When singers John Finley and Lee Jackson left The Jon-Lee Group (aka Jon & Lee and The Checkmates) in mid-September 1967, Toronto singer David Clayton-Thomas picked up their backing band, renamed it The Phoenix and moved to New York.
After a month’s rehearsals, the group debuted at the Bitter End and then briefly played at the East Scene in October before working as the house-band at Steve Paul’s The Scene.
The band’s career, however, was cut short during early November when Clayton-Thomas was deported for being an illegal alien.
Leishman also returned to Toronto at this point and played with several groups, including The Power Project and Bobby Kris & The Imperials before joining The Duke Edwards Cycle in late 1968.
Hodgson meanwhile was offered a place in Project Supergroup (later Rhinoceros) in December and flew out to Los Angeles to audition.
After being passed over for the group in early 1968, he briefly rejoined David Clayton-Thomas in his group, David Clayton-Thomas Combine. When that split in mid-1968, Hodgson moved back to the US and became a member of the Paxton Ranch Band, playing on Jackson Browne’s early recordings (aka Baby Browning).
Cutler stayed in New York and worked with an embryonic version of Hot Tuna and then did a stint drumming and managing The Crazy World of Arthur Brown during the band’s summer ’68 North American tour. He later worked as a manager for The Holy Modal Rounders.
When Clayton-Thomas had previously worked in New York in March 1967, he had shared a flat with former Bob Dylan bass player Harvey Brooks, who was in the process of putting The Electric Flag together.
Apparently Brooks had offered Thomas the original vocal slot in the group, but he declined.
Fonfara however, did accept an invitation from the Flag’s drummer Buddy Miles to replace Barry Goldberg when the latter got busted in November 1967.
Fonfara duly appeared on the group’s debut album, before becoming a member of Project Supergroup the following month, which soon changed name to Rhinoceros.
Hodgson and Leishman both rejoined Fonfara in Rhinoceros in 1969.
David Clayton-Thomas joined Blood, Sweat & Tears in June 1968.
Advertised gigs
19-22 October 1967 – Steve Paul’s The Scene, New York with The Carnival Connection
Joey Levine wrote “Try It” for the Standells and went on to compose, produce and sing on numerous pop hits for the Third Rail (including “Run Run Run” and the excellent flip “No Return”), the Ohio Express, Jet Stream and other acts. Before the hits came this one-shot record as Joey Vine, released on Hercules Records in the U.S. and Immediate in the U.K.
I’d like to know who was backing him on these songs. Though likely studio musicians, the group has a sharp garage sound on “The Out of Towner”, with a catchy guitar hook, solid drumming, and good harmonica fills. Vine gives a good vocal on the A-side, then does a close Dylan imitation on the flip, “Down and Out”.
Though Joey Levine wrote both songs, Gallico Music published “The Out of Towner” while Pentagon Music BMI published “Down and Out”.
Hercules Records had three singles, all in 1965, all produced by Charles Calello and distributed via Jamie/Guyden. Besides Joey Vine’s there were also Hercules 101, the Victorians “C’mon Dream (Chris Andrews) / “Catrina” (Donnie Frio) and Hercules 102, Joy Leonard “Baby I Wanna Back Track” (Lou Christie, Twyla Herbert) /”Don’t Feel Sorry For Me” (Rosemarie McCoy, Dorian Burton).
Of these three only Joey Vine’s was licensed for release in the UK by Immediate in October, 1965. How that happened is uncertain – the only other Jamie/Guyden product to be picked up by Immediate was a Barbara Lynn single whose r&b sound would have obvious appeal in England.
Eddie Reeves was writing songs, arranging and producing for United Artists in the mid-late ’60s. He wrote and produced the fantastic “A Million Things” for the Restless Feelins, layering distorted guitar throughout the track, even over the vocals and chorus.
The flip is a Byrds-like song by Bruce Murdoch, “Hey Mama You’ve Been on My Mind”. I knew nothing about the band behind this 45 until Eddie Reeves set the record straight with his comment (see below). I repeat it here in its entirety:
The Restless Feelin’s was me along with Ron Dante singing harmony. The “A” side of the record was actually “Hey Mama You Been On My Mind” but not the Dylan song. It was written by a fellow named Bruce Murdoch and it’s a clever song with Dylan-type lyrics. I did the recording as a demo for United Artists Music Company in New York while employed by them as a demo producer, song writer and song plugger from 1965 thru 1967 in New York and then from 1968 thru 1971 in Los Angeles.
The musicians are Hugh McCracken -guitar; Frank Owens -keyboards; Bobby Gregg -drums; and Joe Macho -bass. United Artists Records decided to release it as a single and asked me to record a “B” side and “A Million Things” was the result with the same musicians but without Ron Dante doing harmony which was done by me.”
