Many know him as the “Space Cowboy” who “speaks of the pompatus of love”. The “Gangster Of Love”, and “The Joker”. This song, from the album of the same name, was Steve Miller’s first #1 hit. It took a while, as this album was the seventh album released in his long career. He had already produced a few popular and familiar songs; “Living in the USA”, “Space Cowboy”, and “My Dark Hour” (we’ll get back to this last one). The song and album of “The Joker” represented a change in direction of sound and started a string of well-known hits. Let’s start from his beginning.

Steven Haworth Miller, born October 5, 1943, was raised in a musical home with his mother, Bertha, whom he described as a remarkable jazz-influenced singer, and his physician father, George, known as “Sonny” who, in addition to his profession as a pathologist, was a jazz enthusiast and accomplished amateur recording engineer. Guitar virtuoso Les Paul and his musical partner Mary Ford were regular visitors at the Miller house. Dr. and Mrs. Miller were best man and maid of honor at the December 1949 wedding of Les Paul and Mary Ford. Les Paul heard Steve, who was four, on a wire  recording made by Dr. Miller, as the youngster was “banging away” on a guitar given to him by his uncle, Dr. K. Dale Atterbury. Paul encouraged Miller to continue with his interest in the guitar … and “perhaps he will be something one day.” Steve’s uncles were also musicians – one played violin in the Paul Whiteman Orchestra – but when the Depression hit and the opportunities dried up, they became doctors instead.

Here’s a 20 minute video of Steve and Les (the Les Paul Trio) joking around, and tossing in some tasty jamming, in July 2007:

Les Paul would not be the only artist to influence, teach, and encourage him. His father had many distinguished musicians come to the house to record and Steve absorbed much from many “greats” right in his living room, such as T-Bone Walker, Charles Mingus and Tal Farlow. T-Bone Walker taught Steve how to play his guitar behind his back and also with his teeth in 1952.

Then, when I was 9, T-Bone Walker came to our house to play a party. I sat right next to T-Bone all night and watched him play. He taught me how to play the guitar behind my head and do splits. He became a regular at our house, and that’s how I learned to play lead guitar.

In 1955, he formed his first band, “The Marksmen”. He taught his older brother Buddy to play the bass and also instructed his classmate, future musical star Boz Scaggs, a few guitar chords so that he could join the band.

I thought, ‘Why don’t we mimeograph a letter and just send it to all the local fraternities, sororities, schools, boys clubs, and country clubs saying we have a rock and roll band and we’re looking for gigs?’” Miller said. “The phone rang off the wall. This was 1956. I was 13. There were no rock and roll bands at the time. Of course, we never said how old we were. I had this band booked every Friday and Saturday night for the entire school year. I eventually taught my older brother how to play bass so that he could drive us. We were so young, but we were really good, and we were making a living. We worked all over Texas, Louisiana and Oklahoma, but especially around Dallas, where we’d back up Jimmy Reed. I was making $300 a month, which is like $3,000 now. It was crazy!

Playing these local gigs for about 7 years, he moved to Wisconsin, and entered the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he formed “The Ardells”. Still not ready to settle into a full-time position of being a musician, he travelled to the University of Copenhagen in Denmark for a semester in his senior year to study comparative literature, he dropped out six credit hours shy of a literature degree, opting to pursue a music career with his mother’s encouragement and his father’s misgivings:

[Interviewer:] When you look back over the span of your career, what are the lasting moments, the sweetest highs?

[Miller:] I would have to say my father’s relationship with Les Paul and T-Bone Walker when I was young. Growing up in Dallas, being part of that phenomenal music scene. I found a way to do what I really wanted to do, which is so important for a kid. Near the end of college, my parents said, ‘Steve, what are you going to do?’ I said, ‘I want to go to Chicago and play the blues.’ My father looked at me like I was insane. But my mom said, ‘You should do it now.’ So I went to Chicago. And that was a special time. I played with Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf. I got to work with adults and realized music was what I wanted to do, what I loved.

Upon his return to the United States, Miller moved to Chicago where he immersed himself in the city’s blues scene. During his time there, he worked with harmonica player Paul Butterfield and jammed with blues greats Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf and Buddy Guy, all of whom offered the young guitarist encouragement to pursue a musical career.

In 1965, Miller and keyboardist Barry Goldberg formed the “Goldberg-Miller Blues Band” and began playing on the Chicago club scene. They signed with Epic Records and released a single, “The Mother Song”, and soon began a residency at a New York City blues club.

Although the collaboration with Goldberg didn’t ultimately work out, Miller got an extraordinary education in Chicago.

I must have seen Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf 100 times in a room the size of my living room.

He picked up a gig as rhythm guitarist in Buddy Guy’s band but didn’t have the stamina to see it through.

We played from nine at night until four in the morning six days a week. And Buddy’s rule was that we had to have one shot of bourbon before each set. After about three weeks, I just said, ‘Buddy, I can’t do this.’

Instead, he moved to San Francisco, where by virtue of his chops and reliability, Miller became a force on the scene, playing the Fillmore more than 100 times. He pulled a band together and, partly because record companies had become so enamored of San Francisco, he landed a five-album deal with Capitol for nearly $1 million, a massive figure at the time. The Steve Miller Band released two LPs in 1968: “Children of the Future” and “Sailor”. The latter rose to the Top 40 and included “Living in the U.S.A.,” which became a staple on the album-oriented format of FM radio. “Brave New World”, the band’s third album, rose to Number 22, and included “Space Cowboy,” another FM favorite, and “My Dark Hour”.

