Biography
High-energy five-piece
Posten on: 2007-12-19 04:30:51
One of the 1970s' most successful hard rock bands in spite of critical pans and somewhat reluctant radio airplay (at first), Grand Funk Railroad built a devoted fan base with constant touring, a loud, simple take on the blues-rock power trio sound, and strong working-class appeal. The band was formed by Flint, MI, guitarist/songwriter Mark Farner and drummer Don Brewer, both former members of a local band called Terry Knight & the Pack. They recruited former ? & the Mysterians bassist Mel Schacher in 1968, and Knight retired from performing to become their manager, naming the group after Michigan's well-known Grand Trunk Railroad.They performed for free at the 1969 Atlanta Pop Festival, and their energetic, if not technically proficient, show led Capitol Records to sign them at once. While radio shied away from Grand Funk Railroad, the group's strong work ethic and commitment to touring produced a series of big-selling albums over the next few years; five of their eight releases from 1969 to 1972 went platinum, and the others all went gold. Meanwhile, Knight promoted the band aggressively, going so far as to rent a Times Square billboard to advertise Closer to Home, which turned out to be the band's first multi-platinum album in spite of a backlash from the rock press. However, Grand Funk Railroad fired Knight in March of 1972, who promptly sued; the band spent most of the year in a court battle that ended when they bought Knight out.Keyboardist Craig Frost joined the group for the Phoenix LP at the end of 1972. Following that album, the band's name was officially shortened to Grand Funk, and the group finally scored a big hit single (number one, in fact) with the title track of the Todd Rundgren-produced We're an American Band. The follow-up, Shinin' On, contained another number one hit in a remake of Little Eva's "The Loco-Motion." However, following Grand Funk's next album, All the Girls in the World Beware!!, interest in the group began to wane. Reverting back to Grand Funk Railroad, they remained together in 1976 solely to work with producer Frank Zappa on Good Singin', Good Playin'. Farner left for a solo career, and the remainder of the band released an album as Flint with guitarist Billy Elworthy.Grand Funk Railroad re-formed in 1981 with Dennis Bellinger on bass and released two albums; only Grand Funk Lives even managed to scrape the bottom of the charts. The group disbanded again, with Brewer and Frost joining Bob Seger's Silver Bullet Band and Farner embarking on a new career as a CCM artist; his "Isn't It Amazing" was a number two gospel hit in 1988. In 1997, Grand Funk Railroad reunited once again to record a benefit album titled Bosnia; two years later, Capitol issued a three-disc box set retrospective, Thirty Years of Funk: 1969-1999.Grand Funk Railroad discography2003 Shinin' On [Bonus Tracks]2003 Born to Die [Bonus Tracks]2002 We're an American Band [Bonus Tracks]2002 Survival [Bonus Tracks]2002 Phoenix [Bonus Tracks]2002 On Time [Bonus Tracks]2002 Live Album [US Remastered]2002 Grand Funk [Bonus Tracks]2002 E Pluribus Funk [Bonus Tracks]2002 Closer to Home [Bonus Tracks]2001 Live Album [UK Remastered]1998 Shinin' On [Japan]1998 Closer to Home [Japan]1997 Bosnia1992 Grand Funk Railroad1983 What's Funk?1981 Grand Funk Lives1976 Good Singin', Good Playin'1976 Born to Die1975 Masters of Rock1975 Caught in the Act1974 Shinin' On1974 All the Girls in the World Beware!!1973 We're an American Band1972 Phoenix1971 Survival1971 E Pluribus Funk1970 Live Album1970 Grand Funk1970 Closer to Home1969 On Time
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Presenting the Electric Prunes
Posten on: 2007-12-19 04:11:55
Before evolving into The Electric Prunes, a group of teenagers from Taft High School in Los Angeles started out as The Sanctions and then Jim and The Lords in the mid 1960s. Various members came and went and the band even managed to record an unreleased session of rock standards.Guitarist James Lowe, bassist Mark Tulin, lead guitarist Ken Williams and drummer Michael Weakley were practicing in a garage one day when a real estate agent named Barbara Harris heard them. She approached the band and said that she knew someone in the record business and that she could introduce them to him. That someone turned out to be Dave Hassinger, the resident engineer at RCA studios, who had helped record many of the Rolling Stones' albums.Hassinger sent them over to Leon Russell's house to record some demos. Russell had installed recording facilities in his house called Sky Hill Studios. From the demos recorded at Russell's house, came the first Electric Prunes single - a cover version of the Gypsy Trips's song 'Ain't It Hard', backed with a Lowe penned song called 'Little Olive'. The single was a total flop, but luckily, the brass at Warner / Reprise Records liked what they heard and gave the band a second chance. It was about this time that Preston Ritter replaced Michael Weakley on drums and James Spagnola was added on rhythm guitar.Convinced that the band couldn't write their own songs, Hassinger brought in some material by professional songwriters Annette Tucker and Nancie Mantz. One of those tunes was “I Had Too Much to Dream Last Night”, a song that was originally conceived as a slow piano ballad (and covered by crooner Jerry Vale, no less!). By the time the Prunes got through with it, though, “I Had Too Much to Dream” was a three-minute, echo-drenched fantasia, jam-packed with shimmering guitars, fuzz leads, and Lowe's eerie double-tracked vocal. The single was released in November 1966. At first it was caught up in the Christmas rush, but made steady progress up the U.S. charts and finally peaked at number 11 in early 1967. It also reached number 49 in the U.K. charts.The success of this single brought the Electric Prunes instant success and the band toured constantly. As a follow-up single, The Electric Prunes released 'Get Me To The World On Time'. Unfortunately, the single didn't do as well commercially as 'I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night' in the U.S. but still reached a respectable number 27. 'Get Me To The World On Time' fared better in the U.K. than its predecessor by reaching number 42. The success of these two singles led to numerous concert appearances around which the band fitted hurried recording sessions which culminated in the release of their debut LP in April 1967 - 'I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night'.For their second album, called 'Underground', Dave Hassinger allowed the band more artistic freedom and a greater say in the choice of songs. The team of Tucker / Mantz were restricted to only three tunes. During the recording session, drummer Preston Ritter quit over musical differences and Michael Weakley re-joined to finish the LP. James Spagnola was forced to leave the band due to medical reasons and was replaced by Mike Gannon, who joined in time to record two songs.When the album was completed, the band continued to play across the US in the latter half of '67 as well as heading out on a 16 date British tour. Their return to the States saw the release of the single 'Everybody Knows You're Not In Love'. This single was "a chunk of pure Prune pop" which suggested that they were about to enter a new phase of tough, high energy rock; but it was not to be. There appeared to be an abrupt shift in the Electric Prunes musical direction with the release of the album, 'Mass in F Minor' , in January 1968. This was a concept rock opera mixing Gregorian music and psychedelic pop with vocals in Latin. The opening track of the 'Mass in F Minor' LP - 'Kyrie Eleison' - is widely known and backed the acid trip scene in the movie 'Easy Rider' (1969). Electric Prunes songs were also included in several other films of the late sixties, such as 'The Name of the Game Is Kill' (1968). Promotion of the album led the band to even appearing on the Pat Boone Show, where they did a lip sync performance of 'Kyrie Eleison'.The 'Mass in F Minor' LP seemed to mark the beginning of the end for the original Electric Prunes. The band started to go in a totally different direction to what it originally been set out to do. James Lowe left the band in the middle of a tour of Texas. The band continued for about two months after he left. Both Mike Gannon and newcomer Joe Dooley also quit, leaving just Mark Tulin and Ken Williams as the original band members. A session drummer named John Raines joined the band along with pianist Jeromy Stuart. Jeromy in turn invited a talented musician he knew to join the band - Kenny Loggins, who later found fame with Jim Messina as Loggins and Messina and for recording the soundtracks to the 80s films 'Footloose' and 'Top Gun'. This line-up undertook one tour. According to Mark Tulin, this was "possibly the worst tour of all time". They played none of the old Prunes songs but all new songs written either by Loggins or Stuart. None of the material was ever recorded by this line-up of The Electric Prunes. The tour marked the end of the band and all the recognisable Prunes quit at the same time in mid 1968.Dave Hassinger owned the name of the Electric Prunes and encouraged by the success of the 'Mass in F Minor' LP, a similar follow-up was promptly arranged. The new LP was released in November 1968, titled 'Release of an Oath - The Nol Nidre'. This album was even more anonymous than its predecessor - no personnel, no photographs - only the same engraving of the group that had been tucked away on the first album. It has always been assumed that some of the session musicians on the 'Mass' LP became the New Electric Prunes.Even the band's label - Reprise - were confused with the band's line-up and image at this time. It appears they were still trying to cash in on the popularity of the early 45s, as the release of the single 'Hey Mr President' single shows. The original members are shown on the cover of this 1969 single, but they had all departed by mid 1968. The confusion regarding the band's line-up was further enhanced by Reprise, who in Europe were releasing Electric Prunes singles with the new line-up of Richard Whetstone, Ron Morgan, Brett Wade and Mark Kincaid. June 1969 saw the