Little Black Egg

In this episode of In The Name Of Wax, we dive into a mix of music history, deep vinyl discoveries, and unexpected connections that keep unfolding the deeper we go. We kick things off with a quick look at notable music birthdays before moving into records that reignite appreciation for artists we thought we already knew. Santana gets another spotlight after a reminder of just how powerful his Woodstock-era sound still is. We also uncover the story behind The Nightcrawlers and their cult Easter-era track “Little Black Egg,” a rare record that feels both overlooked and legendary. From there, we get into a fascinating Chick Corea discovery and the blurred line between his solo work and Return to Forever. We close in the world of prog-psych with Coliseum, where heavy grooves and deep cuts remind us why digging through records always pays off.

Creative Reactive Choice Records LLC
An independent record label from Minnesota, USA. focusing on instrumental kraut and space rock.

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

 Follow In the Name of Wax on Facebook and YouTube for more record club conversations, vinyl deep dives, and behind-the-scenes music discoveries. Stay connected with us on social media to see what we’re spinning next and join the discussion. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:05

Jerry, why don't you start us off with the Stay in History?

SPEAKER_03 0:08

Okay, this Day in History, April 5th. Okay, born today, Booker T. Washington, 1856, Spencer Tracy, 1900, Betty Davis, 1908, Gregory Peck, 1916. Tommy Williams. Oh, he was with the Platters. He was born in 1928. David Swabrick. Okay, he was with Fair Park Convention. Love Fair Park Convention. I was kind of into them here the past week, some too. David Laflame in 1941. Okay, now he was with uh It's a Beautiful Day. Uh whenever I think of It's a Beautiful Day, they were a great band, but they got the short end of a stick with their management. I I feel like I I don't know where I know that from. But he was like really um he put them up in a it was like the the the upstairs of a garage to live there while and he told them to like you know make some music or write some music and stuff. And he wasn't like giving them money like you know for food. And it was they got kind of a raw deal, but it's a beautiful day. I don't know if they have like maybe three albums out, I'm not sure, but they're a great group. Okay. Uh Alan Clark from the Hollies, who we just talked about, 1942. Uh uh Anna Uvayus or something like that. 1950, she was with ABBA. And then uh on this date in 1963, Julian Lennon was born. Okay, who died today, Bob Bear Height, in 1981. I mean, people from this band they always gave him like animal names or whatever. He would he was with he was with Canned Heat. He was the co-lead vocal guy for Canned Heat, uh, from 1965 right up until his death in 1981. So those are the events of today for music.

SPEAKER_01 2:27

Very good. Thank you, Jerry. Uh oh, yeah. Before we get into our mission statement, let's just quickly go around. And if you guys just want to um highlight some of the things that you might talk about, uh I have one record that I want to talk about.

SPEAKER_00 2:41

I listened to it last night and it it just it reignited an interest for a love of a of a an artist that I already have, but it just broadened it even more. So just when I thought I really appreciated this musician, I was totally blown away again.

SPEAKER_03 3:03

That happens all the time. That's that's I totally know how that is, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:07

And then there was a discovery with the artist that I embarrassingly think I might have missed the context of it, like the whole time, because he has an album by the same name. So there's a piece of confusion for myself that uh I feel got untwisted, and it was a very interesting discovery just reading about this guy yesterday. So I'm gonna talk about an artist, a specific album, and a piece of information that I was completely blown away by by feeling like I understood it for the first time.

SPEAKER_01 3:47

Can't wait.

SPEAKER_03 3:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:50

Jerry, what do you think?

SPEAKER_03 3:51

That's it for you. