and a half years ago. She has widened her range and her following without ever losing close contact with the folk clubs from which she draws both inspiration and strength She has been subject to the pressures inevitable when a natural singer, who sings primarily for the love of her songs and her listeners, has to sing through a screen of production techniques, to unseen millions.
She has seen, outside the clubs, the distorting mirrors of the image-makers reflecting something different from her own true self. And yet with all this she has, in fact, remained unchanged - except in a deepening of experience since Tony Geraghty wrote in the Guardian after her Croydon concert last November: "Her songs match her own integrity" What, then is this quality that has emerged unscathed from the gloss-imparting abrasives of promotion ? Directness, natural warmth, simplicity, courage, faith in her own generation. gaiety . . these are part of it.
Since that first Festival Hall appearance I have listened to her in concert halls and in dubs, on records and in private, informal sessions, and I am more than ever convinced that in this dark-haired girl from California, with her Mexican - United States heritage, the young folk revival has found one of its best, least doctrinaire, and truest representatives The implications of the continuing folk revival are clear. Industrial and technological developments have shown how fatally easy it is for the mass of people - either because they are too comfortable or too desperate to ask awkward questions - to acquiesce in the concentration of power and influence in a few controlling hands, so that culture is in danger of becoming a kind of conditioning.
The reaction to this among young people has taken many forms - beatnikry, marches, sit-downs, skiffle. Skiffle came in time to give a new dimension to the kind qf folk singing that had already long replaced the somewhat precious posturings of the evening-dress ballad-singers and was firmly established in pubs and clubs; to the revival of down-to-earth traditional songs was added the creation of songs of our time.
Youngsters, disillusioned by the acceptance world of their elders, uninspired by the in ward looking preoccupations of literary coteries. began to find a new outlet for the expression of their undirected idealism Songs began again to express the realities of the time – realities of personal relationships as well as the realities of politics - and the quality of singers to be measured by their creative involvement with the people for whom they sing ' That is one aspect of the reasons why Julie Felix has such a following A voice naturally dark and rich, containing both harsh flamenco haunting Celtic elements, with a quality of chiaroscuro that I can only describe as Goyasque,. is made directly communicative by its clarity, and beautiful by its meaningful humanity - "the ability to match vocal colour to the sense of the words", as a writer in The Times said.
She sings what she means, and means what she sings, as far removed from the folk-pedant as from the latest pop rider on the folk band-wagon. Moreover her direct approach, her profound involvement in people and her gift for expressing this as a singer have given her a special role in the current tendency towards a fusion of the folk tradition with the true "chanson populaire" a medium which the English-speaking people have hitherto left largely undeveloped as a means of voicing the quests and concerns of the day.
So much by way of introductions. Now play these "Changes" and let Julie sing for herself. and you. and all of us Listen to the way she lets the song speak for itself, the way she sings the songs of Gordon Lightfoot. Bob Dylan and Shel Silverstein, instead of turning them into production numbers; listen to the songs she herself has written, or shared in. and listen to the lovely folk-quality of "Geordie" - and. above all, listen for the sheer pleasure and fun of listening.
by Maurice Rosenbaum, July 1966
Tracks
1. The Lost Children (Gordon Lightfoot) - 2:29
2. One Too Many Mornings (Bob Dylan) - 2:05
3. Gifts Are for Giving (Sylvia Fricker) - 3:01
4. Geordie (Traditional) - 2:24
5. To Try for the Sun (Donovan Leitch) - 3:00
6. Brain Blood Volume (Mellon, Julie Felix) - 1:51
7. Rainy Day (Julie Felix) - 2:02
8. Changes (Phil Ochs) - 3:18
9. Love Minus Zero - No Limit (Bob Dylan) - 2:51
10.Ballad of a Crystal Man (Donovan Leitch) - 2:39
11.Get Together (Dino Valenti) - 2:41
12.The Ones I Love the Most (Julie Felix, D. Evans) - 1:51
13.The Way I Feel (Gordon Lightfoot) - 3:05
14.I Can't Touch the Sun (Shel Silverstein) - 2:01
Even lesser known is Tim Dawe's 1969 Straight LP Penrod, which perhaps holds the distinction of the most obscure release ever to appear on the label. If there was only one thing predictable about a Straight release, it's that contrary to what the label name might lead the unsuspecting to expect, it would never be a "straight" or conventional rock record. Such was the case with Penrod, which boasted an enigmatic mixture of psychedelia, early singer-songwriter moves, almost crooning troubadour folk, baroque classical influences, and inventively florid arrangements and orchestration. Such is the rarity of original copies today that it seems unlikely it sold much upon its first appearance, or that the musicians who recorded it stayed together much longer after its release.
Many releases on the Straight label had a direct connection to Frank Zappa and/or Herbie Cohen, whether the artists (such as Buckley) were also managed by Cohen, or whether the musicians had at times played with Zappa (like Captain Beefheart and one-time Mothers of Invention bassist Jeff Simmons). It was a similar deal with Penrod, which was produced by Jerry Yester, who'd issued a late-'60s psychedelic cult classic on Straight with then-wife Judy Henske, Farewell Aldebaran. Yester and Henske were also managed by Cohen, and Yester had also produced or co-produced two late-'60s albums for fellow Cohen client Tim Buckley, Goodbye and Hello and Happy Sad. When Cohen was considering having Tim Dawe cut an album, he sought out Yester's input.
Tim Dawe, believes Yester, was probably first seen by Cohen at a hootenanny night at the famed Los Angeles club the Troubadour, as "that's where Herbie found a lot of his artists. I think he first saw [Tom] Waits [whose first album Yester would produce] there, for example. Herbie called me and said, 'Listen man, I saw this group at the hoot. I want you to go down to San Diego and listen to them, and see if we need to make a record of them.' As soon as he said that, I decided that he needed to make a record of it, because I was out of work at the time," he laughs. "They would have had to have been pretty bad for me to say 'No go.' Judy and I went down [to San Diego to see Dawe], we were still together then. As it turns out, they were very good. So it was with some relief" that Jerry took the job of producing the album.
To clear up some confusion, though it's sometimes been reported that Dawe had previously been in Iron Butterfly and Rhinoceros, that appears not to be the case. There was a Jerry Penrod who played bass in those groups, and the assumption seems to have arisen from the mysterious Penrod title of Dawe's LP. Penrod, says Yester, was actually the name of the group Dawe fronted as singer-songwriter (as well as playing acoustic guitar).
Indeed, the actual LP sleeve seems indecisive as to whether the name of the artist is Penrod or Tim Dawe, putting the name Penrod in large all-caps lettering on top, and printing the name (and a tiny picture) of Dawe in much smaller type in the lower left-hand corner. The four other musicians were not session guys using pseudonyms, as has sometimes been speculated by collectors, but Dawe's actual band, including keyboardist Arnie Goodman, drummer Claude Mathis, electric guitarist Chris Kebeck, and bassist Don Parrish. Goodman, says Yester, is brother of violinist Jerry Goodman, famous for playing in the late-'60s Chicago rock group the Flock, and later as a member of the Mahavishnu Orchestra with guitarist John McLaughlin.
When he heard Dawe and his band, remembers Yester, "I said, 'This is going to be a piece of cake.' I don't know how long they'd been together, but they were pretty tight. They had their parts down. They'd rehearsed the stuff a lot, and it was like record-ready. I remember taping them on a really early cassette machine in a place where they rehearsed, and listening to it, it just seemed like it was taken off a record. So it seemed like not a lot of work to do."
In the studio, Jerry continues, "it took a very short time to do. Maybe a couple of weeks, and we were finished with everything—mixing and mastering and everything. There might have been a couple of things where I suggested something here and there, but they were pretty together. Getting their sound was just no problem, because they were so well-rehearsed. We just set up the mikes and bingo, it was like one- or two-take kind of stuff. The guitar player was really good and really proficient—none of the problems usually associated with guitar players!" he laughs.
Dawe himself, Yester adds, was "a really nice fellow and easy to get along with. He seemed unlikely as a rock'n'roll singer. His approach was just way different than anybody else. He had a real kind of formal-sounding voice, is the only way I can put it." Though Dawes's vocal style has sometimes been compared (by the relatively few people who've heard and written about Penrod) to Tim Buckley, perhaps because of the Yester/Straight association, to Jerry "it never struck me that way at all. Tim [Buckley] was real moody and a lot more bohemian. Tim [Dawes] just seemed crisp and such an upstanding guy. I'm not saying that [Buckley] wasn't. But [Buckley] really had no regard at all for convention. And [Dawes] could have been a scoutmaster."
Like the Straight album Yester had recently done with Judy Henske (Farewell Aldebaran), Penrod was in some respects so eclectic as to defy classification. Parts were reminiscent of earnest mid-to-late-1960s folk-rock singer-songwriters like Eric Andersen, Phil Ochs, and Tim Hardin, yet with edgier, harder-rocking psychedelic-influenced backing. "Sometimes Alone" and "Didn't We Love" climaxed with psychedelic distorted dissonance, yet "Some Other Time" featured gorgeous classical-influenced keyboards by Goodman. And as he had on Goodbye and Hello, Yester added some orchestration to the folk-rock-psychedelic core. "That was still pretty early in my orchestration career, and I liked to do it every time I could," he notes. "I didn't force it on people, certainly, but if I thought it could use it, I suggested it."
Perhaps the standout cut on the record is the seven-and-a-half-minute "Junkie John," a brooding downbeat tale set against haunting funereal organ, wailing backup vocals, and a languid yet mordant jazzy groove. "The best line in that [is] in the spoken intro that he does—'when he walked into a room, you got the feeling that somebody just left'," feels Yester. "I've used that over the years, 'cause I've known people like that. I knew what he meant. That was a pretty good line."
The Penrod album went virtually unnoticed, however, and Dawes and the musicians would never issue another album together. With the exception of one occasion on which Arnie Goodman got Yester a job teaching a two-week intensive course at Chicago's Columbia College around a couple years or so later, in fact, Jerry would never see any of them again. "I have a feeling they didn't really perform very much," Yester concludes. "I think if they did, they would have developed a following, because they had a really interesting collection of tunes. It seems they would have been appealing. It was just an odd kind of a thing. It came and went in my life in less than a month."
by Richie Unterberger
Tracks
1. Scarlet Women - 2:25
2. Nite Train Home - 3:45
3. Nothing At All - 4:20
4. Little Boy Blue - 2:15
5. Junkie John - 7:20
6. Sometimes Alone - 4:10
7. No Exit (Cafe and Gallery) - 5:20
8. I'm Comin' - 3:45
9. Some Other Time - 3:48
10.Didn't We Love - 4:46
All compositions by Tim Dawe
It was Gary Farr's lot to be known more for the people he was related to, and worked with, than as a character in his own right. He was the son of a heavyweight British boxing champion, and the brother of one of the most visible British rock promoters. He took over the residency at the club that gave two of the greatest British '60s rock groups their start, and worked extensively with the man who owned that club, who was likewise involved with those great British bands' management. A member of a 1970s supergroup was in one of Farr's early bands, and one of the greatest producers and label executives of all time co-produced his final album, whose CD reissue you're now holding. None of this got him much appreciable sales or recognition from the record-buying public. But it made for an interesting journey as Farr navigated his way through British Invasion R&B, folk, and blues before somehow ending up recording in Muscle Shoals Sound for Addressed to the Censors of Love.