release of a final Electric Prunes album, 'Just Good Old Rock and Roll'. By early 1970, with record buyers and concert goers no longer interested, the band members went their separate ways.A new chapter in the Electric Prunes biography opened in 1999 when James Lowe, Mark Tulin and Ken Williams got back in the recording studio for the first time in over 30 years! James and Mark had been friends for a while and when Ken found their web site, he made contact with them. This inspired the three original members to meet up, arrange to record some new material and produce a band documentary.The trio had started recording some tracks during the summer of 1999 when they invited Michael Weakley, now known as Michael Fortune, to the studio for the sessions. It marked the first time in over 30 years that the original Electric Prunes had been in a recording studio together.June 2000 saw the release of a new Electric Prunes album on the Heartbeat Label from Bristol, England. Original straight to disc recordings of the Electric Prunes, when they were just forming as The Sanctions and Jim and The Lords in 1965, were found hidden away and unplayed for over 35 years. Simon Edwards, owner of Heartbeat Productions, was left with the task to trying to salvage the recordings on the acetates. The successful clean-up operation produced a commercially released album on vinyl record and CD - 'Then Came The Electric Prunes'.In February 2001, Birdman Records, owned by a Reprise employee David Katz-Nelson, released the long awaited compilation LP 'Lost Dreams' - containing alternate takes, studio conversations and rare tracks.Following on from the success of the 'Lost Dreams' compilation LP, the original members of the Electric Prunes announced in May 2001 that they were going to play a live set at the Voxfest III festival held annually in Riverside, California in June, 2001. Interest in this concert was at fever-pitch since it was the first gig to be played by the original members since the band split up way back in 1968. From the reviews of Voxfest III, it looked as if the band had never been away and the demand for future concerts is gathered momentum. So much so that the band announced in August 2001 that they were to headline the Cavestomp 2001, festival held in New York City in November 2001.New projects for the band include a concert DVD called 'Electric Prunes - Rewired' as well as more personal appearances. After 30 years apart, the Prunes were ready to face the light once more. Electric Prunes discographyThe Electric Prunes 1967Underground 1967Mass In F Minor 1968Release of An Oath 1968Just Good Old Rock and Roll 1969Long Day's Flight (compilation) 1986Stockholm 1997Artifact 2002Rewired (DVD) 2002California 2004Feedback 2006
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One of the most successful of the 1970s' progressive rock groups
Posten on: 2007-12-17 15:45:46
Far and away the longest lasting and the most successful of the '70s progressive rock groups, Yes proved to be one of the lingering success stories from that musical genre. The band, founded in 1968, overcame a generational shift in its audience and the departure of its most visible members at key points in its history to reach the end of the century as the definitive progressive rock band. Where rivals such as Emerson, Lake & Palmer withered away commercially after the mid-'70s, and Genesis and King Crimson altered their sounds so radically as to become unrecognizable to their original fans, Yes retained the same sound, and performed much of the same repertory that they were doing in 1971; and for their trouble, they found themselves being taken seriously a quarter of a century later. Their audience remains huge because they've always attracted younger listeners drawn to their mix of daunting virtuosity, cosmic (often mystical) lyrics, complex musical textures, and powerful yet delicate lead vocals.Lead singer Jon Anderson (b. Oct. 25, 1944, Accrington, Lancashire) started out during the British beat boom as a member of the Warriors, who recorded a single for Decca in 1964; he was later in the band Gun before going solo in 1967 with two singles on the Parlophone label. He was making a meager living cleaning up at a London club called La Chasse during June of 1968, and was thinking of starting up a new band. One day at the bar, he chanced to meet bassist/vocalist Chris Squire, a former member of the band the Syn, who had recorded for Deram, the progressive division of Decca.The two learned that they shared several musical interests, including an appreciation for the harmony singing of Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel, and within a matter of days were trying to write songs together. They began developing the beginnings of a sound that incorporated harmonies with a solid-rock backing, rooted in Squire's very precise approach to the bass. Anderson and Squire saw the groups around them as having either strong vocals and weak instrumental backup, or powerful backup and weak lead vocals, and they sought to combine the best of both. Their initial inspiration, at least as far as the precision of their vocals, according to Squire, was the pop/soul act the Fifth Dimension.They recruited Tony Kaye (b. Jan. 11, 1946), formerly of the Federals, on keyboards; Peter Banks (b. July 7, 1947), previously a member of the Syn, on guitar, and drummer Bill Bruford (b. May 17, 1948), who had only just joined the blues band Savoy Brown a few weeks earlier. The name Yes was chosen for the band as something short, direct, and memorable.The British music scene at this time was in a state of flux. The pop/psychedelic era, with its pretty melodies and delicate sounds, was drawing to a close, replaced by the heavier sounds of groups like Cream. Progressive rock, with a heavy dose of late 19th century classical music, was also starting to make a noise that was being heard, in the guise of acts such as the Nice, featuring Keith Emerson, and the original Deep Purple.The group's break came in October of 1968 when the band, on the recommendation of the Nice's manager, Tony Stratton-Smith (later the founder of Charisma Records), played a gig at the Speakeasy Club in London, filling in for an absent Sly & the Family Stone. The group was later selected to open for Cream's November 26, 1968, farewell concert at Royal Albert Hall. This concert, in turn, led to a residency at London's Marquee Club and their first radio appearance, on John Peel's Top Gear radio show. They subsequently opened for Janis Joplin at her Royal Albert Hall concert in April 1969, and were signed to Atlantic Records soon after.Their debut single, and Anderson and Squire's first song, entitled "Sweetness," was released soon after. Their first album, Yes, was released in November of 1969. The record displayed the basic sound that would characterize the band's subsequent records; including impeccable high harmonies; clearly defined, emphatic playing, and an approach to music that derived from folk and classical, far more than the R&B from which most rock music sprung, but it was much more in a pop-music context, featuring covers of Beatles' and Byrds' songs. Also present was a hint of the space rock sound (on "Beyond and Before") in which they would later come to specialize.Anderson's falsetto lead vocals gave the music an ethereal quality, while Banks' angular guitar, seemingly all picked and none strummed, drew from folk and skiffle elements. Squire's bass had a huge sound, owing to his playing with a pick, giving him one of the most distinctive sounds on the instrument this side of the Who's John Entwistle, while Bruford's drumming was very complex within the pop-song context; and Kaye's playing was rich and melodic.In February of 1970, Yes supported the Nice at their Royal Albert Hall show, while they were preparing their second album, Time and a Word. By the time it was released in June of 1970, Peter Banks had left the lineup, to be replaced by guitarist Steve Howe (b. Apr. 8, 1947), a former member of the Syndicats, the In Crowd, Tomorrow ("My White Bicycle"), and Bodast. Howe is pictured with the group on the jacket of Time and a Word, which was released in August, and played his first show with the group at Queen Elizabeth Hall on March 21, 1970, but Banks actually played on the album. This record was far more sophisticated than its predecessor, and even included an overdubbed orchestra on some songs, the only time that Yes would rely on outside musicians to augment their sound. The cosmic and mystical elements of their songwriting were even more evident on this album.The group's fame in England continued to rise as they became an increasingly popular concert attraction, especially after they were seen by millions as the opening act for Iron Butterfly. It was with the release of The Yes Album in April of 1971 that the public began to glimpse the group's full potential.That record, made up entirely of original compositions, was filled with complex, multi-part harmonies; loud, heavily layered guitar and bass parts; beautiful and melodic drum parts; and surging organ (with piano embellishments) passages bridging them all. Everybody was working on a far more expansive level than on any of their previous recordings: on "Your Move" (which became the group's first U.S. chart entry, at number 40), the harmonies were woven together in layers and patterns that were dazzling in their own right; while "Starship Trooper" (which drew its name from a Robert Heinlein novel, thus reinforcing the group's space rock image) and "All Good People" gave Howe, Squire, and Bruford the opportunity to play extended instrumental passages of tremendous forcefulness. "Starship Trooper," "I've Seen All Good People," "Perpetual Change," and "Yours Is No Disgrace" also became parts of the group's concert sets for years to come.The Yes Album opened a new phase in the group's history and its approach to music. None of it was pop music in the "Top 40" sense of the term. Rather, it was built on compositions which resembled sound paintings rather than songs; the swelling sound of Kaye's Moog synthesizer and organ, Howe's fluid yet stinging guitar passages, Squire's rippling bass, and Anderson's haunting falsetto leads all evoked sonic landscapes that were