Baron Thomas & the Blue Crystal’s “Tension” is a song that I never get tired of. The bass gives the song a great propulsion, the drumming sounds fantastic with all the reverb on it, and Baron Thomas’ vocals cut through the hiss of the ride cymbal and the compression of the recording. The two guitars have distinct sounds and roles in the song, and everything comes together so nicely on the chorus, as the finger-picked rhythm switches to slashing chords.
I started looking into the story of the band and found band leader George Anderson’s website, which features a history of the group written by George Gell, which I’ll summarize here.
The Blue Crystals came from Bowling Green, Ohio. They had been the Citations until a new manager, James Farringer had the idea to spray their hair blue and change their name to the Blue Crystals in 1964. The blue hair didn’t last, but the name stuck and they would remain the Blue Crystals for the next four years.
The band at this time were Joe Dill (lead vocals), George Anderson (lead guitar), Don Hite (rhythm guitar), Roger Rauch (bass) and Don Harris (drums). They cut their first record in 1965, “Be Bop a Lula” / ” Hey Baby” at Courier Studios in Fremont, owned by Bob Brown.
By 1966 Joe Dill and Roger Rauch had left, to be replaced by Doug Mass on bass and Byron Thomas, from Toledo, as new lead vocalist.
They went back to Courier in late ’66, recording two originals by George Anderson, a ballad “We’ll Be Thru For Ever” b/w “Tension,” “inspired by a certain girl friend from that time” says George. The band pressed 1,000 copies in January, 1967, selling most of them.
Later that year Don Hite switched to bass after Doug Mass left the band and Dave Brown came in on keyboards and sax. The group continued until the draft broke them up in 1968.
George Anderson continued in music, playing part-time in bands, giving lessons on guitar and performing solo with MIDI backing.
Thank you to Mark Taylor for the great transfer and scan of his autographed copy of the 45. Special thanks to George Anderson for the scans of the clippings and photo.