The son of Tommy Farr, who'd been the heavyweight boxing champion of Britain in the late 1930s, Gary Farr started out playing folk and blues in clubs in Worthing, Sussex before forming the T-Bones in 1963. Very much in the R&B-rock style of the early Rolling Stones and the Yardbirds, the T-Bones were in fact tapped to succeed both of those groups as the house band at the Crawdaddy Club in London; they also took over the Yardbirds' Friday night residency at London's Marquee Club. (The Yardbirds connection did not always work to their advantage; a French T-Bones EP release confused consumers by using a cover photo of the Yardbirds by mistake.) The T-Bones also managed to put out three singles ("Give All She's Got," the best of them, sounded very much like the early Denny Laine-era Moody Blues) and an EP in 1964 and 1965; these, along with some recordings not released at the time, have seen reissue on some obscure import albums.
The T-Bones never did make the charts, however, and probably got their biggest exposure when they somehow snagged a spot on a Shindig Goes to London episode for American television. Filmed live at the Richmond Jazz & Blues Festival in August 1965, Farr and the T-Bones are seen playing "Wooly Bully" between slots by the much more celebrated Animals, Moody Blues, George Fame, and Steampacket (featuring future stars Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger, Long John Baldry, and Rod Stewart). Shortly after that festival gig, organist Keith Emerson joined the T-Bones for a while, although a single the band did with Emerson in the lineup, "Together Forever," was never released. The T-Bones, in fact, never did release anything with Emerson on board before disbanding in late 1966.
Going solo, Farr apparently re-embraced his folk roots, though the man who ran the Crawdaddy, Giorgio Gomelsky—who'd also managed the Yardbirds in their first few years, and was an unofficial manager of sorts of the Rolling Stones in early 1963—continued to be involved in the singer's career. On a live 1967 bootleg recorded in Sweden, and largely featuring the Gomelsky-managed psychedelic band Blossom Toes, Farr can be heard doing a couple solo acoustic tunes, including a cover of Tim Hardin's "Hang on to a Dream." He briefly worked with Blossom Toes drummer Kevin Westlake, the pair issuing an obscure single in 1968 before Farr released his 1969 solo debut album on Gomelsky's Marmalade label. Members of both Blossom Toes and fellow British band Mighty Baby appear on that LP (titled Take Something with You), and some Mighty Baby musicians are also on his early-'70s follow-up Strange Fruit, which also includes contributions by the young Richard Thompson.
The roots rock and moody, Tim Hardin-styled folk-rock of Strange Fruit were indicative of Farr's change of stylistic direction since his T-Bones days. "I've turned a whole circle now actually, been a long way sailing around," he told Melody Maker around the time of the album's release. "I started off playing folk blues, went through the days at the Crawdaddy, playing with the T-Bones alongside Yardbirds and the Stones, then tripped. Four years ago I picked up a guitar again, started writing and started traveling. I suppose I am now a folk singer, because I believe today's rock and roll is today's folk music. One thing I am certain of now, I am a poet. It's always been so hard for me to get that over to people, when you're born into an athletic family and our old man's a world famous boxer it doesn't look right somehow to covet books and things like that. It's good singing in folk clubs...I've been told I'm too commercial, and I can't be used because I'm not folk—but I am doing what I feel are really valid songs for today."
Farr's appearances in Britain during that era were not limited to folk clubs. On August 31, 1969, he played at the Isle of Wight Festival, which drew about 200,000 people—though it's most famous for the appearance of Bob Dylan and the Band to close the show later that night. He also performed at the even huger 1970 Isle of Wight fest, his appearances at the event no doubt made easier to arrange by virtue of his brother, Rikki Farr, being one of the festival promoters. (Rikki, famously, can be seen losing his temper at the crowd as the gathering threatens to careen out of control in the documentary Message to Love: The Isle of Wight Festival.) Still, Gary's records didn't make much of an impact in Britain, and by the time 1973's Addressed to the Censors of Love was released on Atco, he was with his third label in as many albums, though at least it gave him the chance to record in the United States.
Co-producing Addressed to the Censors of Love (with former Hit Parader editor Jim Delehant) was Jerry Wexler, the Atlantic executive most famous for working with soul legends like Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin. On several occasions, Wexler had matched white singers possessing rhythm-and-blues sensibilities with American southern musicians and production facilities; Dusty Springfield's Dusty in Memphis was the most renowned of those albums, though he'd also produced another British woman star, Lulu, in such a setting on the less celebrated album Melody Fair. A similar strategy was applied to Gary Farr, with Addressed to the Censors of Love getting recorded at Muscle Shoals Sound in Alabama, using respected Muscle Shoals session men such as guitarists Jimmy Johnson and Pete Carr, keyboardist Barry Beckett, bassist David Hood, and drummer Roger Hawkins. In addition to singing, Farr played 12-string and harmonica.