I told we’d get back to this, and here’s why. Not only had he made a name for himself around the West coast and starting to attract attention in the U.S., he started to be recognised in the U.K. This song shows he was noticed by a guy who played bass, drums, and backing vocals on this track, who’s name was credited as Paul Ramon. Don’t recognise that name? Maybe you know him better as Paul McCartney. If you listen, not even too closely, you will pick up quite a few riffs that would appear in one of Steve’s later hits. This song sounds a lot like an early rough draft of “Fly like An Eagle”, even a hint of “Livin’ In The U.S.A.” at the end. His guitar abilities firmly show why he was quickly becoming a recognised artist and a bright future ahead.

The band’s next two albums, “Your Saving Grace” (1969) and “Number 5” (1970), both cracked the Top 40, but it seemed as if the band had peaked. Miller was regarded as a credible figure, but none of the first five albums had gone gold. He had to make a decision.

We had recorded five albums in something like 18 months,” Miller said. “We had been playing 200 gigs a year. The band was going through changes. I wasn’t hearing anything from Capitol about a new contract. So I thought, I’ll get some musicians, go down to L.A. on my own, and produce my own record. I finished it in about 19 days.

That album was “The Joker”.

My little secret formula is that a hit single has to have five hooks. I made it as cleverly as I could. In the car, driving, people love to sing harmony. There was the slide solo, the whistle, the chorus, the ‘mid- night toker’ – a secret language that kids’ parents don’t understand. It had a little bit of everything. And it caught on.

The style and personnel of the band changed radically with “The Joker” (#1, 1973), concentrating on straightforward rock and leaving the psychedelic side of the band behind. The title track was certified platinum, reaching over one million sales. It was awarded a gold disc by the RIAA on January 11, 1974. Three years later, the band returned with the album “Fly Like an Eagle”, which charted at  No.  3. Three singles were released from the album: “Take the Money and Run” (#11), “Fly Like an Eagle” (#2) and their second  No. 1 success, “Rock’n Me”. Miller credits the guitar introduction to “Rock’n Me” as a tribute to the Free song, “All Right Now”.

Book of Dreams (#2, 1977) also included three successes: “Jet Airliner” (#8), “Jungle Love” (#23), and “Swingtown” (#17). 1982’s “Abracadabra” album gave Steve Miller his third #1 success with the title track.

Miller’s string of hits ran out at that point. The 80s were a confusing time for many veteran artists, Miller among them.

I never had a manager. I didn’t take advantage of all my opportunities. If I could do it over again, I would have worked harder to find someone who could have helped grow my business during that time. That run from 1967 to 1983 was nonstop. We started out in 3,000-seat theaters, and nine months later we’re playing in football stadiums. Staying on top of all that – writing songs, releasing records, running the band – it was a lot of work. I was pretty much burned. Consequently, Miller said, ‘Fuck it.’ I bought a 53-foot cruiser, named it Abracadabra, and went cruising the Inside Passage for six years.

When Miller returned to music, he returned to the styles he loved from the very start: blues and jazz standards.

When I was a kid, I didn’t want to be Elvis Presley or any of the pop stars of the time, like Frankie Avalon. I wanted to be a musician. I wanted to be like Miles Davis. I wanted to be like Muddy Waters. I wanted to be like T-Bone Walker. I wanted to play real music.

And he certainly did just that. Over his career he recorded 18 studio albums (including one solo album by Steve Miller), 6 live albums, 7 compilation albums, and 30 singles.

In 2016, Miller was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The ceremony caused controversy, due to Miller’s disparaging remarks about the experience being “unpleasant” and that the Hall of Fame was misogynistic and “need to respect the artists they say they’re honoring, which they don’t.” His interest was always more in his music rather than the commercialization of the industry.

Hits: 36

Wait a minute, isn’t that a Beatles song? Yes, yes it is. While it was the first Beatle song to feature George Harrison as lead singer, it was released first as a single in the U.S.and the U.K. by Billy J Kramer with The Dakotas. The Beatles version had been released on their album only, until they released it as a single later in 1964. The song was inspired by “I’m Wishing”, a tune from Walt Disney’s 1937 animated film “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” which Lennon’s mother, Julia Lennon, would sing to him as a child. The first two lines of the song in Disney’s movie (“Want to know a secret? Promise not to tell?”) come right after the opening lyrics (“You’ll never know how much I really love you… You’ll never know how much I really care…”). McCartney has said it was a “50–50 collaboration written to order” for Harrison to sing, but Lennon, who always claimed the song as his own, explained in a 1980 interview, that he had realized as soon as he had finished writing the song that it best suited Harrison.

In fact Billy J Kramer With The Dakotas’ first four of five songs were written by John and Paul, all of which became top 10 hits for Billy with the Dakotas. Let’s see how all this came to be.

In the beginnings of the 1960’s, Liverpool was a Northwestern English town of hard-working people who worked the docks of an important seaport. It is also located on the river Mersey, which lent its name to the “Merseybeat” sound, which became synonymous with the Beatles and fellow Liverpudlian rock bands. You might recognise Gerry & The Pacemakers, the Searchers, and Cilla Black. From nearby Birmingham came the Spencer Davis Group and the Moody Blues.

Beat music is a fusion of rock and roll (mainly Chuck Berry guitar style and the midtempo beat of artists like Buddy Holly), doo-wop, skiffle and R&B. The genre provided many of the bands responsible for the British Invasion of the American pop charts starting in 1964, and provided the model for many important developments in pop and rock music, including the format of the rock group around lead, rhythm and bass guitars with drums.

Remember Brian Epstein? He was the guy who “discovered”, and became the manager of, the Beatles. According to Billy J Kramer:

He was the man that pounded the pavements in London when nobody wanted to know about the Beatles, and he was responsible for making them what they were. I think only for Brian they could have well been overlooked. They could have stayed in Liverpool forever.

