 | oscargamblesfro (76)
12/31/2007 |  An oddity even in a weird period, and the type of obscure band who really couldn't have existed in any other time period other than the late 60's- while in my belief a band ought to be judged in the context of it's own time, some stuff really just hasn't aged too well. In this time frame, a lot of musicians who didn't have a rock background became attracted to the possibility of reaching a larger audience and potentially making big money- jazz, blues, and classical musicians began to form rock acts. Elektra records signed these guys, who all came from a classical/ Renaissance/ medieval music background. Their music was, generally a blend of that stuff mixed in with pop, light psychedelic rock, and ballads on the first record, with more of the same on the second, plus bossa nova and some fairly hard rock, along with jazz, as a trumpet player of some note named Jimmy Owens appeared as part of the group on the second record. Unfortunately, their first major gig was opening up for The Doors at the new Fillmore East, which was a disaster, and the band folded despite a feature article in Life Magazine, though a mostly new lineup managed to put out that 2nd record on Atlantic a year later. The band had no commercial success, though one of them wound up drumming for both Janis Joplin and Tim Buckley, and the lead singer appeared in the credits for a Lou Reed album. The band indeed made some bad and pompous music, but managed to create the occasional decent or good track, despite the fact that the singer's stentorian vocals bore some resemblance to the warbling of the Cowardly Lion.
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