Unsurprisingly, the result, while similar in some respects to the earthy folk-tinged rock Farr had recorded on Strange Fruit, had a more pronounced American soul-rock feel, as well as some jazz and Tex-Mex accents. While the title of the album might have led some to expect lyrically controversial or even risque material, in fact most of the numbers were romantic singer-songwriter compositions, albeit with references to Isaac Hayes, Joe Louis, Sugar Pie DeSanto, Hugh Hefner, Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and numerous mysterious women of exotic backgrounds. All the songs were written by Farr save the closer, Slim Harpo's "I'm a King Bee," a throwback to his 1960s roots in the T-Bones.
Addressed to the Censors of Love was certainly the Gary Farr recording that got the most exposure in the United States. That's not to say, however, that it got much exposure. It's one of the rarer early-'70s Atlantic LPs, and after its commercial failure, Farr never released another album before dying in Los Angeles in August 1994. This CD reissue restores to print the swan song of this hard-to-classify British artist, who dabbled in blues, R&B, soul, and folk-rock without ever settling into any of those styles for too long.
by Richie Unterberger
Tracks
1. Breakfast Boo-Ga-Loo - 3:13
2. Wailing Wall - 4:41
3. Muggsey The Lard - 3:57
4. General's Daughter - 3:32
5. Mexican Sun - 2:39
6. White Bird - 3:22
7. Faith With A Face - 3:13
8. I'll Be Your Rocket - 3:05
9. Certain Lady - 3:00
10.John Birch Blues - 2:42
11.Rhythm King - 4:57
12.I'm A King Bee (Slim Harpo) - 3:56
All songs written by Gary Farr except where noted.
Selling point for this CD is that these two groups were ancestors of Mott The Hoople and (thanks to one member) Bad Company...
If the prospect of an unknown mid-60s beat group's Italian-recorded demo ("live" in the studio, no overdubs) leaves you feeling distinctly underwhelmed, this CD would (I think) pleasantly surprise you. The quality of the Doc Thomas set is better than you would expect: a creditable chunk of moody R & B, very 1966, with echoes of the Spencer Davis Group...
They seem like the kind of band Ocean Colour Scene wish they could have been, right down to the stripey shirts...The recording quality is excellent, with a good live ambience...and the performances are relaxed and confident the touches of crudity are charming and typical of the period, the unspoilt rock Eden B.P. (before Pepper). "Fresh" is the word...
The (new) Silence's half of this CD presents another surprise. Where you might expect some tired old hippies (sorry, Mods!) going;through the motions, shored up by contemporary techno gadgets, this lot come on as if the last 33 years never existed. They deliver an energetic and authentic recreation of the '64/5 beat group sound, the style immediately preceding Doc Thomas's (as, in fact, this line-up did originally). The surprise is that this comes across not as pathetic, but as great fun they really have managed;to revive the spirit, not just the formula.
There's even a token cheesy instrumental, Gunshot, and a maudlin Merseybeat ballad, I Think Of You. Otherwise, it's that bouncy, wizzed-up British interpretation of 50s R&B familiar from the early Stones and Pretty Things, amongst others. Even on the blues covers (Jimmy Reed, Sonny Boy Williamson), they keep the grins on their faces, resisting the dour, ersatz seriousness that most blues revivalists these days regard as obligatory. The production too (by "the three trousers", it says here) hits a perfect balance between 60s simplicity and 90s clarity.
It sounds as if, with Shotgun Eyes, Watts, Griffin, Brooke, Jeffery and Fisher have made the album they didn't quite manage to in 1965. All credit to them for proving, against the odds, that this kind of stuff is still the most fun you can have with electric guitars, a drum kit and a harmonica...
Nostalgia, they say, is not what it was. With this CD, though, it very nearly is.
Mr.Nasty CD Reviews, Feedback
Tracks Doc Thomas Group
1. I'll Be Doggone (Robinson, Tarplin, Moore)
2. She Was Really Saying Something (Whitfield, Stevenson, Holland) - 2:35
3. Steal Your Heart Away (Parker) - 3:53
4. My Babe (Hatrield, Medley) - 2:33
5. Please Do Something (Don Covay) - 2:18
6. Shake (Sam Cooke) - 2:32
7. I Got You (James Brown) - 2:50
8. Harlem Shuffle (Relf, Nelson) - 3:25
9. Talking About My Baby (Curtis Mayfield) - 2:42
10.Just Can't Go To Sleep (Ray Davies) - 2:32
11.Barefootin (Robert Parker) - 2:32
12.Rescue Me (C Smith, R Miner) - 2:32
The Silence The A40 Anthems
13. Leaving Here (Holland, Dozier, Holland) - 3:04
14. Shame, Shame, Shame (Jimmy Reed) - 2:36
15. See You Tomorrow (Paul Jeffery) - 3:50
16. You Can't Judge A Book By Looking At The Cover (Willie Dixon) - 3:44
17. Gunshot (instrumental) (Tomsco) - 2:00
18. Doctor Feelgood (Smith) - 2:40
19.1 Think Of You (Peter Lee Stirling) - 2:35
20. Let It Rock (Chuck Berry) - 2:30
The B4233 Blues
21. I'm Not Talkin’ (H. Young) - 2:35
23. The Fortune Teller (N Neville) - 2:40
24. Don't Start Me To Talking (Sonny Boy Williamson) - 2:09
25. Farmer John (Don Harris, Dewey Terry) - 2:23
26. Route 66 (Bobby Troup) - 2:30
27. We'll Silence You (Robert Fisher) - 5:15
Doc Thomas Group
*Stan Tippins - Vocals
*Mick Ralphs - Guitar
*Pete Watts - Bass
*Terry Allen - Organ
*Dale Griffin - Drums
The musical creative excellence wich infused Rock 'n' Roll during the mid to late sixties is difficult to describe retrospectively, it was an atmosphere of energy and sensation wich one had to experience rather than interpret.