You know, I obviously think he was interested in pop music, and everybody doesn’t find out their role in life immediately, you know? I mean, I never set out to be a pop singer. It just happened. It was a series of events and the next thing I knew…I think Brian had always been interested in the arts, and he wanted to be a designer, actually. He saw the Beatles and saw potential and he went for it. And I think he was a great representative, because coming from Liverpool at the time — it wasn’t the greatest place on Earth. I think it was a disadvantage.

Brian initially wanted to be an actor, but always had an interest in “the arts”. After losing interest in becoming an actor, he wound up back in Liverpool. His father put his son in charge of the record department of the family’s newly opened NEMS music store on Great Charlotte Street. Epstein worked “day and night” at the store to make it a success, and it became one of the biggest musical retail outlets in Northern England.

The story of Brian and the Beatles is rather involved and we won’t delve deeper here, but suffice to say that Brian developed a taste and reputation for following and supporting local Liverpool bands. One of the approximately 350 bands around the area he noticed was a band called The Coasters (not the American R&B group) and their lead singer Billy J Kramer.

Billy J Kramer (born William Howard Ashton) was a rail-fitter and engineering apprenticeship with British Railways and in his spare time played rhythm guitar in a group he had formed himself, before switching to become a vocalist. The performing name Kramer was chosen at random from a telephone directory. John Lennon suggested that the “J” be added to the name to further distinguish him by adding a “tougher edge”. Kramer wanted to turn professional but his then backing group, The Coasters, were less keen, so Brian Epstein sought out the services of a Manchester-based group, The Dakotas, a combo then backing Pete MacLaine. The group’s name arose from an engagement at the Plaza Ballroom in Oxford Street, Manchester. Their manager asked the group to return the next week dressed as Indians and called The Dakotas. Founded in September 1960 by rhythm guitarist Robin MacDonald, with Bryn Jones on lead guitar; Tony Bookbinder on drums, and Ian Fraser on bass. Ray Jones joined the band as bassist replacing Ian Fraser, and Mike Maxfield joined the band in February 1962 as lead guitarist replacing Bryn Jones after being with a Manchester band called The Coasters.

Even then, The Dakotas would not join Kramer without a recording contract of their own. Once in place, the deal was set and both acts signed to Parlophone under George Martin. Collectively, they were named “Billy J. Kramer with The Dakotas” to keep their own identities within the act. While many called them “And (&) The Dakotas”, their recordings were always released under “With”.

Not to dismiss any of his own musical accomplishments, but it’s fair to say that Kramer’s greatest claim to fame is that he was part of Brian Epstein’s roster of artists and, as such, benefited tremendously from Epstein being able to reach into Lennon and McCartney’s backlog of tunes and pull out a new single whenever Kramer needed one.

Kramer’s first hit: a cover of “Do You Want to Know a Secret?” backed with a previously-unreleased Lennon/McCartney composition entitled “I’ll Be on My Way.” That reached #2 in the UK, and the follow-up single – “Bad to Me” backed with “I Call Your Name”, both of which were also written by Lennon and McCartney, rose all the way to the top spot. Next up: “I’ll Keep You Satisfied,” which made it to #4. While the B-side was his first hit not written by John and Paul, “I Know”, it was written by George Martin, so it’s not like Kramer was stepping that far outside of the Beatles for material. Martin’s connection to Kramer with The Dakotas was more than as a songwriter, of course: he also helmed the sessions for all of the aforementioned tracks as well as for those that produced “From a Window.” When Kramer with the Dakotas recorded “From a Window,” both of the song’s composers were also in attendance, with Paul McCartney providing harmony vocal on the very last word of the song.

And here’s the John Lennon demo of that song:

After having success and recognition from their first five records, Billy decided to venture a little farther afield for his next hit. Later in 1964, he sought a departure from the traditional love songs previously recorded by Kramer that had been supplied by Lennon & McCartney. When offered another Lennon and McCartney song, “One and One Is Two”, for his next single, Kramer turned it down and chose “Little Children” instead, after a search for suitable material from music publishers. It was written by J. Leslie McFarland and Mort Shuman, who had penned a few other hits for other artists.

Tony Barrow’s sleeve notes claim that “Little Children” was Billy’s personal favourite from all the songs that he’d performed. Considering that it became the second #1 that Billy J. Kramer with The Dakotas earned, perhaps that’s not so surprising. In the United States, “Little Children” was backed with “Bad to Me”. This is the only debut single of an act on the Hot 100, each of whose sides separately reached that chart’s top 10 (No. 7 and No. 9, respectively). Despite this success Kramer went backwards with his second and last UK single of 1964, the Lennon–McCartney composition “From a Window”, which only just became a Top Ten hit.

The year 1965 saw the end for the beat music boom, and the next Kramer single was “It’s Gotta Last Forever”, which harked back to a ballad approach. In a year where mod-related music from the likes of the Who prevailed, the single missed completely. Kramer’s cover version of Bacharach and David’s “Trains and Boats and Planes” saw off Anita Harris’ version in the UK, reaching a respectable number 12, but was trounced by that of Dionne Warwick in the US, and turned out to be the group’s swansong, as all subsequent releases failed to chart. After releasing “We’re Doing Fine”, which also missed the charts, the singer and group parted company. Like many vocalists Kramer decided to turn solo when the hits began to fade. However this didn’t help him return to favour and he was soon on the nostalgia circuit. Kramer, then living in Rugby, Warwickshire, had a solo career over the next ten to fifteen years working in cabaret and television with his new band, again from the Manchester area.

In late 2012, Kramer went back into the studio for the first time in years to record a new CD, “I Won the Fight”, which was released in 2013. The CD features some new songs written by Kramer as well as some covers. In 2015, Kramer was part of the British Invasion 50th Anniversary tour, performing in the U.S. and the UK. The following year, 2016, saw the publication of his autobiography “Do You Want to Know A Secret”. He still does occasional appearances.