strangely compelling to the imagination of the listener.The Yes Album reached number seven in England in the spring of 1971; later, it got to number 40 in America. Early in 1971, Yes made their first U.S. tour opening for Jethro Tull, and they were back late in the year sharing billing with Ten Years After and the J. Geils Band. The band began work on their next album, but were interrupted when keyboard player Tony Kaye quit in August of 1971 to join ex-Yes guitarist Peter Banks in the group Flash. He was replaced by former Strawbs keyboard player Rick Wakeman, who played his first shows with the band in September and October of 1971.Wakeman was a far more flamboyant musician than Kaye, not only in his approach to playing, but in the number of instruments that he used. In place of the three keyboards that Kaye used, Wakeman used an entire bank of upwards of a dozen instruments, including Mellotron, various synthesizers, organ, two or more pianos, and electric harpsichord. This lineup, Anderson Squire, Howe, Wakeman, and Bruford, which actually only lasted for one year, from August of 1971 until August of 1972, is generally considered the best of all the Yes configurations, and the strongest incarnation of the band.The group completed their next album, Fragile, in less than two months, partly out of a need to get a new album out to help pay for all of Wakeman's equipment. And partly due to this haste, the new album featured only four tracks by the group as a whole, "Roundabout," "The South Side of the Sky," "Heart of the Sunrise," and "Long Distance Runaround" -- although, significantly, all except "Long Distance Runaround" ran between seven and 13 minutes -- and was rounded out by five pieces showcasing each member of the band individually. Anderson's voice was represented in multiple overdubs on "We Have Heaven," while Squire's bass provided the instrumental "The Fish," which later became an important part of the group's concerts; Howe's "Mood for a Day" showed him off as a classical guitarist; Bruford's drums were the focus of "Five Percent for Nothing"; and Wakeman turned in "Cans and Brahms," an electronic keyboard fantasy built on one movement from Brahms' Fourth Symphony.Fragile, released in December of 1971, reached number seven in England and number four in America. The album's success was enhanced by the release of an edited single of "Roundabout," the group's first (and, for over a decade, only) major hit, which reached number 13 on the U.S. charts. For millions of listeners, "Roundabout," with its crisp interwoven acoustic and electric guitar parts and very vivid bass textures, exquisite vocals (especially the harmonies), swirling keyboard passages, and brisk beat, proved an ideal introduction to the group's sound. Neither Emerson, Lake & Palmer nor King Crimson, the group's leading rivals at that time, ever had so successful a pop-chart entry. The single's impact among teenage and college-age listeners was far greater than this chart position would indicate; they simply flocked to the band, with the result that not only did Fragile sell in huge numbers, but the group's earlier records (especially The Yes Album) were suddenly in demand again.Even the album's jacket, designed by artist Roger Dean, featured distinctive, surreal landscape graphics, which evoked images seemingly related to the music inside. These paintings would become part-and-parcel with the audience's impression of Yes' music, and later tours by the group would feature stage sets designed by Dean as an integral part of their shows.The group's appeal was multi-level. In some ways, they were the successors to psychedelic metal bands such as Iron Butterfly; "Roundabout" may have been space rock, with a driving beat that carried the listener soaring into the heavens, but lines like "In and around the lake/Mountains come out of the sky/they stand there" evoked a surreal imagery not far removed (in the minds of some listeners) from "In a Gadda Da Vida"; and just as effective, amid Wakeman's swirling synthesizer and Mellotron passages, as a musical background for any druggy indulgences that fans might pursue. These would also be among the last lyrics that fans of the band would have to deal with, apart from anomalies such as the ethereal "I get up/I get down" from "Close to the Edge" or the topical "Don't Kill the Whale"; on most of the band's future releases, and for much of this song as well, Anderson's voice was part of the overall mix of sounds generated by Yes. Some of his lyrics in future years were worth a detailed look, however, often possessing complex subtexts drawn from religious and literary sources which made them good for intellectual analysis, and something that college students could listen to with no shame or rationalizing. In that respect, Yes were as much the successors to the Moody Blues, with a beat and balls in place of the pioneering art rock/psychedelic band's stateliness and overt seriousness, as they were to Iron Butterfly.Jon Anderson's falsetto vocals, moreover, compared very well with those of his Atlantic Records stablemate Robert Plant, the lead singer of Led Zeppelin. Their classical music influences offered a level of intellectual stimulation that Led Zeppelin seldom bothered with. And Yes played loud and hard; they were progressive, but they weren't wimps, and they put on a better show than Emerson, Lake & Palmer. Their music seemed to evoke the most appealing elements of heavy metal rock, psychedelic music, the work of composers as different as Igor Stravinsky and film composer Jerome Moross (whose "Main Theme From the Big Country" provided the basis for the group's version of "No Experience Necessary"), and Eastern religion, all wrapped in songs running upwards of 22 minutes -- an entire side of an album."Roundabout" would be the group's biggest single success for the next 12 years, but it was more than enough. Although they would continue to release 45s periodically, including a cover of Paul Simon's "America" during the summer of 1972, Yes' future clearly lay with their albums. On Fragile, "Long Distance Runaround," as a three-minute song, had been the anomaly; the band was clearly looking at longer forms in which to write and play their music.Close to the Edge, recorded in the late spring of 1972 and released in September of that year, showed just where they were headed; consisting of only three long tracks, essentially three sound paintings, in which the overall sound and musical textures mattered more than the lyrics or any specific melody, harmonization, or solo. "Siberian Khatru" was almost a rock adaptation of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, recalling the composer's most famous work and sounding as though Anderson and company had tapped into a element of ritual and a state of consciousness going back practically to the dawn of time (or stretching to the end of time); while "And You and I" seemed to take "Your Move" to a newly cosmic level. The fans and critics alike loved Close to the Edge, resplendent in its rich harmonies and keyboard passages of astonishing beauty and complexity, brittle but powerful guitar, and drumming that was gorgeous in its own right. The album reached number four in England and number three in the United States without help from a hit single (though an edited version of "And You and I" did reach number 42 in America).By the time of the record's release, however, Bill Bruford had left the band to join King Crimson, and was replaced by Alan White (b. June 14, 1949, Pelton, Durham), a session drummer who was previously best-known for having played with John Lennon and Yoko Ono's Plastic Ono Band. With White -- who was a powerful player, but lacked the subtle melodic technique of Bill Bruford -- installed at the drum kit, the group went on tour behind the new album to massive audience response and critical acclaim. As an added bonus for fans, Rick Wakeman had completed his first solo LP, the instrumental concept album The Six Wives of Henry VIII, which was released by A&M Records in February of 1973 (Wakeman had played excerpts from it during his featured solo spot during the previous Yes tour).A large part of the Close to the Edge tour, like the group's prior tour with Bruford on the drums, was recorded, and a three-LP (two-CD) set entitled Yessongs, released in May of 1973, was assembled from the best work on the tour. Yessongs became a model for progressive rock live albums; at over 120 minutes, it included the band's entire stage repertory (not coincidentally, the best songs from the three preceding albums), all of it uncut and all of it well-played. The live album reached number seven in England and number 12 in the United States.The group spent the second half of 1973 trying to come up with a follow-up to four successive hit albums. The resulting record, a double LP entitled Tales From Topographic Oceans, was released in January of 1974 with such high expectations that it earned a gold record from its advanced orders.Tales From Topographic Oceans broke all previous artistic boundaries, consisting of four long tracks each taking up the full side of an LP, with titles like "The Revealing Science of God (Dance of the Dawn)." If the group's prior albums were made up of paintings in sound, then Topographic Oceans was a series of sonic murals, painted across vast spaces on a massive scale that did not make for light listening. If this all seems ridiculously overblown today, perhaps it was, but this work was being done in an era in which groups like Emerson, Lake & Palmer were recording album-length suites and stretching relatively modest works such as "Fanfare for the Common Man" by Aaron Copland into ten-minute epics. The group believed it had cultivated an audience for such music, and they were right; Topographic Oceans not only topped the British charts but reached number six on the American charts.No album has more divided both fans and critics of Yes alike. At the time of its release, critics called Tales From Topographic Oceans excessive, representing the height of progressive rock's self-indulgent nature. Originally inspired by Jon Anderson's reaction to a set of Shastric scriptures, the album displayed a sublime beauty in many parts, and immense, mesmerizing