In 1965 during the aftermath of the original British Invasion, a seemingly endless tide of inspired musicians were determined to explore the colorfully changing musical scene, wich beckoned from smoke hazed taverns in the night, the birth of an era was envolving in clubs and garages from Beacon Hill to Berkeley. Hence, in the short span of years to follow, the realization of psychedelia and punk had weaved an intricate pattern in the music world.
Many of the populars bands had gathered their beginnings from palying the local high school dances and Battle-of-the band competitions and had successfully documanted their efforts on well received albums. However, thousands af small and obsure bands were not as fortunate as others and therefore made contributions via private labels as 45s, in hope of receiving airplay on local FM radio stations.
Prior to megabuck commercialism, many locally produced singles had a change to be aired, as opposed to today's sad and pedantic formats. Thus. thousands of locally released singles from the sea of rare EP's and singles sought by today's sixties punk connoisseurs.
This release captures a few of the finer rarities of that era.
Artists - Tracks
1. Human Expression - Optical Sound - 2:24
2. West Coast Brunch - Spoonful - 2:42
3. United Travel Service - Wind And Stone - 3:17
4. The Deep - Trip #76 - 2:33
5. The Kunks - The Journey - 2:13
6. Fapardokly - Gone To Pot/No Retreat - 4:03
7. Unfolding - Play Your Game - 2:50
8. Mother Tucker's Yellow Duck - Somebody Think - 3:43
9. The Raves - Mother Nature - 2:21
10.Jerry And The Others - Don't Cry To Me - 2:52
11.Ferguson Tractor - 12 O'Clock High - 2:48
12.Lemon Pipers - Quiet Please - 2:25
13.Blue Scepter - Gypsy Eyes - 4:51
14.The Outcasts - Set Me Free - 2:52
15.Nova Local - Games - 2:06
16.The Iguanas - Mona - 2:41
17.King Beezz - Gloria - 2:49
18.The Avengers - Reflection - 2:48
19.British North American Act - Don't Run Away - 2:36
20.Mijal And White - I've Been You - 3:52
21.Crystal Rain - You And Me - 3:14
22.Fruit Of The Loom - One Hand - 2:27
23.The Frederic - Five O' Clock - 2:13
24.The Soulbenders - Hey Joe - 3:30
25.SRC - Badazz Shuffle - 3:14
"The Litter" was originally formed from two popular Minneapolis bands in 1966, "The Tabs" (Dan Rinaldi, Bill Strandlof) and "The Victors" (Denny Waite, Jim Kane). Tom Murray was plugged in after auditioning for the group at the Minnesota State Fair. The name "The Litter" was presented to the band by Jim Kane and chosen over several other suggestions including "The Mustys". The original connotation of "The Litter" referred to a "litter" of puppies NOT trash or garbage as many people have assumed over the years. The album title $100 Fine was in part responsible for perpetuating this misconception.
Tom "Zip" Caplan replaced Bill Strandlof in 1967 after Bill had recorded Action Woman, Legal Matter and Soul Searchin' for the Distortions album. The album was finished with "Zip" playing lead on the rest of the tracks. In the early days "The Litter" would learn songs from English albums imported to Jim Kane from a friend. Not yet released in the United States, these songs were mistaken by audiences for original "Litter" tunes. "The Litter" was the first group in the Mid-West to use lights and strobes in their stage act.
Dan Rinaldi was the first musician in "The Litter", and in fact in the entire Mid-West, to smash his equipment on stage. "The Litter" as a group was the first band in the Mid-West to use fire and smoke as well as wrecking their equipment as part of their stage show. Contrary to popular belief it was "The Litter" not "The Electras" (later renamed "Twas Brillig" for the national release of Warren Kendrick's Dirty Old Man) who recorded Action Woman first in Nov. 1966. "The Electras" recorded their own version for Kendrick in the spring of 1967, but this 45 rpm was never released and is extremely rare. "The Litter" 45 rpm of Action Woman also commands big bucks on todays collectors market.
the second "Litter" album $100 Fine, had fewer copies pressed (1000), than its predecessor Distortions with 2000 copies. The album name $100 Fine was "Zippy" Caplan's idea after he saw a sign on the highway during a road trip to Chicago with the warning "No Littering - $100 Fine". Unable to come up with an idea for the $100 Fine album cover, "Zippy" Caplan suggested to Warren Kendrick that a color photo of Denny Waite's face be blown up to dot information proportions but Kenrick used a picture of one of Murrays' drums instead.
