Totty formed 1975 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA by brothers Dennis and Byron Totty. A Christian Hard Rock trio, with a tight rhythm section, hard and powerful with great songs like the 8-minute "Somebody Help Me" or the early Prog Rock "Crack In The Cosmic Egg", if you like the so-called underground 70's Hard Rock, then Totty is for your tastes. If you like heavy guitar sound from the 70's then this is for you, or if you like bands like Montrose, Granicus or Nitzinger then you will love them.
This blasting album was originally recorded in 1976 in promo format (white cover) and in 50 copies only, for promotional-advertising purposes only. In 1977 it was released regularly in record stores, with a changed cover by an independent record company, of course it did not have any huge commercial success, the usually result for independent self-financed productions. After years the collectors of forgotten vinyl found it and it came back in part, the original vinyl copy costs around 250-300 euros, while the reissue costs 20.
Totty's influences are plentiful, most often reminiscent of bands such as Led Zeppelin, Lynyrd Skynyrd and ZZ Top, but also bands such as Outlaws, Cain, Truth & Janey or Missouri. So it is a power-trio that plays hot hard 70's Hard Rock with some Boogie, Psych Rock and Prog Rock, but also Southern Rock music passages. This is a really good Hard Rock album, sometimes its sound is very heavy and with a hard approach, the vocals sound a little weird, hoarse and rough like those of Ted Nugent.
Oklahoma Desert Totty give us an intensely Hard Rock album with songs like "T-Town Teasers", "Crack In The Cosmic Egg", "Somebody Help Me" and "Wicked Truth", which sound like to have come straight from the records of the biggest and most remarkable bands of that era. It keeps the flame of the hot 70's burning inside. A reliable cult obscure Hard Rock album. After another album, "Too", which is less harsh than its predecessor, the Totty finally disbanded in 1981. In 1994 brothers Dennis and Byron Totty returned to the music scene with the EP "Rock-n-Okie Roll", but under the name Totty Brothers.
by Elias Kostopoulos
Tracks
1. Thus Saith The Lord - 1:30
2. T-Town Teasers - 2:41
3. Crack In The Cosmic Egg - 5:04
4. Love Down By One Share (Love Song To A Whore) - 4:57
Mick Softley was a troubador in the classic mould; a drifter with a guitar slung over his shoulder, his songs drawn from his surroundings and his wonderful singing voice inflamed by social passion (a Londoner, his mother had worked for a time in the offices of Sylvia and Christabel Pankhurst). In the winter of 1959 he lost his job as an apprentice engineer and set off for Spain to follow his muse, with a mate of his, another Mick, on the back of a motorbike - which with almost tidal inevitability broke down. Eventually Softley found himself in Paris where he hooked up with numerous other dispossessed British beatniks, including Wizz Jones, Clive Palmer and Alex Campbell, who encouraged and mentored the inexeperienced singer. Returning to the UK in the early 60s, Softley discovered that the folk-protest movement was in full swing, and gripped by artistic fervour he started up a folk club in Hemel Hempstead, soon to be home to the likes of Mac MacLeod, Maddy Prior - and a young singer named Donovan Leitch, who by 1965 rapidly, meteroically almost, became a bona-fide star. Luckily Donovan remembered the favours he owed to Softley and it was through him that Softley’s debut album ‘Songs for Swinging Survivors’ came to be recorded – Donovan also recorded a couple of Softley songs on his debut records, including ‘The War Drags On’ on his EP ‘The Universal Soldier’ which made the Top Ten.