Hits: 28

“She’s Not There” was the second of four songs recorded by the Zombies at a 12 June 1964 recording session at Decca’s West Hampstead Studio No. 2. They had won a talent contest at their college called the Herts Beat competition and the prize was a recording session.

One of the song’s most distinctive features is Rod Argent’s electric piano sound; the instrument used was a Hohner Pianet. The Pianet had just recently been invented and was rare, possibly the first time here, to be used on a popular/rock song. The backing vocals are in a folk-influenced close-harmony style and necessitated seven takes. The Zombies harmonies were an important feature of their sound, and we’ll see why a little later.

This song was partially inspired by John Lee Hooker’s “No One Told Me”. The real inspiration, however, behind the song was Rod Argent’s first love, Patricia, who called off their wedding weeks before and broke his heart. Argent explained:

If you play that John Lee Hooker song you’ll hear ‘No one told me’. It was just a feeling I had inside’ but there’s nothing in the melody or the chords that’s the same. It was just the way that little phrase just tripped off the tongue.

A musical inspiration also came from a modal sequence he had heard in a song made popular by Brian Hyland called “Sealed With A Kiss”.

It really attracted me, that chord change with bass notes not on the roots. And I’m sure I was showing off in the solo as much as I could!

This song was born in bassist/vocalist Chris White’s bedroom and only had one verse until producer Ken Jones heard it.

I remember we were playing in Hatfield, and Ken Jones came up to hear us. And after the gig, Rod said, ‘I’ve got this song that we’ve been rehearsing’ and he played it to Ken on the piano. He did the verse, and then the solo, and there was no second verse, and Ken said ‘Can’t we go back to the beginning again?’ So Rod had to write another verse, because it only had one originally.

Rod Argent recalls:

I wrote the song for Colin’s range” — referring to Zombies’ vocalist Colin Blunstone -- I could hear him singing it in my mind.

On “She’s Not There” Ken Jones also instigated a recurring trait of many Zombies’ recordings: additional overdubs added in the mixdown to mono stage from 4-track. In this case, there were a couple of extra beats superimposed to create a distinctive drum pattern, thereby rendering the original mono single mix of “She’s Not There” the only ‘correct’ version of the song.

The Zombies were formed in 1961 in St Albans, Hertfordshire, England, and led by keyboardist and vocalist Rod Argent. Together with Paul Atkinson and Hugh Grundy, they first came together to jam in mid 1958 when Argent wanted to form a band and initially asked his elder cousin Jim Rodford to join as a bassist. Rodford was in a successful local band, the Bluetones, at the time and so declined, but he offered to help Argent. Singer Colin Blunstone and bassist Paul Arnold joined the other three to form the band, while all five members came from two local schools. Blunstone and Grundy came from Hatfield and both sang in the choir there at St. Etheldreda’s church. Argent was a boy chorister in St Albans Cathedral Choir. This is why the vocal harmonies became such an intricate part of the groups vocals.

Argent was initially the group’s lead singer, with Blunstone on guitar. When Argent’s keyboard talents became apparent, he became the group’s full-time keyboard player, conceding the role of lead singer to Blunstone.

Their original name was the Mustangs, but they quickly realised that there were other groups with that name. It was Arnold who came up with the Zombies, according to Blunstone. When Argent was asked about the origins of the band’s name in a 2015 interview, Argent said:

Well, we chose that name in 1962 and, I mean, I knew vaguely that they were: sort of, you know, the Walking Dead from Haiti and Colin didn’t even really know what they were. It was [original bass guitarist] Paul [Arnold] that came up with the name. I don’t know where he got it from. He very soon left the band after. I thought this was a name that no one else is going to have. And I just liked the whole idea of it. Colin was wary, I’m sure, at the beginning, I know, but I always, always really, really liked it.

Paul Arnold lost interest in the band and chose to leave to become a physician; he was replaced by Chris White on bass.

In the UK, the Zombies’ follow-up single to “She’s Not There” was written by Chris White. “Leave Me Be” was unsuccessful in the UK and as a result was not issued as an A-side in the US.

Their second US single to gain attention was “Tell Her No” and penned by Rod Argent, “Tell Her No” became another big seller in 1965, peaking at No.6 on the Billboard Hot 100 in March. As the band’s third UK single, “Tell Her No” failed to make the Top 40, peaking at number 42.

Subsequent recordings such as “She’s Coming Home”, “Whenever You’re Ready”, “Is This the Dream”, “Indication” and “Gotta Get a Hold of Myself” failed to achieve the success of the previous two singles. The Zombies continued recording original songs through 1965 and 1966, trying to achieve chart success. Enough original material was tracked which could have been compiled into a follow-up album, but the band’s lack of chart success meant most of those tracks remained destined not to be issued at the time.

In 1967, frustrated by their continuing lack of success, the Zombies signed a recording contract with CBS Records for whom they recorded the album “Odessey and Oracle” at EMI’s world-famous Abbey Road studios. (Odyssey was accidentally misspelled by Terry Quirk, an art teacher who designed the cover). The band’s budget would not cover session musicians, so they used a Mellotron. According to Argent, this was in fact John Lennon’s Mellotron, which had been left in the studio because the Beatles had just finished recording their own album, “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”. The album was mixed into the standard mono, however as another concession toward their limited budget, Argent and White (who, due to their songwriting royalties, had earned more than the rest of the members) personally paid for the stereo mixes.

One of that album’s tracks, “Time of the Season”, written by Argent, was released as a single in 1968 and spent a long period as a ‘sleeper’. Eventually, in 1969, it grew to become a nationwide hit, after being re-released as a single in the US, peaking in the Hot 100 (Billboard at No.3).