Blues One from the $100 Fine album was the first original song exclusively written by "Litter" members. In order to fill out time on Side 1 of the $100 Fine album, the last track was added by Warren Kendrick after the album was finished. Calling it Apologies to 2069 Warren put it together in the studio using parts of Action Woman slowed down and parts of Tallyman and Kaleidoscope played backwards. Mixed with electronic sound effects, he used to say it was his way of apologizing to the people of the future for the crude recording technologies of the 1960's. The song Kaleidoscope from the album $100 Fine was the first American made recording to use the then new phasing technology thanks to Warren Kendrick.
The version of "The Zombies" She's Not There used on the $100 Fine album was arranged by "Zippy" Caplan and guitarist friend Randy Resnick ("John Mayall Group") and presented to "The Litter" by Caplan. The idea for the arrangement came to the two guitarists while they were experimenting with the song after being influenced by the "Doors'" Light My Fire and "Quicksilver's" Gold and Silver. The album $100 Fine was #10 on the Twin Cities album charts in 1968 and received a major write-up and review in the Star and Tribune.
"The Litter" recorded a song called Angelica while in Texas recording $100 Fine in 1968. Since the vocalist was J. Frank Wilson (Last Kiss fame) this song was excluded from the album's final version. Due for release by J. Frank Wilson, it was pulled after (a very similar type song) Honey (Bobby Goldsboro) hit the charts big. This cut, to date, has not appeared on any "Litter" album or compilation and is the rarest "Litter" recording. Angelica, written by the well known songwriting team of Cynthia Weil and Barry Mann, was originally released by Barry Mann on Capital in July 1966 and later re-released in 1971 by Ed Ames on RCA. Neither version became a hit song.
Tracks
1. Mindbreaker - 3:07
2. Tallyman - 2:52
3. Here I Go Again - 2:50
4. Morning Sun - 2:24
5. (Under the Screaming Double) Eagle - 2:39
6. Apologies to 2069 - 1:11
7. Kaleidoscope - 2:17
8. Blues One - 4:10
9. She's Not There - 9:10
10.Angelica (with J. Frank Wilson) - 3:49
11.For All the Times I'm Happy (Version 1) - 1:59
12.Where Is She Now - 2:49
13.I Can't Forget You - 2:18
14.I'm Really Not Used (To Being Treated Bad) - 2:42
15.I Love My Love - 2:40
16.Oh, So Sad! - 2:42
17.I Lost Another Girl Today (Version 1) - 1:48
18.Second Hand Woman - 2:05
19.Only Love - 1:31
20.He Couldn't Find One Anywhere - 1:40
21.I'll Never Love Again (a.k.a. The Egyptian) - 2:18
22.Let Me Feel It Too - 1:38
23.Candy - 2:32
24.(Because) I Need Somebody (To Love) - 2:07
25.(Because) I'm Taking All Your Happiness (Away) - 2:17
26.For All the Times I'm Happy (Version 2) - 1:55
27.I Lost Another Girl Today (Version 2) - 1:49
28.He Couldn't Find One Anywhere (Instrumental) - 1:41
The release of the 'Legendary Gold Star' album brings us a step closer to fill in the final missing pieces of the Misunderstood jigsaw. The group had formed in 1965 in Riverside, a town 30 or so miles south of Los Angeles and united by their common love of the blues and the British Invasion bands, had settled on a line up of Glenn Campbell (steel guitar), Rick Brown (lead vocals/harmonica), Steve Whiting (bass), Rick Moe (drums) and Greg Treadway (guitar). Pretty quickly the quintet began to experiment away from the rigid twelve bars favoured by other Riverside outfits and started to incorporate unusual arrangements and guitar feedback into their live act.
When disc jockey John Peel working his way across the US chanced upon them tearing people's heads off at a live show in a local shopping mall, the seeds were sown, that turned The Misunderstood from just another garage band into the stuff of legend. Peel was blown away and plans were hatched for them to go into the studio to lay down some tracks with the jock as producer. Some time in the spring of 1966, they entered Gold Star in Hollywood, a studio already with a fast-rising reputation as the place Phil Spector cut a lot of his hits. Their repertoire was still blues-based, the combo taking its cue very much from The Yardbirds and Paul Butterfield Blues Band.
Rumour has it that in addition to the tracks you're hearing here, they cut a rumbustious "Smokestack Lightning' and an epic version of 'I'm Not Talkin',' during which the band walked out of the recording room for a smoke in the corridor whilst their instruments just fed back. Sadly tapes of the whole session mysteriously disappeared and have never been found. The tracks here, most of which have never been released before, have been taken from an acetate.
The acetate was discovered in the early 80's in the attic of the uncle of their old roadie, Duane Bulmer in Riverside, scratched and dirty, but through the wonders of the Cedar system, the songs have been partly restored to their former glory. Shortly after they cut it, Peel persuaded them to go to England, where they lost r and recruited ex-Answers' guitarist Tony Hill. Vibing off the nascent 'underground' vibes ii London and rubbing shoulders with the newly arrived Hendrix, the band developed at an alarming rate with Hill and Brown writing true psychedelic masterpieces like 'I Can Take You To The Sun', which became their debut 45 for Fontana Records (and can be found on the Cherry Red Album 'Before The Dream Faded').
Sadly Brown soon received his call-up papers for Vietnam and became a long-time draft dodger finally ending up as a diamond merchant in India! The band soldiered on and reputedly recorded some six songs for Philips in Paris in April 1967, before UK immigration officials packed the three remaining Californians off back home. Glenn later refloated the band and the further adventures ol Misunderstood II can be heard on the other disc of this set, 'Golden Glass'.