stretches of high-energy virtuosity for most of its length.The group toured behind Topographic Oceans early in 1974, performing most of the album on-stage. Following this tour, plans were announced for each member of the group to release a solo album of his own. At this point, the group faced another major lineup change as Wakeman -- whose second solo album, Journey to the Centre of the Earth, appeared in May of 1974 -- announced that he was leaving Yes' lineup in June to pursue a solo career. In fact, as he revealed in interviews many years later, he'd been very unhappy with the content of Tales From Topographic Oceans, feeling that its music no longer reflected the direction he wanted to go in and that it was time to part company with the band. Wakeman's decision created a major problem for the band, for the keyboard player had become a star within their ranks, and was the group's most well-known individual member; people definitely paid to see and hear his keyboards rippling amid the Yes sound.In August of 1974, it was announced that Patrick Moraz (b. June 24, 1948, Morges, Switzerland), formerly of the progressive rock trio Refugee, had replaced Wakeman. Three months later, the group's new album, Relayer, was released, reaching the British number four spot and the American number five position. Moraz proved an adequate replacement for Wakeman, but lacked his predecessor's gift for showmanship and extravagance. The group toured in the wake of Relayer's release in November of 1974, but didn't record together again for two-and-a-half-years.Indeed, in order to satisfy the demand for more Yes material in the absence of a new album while the group was on the road, Atlantic in March of 1975 released a collection of their early music entitled Yesterdays, drawn from the first two albums and various singles, which rose to number 27 in England and number 17 in America. A film that the group had made along their 1973 tour, entitled Yessongs, was released to theaters at around the same time. The movie received poor reviews, possibly owing to the fact that most reviewers were unfamiliar with the group's music, but it was profitable and has been popular for years on home video.Meanwhile, in the absence of new albums by Yes, other bands began trying and capitalize on their own version of the Yes sound. The most notable of these were Starcastle, a progressive rock band signed by Epic Records, who made their recording debut in 1976 with a self-titled album that could've been another incarnation of Yes; and Fireballet, a Passport Records quartet who seemed to bridge the music of Yes and ELP.In November of 1975, Chris Squire's Fish Out of Water and Steve Howe's Beginnings were both released and climbed into the mid-number-60-spots of the American charts. Squire's record was clearly the more accomplished of the two, virtually a lost Yes album, with the bassist exploring new instrumental and orchestral textures, and turning in a credible vocal performance as well. Howe's record was an interesting, low-key effort that might've impressed other guitarists, but was sorely lacking in the songwriting department.These were followed in March of 1976 by Alan White's Ramshackled, which placed at number 41 in England, and Moraz's solo venture Patrick Moraz, which reached number 28 in England and number 132 in America. And in July of 1976, Jon Anderson's Olias of Sunhillow, a dazzling, Tolkien-esque science-fiction/fantasy epic (with packaging on the original LP that must've doubled the basic production cost of the jacket) that sounded as much like a Yes album as any record not made by the entire band could, reached number eight in England and number 47 in America.Amid all of these solo projects, the group's lineup changed once again, as Wakeman announced his return to the fold in late 1976, while Moraz exited. Wakeman's original plan was to assist the group in the studio on their new album, but the sessions proved so productive that he made the decision, fully supported by the band, to return to the band's lineup permanently.The group's next album, Going for the One, released in August of 1977, represented a much more austere, basic style of rock music, built around shorter songs. The long-player topped the British charts for two weeks and reached number eight on the American charts, while the singles "Wonderous Stories" and "Going for the One" rose to numbers seven and 24, respectively, in the U.K. The group embarked on a massive tour shortly after the album's release, including their most successful American appearances ever, playing to record audiences on the East Coast.Tormato, released nearly a year later (heralded by the single "Don't Kill the Whale," the group's first song with a topical message), made the Top Ten in both England and America in the fall of 1978. Once again, after finishing the tour behind the album, the group members began working on solo projects. The year 1979 saw the release of The Steve Howe Album, while early in 1980 Jon Anderson hooked up with Greek-born keyboard player Vangelis. The two released an album, Short Stories, and an accompanying single, "I Hear You," early in 1980, both of which reached the British Top Ten. Jon & Vangelis, as the team became known, went on to cut several more records together.In March of 1980, Yes' lineup collapsed, as Wakeman and then Anderson walked out after an unsuccessful attempt to start work on a new album. Two months later, Trevor Horn (vocals, guitar) and Geoffrey Downes (keyboards), formerly of the British band the Buggles, joined the Yes lineup of Steve Howe, Chris Squire, and Alan White. This configuration recorded a new album, Drama, which was released in August of 1980; rather ominously, this record did dramatically better in England, reaching the number two spot, than it did in America, where it got no higher than number 18. This hybrid lineup lasted for a year, but the old Yes incarnation remained much closer to the hearts of fans; in January of 1981 Atlantic Records released Yesshows, a double-live album made up of stage performances dating from 1976 through 1978 that reached number 22 in England and number 43 in America.Finally, in April of 1981, the breakup of Yes was announced. Geoff Downes formed Asia with Steve Howe, which went on to some considerable if short-lived success in the early '80s, and the rest of the band scattered to different projects. For a year-and-a-half, the group seemed a dead issue, until Chris Squire and Alan White announced the formation of a new group called Cinema, with original Yes keyboard player Tony Kaye and South African guitarist Trevor Rabin. This band proved unsatisfactory, and Squire invited Jon Anderson to join. It was just about then that everyone realized that they'd virtually re-formed the core of the Yes lineup, and that they should simply revive the name.In late 1983, this Yes lineup, with guitarist/vocalist Trevor Horn serving as producer, released an unexpected chart-topping hit (number one in the U.S. in January of 1984) single in "Owner of a Lonely Heart," displaying a stripped-down modern dance-rock sound unlike anything the group had ever produced before. The remaining group released a successful dance-rock style album, 90125, under Horn's guidance, which sold well but also proved a dead-end, with no follow-up, when Horn chose not to remain with the group.Yes was invisible for nearly two years after that, until the late 1987 release of Big Generator, which performed only moderately well. Meanwhile, in 1986, Steve Howe reappeared as a member of the quintet GTR, whose self-titled album reached number 11 in America. The proliferation of ex-Yes members gathering together in various combinations led to an ongoing legal dispute over who owned the group name, which came to a head in 1989. Luckily for four of them, the name Anderson-Bruford-Wakeman-Howe was recognizable enough to reach the fans, which sent the resulting album into the U.S. Top 40 and the British Top 20, more or less handing them a victory by acclamation (later supported by the settlement) in their dispute over the name. By touring with An Evening of Yes Music, they presented their classic repertory to sold-out houses all over the country, including a 1990 gig at Madison Square Garden.The legal squabbles had all been settled by the spring of 1991, at which time a composite "mega Yes" group consisting of Anderson, Howe, Wakeman, Squire, Kaye, White, Rabin, and Bruford (all of the key past members except Peter Banks) embarked on a blow-out world tour (which included the filming of a video historical documentary of the band, Yesyears: The Video) called Yesshows 1991. The accompanying album, Union, which displayed a somewhat tougher sound than they'd been known for, debuted on the British charts at number seven and reached number 15 in America. This tour, which allowed the band to showcase music from all of its previous incarnations and, in the second half of the show, featured each member who wished it in a solo spot, broke more records. These mammoth three-hour shows and the resulting publicity (even news organizations that normally didn't cover rock concerts did features on the reunion) only seemed to heighten interest in the four-CD boxed set YesYears, which was released by Atlantic in 1991.By the mid-'90s, even longtime detractors of progressive rock, who loathed the band's early-'70s album-length musical excursions, conceded that Yes is the best of all the bands in their particular field of endeavor. The group continues to sell CDs in large quantity -- in 1995, Atlantic Records issued upgraded, remastered versions of the group's classic 1960s and '70s albums -- even as the work of many of their one-time rivals are consigned to the cut-out bins; and their periodic tours, as well as numerous solo albums (especially by Wakeman, Anderson, and Howe), are taken very seriously by fans and critics. Today, their music from almost every era is regarded by fans with undiminished enthusiasm, and by their critics as respectable attempts at doing something serious with rock music. Bruce Eder, All Music GuideYes discography1969 - Yes Studio US Atlantic SD 82341970 - Time And A Word Studio US Atlantic SD 82731971 - The Yes Album Studio US Atlantic SD 82831972 - Fragile Studio US Atlantic SD 72111972 - Close To The Edge Studio US Atlantic SD 72441973 - Yessongs Live US Atlantic SD 3-1001974 - Tales From Topographic Oceans Studio US Atlantic SD 2-9081974 - Relayer Studio US Atlantic SD 181221975 - Yesterdays Compilation US Atlantic SD 181031977 - Going For The One Studio US Atlantic SD 191061978 - Tormato Studio US Atlantic SD 192021980 - Drama Studio US Atlantic SD 160191980 - Yessshows Live US Atlantic SD 2-9003