After a lengthy spell of wandering, it was Donovan who convinced Softley to record again in 1970, introducing him to producer Terry Cox who had by that time already worked with Sandy Denny, the Fairports, Yes and (the today sadly overlooked) Allan Taylor. Cox assembled a truly phenomenal cast of musicians to back the singer, including Trees’ guitarist Barry Clark, Fotheringay’s Jerry Donahue, Pat Donaldson and Gerry Conway, plus Lyn Dobson, Richard Thompson and Doris Troy, and together they recorded three albums – including the two reissues to hand now. Times had changed, folk was no longer fashionable and although this was the era of “progressive rock”, it was also the heyday of the singer/songwriter with artists like Cat Stevens, Jackson Browne and James Taylor dominating the US, and in Britain home-grown acts such as Roy Harper, John Martyn and Nick Drake all rising to prominence. Mick Softley’s incredible singing voice plus the fact that he had matured as a songwriter meant that his music was now easily as good as any of his contemporaries, and Tony Cox’s lush arrangements and production was quite simply the icing on the cake.
‘Sunrise’, the debut LP for CBS released in 1970, arrived in a full-colour gatefold sleeve and was filled with songs about earth, nature and the universe, Softley’s concerns by now being more environmental (and bodily!) than social. The stand-out track is arguably ‘Time Machine’, a song about reincarnation which became Mick’s best known song, thanks largely to it being included on the ‘Rock Buster’ double compilation LP from CBS which also featured tracks by Dylan, Soft Machine, Spirit, the Byrds, It’s a Beautiful Day, Johnny & Edgar Winter, Santana, Trees, Robert Wyatt and Poco. That sold a few copies! I well remember it being a regular in almost every second-hand shop “record bin” well into the 1980s. Another cut from the album, the exquisite ‘Waterfall’, also appeared on the CBS ‘Together’ sampler. ‘Ship’s another personal favourite, with a stunning lead guitar line from Barry Clarke and a synthesiser adding a suitably spaceward-bound rumble to the proceedings as the ship in question blasts into orbit; and the long closing track ‘Love Colours’ has an eastern feel thanks to some sitar from reedsman Lyn Dobson.
‘Street Singer’ followed in 1971 and, despite (or maybe because of?) featuring even richer and more expansive production values to ‘Sunrise’, it’s a patchy album in comparison – helped in no small part to my mind by the inclusion of some good-timey jazz and ragtime pieces, enormously clever and probably hilarious in the studio when performed by the musos present but not really bearing repeated listenings. There’s a few nice moments of Softley uplugged though, particularly ‘Gypsy’ which features some tasty harmonica playing from Steve Hayton (of Daddy Longlegs!) and the Donovon-esque ‘Water Sister Water Brother’. The closing ‘New Day, New Way’ gives the album a rousing climax – one of my own favourite pieces on here with some striking backing vocals from Doris Troy.
After one more album, ‘Any Mother Doesn’t Grumble’, Softley once again drifted away from the scene for ten years or so – eventually recording three now extremely hard to find solo acoustic albums for Doll Records of Switzerland, and subsequently retiring to Ireland.
by Phil McMullen
Tracks
Disc 1 Sunrise 1970
1. Can You Hear Me Now? - 2:46
2. Waterfall - 2:09
3. Eagle - 4:25
4. Julia Argoyne - 2:30
5. Caravan - 3:03
6. If You're Not Part Of The Solution, You Must Be Part Of The Problem - 2:50
The autumnal sound of Britain at the turn of the 70s, looking out through wet window panes to a new decade with a mixture of melancholy and optimism for what might come next. With the Beatles gone and the pound sinking, a new and distinctive sound emerges, led by flutes and mellotrons. Available in 18-track CD and 19-track double LP formats. The LP version is pressed on 180g vinyl in heavy-duty gatefold sleeve.
It’s hard for me – and I’m guessing I’m not alone here – to shake the Get Carter theme from my head whenever I cross the Tyne rail bridge on a journey up from London. The city may have changed dramatically since the film was shot at the turn of the 70s, but the weather hasn’t. One day last autumn I was working in Newcastle. With an afternoon to kill, I did what I usually do with a couple of spare hours in an unfamiliar town – I sought out a record shop. It would at least protect me from the rain, which was getting steadily heavier.