Fans still sit around wondering what might have been, had Uncle Sam not interfered in what promised to be one of the most exciting, most innovative bands of the 60's. The belated appearance of the Gold Star album offers a fascinating glimpse of the band at the most crucial stage in their development, as they waved goodbye to their roots and embraced the psychedelic culture wholeheartedly.
by Nigel Cross
Tracks
The Legendary Gold Star Album
1. Blues With a Feeling (Unknown) - 4:43
2. Who's Been Talking? (Burnett) - 2:58
3. You Got Me Dizzy (Abner, Reed) - 3:13
4. You Don't Have to Go Out (J. Reed) - 4:44
5. Goin' to New York (J. Reed) - 2:41
6. Shake Your Moneymaker (E. James) - 3:50
7. I Just Want to Make Love to You (Fulfon) - 3:16
8. I'm Not Talkin' (Traditional) - 5:33
Golden Glass
1. Never Had a Girl Like You (Campbell, Hoard) - 4:31
2. Golden Glass (Campbell, Hoard) - 7:40
3. I Don't Want to Discuss It (You're My Girl) (Beatty, Cooper, Shelby) - 4:59
4. Little Red Rooster (Burnett, Dixon) - 5:00
5. You're Tuff Enough (Daniels, Moore) - 3:28
6. Freedom (Campbell, Hoard) - 3:34
7. Keep on Running (Edwards) - 5:13
8. I'm Cruising (Campbell, Hoard) - 2:09
The Misunderstood The Legendary Gold Star Album
*Glenn Ross Campbell - Steel Guitar
*Rick Brown - Lead Vocals, Harmonica
*Steve Whiting - Bass
*Rick Moe - Drums
*Greg Treadway - Guitar Golden Glass
*Chris Mercer - Alto Sax
*Davy O'List - Rhythm Guitar
*Nick Potter - Bass
*Glenn Ross Campbell - Steel Guitar
*Guy Evans - Drums
*Remi Kabaka - Conga
*Steve Hoard - Lead Vocals
When was the last time you heard or saw an autoharp? Perhaps it was when your 80 year old kindergarten teacher busted one out for sing along time. Or maybe you come across one now and again at your local second hand store. It is indeed rare to see an autoharp as a focal instrument in any form of musical display much less as the primary instrument of a psychedelic rock group. Yet this in fact was the case with the New York City based group Michaelangelo.
Primary composer and group member Angel Autoharp (surname Peterson) blended the unique ring of the autoharp with psychedelic and progressive rock elements with the help of guitarist Steve Bohn and the fantastic rhythm section of Robert Gorman on bass and Michael John Hackett on drums.
The group's sole release strikes one as supremely unique even for the psychedelic times in which it was released. Not because it was outlandishly bizarre, but because it was such a very pure musical vision. This album does not succumb to any radio friendly formulas yet it does not attempt to be overtly far out cither. Angel best describes it in her own words. "I played music because I loved it. and I wanted everyone to hear the autoharp".
Angel began playing music in grade school and always had an inclination for composing her own material. "I had violin lessons for three or four years and I was pretty bored with playing the classics and one time I came into my violin instructor's class and showed mm a piece I had written for the violin and he rapped me on my knuckles with his little baton and said. 'You don't write for the violin you play the classics. You are trying to make the violin a fiddle.' And so I dropped the violin."
But Angel was not deterred. Shortly after she taught herself how to play the piano and when it came time to go to college and moving into smaller places she decided to take up the more portable autoharp. "I bought an autoharp and learned how to play it in my bathtub in my dorm room1 I put it up to my ear and played it upnght and absolutely fell in love with the sound and started writing for it and my whole goal was to nave people hear just how wonderful the autoharp sounded."
Angel started playing the local Greenwich Village coffee house circuit and had a chance encounter with The Lovin Spoonfj s John Sebastian, who was also an autoharp enthusiast. "He did something really amazing Angel recalls, he had it amplified and he had actually worked with someone and designen a pick-up that picked up all 36 strings". Angel was thrilled at the prospect of amplification which would make it all the more plausible for her to share her love of the auto harp with mere people so she quickly installed a pick up and sought out the perfect amplifier.
"I went through a bunch of amplifiers and the only one that really sounded good was called a Magnatone and it had a pseudo Leslie effect so it could sound like an organ . Angel was set to share the magical sounds of the auto harp with all of those who wandered in Greenwich Village and she hit the scene with fervor. "I played for four years en McDougal Street, doing nothing but instrumental - just me and my Magnatone."
Meantime in midtown Manhattan there was a young musician by the name of Bob Goanan who had come down to Greenwch Village and was taken by the young harpist and recalls. "She played such fascinating songs". The two quickly hit it off and formed a duo playing local gigs as an instrumental act. when they caught the attention of a young copywriter by the name of Earl Carter who happened to work at Columbia records. Carter was intrigued by the duo's unique sound and knew of another duo who might feel the same way.
This duo were electronic classical music producers Rachel Elkind and Wendy Carlos who had recently had immense success with a classical album that utilized the moog synthesizer to it's full capacity called Switched On Bach. Elkind and Carlos liked the group and thought it would be a fantastic project for them to work on, and they in turn took it to Columbia records. Angel and Bob quickly formed a band, as Bob recalls. "I worked at a music store in midtown and my co-worker Steve became the guitar player, and then we got a drummer.