In fact, by the time that this song became a hit single, the band has disbanded. It took off in early 1969 to become their biggest hit, but the members resisted temptations to re-form, leading to a couple of bizarre tours in the late ’60s by bogus “Zombies” with no relation to the original group. Various concocted bands tried to capitalise on the success and falsely toured under the band’s name. In a scheme organized by Delta Promotions, an agency that also created fake touring versions of The Animals and The Archies, two fake-Zombies were touring simultaneously in 1969, one hailing from Texas, the other from Michigan. The Texas group featured bassist Dusty Hill and drummer Frank Beard, soon to be members of ZZ Top. Another group toured in 1988, going so far as to trademark the group’s name (since the band had let the mark lapse) and recruit a bass guitarist named Ronald Hugh Grundy, claiming that original drummer Hugh
Grundy had switched instruments.

Blunstone started a solo career after a brief period outside the music business, including working in the burglary claims section of an insurance company. Both Argent and White provided him with new songs. He also did studio vocals for the Alan Parsons Project. Atkinson retired as a performer, and worked as an A&R executive for many years.

Rod Argent formed the band Argent in 1969, with White as a non-performing songwriter. Argent’s biggest hit was the Rod Argent and Chris White composition “Hold Your Head Up”, featuring lead vocals by Russ Ballard.

Argent also recorded the original version of “God Gave Rock and Roll to You”, written by Russ Ballard, which was covered by Kiss in 1991 under the name “God Gave Rock ‘n’ Roll to You II”. Ballard had a 1984 solo hit with the song “Voices”.

Much more influential than their commercial success would indicate, echoes of the Zombies’ innovations can be heard in the Doors, the Byrds, the Left Banke, the Kinks, and many others. After a long period during which most of their work was out of print, virtually all of their recordings have been restored to availability on CD. Blunstone and Argent reunited for an album, “Out of the Shadows”, and toured together in 2003 as Blunstone & Argent, playing live shows into 2004 when they began gigging again as the Zombies. In 2017, the four surviving original members (Colin Blunstone, Rod Argent, Chris White, and Hugh Grundy) re-united to carry out a North American tour marking the 50th anniversary of the recording of “Odessey and Oracle”.

After becoming eligible for the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame in 1989, the Zombies have been nominated four times, including currently for the 2019 award.

Hits: 45

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King Crimson was formed in London in 1968. King Crimson has been influential both on the early 1970s progressive rock movement and numerous contemporary artists. The band has undergone numerous formations throughout its history, of which 22 musicians have been members. With lyrics for this song written by Peter Sinfield, the band consisted of Greg Lake – bass, lead vocals, Robert Fripp – guitar, and Michael Giles – drums. Attempting to expand their sound, the three recruited Ian McDonald on keyboards, reeds and woodwinds.

The contorted face on the cover of the album “In The Court Of The Crimson King” this is on would epitomise the opening track: “21st Century Schizoid Man”. A seven-minute cyclone of formidable psychedelic rock and free jazz, it positioned the group at the forefront of a fledgling scene termed “progressive rock”, which is characterised by extended instrumental sections and complex song structures.

The famous “In the Court of the Crimson King” album cover painted by Barry Godber portrays the ‘Schizoid Man,’ but the band didn’t plan it that way. Greg Lake explained:

I remember getting about halfway through the record and we realized we didn’t have an album cover. None of us knew anything at all about graphical art. But Pete (Sinfield) said, ‘I’ve got a friend who’s a graphic artist. He may be able to do something.’ So he said, ‘Okay, Pete. Give him a chance. See if he can come up with an idea for the album cover.’

And it just so happened on the day when he turned up we were recording ‘Schizoid Man.’ The door opened in the studio and there stood this young man. Pete called him over, said, ‘Come over, Barry, meet the band.’ As he walked over we realized he had a brown parcel under his arm wrapped up in string. After we’d said hello, he took a pair of scissors out of his pocket and he slit the string and tore off the paper parcel. And at our feet he dropped this album cover.

And, you know, the remarkable thing about it, apart from it is obviously a fantastic work of art, but we were actually staring into the face of Schizoid Man. The incredible thing was that we’d only recorded that song that very afternoon. There was no way that he could have possibly known or heard it, because we hadn’t heard it ourselves. And so it was an incredible coincidence.

A tragic development with that story was that young Barry, who did this, was only 21 years old at the time. And three days later he was walking down the street and he dropped dead of a heart attack.

Of course, we were stunned. We were absolutely stunned. And we just didn’t know what to do. But we loved the album cover, and we felt that it was a wonderful tribute to this very talented young man.

In August 1967, brothers Michael Giles (drums) and Peter Giles (bass), who had been professional musicians in various jobbing bands since their mid-teens in Dorset, England, advertised for a singing organist to join their new group. Fellow Dorset musician Robert Fripp – a guitarist who did not sing – responded and the trio formed the band Giles, Giles and Fripp. Finding themselves getting nowhere, despite an album deal with the Deram label, they invited ex-Fairport Convention vocalist Judy Dyble and her multi-instrumentalist boyfriend Ian McDonald to demo exploratory recordings. Lyricist Sinfield then came into the circle via McDonald, with whom he had already written.

By the end of the year, Judy Dyble and Peter Giles had gone their separate ways. Fripp then brought in college friend Greg Lake on bass and vocals, and in a basement under George’s Café in Fulham Palace Road, West London on January 13, 1969, King Crimson – named by Sinfield, riffing on aliases for Beelzebub – were formed.

As material gathered, McDonald’s uncle financed a van and tour equipment, and soon the band played their first live show at Change , a Newcastle club. Sinfield hopped on board to push faders up and down for the light show on a night that could have ended in a riot.