A short time after this record by the Restless Feelins, Eddie Reeves produced another UA 45 by the Hysterical Society, a band from his hometown, Amarillo, Texas.
60sgaragebands.com has an interview with Eddie covering the early part of his career.
This is an unidentified 12″ Sanders Recording Studios acetate featuring a somewhat free jazz ensemble whose sound and instrumentation remind me of Sun Ra or Mingus. I’m hoping some listener will be able to help me identify the artist. If you have any friends who are into this kind of jazz, please have them give these samples a listen.
Neither side has any information on it other than the printed label with the studio’s address and phone number, at 167 West 48th St., off Times Square in New York City. I would guess this dates to about 1961 or 1962.
It’s a very low fidelity recording, but I think the music is interesting enough to make a listen worthwhile. It’s noir, well-composed but not totally straight either. Track 13 may be the most polished composition on the acetate, so you may want to start with that first.
Someone commented the trombone sounded like Bob Brookmeyer, though I didn’t hear it.
The Rites, l-r: Pete Kerezman, Tom Fitzpatrick, Pete Feller, Bob Azzarello and Jimmy Cahn
The Rites actually called themselves the Last Rites, and they made this one great double-sided 45 on Decca before changing their name and lineup. There’s more than a touch of psychedelia to both “Hour Girl” and “Things.” Peter Kerezman wrote both songs, and the 45 was produced by Stephen Hammer.Band members at the time of recording were Jimmy Cahn, organ, vocals; Bob Azzarello, drums; Tom Fitzpatrick, bass; Peter Feller, lead guitar, vocals; and Pete Kerezman, vocals, rhythm guitar.
A former band member I heard from writes: “I believe [the Rites] got the record deal as a result of a contest that included playing around the city with some sort of a thing sponsored by some cosmetics company [Clairol]. They were given a ton of Ampeg gear as well and met a ton of models, who used to hang with us.
“The band was re-named Thin Ice and we continued to play Things and The Hour Girl along with several other originals by Pete & Jimmy. Unfortunately the band only lasted about a year and we never quite got off the ground.
“Thin Ice did some demos (I think they’re lost now). We played a big club in Phillie, a bunch of resorts in Stowe VT, Yale, a street festival in Phillie, some other gigs around the city. Used to rehearse in a basement studio owned by the manager of Screamin’ Jay Hawkins. The guy wanted to sign us. I think the last gig we ever did was a Hell’s Angel’s benefit at the Electric Circus in NYC. Yet another manager hooked it up for us, but we were just too drugged out to deal.”
A sad ending to the band but it doesn’t diminish the beauty of this music.
“Time magazine, June 30, 1967, taken during a dress rehearsal in Central Park. You can barely see me, all the way on the left there, and up front is Jimmy dancing with model Patsy Sabline.” – Pete
I was a coffeehouse folk musician prior to doing the group thang. I guess my first “band” was with Rites guitarist Pete Feller in a folk duo, “The Candymen,” two guitars and vocals. We had been having a friendly competition in Rockland County coffeehouses and decided to join forces. I insisted that we wear striped shirts, like the Kingston Trio. We played the coffeehouses, and had a regular gig at the Fort Hamilton army base enlisted club. Then Pete went off to Oberlin College in Ohio.
Later that year (Or was it the following year? The memory’s dim), Pete’s younger brother, Phil, who was attending Columbia University, called me and said he was putting a band together, asked me if I wanted to play bass, which came as quite a shock because I’d never played a bass, except for washtub in a bluegrass wannabe outfit, and didn’t even own one. For some odd reason I agreed. That group was a quartet – Phil singing, me on bass, Tommy Fitzpatrick on guitar, and a cat from Westchester name of Wally Westphal on drums. It turned out that Phil wasn’t much of a singer, so we kicked him up to “manager” and Wally enlisted Jimmy Cahn and we became The Last Rites.
We played the Columbia University frat house circuit for a while, and the band outgrew the drummer, so we replaced him with another C.U. student, Rick Davis, who was a superb jazz drummer who could handle rock with ease.
Time passed. Pete Feller quit Oberlin and moved back to the New York area to join the band. We had a fairly serious competition with another C.U. frat band, The Walkers, who had a damn good lead guitarist, Billy something. They were numero uno and we were numero dos. Couldn’t dislodge ’em.
At some point in time we played a gig where Bob Prescott, our eventual manager, was quite taken with us, but Rick’s wife got to humpin’ the whole band so we lost his services when he went off to Africa on a geological dig to try and forget his sorrows.
I honestly can’t remember who put us on to Bob Azzerello, maybe it was Prescott, but Az was up to the task and came on board. I also can’t remember when I moved back to guitar and Tommy took over the bass chores, but it happened. Next thing we knew we had to lawyer up and read and sign contracts.