As I flicked through the racks I was trying to identify the record that was playing, an album with a hint of Crosby, Stills and Nash but an identifiably British pall hanging over the sunny harmonies. It was by Shape Of The Rain, and had a sepia sleeve which was an attempt to suggest the Old West even though it was clearly a shot of a post-industrial Britain that still felt closer to the War than it did to punk, just six or seven years down the line.
Outside the Newcastle rain was getting ridiculous. I was stuck in the shop. There was no one in there apart from me and Craig, the lad behind the counter. Once he’d twigged that I was genuinely interested in the Shape Of The Rain LP he pulled out T2’s “It’ll All Work Out In Boomland” and stuck it on the Hacker turntable. The sound was warm but slightly awkward, slashing guitars that recalled 1966 and frenetic drums hemmed in by warm brass, minor chords, and the kind of hazy nonchalant English vocals reminiscent of Caravan, or More-era Pink Floyd; not an easy listen, but absorbing. Then he revealed albums by the Parlour Band, Aardvark and Spring. All of them were melodic, melancholy, with jazz and folk touches and the same similar shrug of resignation, their collars turned to the wind of 1970 and the end of the Aquarian dream.
Enveloped in this post-psychedelic cocoon, sheltering from the rain, these records made a lot of sense together. I had childhood flashbacks of cafés with steamed-up windows, occupied by workmen in donkey jackets; hippies and bikers on Box Hill; odd music on Radio 1 on a Sunday afternoon that had a sense of serious intent but without knowing what for.
While America may have licked its wounds at the turn of the 70s by turning to singer-songwriters, purveyors of homilies like “teach your children well”, Britain wasn’t so ready to give up the trappings of psychedelia. And while the UK counter culture may have shed its “faith in something bigger”, it wasn’t about to chuck out the mellotron. This is how the day after the 60s felt: damp, fuzzy-headed, neither optimistic nor pessimistic but more than a little lost. British bands would mirror the ennui of the new decade with a new kind of music.
Any song on this colle296,4+ction could have been on the soundtrack of Bronco Bullfrog, Barney Platts-Mills’ film about bored youth trying to get its kicks in crumbling 1969 East London; each of them could have been the title song for the same director’s Private Road, with its young couple holed up in a country cottage, directionless, travelling without a destination. The post-psychedelic, pre-progressive age was brief, but rarely has contemporary music summed up a sense of place and time so perfectly. Some of these songs pre-date and post-date this era but all of them share an atmosphere.
Plenty of the acts on this compilation only got to make one album. Some got to make many more, but even with the bands who became leviathans of progressive rock, their debuts tended to be more focused, more human-sized; significantly, they pre-dated the term, and therefore the connotations of “prog”.
English Weather was also the name of a record shop I loved when I first moved toLondon, out in Crouch End which, back in the mid-80s, was deep bedsitter land. The shop was run by Dark Star magazine’s Steve Burgess – a major influence on my tastes and my writing, Steve put me onto records such as Mellow Candle’s “Swaddling Songs”, Fairfield Parlour’s “From Home To Home” and the now-venerated Spring album: “It may look like prog”, he said of Spring, sensing my scepticism at the peak of prog’s unfashionability, “but it's beautiful”. He was right. I hope he’d have liked this selection.
by Bob Stanley
Artists - Tracks - Composer
1. Caravan - Love Song With Flute (Richard Coughlan, Pye Hastings, Richard Sinclair, Dave Sinclair) - 4:08
2. The Roger Webb Sound - Moon Bird (Roger Webb) - 2:17
3. The Parlour Band - Early Morning Eyes (Peter Filleul) - 3:49
With 1973's Traveling Underground, Stories changed its name to Ian Lloyd & Stories and unveiled a new five-man lineup. Lead singer Lloyd (a whiskey-voiced belter comparable to Rod Stewart and Led Zeppelin's Robert Plant), guitarist Steve Love, and drummer Bryan Madey were still on board. But keyboardist/composer Michael Brown (a graduate of Left Banke and Montage) was gone, and the new members were keyboardist Kenneth Bichel and bassist Kenny Aaronson. Traveling Underground proved that there was life after Brown for Stories; this is a generally solid effort, although About Us remains the band's most essential album.