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The psychedelic minstrel
Posten on: 2007-12-13 02:56:17
Donovan Philips Leitch (usually known simply as Donovan) (born May 10, 1946) is a British musician. Emerging from the British folk scene, Donovan shot to fame in Britain in early 1965 after a series of showcase TV performances. His success was initially restricted to Britain, but after signing with the American Epic Records label and joining forces with producer Mickie Most, he developed an eclectic but very successful style that blended folk, jazz, pop, psychedelia and world music.Donovan quickly rose to become one of the most famous and popular British recording artists of his day, producing a string of trans-Atlantic hit albums and singles between 1966 and 1970. He also became a close friend of The Beatles and was one of the few artists to collaborate on songs with them. Donovan's commercial fortunes waned after he parted ways with Most in 1969, and although he continued to perform and record sporadically in the Seventies and Eighties he gradually fell from favor, with his gentle musical style and 'hippie' image increasingly scorned by critics, especially after the advent of punk rock. Donovan withdrew from performing and recording several times during his long career, but underwent a strong revival of interest in the Nineties with the emergence of the rave scene in Britain. Late in the decade he recorded a successful album with noted rap producer and longtime fan Rick Rubin.Donovan grew up in Glasgow; he contracted polio as a child but fortunately suffered no permanent injury. In 1956 the family moved to Hatfield, England. Influenced by his family's love for Scottish and English folk music, he began playing guitar at fourteen. After leaving school, Donovan and longtime friend Gypsy Dave traveled for several years around Britain, busking and playing folk songs.Donovan began writing original material in the early Sixties and by late 1964 he had settled in London and signed a management and publishing contract. He recorded a ten-track demo tape, which included the original recording of his first single, 'Catch The Wind', a song that showed the unmistakable influence of Bob Dylan. Although Dylan comparisons followed him for some time, the tape also made it clear that he was already a performer of considerable skill and originality. He is a very fine acoustic guitarist and self-accompanist, a talent that is often overlooked (as it so often is with Dylan). Woody Guthrie was another obvious inspiration, but other significant influences in his formative years included Rambling Jack Elliott, Derroll Adams and Mac MacLeod.While recording the demo Donovan became friends with Brian Jones of The Rolling Stones and Jones's girlfriend of the time, Linda Lawrence. She had already had a son to Jones, but when she met Donovan her relationship with Jones was breaking up. She and Donovan subsequently became lovers and eventually married (they are still together). Linda became Donovan's muse and was to have a profound effect on his music, inspiring songs including, 'Catch The Wind', 'Legend Of A Girl Child Linda' and 'Season Of The Witch'.Donovan had a meteoric rise to stardom. His demo tape was heard by Elkan Allen, producer of the television pop show Ready, Steady, Go, who was so impressed that he invited the unknown 18-year-old to appear on the show. Donovan made his TV debut on 6 February 1965. Unusually for pop programs of this time, he played and sang live, his guitar emblazoned with the words "This Machine Kills" -- a direct reference to Woody Guthrie, whose own guitar bore the famous slogan "This Machine Kills Fascists". He was so well-received that he was invited back for the next two weeks, and immediately afterwards he was signed to a recording contract with Pye Records, whose other major pop acts were The Kinks and Petula Clark.Donovan's first UK single, a new version of 'Catch The Wind', was released soon after his third TV appearance; it was a hugely successful debut, shooting to #4 on the U.K. charts and selling more than 200,000 copies. On 11 April he performed with the biggest stars of the day at the annual New Musical Express poll winners' concert at the Empire Pool, Wembley. The single was subsequently released on the small Hickory label in the USA, where it managed an impressive #30 chart placing.Donovan's early musical style and appearance led to him being perceived and promoted as a British version of Bob Dylan and this brought with it a certain degree of criticism from folk purists, who wrongly assumed him to be a simple Dylan imitator. Not surprisingly, the meeting between the two musicians in April 1965 made headlines. However, although initially wary, Dylan was impressed by the young musician, as can be seen in D.A. Pennebaker's film of Dylan's '65 UK tour, Don't Look Back (which was released in 1967). As a result, Donovan was invited to tour with Dylan and Joan Baez.Donovan's second single 'Colours' was released in May, reaching #4, accompanied by his debut LP for Pye, 'What's Been Did And What's Been Hid', which reached #3 in the UK album charts. Retitled "Catch The Wind" for the US, it reached #30 there. He made his first trip to the USA at this time, performing in New York with Pete Seeger and Reverend Gary Davis and appearing on Hullaballoo and Shindig, as well as performing to critical and audience acclaim at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival in July.His next recording was a four-track EP, "Universal Soldier", which included his classic cover of the Buffy Saint-Marie title track, along with three other overtly anti-war tracks. This was quite a radical move for an emerging pop performer -- the Vietnam War still had majority popular support in 1965 and Donovan's pioneering pacifist stance is conveniently overlooked by his critics; nor would this be his last anti-war recording. Despite its contentious subject matter, it was a significant commercial success, topping the British EP chart for eight weeks and even reaching #14 on the singles chart. It was also released in Australia, where it reached #17 on the singles chart.'Colours' was also released in the USA but it charted poorly, reaching #40 on the Cash Box charts but only #61 on the Billboard chart. At this stage, Donovan's American success was greater in sales than in radio airplay, since American Top 40 radio tended to avoid folk recordings, preferring more highly arranged pop records. The Catch The Wind LP set the pattern for most of his American releases, which tended to chart better in Cash Box than Billboard, reflecting the fact that Billboard's charts factored in radio airplay, whilst Cash Box did not.A single version of "Universal Soldier" was issued in the USA in late August 1965 but it repeated the mediocre chart performance of 'Colours', reaching only #45 in Cash Box and #53 in Billboard. Pye released Donovan's second UK album, "'Fairy Tale"', in October 1966, along with his next single, 'Turquoise'. These too were less successful than his previous releases, with the album only reaching #20 and the single peaking at #30. Donovan made a second US tour in November, and Hickory released the American version of Fairy Tale later that month but, as in the UK, it did charted much lower than the first LP, only reaching #85.In late 1965 Donovan split with his original managers and signed with Ashley Kozak, who was working for Brian Epstein's NEMS Enterprises. Kozak introduced Donovan to American impresario Allen Klein (who would later take over management of The Rolling Stones) and Klein in turn introduced Donovan to producer Mickie Most, who was then riding high on the success of his chart-topping productions with The Animals and Herman's Hermits.Most produced almost all of Donovan's best recordings. The tracks they cut together represent some of the finest UK pop releases of the period, and feature the cream of the London session scene, including Jack Bruce, Danny Thompson and future Led Zeppelin members John Paul Jones and Jimmy Page. Many of the earlier Donovan-Most recordings were backed by jazz musicians, the most regular players being Danny Thompson (from Pentangle (group)) or Spike Heatley on upright bass, Tony Carr on drums and congas, John Cameron on piano and Harold McNair on sax and flute. Carr's distinctive conga style and McNair's flute are an intrinsic feature of many of Donovan's recordings, and both players also toured the U.S with Donovan.It has been claimed that Donovan introduced Page and Jones to each other and that this essentially created Led Zeppelin. In fact, Jones and Page had already known each other for several years -- they were among the top freelance pop musicians in London at that time, and worked on literally hundreds of well-known British recordings in that period, until Page retired from session work in 1967 to join The Yardbirds. Nevertheless, Donovan himself has stated that the 'heavier' sound of his 1967 single 'Hurdy Gurdy Man' had a definite influence on Page and Jones, although it is now generally accepted that the duo's work on the Jeff Beck single 'Beck's Bolero' (with drummer Keith Moon) was the real genesis of the Led Zeppelin style.By 1966 Donovan had shed the overt Dylan/Guthrie influences and became one of the first British pop musicians to adopt a 'flower power' image. More importantly, his music was developing and changing rapidly as he immersed himself in jazz, blues, eastern music and the new generation of US West Coast bands. He was now entering his most creative and original phase as a songwriter and recording artist, working in close collaboration with Mickie Most and arranger, musician and jazz fan John Cameron.The first fruit of their collaboration was the track 'Sunshine Superman'. One of the very first overtly psychedelic pop records, it was an