Sinfield recalls:

We got on stage,and they announced: ‘Here’s Giles, Giles and Fripp, who for some reason have changed their name to King Crimson. They’re not a soul band but we hope you enjoy them.’ They thought they’d booked King Curtis. That was a close shave! It was a terrific experience for us, and we went back home and carried on rehearsing.

“21st Century Schizoid Man” started to evolve as the band’s collective love of jazz, Fripp’s penchant for avant-classical music, McDonald’s army-band background, and Lake’s heavy rock leanings merged.

The lyrics of “21st Century Schizoid Man” consist chiefly of disconnected phrases which present a series of images. All three verses follow a set pattern in presenting these images. The first line of each verse presents two relatively vague images (e.g. “iron claw”, “death seed”). The second line is a single image, often more specific than the first two, and the third line approaches an actual sentence. The fourth and last line of each verse is the song’s title.

“Robert had already written these different sections,” says Giles “I started having fun suggesting things to join them up, such as the accelerando into the six-four riff. For the second ending I borrowed from something I’d heard by Duke Ellington.”

Lyrically, Sinfield was getting a feel for what the band’s music seemed to express.

It fitted with nastiness of the human condition and war and stuff,” he says. “I wanted the words to sound violent and aggressive. ‘Cat’s foot, iron claw…’ – it’s the world tearing itself to pieces.

The title itself was the last screw in the box. 

I remember leaning against the mantelpiece and I suddenly got it. ‘Schizoid’, that’s a good word. Twentieth… no, we’ll take it into the future – 21st Century Schizoid Man. I was damned pleased with that. Then Greg’s big bass riff became even more important, like a clarion call.

Relentless rehearsals coupled with explosive gigs at venues such as The Speakeasy – where Jimi Hendrix excitedly shook hands with Fripp and informed anyone within earshot of their greatness – earned Crimson a rep as one of the best live bands around, and “Schizoid Man” was their threatening tour de force. Within a few months they were in Wessex Studios in London recording their debut album, and on July 5, 1969, supported the Rolling Stones at their free concert in Hyde Park. Playing to a crowd estimated at 500,000, King Crimson opened with “21st Century Schizoid Man”.

Here’s a short clip from that concert:

Says Sinfield:

I say the words now and I’m shaking, I was doing the sound that day and very nervous. It had been played in clubs, and I’d seen it destroy other bands, who refused to go on after us. We didn’t speak much about it among ourselves beforehand. It didn’t matter if it was five-hundred thousand people or fifty people. We may have been a bit nervous and played things a bit too fast.

The reception the band received from the massive crowd was wild. That afternoon, Crimson were Kings.

“21st Century Schizoid Man” legacy in rock is incontestable. Fripp calls it “the first heavy metal song”. Ozzy Osbourne, Entombed and Voivod are among those who have recorded gnarly versions. “It’s a strong bit of work, from a time that was very creative, very free, no arguments,” says Michael Giles. “I’m amazed at how good it still sounds – and how edgy.”

The album reached No. 5 on the UK Albums Chart and No. 28 on the US Billboard 200, where it was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America. The album was reissued several times in the 1980s and 1990s using inferior copies of the master tapes. After the masters were located in 2003, a 40th-anniversary edition of the album was released in 2009 with new stereo and 5.1 surround sound mixes by Steven Wilson.

The album from which this song originated was named as one of Classic Rock magazine’s “50 Albums That Built Prog Rock”. In 2014, readers of Rhythm voted it the eighth greatest drumming album in the history of progressive rock. In 2015, Rolling Stone named “In The Court of the Crimson King” the second greatest progressive rock album of all time, behind Pink Floyd’s “The Dark Side of the Moon”.

Partial writing credit is due to Jo Kendall/loudersound.com.

Hits: 44

Now that you’ve read along and know the story, let’s watch them playing it with a few added enhancements.

“Hot Rod Lincoln” was written by singer-songwriter Charlie Ryan in 1955. It was written as an answer song to Arkie Shibley’s 1951 hit “Hot Rod Race”.

It describes a race in San Pedro, Los Angeles between two hot rod cars, a Ford and a Mercury, which stay neck-and-neck until both are overtaken by “a kid in a hopped-up Model A”. “Hot Rod Lincoln” is sung from the perspective of this third driver, whose own hot rod is a Ford Model A body with a Lincoln-Zephyr V12 engine, overdrive, a four-barrel carburetor, 4:11 gear ratio, and safety tubes. Safety tubes were made by Goodyear. They had a second inner tube inside the main inner tube. If you had a blow out the car would settle slowly on the inner tube that still had air and you could control the car. They were harder to mount than regular inner tubes.

Ryan’s original rockabilly version was released in 1955 through Souvenir Records under the artist name Charley Ryan and the Livingston Bros.

Ryan based the description of the eponymous car on his own hot rod, built from a 1948 12-cylinder Lincoln chassis shortened two feet, with a 1930 Ford Model A body fitted to it. Ryan raced his hot rod against a Cadillac sedan driven by a friend in Lewiston, Idaho, driving up the Spiral Highway (former U.S. Route 95 in Idaho) to the top of Lewiston Hill; he incorporated elements from this race in his lyrics to “Hot Rod Lincoln”, but changed the setting to Grapevine Hill (a long, nearly straight grade up Grapevine Canyon to Tejon Pass, near the town of Gorman, California) to fit it within the narrative of “Hot Rod Race”.

Was there really a “hot-rod Lincoln?” Yes and no. Actually, it was a rebuilt car with the body of a Model “A” coupe set into the frame of a 1941 Lincoln, along with a “hopped-up” Lincoln engine block. However, at the time of this song’s writing, Ryan built a second car, this time with a chop-shop melding of a 1930 Model “A” Ford coupe and a wrecked 1948 Lincoln. It is this second restored car with which has Ryan toured.

Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen, who were a Country-Rock group formed at the University of Michigan, never intended to be a famous band. They have devoted themselves body and soul to country music and old-time rock and roll. But that devotion is not an easy thing to stick to in the Midwest where, chances are, you associate that type of music with the greasers at the drive-in who love to vamp on longhairs and inevitably wind up becoming cops. And it was even harder in 1967 when everyone was just getting into acid and revolution and high-powered MC5 music and all the other things that have put Ann Arbor and Detroit on the map.

“We didn’t think of appealing to anybody,” says the Commander. “We were just having a good time, picking and playing and making a few dollars on the side. It was when the psychedelic ballrooms were starting to be big. We played the Grande Ballroom in Detroit on the same bill with Canned Heat so, naturally, the audience hated us, booed us, you know.”

Formed in 1967, the group’s founder was George Frayne IV (alias Commander Cody) on keyboards and vocals. The classic lineup was “Billy C.” Farlow on vocals and harmonica; John Tichy on guitar and vocals; Bill Kirchen on lead guitar; Andy Stein on saxophone and fiddle; Paul “Buffalo” Bruce Barlow on bass guitar; Lance Dickerson on drums; Steve Davis (a.k.a. the West Virginia Creeper) on steel guitar.

Frayne is also an artist. He received a Bachelor’s degree in design from the University of Michigan in 1966 and a Master’s degree in Sculpture and Painting from the Rackham School of Graduate Studies of the University of Michigan in 1968. He taught at University of Michigan and the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, and has had his art exhibited at numerous shows.

The band broke up and reformed several times over the years, and as of 2016, Commander Cody was still touring with some old and new members making up the Airmen.

The original line-up released one other well-known song.

Hits: 43

If you don’t instantly remember this song by it’s title, take a listen and you might be able to place the song.

To later generations it became known as simply “Crossroads”. It has become not just a Blues standard, in 1986 Robert Johnson’s “Cross Road Blues” was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame. Writing for the foundation, Jim O’Neal noted that

Regardless of mythology and rock ‘n’ roll renditions, Johnson’s record was indeed a powerful one, a song that would stand the test of time on its own.

About that mythology, many have heard the story of how Johnson acquired his talent by selling his soul to devil. It was even prospered by a movie that Hollywood decided needed a White Italian-American guy to portray Robert and the myth. At least they had the good sense to have Steve Vai play the guitar parts for the movie.

Here’s a video from American Mythology that tells the story of Johnson and the myth quite well:

Robert Leroy Johnson was born on May 8, 1911 and died August 16, 1938. Yes, he was 27 when he died, possibly the beginning of the infamous “27 club” of several artists dying at that age. He was an American Blues singer-songwriter and musician. His landmark recordings in 1936 and 1937 display a combination of singing, guitar skills, and songwriting talent that has influenced later generations of musicians.

A dirt-poor, African-American in the South during the Great Depression who would grow up, learn to sing and play the blues, and eventually achieve worldwide renown. In the decades after his death, he has become known as the “King of the Delta Blues Singers”, his music expanding in influence to the point that rock stars of the greatest magnitude – the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, the Allman Brothers – all sing his praise and have recorded his songs.

Keith Richards:

You want to know how good the blues can get? Well, this is it.

Eric Clapton put it more plainly:

I have never found anything more deeply soulful than Robert Johnson.

The power of Johnson’s music has been amplified over the years by the fact that so little about him is known and what little biographical information we now have only revealed itself at an almost glacial pace. Myths surrounding his life took over: that he was a country boy turned ladies’ man; that he only achieved his uncanny musical mastery after selling his soul to the devil. Even the tragedy of his death seemed to grow to mythic proportion: being poisoned by a jealous boyfriend then taking three days to expire, even as the legendary talent scout John Hammond was searching him out to perform at Carnegie Hall in New York City.

He recorded 29 songs between 1936 and ‘37 for the American Record Corporation, which released eleven 78rpm records on their Vocalion label during Johnson¹s lifetime, and one after his death. Most of these tunes have attained canonical status, and are now considered enduring anthems of the genre: “Cross Road Blues,” “Love In Vain,” “Hellhound On My Trail,” “I Believe I’ll Dust My Broom,” “Walking Blues,” “Sweet Home Chicago.”

Another legendary song of Roberts, which the Rolling Stones covered:

Most of Robert Johnson’s songs have been covered by many artists. Johnson’s first single was “Terraplane Blues”. Johnson used the car model Terraplane as a metaphor for sex. In the lyrical narrative, the car will not start and Johnson suspects that his girlfriend let another man drive it when he was gone. In describing the various mechanical problems with his Terraplane, Johnson creates a setting of thinly veiled sexual innuendo.

In 1975 Led Zeppelin took the song as a tribute to the song and their basis for “Trampled Under Foot”. The themes and musical style of these songs however differ; “Terraplane Blues” is about infidelity, while “Trampled Under Foot” is about giving in to sexual temptation.

Most later generations became aware, and interested in Robert’s work, due to the cover by Cream of “Crossroads Blues”, calling their version simply “Crossroads”. Their live version of the song they recorded at the Winterland Ballroom in 1968 is incredible, but that’s to be expected from Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce, and Ginger Baker at arguably their best.

Clapton envisioned “Crossroads” as a rock song:

It became, then, a question of finding something that had a riff, a form that could be interpreted, simply, in a band format. In ‘Crossroads’ there was a very definite riff. He [Johnson] was playing it full-chorded with the slide as well. I just took it on a single string or two strings and embellished it. Out of all of the songs it was the easiest for me to see as a rock and roll vehicle.