Like before, Stories came out with an R&B-minded single that doesn't sound anything like the rest of the album it's on. "Mammy Blue" is as different from the other songs on Traveling Underground as "Brother Louie" is from the rest of About Us. A long way from the R&B leanings of "Mammy Blue," tracks like "Stories Untold," "Hard When You're So Far Away," and "Earth Bound/Freefall" favor the type of baroque art-rock approach that had worked so well on Stories' previous releases. "Brother Louie" and "Mammy Blue" indicated that Stories might have made a great blue-eyed soul band, instead, Traveling Underground is the work of a fine pop-rock/art-rock band that occasionally detoured into blue-eyed soul.
by Alex Henderson
Tracks
1. Bridges (Ian Lloyd) - 5:11
2. Soft Rain (Ian Lloyd, Steve Love) - 4:33
3. Hard When You're So Far Away (Steve Love) - 4:28
4. If It Feels Good, Do It (Johnny Stevenson) - 2:50
This is England, the day after the 60s. It’s a time of flux. On the cusp of progressive rock but without a rule book, many groups hold fast to psychedelia’s adventurousness and melodic delights, while they are also happy to venture deep into the jazz and folk scenes. The result is some wonderful, atmospheric, rain-flecked music.
You turn on the radio and there is news about John leaving the Beatles – or will Paul be the first to jump? There is insecurity, uncertainty and, to cap it all, the Tories are on the verge of coming back. Outside, after widespread redevelopment, many town centres are barely recognisable from the way they had looked ten years ago. People who have lived all their lives in places such as Bradford, Glasgow or Birmingham are literally struggling to find their way home. People need direction.
If there are two themes that crop up regularly in British rock at the turn of the 70s, it’s the search for a home that isn’t there anymore – the certainties of the progressive 60s, the physical reality of terraced streets – and the rain. The former had its totemic song in Blind Faith’s ‘Can’t Find My Way Home’, and on this collection there’s Cressida’s gently keening ‘Home And Where I Long To Be’. The weather just filtered into the post-psychedelic, pre-progressive sound; it’s always there. Duncan Browne’s ‘Ragged Rain Life’ feels like a decent summary of Britain at any time but, especially in times of upheaval, you tend to notice bad weather.
Music created in a time of flux is frequently fascinating – with genres gestating, there aren’t any hardened preconceptions of how they should sound. In 1970, on the cusp of progressive rock, many groups were loath to let go of psychedelia’s adventurousness and melodic delights, while they were also happy to venture deep into the jazz and folk scenes. The result was some wonderful music. Some of it sold by the truckload (people forget just how big the Moody Blues were), but much of it barely made it to the shops; for every Yes there were a dozen ’Igginbottoms.
“Occasional Rain” puts bigger names such as Traffic and lesser-known artists (Mandy More, Shape Of The Rain, Andrew Leigh) side by side. Like its predecessor “English Weather”, it attempts to evoke the turn of the new decade, the feel of a wet Saturday afternoon at the dawn of the 70s spent flicking through the racks, wondering whether to buy the new Tull album or maybe take a chance on that Christine Harwood LP in the bargain bin (go on, you won’t regret it).
Ace were one of the few pub rock groups to enjoy success on the pop charts, largely due to the warm, soulful vocals of Paul Carrack. While Carrack's voice certainly had crossover appeal -- as he would later prove with his own records, as well as his work with Squeeze and Roxy Music -- the band was also less devoted to the three-chord boogie and country-rock that marked most pub rock bands, favoring soulful R&B. And while they did have hits, their time in the spotlight was brief, and they fell apart shortly after Carrack left for a solo career.