innovative and eclectic blend of folk, rock, pop and jazz; the arrangement was augmented by prominent harpsichord, and set against a funky conga-driven backbeat. It also contained subtle but unmistakable references to LSD, notably the line "coulda tripped out easy, but I changed my way".Donovan's rapid rise temporarily stalled in December 1965 when Billboard broke news of the impending production deal between Klein, Most and Donovan, and then reported that Donovan was about to sign with CBS Records in the U.S.. Despite Kozak's strenuous denials, Pye Records abruptly dropped the new single from their release schedule and a lengthy contractual wrangle ensued. As a result of this dispute, Donovan's subsequent U.K. and U.S. record releases differed markedly, with most of his LP being released in different forms on either side of the Atlantic and several significant album tracks from the late Sixties were not available locally in the UK for many years.The legal dispute dragged on into early 1966, so during the hiatus Donovan holidayed in Greece, where he wrote one of his best songs, the wistful 'Writer In The Sun', inspired by the rumors that his recording career was over; he also toured the USA, playing some sparsely attended gigs. Returning to London, he collaborated with The Beatles, contributing lyrics (and uncredited backing vocals) to the song Yellow Submarine, which was recorded at Abbey Road Studios on 26 May 1966.By late 1966 the American contractual problems had been resolved and Donovan signed a $100,000 deal with the CBS subsidiary Epic Records. Donovan and Most then headed to CBS Studios in Los Angeles where they recorded the tracks for a new LP, much of which had been formulated and written over the preceding year. Although folk elements were still prominent, the album showed the increasing influence of jazz, American west coast psychedelia and folk-rock, especially The Byrds, whose records Donovan had been listening to constantly through 1965.The LP sessions were completed in May and Sunshine Superman was released in the USA as a single in June. It was a huge success, providing Donovan with the crucial American chart breakthrough, selling 800,000 copies in just six weeks and and eventually reaching #1. The LP followed in August, preceded by advance orders of 250,000 copies, and it reached #11 on the US album charts.The U.S. version of the Sunshine Superman LP is probably the best, most consistent and most durable of Donovan's albums, it remains one of the keynote records of the psychedelic era. It boasts superb songs throughout, with restrained but imaginative chamber-style arrangements featuring an eclectic range of instruments including acoustic bass, sitar, saxophone, tablas and congas, harpsichord, strings and oboe. Highlights include the swinging 'The Fat Angel', written for 'Mama' Cass Elliott of The Mamas And The Papas. The song is also notable for namechecking cult San Francisco acid-rock band Jefferson Airplane, well before they became known internationally. Other standout tracks include 'Bert's Blues', (a tribute to British folk legend Bert Jansch), the stately 'Guinevere' and 'Legend Of A Girl Child Linda' which ran for almost seven minutes.In contrast to the pastoral tone of the rest of the album, several songs, including the title track, had a decidedly harder edge. The driving, jazzy 'The Trip' (titled after the L.A. club of the same name) features sitar by American folk singer Shawn Phillips, and was loaded with references to Donovan's sojourn on the West Coast, namechecking both Dylan and Baez. The third 'heavy' song, destined to became one of his most enduring recordings, was a brooding, portentous number called 'Season Of The Witch'. Recorded with a pick-up band he had met in an L.A. club, it featured Donovan's first recorded performance on electric rhythm guitar. The song was covered by Brian Auger on his first LP in 1967 and the Donovan version was used to great effect, years later, in the memorable closing sequence of the Gus Van Zant film To Die For, starring Nicole Kidman.Because of the contractual problems, the album was not released in the UK for another nine months, and then in an altered form -- it had a different track order and omitted three important tracks, 'The Fat Angel', 'The Trip' and 'Ferris Wheel', replacing them with ' Hampstead Incident' , 'Young Girl Blues', 'Writer In The Sun' and 'Sand And Foam'.On 24 October 1966 Epic released the rollicking, brass-laden single 'Mellow Yellow', arranged by John Paul Jones and featuring Paul McCartney on uncredited backing vocals. Although it was rumoured at the time that the phrase "electrical banana" referred to the practice of smoking banana peels to get high, it appears that it was actually a coded reference to a vibrator -- the earlier line "I'm just mad about Fourteen" leaves little room for doubt that the primary theme of the song was sexual. Nevertheless, became Donovan's signature tune and was a huge commercial success -- it reached #2 in Billboard, #3 in Cash Box and earned a gold record award for sales of more than one million copies in the U.S.During the first half of 1967 Donovan worked on an ambitious new studio project. In January he gave a major concert at the Royal Albert Hall accompanied by a ballerina, who danced during a twelve-minute performance of the song 'Golden Apples'. On 14 January New Musical Express reported that he was to write incidental music for a National Theatre production of 'As You Like It', but nothing came of the proposal.Later that month Epic released a new LP, Mellow Yellow, which reached #14 in the album charts, and a new non-album single, 'Epistle To Dippy', a Top 20 hit in the USA. Written in the form of an open letter to an old school friend, the song had a strong pacifist subtext, in spite of its florid psychedelic imagery -- the real 'Dippy' was at the time serving in the British Army in Malaysia. According to Brian Hogg, who wrote the liner notes for the Donovan boxed set Troubadour, Dippy heard the song, contacted Donovan and left the army as a result.On 9 February 1967 Donovan was one of the guests invited by The Beatles to join them at Abbey Road Studios for the final orchestral overdub session for the brilliant Lennon-McCartney collaboration 'A Day In The Life', the grand finale to their new opus Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.Donovan became the first high-profile British pop star to be arrested for possession of marijuana, which evidently occurred some time in late 1966. In Donovan's case, his drug use was evidently moderate, and seems to have been mostly restricted to pot smoking -- certainly he was not indulging on the Herculean scale of friends like John Lennon, Jimi Hendrix and Brian Jones.Attention was first drawn to his marijuana use by a 1966 TV documentary, which showed the singer and some friends sharing a joint. The subsequent bust gained a great deal of publicity and in early 1967, Donovan was the subject of an expose by the British tabloid News Of The World (owned by Australian media magnate Rupert Murdoch); it was the first instalment of a controversial three-part series "Drugs & Pop Stars - Facts That Will Shock You". Although some claims were probably true, others were completely false. The most notorious instance was that of the Murdoch reporter who claimed to have spent an entire evening with Mick Jagger, who (he claimed) openly discussed his drug use and offered drugs to his companions. Only after publication was it discovered that the reporter had actually mistaken Brian Jones for Jagger (who promptly sued the paper).Among the supposed revelations were claims that Donovan and other leading pop stars including members of The Who, Cream, The Rolling Stones and The Moody Blues regularly smoked marijuana, used other illicit drugs, and held parties where the recently banned hallucinogen LSD was used, specifically naming The Who's Pete Townshend and Cream's Ginger Baker as LSD users.It emerged later that Murdoch's reporters were using their access to pop stars to gather information and then pass it on to the police. In the late 1990s, an article published in The Guardian revealed that it was News Of The World reporters who had tipped off the police about the party at Keith Richard's house, 'Redlands', which was famously raided in the early hours of 12 February 1967, just after George Harrison and his girlfriend had left.Although Donovan's bust was nowhere near as sensational as the later arrests of Jagger and Richards, it had one especially unfortunate outcome -- because of the charges, he was refused entry to the United States until late in 1967, and so was unable to give his scheduled performance at the epoch-making Monterey International Pop Festival in June of that year.In July Epic released the single 'There Is A Mountain', which went Top Ten in the U.S. and was later covered by The Allman Brothers. In September he undertook a new tour of the United States. This time he was backed by a small jazz group and accompanied by his father, who introduced the show. Dressed in a flowing white robe, the stage decked with feathers, flowers and incense, Donovan played to a packed house at the Phliharmonic Hall in New York. His performance was rapturously received and immortalised by Lillian Roxon in her Rock Encylopedia. A similarly ecstatic performance at the Hollywood Bowl was followed by a notable landmark; Donovan's interview with writer John Carpenter became the first ever Rolling Stone interview in the magazine's debut issue, published on 9 November 1967. Donovan's concert at the Anaheim Convention Centre on 23 September was recorded and released as a live LP the following year.Later in July 1967 Epic released Donovan's fourth album, an ambitious 2-disc set entitled A Gift From A Flower To A Garden, one of the first rock music boxed sets and only the third pop-rock double-album ever released. It was split thematically into two halves. The first record, subtitled "Wear Your Love Like Heaven", was written for the people of his generation that would one day be parents; the second, subtitled "For Little Ones", was a collection of songs Donovan had written especially for the coming children. Worried that it might be a poor seller, Epic boss Clive Davis insisted