We passed an audition and became members of a traveling troupe of musicians and fashion models in a show called “The Clairol Caravan.” In addition to our own stuff we backed up a singer, Lamont Washington, who later died in a horrible fire, and played schlock music so the models could strut their stuff. The caravan and the record deal were parallel events, instigated by our manager, Bob Prescott, who was a sound effects expert for ABC radio and television and a founder of Audio Fidelity records.
We played some teen clubs in the New York area, signed with Decca and got that Clairol gig, all in a relatively short space of time. We were pretty much isolated and self-contained (arrogant and conceited). A fascinating sign of the times was that Decca thought that “The Last Rites” name was too controversial, so we morphed into “The Rites.”
The Rites with Jerry Blavet, l-r: Pete Feller, Bob Azzarello, Jerry Blavet, Tom Fitzpatrick, Jimmy Cahn, Pete Kerezman
We went into Decca’s studio A on 57th street. Recording legend Milt Gabler manned the board, with Steve Hammer hovering around being mostly useless. We were thrilled just to have a record out and we thought it turned out pretty good. Unfortunately the label didn’t do much for us in terms of promotion and the record went nowhere.
I think the one royalty check I saw was for about twelve bucks, and I had written both sides! Prescott did manage to get us on a Philly TV clone of American Bandstand, the Jerry Blavet show, where we lip-synched “Hour Girl,” but it didn’t help any. I’ve got a shot of Jerry and us standing outside our van in the snow.
After some time spent occasionally gigging, drugging and generally just spinning our wheels, Pete Feller and Tom Fitzpatrick realized what was happening, had the good sense to move on, and that was the end of The Rites.
Thin Ice, l-r: Bernard Grobman, Jimmy Cahn and Pete Kerezman
Thin Ice
Jimmy, Bob and I held auditions, and even though Bernard was quite a bit younger than us at the time he was already a monster guitar player and was obviously up to the gig. I don’t remember what name we performed under, maybe The Rites, maybe not, just don’t remember. When Bob had enough (we were a pretty rowdy bunch) we continued on as Thin Ice with a couple of other drummers passing through at various times.
Jimmy and Bob were still jamming, but I wasn’t really in their plans until I sat in with ’em one time, opened their ears, and we became “Feel.” We hooked up with a bottom-feeder agent and got a few gigs but eventually realized that Jimmy, who had switched from Farfisa to guitar, needed some help. That’s when we held guitarist auditions and hooked up with Bernard Grobman, eventually becoming “Thin Ice,” playing ski resorts in Vermont, and a few Westchester clubs.
We lost Bob’s services when he returned to college, and took up with another drummer, Andy Stone. That’s when we made the Philadelphia scene, playing The Second Fret and some street concerts. We then lost Andy and hooked up with yet another drummer, Gaspar Mirabele.
At that point Jimmy moved to Sausalito and Bernard and I formed up with a couple of crazy go-go dancers/vocalist wannabes in a group called “Your Mother.” Played some Westchester bars. Bob Azzerello was with us for a while but the girls didn’t care for him, fired him, and, partly because he was a friend and partly because he was a very good drummer, I quit the band.
Somehow, no recollection how, I got drafted by piano man Doug Konecky, and violinist Diana Halprin, who played for the American Philharmonic under Leopold Stokowski and the Metropolitan opera. Those two were monster musicians and very serious, so that’s when I *really* learned to play the bass. We were called J.S. Blue, played wine and cheese joints in Greenwich Village, and made some demos with a guy name of Jimmy Ienner, who handled Eric Carmen and Rasberries. When Doug and Diana realized just how obnoxious I really was they showed me the door.
That’s when I hooked up with piano man Jim Carling, who later did some time with Chubby Checker’s band, drummer Chris Jackson and guitarist Donny Siegel in a band called “Visions.” We were good, cut some demos at a twelve-track studio somewhere downtown but alas, nothing came of it. Jimmy and Chris moved to Newark, Delaware, Donny went back to college, and in 1976 I moved to Texas, where I gave up “the dream.” Came to visit, never left, which apparently makes me a “damn yankee,” (because I stayed).
I have reel-to-reel copies of the “J.S. Blue” and “Visions” demos, but no way of transferring them to more modern media. Sorry I don’t have the Feel demo which we made up in Decca Studio A again, and Thin Ice never did any recording. Decca 32218 was the only record The Rites ever made. I have no copy of the record so it’s a real treat to hear it again after all these years.
I must say, I’ve had more fun playing country music down here than I ever did pounding my head against the show-biz wall in The Apple. Had about a fifteen year run in outfits such as “Low Country,” “The Stardust Cowboys,” “Rough Cut,” and variety band “Flash Flood.” No pressure, just good music and mostly good times. Had guns pulled on me a couple or three times, almost got stabbed by a meth-crazed tattoo artist, but man, I *love* the honky tonks. You can have your country clubs, I’ll take the joints where the hoi polloi go to drink.