Phil Harris (guitar) and Alan "Bam" King (guitar, vocal) formed Ace in 1972, recruiting Paul Carrack (keyboards, vocals), Terry "Tex" Comer (bass), and Steve Witherington (drums) over the course of the next year. Before the group began recording, they went through several drummers -- Witherington was replaced by Chico Greenwood, who was later replaced by Fran Byrne in 1974. After developing a small but dedicated following on the pub rock circuit, Ace signed with Anchor Records and recorded Five-a-Side. "How Long" -- a song about Comer leaving the band briefly to play with the Sutherland Brothers and Quiver, and his subsequent return -- was released as the first single. Most listeners interpreted the song as an ode to a crumbling love affair, and it became a fluke hit in both the U.K. and the U.S. Ace released Time for Another in 1975, but it was generally ignored, especially since the popularity of pub rock was declining rapidly.
There’s a knowing shrug to the title of Time for Another, Ace’s second album, an admission that this is just another round, not dissimilar to another pint of bitter served up halfway into a leisurely evening at the pub. Despite several shared traits, Time for Another is distinctly different than the casually funky Five-A-Side, extending the cool, soft groove of “How Long” throughout an entire LP. There’s a bit of boogie and twang, apparent in the relaxed shuffle of “I’m a Man,” the muted rocking of “You Can’t Lose,” and the lazy blues of “Ain’t Gonna Stand for This No More.” By and large, though, Time for Another is a very easy-rolling affair -- too easy, in fact, sounding too comfortable in its hazy surroundings, sometimes slipping into the sleepiness a third or fourth beer can lend.
If Time for Another was a tad bit subdued, Ace’s 1977 follow-up remedies that problem by giving the pub rock a big, splashy production suited for the crossover audience “How Long” gave them three years prior. It was a case of too much too late -- Ace lost whatever chart momentum they had and the times were beginning to shift, with many of their pub rock peers gravitating toward punk. Ace took the opposite approach: they retooled themselves as a soft rock outfit with a distinctly Southern California bent. No Strings is music made with the charts in mind but it’s livelier and more varied than Time for Another, capitalizing on Paul Carrack’s soulful voice. Carrack is now front and center, so ably navigating the turns from bouncy pop to bright boogie to gossamer ballads that it’s no wonder No Strings sounds in retrospect like a blueprint for his subsequent solo career. Nevertheless, No Strings is firmly a band album, gaining strength from Ace’s group interplay, John Woodhead seamlessly filling the departed Phil Harris’ shoes, but the production is so slick that it glosses over any potential rifts. And that smooth production is a big reason why No Strings is a strong record: it may not have been a hit, but with its soulful shine and easy melodies, it captures ‘70s major-label soft rock at a peak.
by Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Tracks
Disc 1 Time For Another 1975
1. I Think It's Gonna Last (Paul Carrack) - 4:42
2. I'm a Man (Alan "Bam" King, Paul Carrack, Phil Harris, Terry "Tex" Comer, Fran Byrne) - 3:56
3. Tongue Tied (Terry "Tex" Comer) - 4:40
4. Does It Hurt You (Alan "Bam" King) - 4:25
5. Message To You (Phil Harris) - 4:23
6. No Future In Your Eyes (Paul Carrack) - 3:29
7. This Is What You Find (Alan "Bam" King) - 3:58
8. You Can't Lose (Fran Byrne, Phil Harris, Terry "Tex" Comer) - 4:29
9. Sail On My Brother (Paul Carrack) - 4:35
10.Ain't Gonna Stand For This No More (Alan "Bam" King, Paul Carrack, Phil Harris, Terry "Tex" Comer, Fran Byrne) - 4:08
Disc 2 No Strings 1977
1. Rock N Roll Singer (Paul Carrack, Terry "Tex" Comer) - 5:01
2. You're All That I Need (Paul Carrack) - 3:46
3. Crazy World (Alan "Bam" King) - 3:32
4. I'm Not Takin' It Out On You (Paul Carrack) - 3:33
5. Movin' (John Woodhead, Paul Carrack) - 4:29
6. Gleaming In The Gloom (Alan "Bam" King, Phil Harris) - 5:39
7. Let's Hang On (Paul Carrack) - 3:13
8. Why Did You Leave Me (Terry "Tex" Comer) - 3:57
9. Found Out The Hard Way (John Woodhead, Paul Carrack) - 4:00
10.C'est la Vie (Paul Carrack) - 3:20
Disc 3 At The BBC 1975-76
1. Sail On My Brother (Paul Carrack) - 3:58
2. Ain't Gonna Stand For This No More (Alan "Bam" King, Paul Carrack, Phil Harris, Terry "Tex" Comer, Fran Byrne) - 4:29
3. Ain't Gonna Stand For This No More (Alan "Bam" King, Paul Carrack, Phil Harris, Terry "Tex" Comer, Fran Byrne) - 5:00
4. The Real Feeling (Paul Carrack) - 2:57
5. 24 Hours (Paul Carrack) - 5:47
6. I Know How It Feels (Paul Carrack) - 3:31
7. How Long (Paul Carrack) - 4:14
8. Ain't That Peculiar (Marvin Tarplin, Robert Rogers, Warren Moore) - 6:03
9. Sniffin' About (Paul Carrack, Alan "Bam" King) - 6:02
10.I Think It's Gonna Last (Paul Carrack) - 5:00
11.Sail On My Brother (Paul Carrack) - 4:30
12.This Is What You Find (Alan "Bam" King) - 6:45
13.I'm A Man (Alan "Bam" King, Paul Carrack, Phil Harris, Terry "Tex" Comer, Fran Byrne) - 4:48
Formed from the wreckage of harmony pop hopefuls West Coast Consortium, Airbus pursued their craft with such monomaniacal fervour during their 1970-73 lifespan that they effectively never emerged from the Venus studio in Whitechapel. You won’t have seen them live, because they never played any gigs, and you’re unlikely to have anything by them in your collection unless you own volume three of Psychedelic Schlemiels, or a contentious brace of singles released in Holland… All of which makes the 25 spit-shined demos compiled on Test Flight a rather exciting archaeological find, adding substance to Wooden Hill’s claim that this is “THE Great Lost Early 70s British Pop Album”.
A trio comprised of Geoff Simpson and brothers Martin and Ron Jay, Airbus have drawn comparisons to Badfinger, Ram-era McCartney and 10cc, but they’re definitely closer to the Badfinger end of the spectrum. There’s no trace of 10cc’s acidulous cynicism in their earnestly sunny worldview and, if anything, the bubblegum immediacy of Hurry On Home To London, Anytime At All and Send Susanna Home call to mind Vanity Fayre. But who’s complaining? Martin Jay’s clarion vocals on more credible compositions such as Smokey Chimney Tops and Walking The Silver Hay will buckle the knees of über-pop cognoscenti.
Ellie Pop were from Roseville, Michigan formed in 1968, some rock collectors/fans consider Ellie Pop’s only album a mid 60’s classic. The sound is straight out of 1966/early 1967 (though this album was released in 1968-) with strong Beatles influenced melodies and harmonies. Other comparisons that come to mind are a guitar oriented Association (with more balls!) or the Merry-Go-Round, on their less trippy, Beatles inspired material.
There are no psychedelic freakouts, distorted vocals or backward guitar solos on this record. It’s a straight up power pop/pop record, with the occasional odd time signature and plenty of good song arrangements. The production is not as pristine as say the Left Banke’s debut, so the playing and the record itself sound rough or crude at times. The songs reward with repeated listenings though, and the Fab Four injected Whatcha Gonna Do is a personal favorite (those Yeah Yeah Yeah’s are straight out of the early Beatles songbook). Oh! My Friend has a vibe similar to Rubber Soul’s downbeat folk-rock numbers, sad and moody but a worthy song nonetheless. Can’t Be Love is also very good, with some strange twists and turns and excellent thick guitar riffs that hum like a Mustang engine.