Angel had lyrics but we never sang any of them in our act and so we all arranged the songs". Angel adds, "Every song was basically written as an instrumental and then I added vocals to some of it, I didn't have a lot of confidence as a singer, but when we added other people we started singing." Michaelangelo was what Angel had called her autoharp and that in turn became the name of the band.
Angel's compositions now flourished into full psychedelic folk-rock songs while maintaining the integrity of the auto harp that was so very important to her. With guitarist Steve Bohn and herself trading lead vocals, Angel also proved that she was a wonderful lyricist: "I had written poetry since grade school, so I wrote all the lyrics for the songs".
The pairing of this very unique band who featured a unique instrument as their focal point with the production team of Rachel Elkind and Wendy Carlos who were pioneering the electronic music movement were a match made in heaven. Yet as the story goes with all those who are slightly ahead of their time, the world may not have been quite ready for it and Angel adds with profound insight. "Every time you play something that's a little out of the norm or a little different, people are very suspicious, when they go to listen to music they want to hear things they've heard before, then they can compare you to other people.
If you do something new it's greeted with silence, and I've had that all my life". Yet if anyone were to be able to understand this creative and distinct music it would be Rachel Elkind and Wendy Carlos. Rachel Elkind for starters was unique, based on the fact that she was a woman working as a music producer alone, but in addition to that working alongside her partner Wendy Carlos the two explored new musical horizons using electronic instruments like the relatively new Moog Synthesizer.
Wendy Carlos was born Walter Carlos until she had a sex change operation in 1972. She studied music and physics at Brown University and earned her masters in composition at Columbia Univeristy. She had become friends with the inventor of the Moog Synthesizer, Robert Moog, and was one of the first composers to buy one of his creations.
Elkind and Carlos would famously go on to work with Stanley Kubrick on his films A Clockwork Orange and The Shining utilizing the unique electronic tonalities and compositional techniques they had developed. Michaelangelo started recording at the Record Plant in New York City. However the vocals, overdubs and one of the tracks, "Take It Bach", were recorded and mixed at Rachel and Wendy's infamous home studio in a brownstone on the upper west side.
Bob Gorman also notes, "Wendy had an affinity for the natural sound quality in the circular staircase in the house, so all of Angel's vocals were recorded in there." But as much as the band were blessed by being able to work with some ot the most progressive and talented producers the industry had to offer it may have also been a curse. Bob Gorman recalls. "Clive Davis was the president of Columbia Records and politically he was not fond of Rachel and Wendy because of the fact that Switched On Bach was so successful and he didn't have his hands in the pie, because it was independently produced by Rachel and Wendy's production company.
And so he never totally got behind us". Angel also offers some insight. "Rachel was the first independent producer who wasn't a staff producer for Columbia Records. Also she was a woman and her and Clive Davis just had it out all the time. He could not stand the fact that she was calling the shots. Rachel was a very strong willed independent woman and back then you just didn't do that. There weren't women in the music business back then unless you were a fine singer or Janis Joplin or something."
Due to the turmoil within the label Michaelangelo's debut failed to get the proper attention from the label needed to help reach audiences. Angel recalls. "He [Clive Davis] only pressed about two or three thousand albums, he refused to put them in stores. He was trying to get back at Rachel is what it was. for political reasons everything was squashed". Bob Gorman recalls. "The single was released from the album and it got Gavin Pick Of The Week, so it started to take off with its own wings.
But then it was squashed by the courtesy of Clive Davis because he thought it would start taking off on its own and he - being president of Columbia Records and pretty much being at odds with Rachel and Wendy - said. This is not going any farther, this is it. this is not my production and whatever you want to call it - jealousy or spite - he pretty much made it go away."
Michaelangelo continued to play promotional college tours but because the album was not readily available to audiences the group were not making any money and this eventually took its toll on the band. Angel recalls. "The band dissolved because you know all our wonderful expectations, nobody got paid, they all went their own ways. I ended up marrying my road manager and moved to Florida.' Bob Gorman fulfilled his dream of moving west to California, which is what the opening track "West" so vividly depicts.
While the band was short lived Angel continued to play music in Florida, but was disheartened by the experience. "Because it was the south anytime I'd play one of my classical instrumentals. they would not know what to do and people were yelling 'Play Jimmy Buffet'". Well, that's enough to make anyone retire! Angel opened a business and continues to live in Florida. The songs on this album somehow reflect the true essence of the term "outsider art". Angel Peterson was a young artistic soul who was exploring music on her own terms and following her heart.
While the group's career path may have been tragically flawed it certainly does not take away from the validity and wonderful charm of this work. From the classically inspired songs like the beautiful "Take It Bach" to the story of a day in the life of a young person striking out on his own 'Son (We've Kept the Room Just the Way You Left It)" this album is sure to strike a chord in your heart - just like it has done mine - and we are certainly happy to be sharing it with you.
by Tiffany Anders
Tracks
1. West - 2:49
2. Come to Me - 1:56
3. This Bird - 3:19
4. Son - We've Kept the Room Just the Way You Left It - 4:25
5. Medley: Take It Bach/Michaelangelo - 5:30
6. It's Crying Outside - 3:53
7. 300 Watt Music Box - 2:39
8. Okay - 2:00
9. Half a Top - 3:05
10.One Voice Many - 7:10
All songs written by Angel Petersen
Michaelangelo
*Robert Gorman - Bass
*Michael John Hackett - Drums
*Angel Petersen - Electric Autoharp, Vocals
*Steve Bohn - Guitars