The Magic Plants were a New York City group connected to Harry Lookofsky, owner of World United Studios.
The only band members whose names I could find are Peter Schekeryk and Tom Finn, but since first posting this, Tom Finn contacted me to say that Mick Wexler was lead singer and also guitarist on the record. The band’s drummer was Warren David Scherhorst who became the first drummer for the Left Banke.
Finn stated in a later interview that he was just 16 at the time, not a good bassist yet, and only sang backup vocals on the record. Very likely then, at least some of the musicians on the record were studio pros. Contrary to prior publications, this record was never released with a World United label, but went straight to Verve in December ’65, making no impression on the public at the time.
While recording “I’m A Nothing”, Finn met Lookofsky’s son, Michael Brown, also just 16, who was working as an assistant at the studio. They started composing songs with Finn’s friends, drummer George Cameron and singer Steve Martin. Together they became the Left Banke, managed and produced by Harry Lookofsky.
John Abbott, who arranged this single, also arranged and played bass and guitar on several early Left Banke recordings done within a couple months of the Magic Plants record. This leads me to believe there’s a good chance that he played bass on “I’m a Nothing”. I had thought maybe Hugh McCracken (another local studio pro) played guitar – though Tom Finn says he did not.
The b-side here, “I Know She’s Waiting There”, hints at something of the future Left Banke sound, and also has a beautiful fuzz guitar solo. Harry Lookofsky, by the way, also recorded interesting jazz discs and provided backing for doo-wop groups under the name Hash Brown and His Orchestra. John Abbott was involved in some of these as well.
Peter Schekeryk passed away on October 26, 2010.
Tom wrote to me and also commented below, I’ve edited them together for clarity:
I think I can help you with this, as I was in the group. The lead singer of the group was Mick Wexler. The only thing I can tell you about him is, he was from an area of Philadelphia called Mount Airy. I don’t think his real 1st name was Mick, because he thought he was (Mick) Jagger.
I believe he wrote both songs. Harry Lookofsky did produce them. The reason it got onto a major label so quick is: 1. Harry’s reputation. 2. Longhaired bands were few and far between back then. 3. It was sort of commercial.
I didn’t play on the record, you are correct there. We also had a blond haired drummer named Warren David Scherhorst, who was the 1st drummer of The Left Banke. No photos exist of Warren or Mick.
When Warren & I Joined The Magic Plants, the records were already done. There was no group, just Mick. But he had to put something together, because he needed to act as if there was a group.
So we got together and Mick planned a few shows. He booked us in Philly, at some movie houses that were owned by a relative of his, named Nate Milgram. I think it was called, The Milgram Theatres.
You’re right about John Abbott [playing bass on the Magic Plants 45]. Hugh McCracken didn’t play guitar on The Magic Plants recordings. I remember seeing Mick Wexler playing guitar, he was actually a pretty good guitar player.
Peter Schekeryk was Harry’s talent scout, and I think he brought Mick to Harry. Harry Lookofsky was always on the lookout for talent to record so he could make some dough. Nothing wrong with that, right? So one day Peter took Warren and I up to meet Harry. But, I can’t recall how I met Mick or Michael. Probably at the studio. Or maybe in Greenwich Village.
Back then, we just wanted to be in a band. It was pretty sick, but we all had long hair and wanted to be like The Stones or Beatles. I think I just turned 16. I was a good singer because I’d been in doo-wop groups in Brooklyn for a few years. So the new culture was pulling us in. We were learning how to live our lives, we didn’t know what we wanted to be, but we knew what we didn’t want to be, Old fashioned greasers. Those bands were speaking our language.
By the way, I was responsible for putting together the elements and members of The Left Banke. I met all of the members separately and introduced all of them to each other. I lost power in the group after “Walk Away Renee” became a hit. The money started to come in, and Michael Brown (then Lookofsky) and his father Harry made a power play to keep only the lead singer Steve Martin-Caro and fire the rest of us. Well it didn’t work. But it did destroy the trust and comradery we had. -Tom Finn
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The Rites actually called themselves the Last Rites, and they made this one great double-sided 45 on Decca before changing their name and lineup. There’s more than a touch of psychedelia to both “Hour Girl” and “Things.” Peter Kerezman wrote both songs, and the 45 was produced by Stephen Hammer.Band members at the time of recording were Jimmy Cahn, organ, vocals; Bob Azzarello, drums; Tom Fitzpatrick, bass; Peter Feller, lead guitar, vocals; and Pete Kerezman, vocals, rhythm guitar.