No Thanks Mr. Mann is as psychedelic as this record gets, a classic 60’s character sketch with some superb harmonizing and frantic guitar playing toward the end. While the Beatles comparisons are inevitable, this record is still original and very solid. It’s definitely near the top of the heap of Mainstream (record label) releases.
Ken Tebow came from a musical family. His mother played in big bands during World War II. His grandfather met his grandmother while he was in a band. From the time he was in grade school, Ken was playing one instrument or another, beginning with a coronet. In the early 60's, Ken was playing the saxophone with his friend. They would play along with the music of bands like The Marquees. In 1962, Ken dropped the sax for the bass guitar and formed a group called The Checkmates. This was when Ken was a mere fourteen years old. Mike Imbler also fourteen was in the group. The band went on till 1965 playing mainly in Church basements and Jr. High School Proms. Their music consisted of instrumental covers.
The Checkmate's manager suggested a name change in 1965 as there was another popular group with the same moniker. He suggested coming up with a name that sounded like Paul Revere and The Raiders or Sam The Sham and The Pharaohs. Thus was born Plato and The Philosophers. They were from Moberly, Missouri The band at this time was Mike Imbler- lead guitar, Ken Tebow-bass and vocals, Barry Orscheln-keyboards, Mark Valentine- drums(note: a year later a fifth member Ben White would play bass. When they first started playing with the new name Ken suggested they go on stage dressed in Togas and sandals. He even put together the materials for the outfit from gym shorts and sheets. The band performed two times with the outfits. Just before they were to perform a third time in the outfits, Ken went out to the parking lot and saw a fire. The other band members had burned the outfits!
Plato's first single release was "C.M. I Love You" b/w "I Don't Mind" on the It Records label. The band was booked into a small basement studio in Quincy. Barry got the band booked there. He called them up and the band paid for the sessions. The record was cut from a master that was done live in the studio. There was no over dubbing the vocals later on. The band played live and Ken sang the vocals simultaneously. Five hundred records were pressed. Most were sold or handed out at the groups shows. Some were sent to radio stations. Ken was intent on getting the band signed to a major label. He found a Billboard catalog that listed record companies and their addresses. He sent out the records to many companies. He received ten reject letters. The other companies did not even answer him, except one, a company in Chicago called GAR Records. GAR got in touch with Ken and was interested in issuing the record on their label. Ken was seventeen at this time. The owner of GAR came to Moberly to meet with the band. He signed them to a record deal which stated they would receive monthly sales statements. For the first three months the band received statements. The record had sold 10,000 copies. It was "pick hit of the week" in Michigan and Northern Illinois. The band never heard anything further. In the summer of 1967 Plato and The Philosophers were opening for The McCoys at the Missouri State Fair. A group of kids came up to Plato and wanted autographs. The kids were from Michigan and told Plato that they had the "I Don't Mind" record and heard it numerous times on the radio. No one knows to this day which stations played it and how many records it really sold.
After the success of their first single, Plato and The Philosophers got in touch with a well respected studio in Columbia, Missouri(which was only about thirty five miles away from Moberly) called "Fairyland Studios". The band worked out a deal with the studio to issue the record on the Fairyland Records label by paying for all the studio and record pressing costs. This time the band would lay down the initial backing tracks and then come back in another session and overdub the vocals on May 7, 1967. In the summer of 1967, the record was released. Only about four hundred copies were pressed. Most were sold at dances and sent out to radio stations. There was some radio air play, but not enough to go back and repress the record. Ken's ballad "Wishes" was the a-side, while "Thirteen O'clock" was the b-side. Ben White thought up the title and Ken wrote the words and music. When asked what the lyrics were about, Ken is at a loss to remember. He does recall trying to make the bass sound in the song distinguished. A lot of reverb was added to the song. If one listens carefully to the end of the song you can hear the drummer knocking over this cymbal stand. While the band wanted to re-do it, they later decided it sounded kind of cool and left it in anyway.