that the albums be split and sold separately in the U.S., but his fears were unfounded -- although it took some time, the boxed set sold steadily, peaking at #19 on the US charts and achieving gold record status in the U.S. in early 1970.The psychedelic and mystical overtones of the work were unmistakable -- the front cover featured a heavily solarized photograph of Donovan dressed in a robe and holding flowers and peacock feathers, while the back cover photo showed him holding hands with Indian guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. But surprisingly, the liner notes included an appeal from Donovan for young people to give up the use of all drugs -- a decidedly un-hip stance for a rock musician at the height of the Summer Of Love. His early public disavowal of drugs was no doubt motivated in part by his drug bust, but he was and remains strongly opposed to hard drugs -- a belief that was no doubt reinforced by the rapid physcial and mental decline of his friend Brian Jones.In late 1967 Donovan contributed a several songs to the soundtrack of the Ken Loach film Poor Cow. The title track (Originally called 'Poor Love') was released as the B-side of his next single, 'Jennifer Juniper', a song inspired by Jenny Boyd, sister of George Harrison's girlfriend, Patti Boyd. It was another Top 40 hit in the USA.Like The Beatles, Donovan's developed a strong interest in eastern mysticism, and in late 1967 he travelled to India, where he spent several months at the ashram of the Maharishi in Rishikesh. The visit gained worldwide media attention thanks to the presence of (for a time) all four Beatles as well as Beach Boys lead singer Mike Love, actress Mia Farrow and her sister Prudence (who inspired John Lennon to write 'Dear Prudence'). In was during this time that Donovan taught John Lennon the finger picking styles like the claw hammer which Donovan had himself learned from his St Albans buddy Mac MacLeod. Lennon went on to use thetechnique on songs including Julia and Dear Prudence.Released in May 1968, his next single was the swirling psychedelic nugget 'The Hurdy Gurdy Man', a song he originally intended for his old friend and guitar mentor Mac MacLeod who had a heavy rock band called Hurdy Gurdy. Donovan had also considered giving it to Jimi Hendrix, but when Mickie Most heard it, he convinced Donovan that the song was a sure-fire single and that he should record it himself. Donovan tried to get Hendrix to play on the recording, but he was on tour and unavailable for the session. In his place they brought in a brilliant young British guitarist, Allan Holdsworth. Jimmy Page also played on the session, and it is believed that John Paul Jones may have played bass with (possibly) John Bonham on drums. If so, this would make it the first recorded performance featuring the three future members of Led Zeppelin. Both Jones and Page have stated that the idea of Led Zeppelin was formed during the Hurdy Gurdy Man sessions.The heavier sound of 'Hurdy Gurdy Man' was a deliberate attempt by Most and Donovan to try and reach a wider audience in the United States, where the new hard rock sounds of groups like Cream and The Jimi Hendrix Experience were having a major impact. Most's commercial instincts were spot-on, and the song became one of Donovan's biggest hits, going Top 5 in both the UK and the USA and Top 10 in Australia.The same month, he recorded an even rockier single, the snarling, funky, freakbeat classic 'Goo Goo Barabajagal', a song which gained him an avid following on the rave scene decades later. This time he was backed by the original incarnation of The Jeff Beck Group, featuring Beck on lead guitar, Ron Wood on bass, Nicky Hopkins on piano and Micky Waller on drums. Not coincidentally, they were also under contract to Most at the time and it was Most's idea to team them with Donovan, another attempt to bring a heavier sound to Donovan's work, whlie also introducing a more lyrical edge to Beck's. However it was some time before these recordings saw the light of day. The two tracks cut with the Beck Group -- ('Barabajagal' and the single's eventual B-side 'Trudi') -- plus three others, 'Happiness Runs, Superlungs (My Supergirl) and Where Is She?, were shelved for almost a year.In July 1968 Epic released Donovan In Concert, the recording of his Anaheim concert in September 1967. Featuring a cover painting by Donovan himself, it is notable for its long running time, its mellow jazzy feel and its excellent sound, with Donovan again leading the pack by being one of the first major pop artists of his era to release a live LP. Among the tracks (which include only two of his big hits) is Epistle To Derroll, a tribute to one of his formative influences, Derroll Adams, as well as length versions of Young Girl Blues and The Pebble And The Man, a song later reworked and retitled as Happiness Runs.During the summer of 1968 Donovan worked on a second LP of children's songs, subsequently released as the double album H.M.S. Donovan. In September Epic released a new single, Lalena, a subdued acoustic ballad which only managed to reach the low 30s in the US charts. The album The Hurdy Gurdy Man followed; it continued the style of the Mellow Yellow LP and reached a creditable #20 in America, in spite of the fact that it contained several earlier hits including the title track and Jennifer Juniper.After another US tour in the autumn he again collaborated with Paul McCartney, who was producing Post Card, the debut LP by recently discovered Welsh singing sensation Mary Hopkin. Hopkin covered two Donovan songs -- Lord Of The Reedy River and I Love My Shirt. McCartney returned the favour by performing (uncredited) playing tambourine and singing backing vocals on Donovan's next single, the anthemic Atlantis, which was released in Britain (with I Love My Shirt as the B-side) in late November and reached #23.At the start of 1969 the comedy film If It's Tuesday It Must Be Belgium was released, featuring music by Donovan. On 20 January Epic released the single, To Susan On The West Coast Waiting, with 'Atlantis' as the B-side. The A-side, a gentle calypso-styled song with a pointed anti-war message, was a moderate Top 40 US hit, but when DJs in America and Australia flipped it and began playing Atlantis heavily, it became a major hit, making the Top Ten in both countries in spite of its decidedly 'hippy-dippy' subject matter, a lengthy spoken introduction and its four-minute-plus running time.In March 1969 (too soon to include Atlantis on the album) Epic and Pye released Donovan's Greatest Hits, which included several songs previously only available as singles -- Epistle To Dippy, There Is A Mountain and Lalena, as well as Colours and Catch The Wind, which had until then been unavailable to Epic because of Donovan's contractual problems. It became the most successful album of his career -- it reached #4 in the US, became a million-selling gold record and stayed on the Billboard album chart for more than a year.In July Donovan performed at the famous Rolling Stones free concert in Hyde Park, London, which was in part a memorial to his old friend, Brian Jones, who had died only days before. Also that month the long-delayed Barabajagal single was finally released, reaching #12 in the U.K. but charting less strongly in the U.S. The Barabajagal album followed in August, reaching #23 in America.Growing tension between Mickie Most and Donovan came to a head in late 1969 when they argued about the conduct of a recording session in Los Angeles. Most later explained that he had objected to 'hangers-on' in the studio and "a lot of goings-on that I didn't like" and he gave Donovan an ultimatum -- he was paying for the session, he said, and Donovan could either do it his way or take a walk. Donovan declared that he wanted to record with someone else, and their hugely successful partnership came to an abrupt end. They would not work together again until 1973's Cosmic Wheels.After the rift, Donovan disappeared, apparently to Greece, re-emerging six months later to begin work on his next LP. The eventual result, which was both titled and credited to Open Road, came out in late 1970 and was a marked departure from his earlier work. Stripping the sound back a rock trio format, he dubbed the sound "Celtic rock"; the album was moderately successful but it marked the start of a gradual decline in his popularity and commercial fortunes, and his concert appearances became increasingly rare from this time forward.The largely self-produced chlidren's album H.M.S Donovan was released in 1971 but failed to gain a wide audience. It was followed in early 1973 by his reunion with Mickie Most, the LP Cosmic Wheels; it was to be his last major chart success, reaching the Top 40 in both America and Britain. Later in the year he released Essence To Essence, produced by Andrew Loog Oldham and a live album recorded in Japan, which featured a previously unheard version of Hurdy Gurdy Man that included a verse written by George Harrison.His later output included the albums 7-Tease (1974) and Slow Down World (1976). The 1978 LP Donovan reunited him for the last time with Mickie Most but fell on deaf ears at the height of the New Wave period. It was followed by Neutronica (1980), Love Is Only Feeling (1981), Lady Of The Stars (1984), and a 1990 live album featuring new performances of his classic songs.Sony's definitive 2-CD boxed set Troubadour (1992) did much to restore his reputation, and was followed by the long-overdue 1994 release of Four Donovan Originals, which saw his four classic Epic LPs released on CD in their original form for the first time in the UK. He found a seemingly unlikely ally in famed rap producer and Def Jam label owner Rick Rubin, who was in fact a longtime fan; Rubin financed and produced Donovan's critically acclaimed 1996 album Sutras.Donovan also provided songs for the 1971 movie The Pied Piper, in which he also starred, and for Brother Sun, Sister Moon (1973), Franco Zeffirelli's film about St Francis of Assisi. The title song from the Zeffirelli film provded Donovan with an unexpected publishing windfall in 1974 when it was covered as the B-side of the million-selling U.S. Top 5 hit 'The Lord's Prayer', by Australia's singing nun Sister Janet Mead.