Clapton also simplifies and standardizes Johnson’s vocal lines. In addition to Johnson’s opening and closing lyrics, he twice adds the same section from “Traveling Riverside Blues”, another Robert Johnson song from 1937:

I’m going down to Rosedale, take my rider by my side (2×)
You can still barrel house baby, on the riverside

In 1998, “Cross Road Blues” received a Grammy Hall of Fame Award to acknowledge its quality and place in recording history. In 1995, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame listed Cream’s “Crossroads” as one of the 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll.  Rolling Stone magazine placed it at number three on its Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time.

Hits: 42

Was there ever a real Renée from “Walk Away Renée” and was the sad story true about her devastated lover sending her home? Renée did exist, but the rest of the tale? Sadly, it was simply the figment of a forlorn 16-year-old’s imagination.

Renée Fladen was an aspiring teenage ballerina whose boyfriend, Tom Finn, played guitar in a New York City rock band called the Left Banke. One night, Finn brought Renée to a rehearsal. Michael Brown, the group’s keyboardist/songwriter, fell instantly in (puppy) love with the tall, striking blonde. Michael Brown was 16 when he suffered his pangs of love and wrote this song, in collaboration with Bob Callili and Tony Sansone (although the nature of their input is unclear).

But it was not to last. She was associated with the band for a few weeks, and was described as a free-spirited and tall blonde. The song was written one month after Brown met her.

In agony from his unrequited crush, the highly strung, emotional wordsmith started writing love songs about Renée. He wrote another recording about her too, the band’s second hit “Pretty Ballerina”.

Brown says of his unrequited love for Renée:

I was just sort of mythologically in love, if you know what I mean, without having evidence in fact or in deed…But I was as close as anybody could be to the real thing.

Renée was looking on during the recording of “Walk Away Renée”, and her presence nearly prevented its completion. In an interview, Brown stated:

“My hands were shaking when I tried to play, because she was right there in the control room”,  he says. “There was no way I could do it with her around, so I came back and did it later”.

When he wrote his band’s future million-seller, Brown wanted to set his fantasy-crush story in a real place. As a boy in Brooklyn, he had sometimes hunted praying mantises in a vacant lot at the corner of Falmouth and Hampton Avenues. It was there that Brown pictured Renée and himself standing together in the rain below a ONE WAY sign on Falmouth:

And when I see the sign that points one way
The lot we used to pass by every day

Just walk away Renée
You won’t see me follow you back home

And what would Rock n Roll be without a co-band member (co-writer?) offering a slightly different story. Tony Sansone contends that he is the primary author. Sansone has stated in interviews that he wrote the lyrics for the song, and that he randomly chose the name Renée because the Beatles used the name Michelle in their hit song of the same name, and so he did likewise, choosing the French name Renée as the female object for the song. Whomever wrote it (my money’s on Brown), it spent 13 weeks on the US charts, with a top spot of number 5 in early 1966.

Renée A. Fladen became a highly respected classical singer and vocal coach. Among her recordings are those of medieval music as vocal director of the San Francisco based Sherwood Consort. She was married to Howard I. Kamm in 1967; the couple divorced in San Francisco in 1974.

So who were the Left Banke? They were formed in New York City in 1965 by keyboardist Michael Brown, vocalist Steve Martin Caro, guitarist Tom Finn, singer George Cameron, and drummer Warren David-Schierhorst. Shortly thereafter, David-Schierhorst departed and Cameron replaced him on drums. Their musical style has been called “baroque pop” and “baroque n roll”. The main reason was due to the harpsichord, flute, and lush string arrangements on their records. The emphasis on string orchestration was due to Mike Brown’s father, Harry Lookofsky, a well-known session violinist, who ran a small studio in New York and took an interest in the band’s music, acting as producer, manager and publisher. The Left Banke members weren’t skilled instrumentalists, but the elder Lookofsky realized that they could harmonize well and in the style of the then-popular British Invasion groups. Harry Lookofsky had the quartet tape a couple of songs to see how they’d sound on a record, but nothing worked until the night Renée Fladen sauntered into World United Studios. For the 1966 recording of “Walk Away Renee,” Brown’s father brought in a string quartet to create a moody, “baroque rock” atmosphere. He also added a lilting flute solo inspired by the Mamas and Papas’ “California Dreamin’”.

Tension between Brown and the rest of the band soon began to surface. When “Walk Away Renee” belatedly became a hit, the original band had been inactive. Brown decided to capitalize on the single’s success by assembling a new version of the Left Banke for touring purposes (one of its members was future actor and Spinal Tap member Michael McKean on guitar.). The songs recorded by various incarnations of the group in 1967 and 1968 were assembled into a second LP, The Left Banke Too, which was released in November 1968. This album featured backing vocals by a young Steven Tyler.

Various members have come and gone, and come back again over the years. Several “reunion” tours have occurred and as recently as January 2018, it was announced on the official Facebook page operated by Steve Martin Caro and George Cameron that they were planning a tour. That never happened as Justo George Cameron died of cancer at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan, New York, on June 24, 2018 at age 70. Michael Brown died from heart disease on March 19, 2015, at age 65.

Rolling Stone placed “Walk Away Renée” at number 220 in the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

Other artists to release versions include Southside Johnny, Rickie Lee Jones, Herman’s Hermits, Marshall Crenshaw, Sylvie Vartan, Vonda Shepherd, Badly Drawn Boy, and Billy Bragg.

In 1967 the Four Tops interpretation of “Renee”, featuring a stunning, desolate vocal by Levi Stubbs, reached No 14 in the US and No 3 in the UK. The Andantes provided backing vocals on this Motown release in unison with the other Tops and instrumentation by The Funk Brothers.

In 2006, the Cajun singer Ann Savoy with Linda Ronstadt released their version.

Hits: 39