After the "Thirteen O'Clock Flight To Psychedelphia" single, the band went back into Fairyland Studios on September 24, 1967 to record two more sides for a single "Doomsday Nowhere City" b/w "I Knew". Ken recalls that "Doomsday Nowhere City" was about "not liking his hometown and wanting to get away from it, putting it down". The song stands out as real period gem, reflecting the pop psychedelic sound that was issuing from bands such as The Strawberry Alarm Clock and The Rainy Daze. The flip side "I Knew" is lost. It was to be a song with lots of brass. When the sessions were finished the band failed to issue the sides as a single for lack of funds.
In 1968 Plato and The Philosophers began to change to a heavier sound, influenced in part by their admiration for The Iron Butterfly. When the album In A Gadda Da Vidda was released all the groups in the Central Missouri area would perform the single edit of In A Gadda Da Vidda.
Barry, Plato's keyboard player, studied the long version of the song for a month. He dedicated his time to learning every single note of the eighteen minute song. Thereafter In A Gadda Da Vidda became the theme song for Plato and The Philosophers. For the next year the band played the long version at every gig. In 1969 Plato had been booked into a Florida club six nights a week performing from nine till two in the morning.
The next recording sessions were done in 1968 in Pekin. The songs recorded were "Ima Jean Money"and "Take It Easy". Later in 1968 Plato records some more songs in Springfield- Through Your Heart", "The Pill", "How I Won The War", "In Good Time", and a second version of "Take It Easy". These demos got Plato a tentative agreement with Cedarwood Music for an album and single release. When the group went to Nashville to record an album for major distribution. By now there were only two original members, Ken and Barry. The band's sound also changed with the addition of a brass and horn sound on many of the songs. For example a new version of "Ima Jean Money" was recorded with horns. Other songs recorded at this time were "I Really Don't Care", "Back Room Bar", "Today I Died", "Don't Take It To Heart", and "Winter Green". Two of the songs "Don't Take It To Heart" and "Winter Green" are pop sounding songs written by Larry Williams. The rest of the songs are by Ken Tebow. When it comes time for a album and single release nothing is done, so all the material is never released.
After the Nashville sessions failed to bring success the band began to fall apart. By the end of 1970 Plato and The Philosophers was no more. Ken got married that year, then in June he was drafted into the Army. Five weeks later he was discharged for what the Army termed "physically unfit". The other members left to pursue their own careers. Recently Plato and The Philosophers re-formed and released a cd of new music. Here then, is their first album of old material combined with some other bands from the same era of sound.
Lonely melodic private press 1973 USA album. The recording session took eleven hours and there were no second takes. Low-fi crude sound with vocals, some solo tracks, some with further instrumentation. Its from a folk-blues tradition but sometimes sounds a bit like 70s singer-songwriter stuff by a 19-year-old who couldnt afford to hire a band. It is laid back but ethereal, very homemade sounding with a weird b/w cover of a bullet in the eyeball of the moon. Sparse music with creepy vocals that sound resigned to the problems of existence. Local pressing with three hundred pressed.
Tracks
1. Never Thought - 3:33
2. Broken Hours, Wasted Days - 1:47
3. Sand Castle Skies - 1:51
4. Steam - 2:17
5. Last Winter's Fridays - 4:07
6. Armadillo Hitchhike Blues (Water Adamkosky, Dennis Smith) - 2:26
7. One More Time - 1:22
8. Shadows - 2:44
9. Sunset Of A Dying Day - 3:16
10.Afterthoughts - 2:15
11.Dreams - 1:12
All songs by Michael Adamkosky, Erich Mees except where stated