Posted in: Biography | Donovan | 0 Comments
Brilliant mid 60's rock innovation
Posten on: 2007-12-13 02:17:23
Original members included Chris Dreja (born November 11, 1944, in Surbiton, London, England) rhythm guitar, then bass; Jim McCarty (born July 25, 1943, in Liverpool, Merseyside, England), drums; Keith Relf (born March 22, 1943, in Richmond, London; died of electrocution, May 14, 1976), vocals, harmonica; Paul SamwellSmith (born May 8, 1944, in Richmond; left group 1966), bass; and Anthony "Top" Topham (born in 1947 in England; left group 1963), lead guitar.Other members included Jeff Beck (born June 24, 1944, in Wellington, London; joined group 1965; left group 1966), lead guitar; Eric Clapton (born Eric Patrick Clapp, March 30, 1945, in Ripley, Derbys, England; joined group 1963; left group 1965), lead guitar; Jimmy Page (born April 9, 1944, in London; joined group 1966), bass, then rhythm guitar, then lead guitar.Relf, Samwell-Smith, Dreja, and Topham met at London's Kingston Art School, 1963; band originally called the Metropolitan Blues Quartet; performed in Richmond and London clubs; became house band at Crawdaddy club, 1963; backed Sonny Boy Williamson on tour, 1963; signed with EMI/Columbia (in U.K.), 1964; supported the Beatles, Paris, 1965; toured U.S., 1965; toured Australia and Far East, 1967; appeared in film Blow Up, 1967; disbanded, 1968. Page went on to form the New Yardbirds, which became Led Zeppelin.Although the British rock and roll scene of the 1960s introduced bands more popular and longer-lived than the Yardbirds, only a few can match that august quintet for their lasting influence. Extant only from 1963 to 1968, the Yardbirds were crucial to the development of rock and roll from its roots in rhythm and blues to its growth into psychedelia and heavy metal. At the heart of the band's distinctive sound were three of rock's most gifted guitarists: Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page. Each shouldered lead guitar duties during the band's brief history—Beck and Page simultaneously at one point—and their technical innovations, as well as the prominence they have achieved since, have combined to create a Yardbirds legacy that has lasted considerably longer than the band itself.The Yardbirds were born of the same early 1960s London rhythm and blues club scene that produced the Rolling Stones. The original lineup included Keith Relf on vocals, Chris Dreja on rhythm guitar, Jim McCarty on drums, Paul Samwell-Smith on bass, and Anthony "Top" Topham on lead guitar. By the end of 1963, Eric Clapton had taken Topham's place (the latter going back to school), and the Yardbirds were developing an enthusiastic following both in London and on the southern Home Counties club circuit. Enthusiasm for the group rivaled that of the Stones, but while both bands played the same R&B standards, the Yardbirds remained more faithful to the material onstage.When the Rolling Stones moved beyond the local club circuit, the Yardbirds took over their spot as house band at the legendary Crawdaddy club. Their shows became famous for "rave ups," the term used by the group to describe their method of constantly increasing the tempo during a set in order to push the crowd into a frenzy. 1964 saw the release of the band's first album in England, Five Live Yardbirds, which featured performances at the Marquee Club. Though the group's renowned live performances did not translate into commercial success for the album, the Yardbirds' reputation continued to spread. They toured Europe as the backing band for veteran blues performer Sonny Boy Williamson, whose songs they regularly covered. In 1965, an album from that tour was released on both sides of the Atlantic, but Williamson had top billing and the Yardbirds remained hitless.The fivesome finally hit the charts later in 1965 with the driving single "For Your Love," but the song created strife within the band, written specially for the Yardbirds by Graham Gouldman, later of 10cc, "For Your Love" marked a departure from the group's focus on the blues. Upset by this sacrifice of their roots for the sake of commercial success, Clapton left. Still, neither he nor the band suffered because of the break; while Clapton went on to join John Mayall's Bluesbreakers—during his tenure with that group the graffito "Clapton Is God" began appearing on walls around London—and later formed the seminal power trio Cream, the Yardbirds recruited another highly respected local guitarist, Jeff Beck, to take his place, and their fame continued to grow. "For Your Love" hit the Number Three spot on the U.K. singles chart and went to Number Six in the U.S. And in the fall of 1965, the new lineup mounted their first American tour, on the heels of their first American album release, For Your Love, which would only make it to Number 96. Later in the year the Yardbirds became regulars on a celebrated weekly British radio show.Their next U.S. release, Having a Rave Up With the Yardbirds, debuted in late 1965 and managed to hit Number 53. Four of the cuts on Rave Up were recorded before Clapton's departure; the rest featured Beck on lead guitar. The album, firmly rooted in blues-based rock, spawned another hit single written by Gouldman, "Heart Full of Soul," which climbed to Number Two in the U.K. and Number Nine stateside. It also featured psychedelic experimentation, evidenced on "Still I'm Sad," a British Number Three hit based on a Gregorian chant. The bands next record, Over Under Sideways Down, moved even further toward psychedelia, both lyrically and in Beck's innovative guitar work. The title cut was a Top Ten hit in the U.K. and reached Number 11 in America; the single "Shapes of Things" went to Number Three at home and again, to Number 11 in the U.S. The album, however, failed to rise above Number 52 stateside.By this time the Yardbirds had established themselves as an outstanding rock outfit, but dissension again wrought change; in June of 1966, Samwell-Smith left to give his full attention to producing records. To counter this loss, Dreja switched from rhythm guitar to bass, and Jimmy Page stepped in to assume the role of rhythm guitarist. Already one of the most sought-after session musicians in London, Page had turned down an offer to join the band when Clapton bowed out. The next month, the Yardbirds issued their first, self-titled studio album, which ascended to the Number 20 spot on the U.K chart.Shortly after Page arrived, Beck developed health problems—in April of 1966, according to Rock Movers & Shakers, he was hospitalized in France with suspected meningitis—that forced his extended absence from the band; at that point, the ever-versatile Page took over on lead guitar. When Beck recovered and returned to the group, he and Page shared lead duties—the Yardbirds thus boasting two of the greatest axemen rock has ever seen. Still, Beck and Page did have their moments of discord. Page looked pack at their pairing in a 1992 interview in Guitar Player: "I was doing what I was supposed to, while something totally different would be coming from Jeff. That was alright for improvisation, but there were other parts where it just did not work. Jeff had discipline occasionally, in that when he's on, he's probably the best there is. But at that time he had no respect for audiences. When I joined the band, he supposedly wasn't going to walk off anymore. Well, he did a couple of times." Beck left the group in 1966, making the quintet a quartet.While the Yardbirds continued to play to packed houses, 1967 brought no hit singles in the U.S. Their album of that year, Little Games, consisted mostly of material that the band reportedly never intended to release (in fact, they successfully prevented the release of Little Games in the U.K.); it was received poorly by both critics and the public. But that year also saw the unveiling of The Yardbirds' Greatest Hits, their first and only album to make Billboard's Top 40.In 1968 the Yardbirds tried once again to infiltrate the U.S. singles chart, but their goal eluded them. By this time, various members of the band had decided to go their separate ways. Beck left first and, after recording two solo singles, formed the Jeff Beck Group with vocalist Rod Stewart and guitarist Ron Wood. Relf and McCarty performed as a folk duet called Together, then helped form Renaissance, which continued some of the experimentation with various musical styles that they had begun with the Yardbirds. Relf died in 1976 from an electric shock sustained while playing guitar at his home. Dreja, after initially casting his lot with Page, eventually left music for photography. Perhaps the most significant development for rock following the demise of the Yardbirds, however, was the result of contractual obligations for a concert tour of Scandinavia. Page inherited the band's name and the responsibility for fulfilling the northern dates, so he recruited three other musicians and performed with them as the New Yardbirds. When Page and his new crew—drummer John Bonham, bassist John Paul Jones, and vocalist Robert Plant—returned to England, the New Yardbirds became Led Zeppelin (after Who drummer Keith Moon's pet description for a catastrophic concert—"going down like a lead Zeppelin").The five-year life of the Yardbirds weathered major changes in the nature of rock, and more than most bands, the Yardbirds aided in the transformation. As author and rock critic Dave Marsh stated in Rolling Stone, "The Yardbirds helped introduce almost every technical innovation in the rock of the period: feedback, modal playing, fuzztone, etc. Their influence can't be overestimated. Cream, Led Zeppelin, and heavy metal in general would have been inconceivable without them." And though the Yardbirds did not achieve mass popularity during the British Invasion that carried them to the U.S., their 1992 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame attests to the enduring impact that their songwriting and musicianship has had on the character of rock.Yadbirds discography"For Your Love," 1965."Heart Full of Soul," 1965."Over Under Sideways Down," 1966."Shapes of Things," 1966.Albums (U.S.); on Epic, except as notedSonny Boy Williamson and the Yardbirds, Mercury, 1965.For Your Love, 1965.Having a Rave Up With the Yardbirds. 1965.Over Under Sideways Down, 1966.The Yardbirds'Greatest Hits, 1967.Little Games, 1967.Five Live Yardbirds, Rhino, 1988.The Yardbirds: Little Games Sessions and More, EMI, 1992.
Posted in: Biography | Yardbirds | 0 Comments
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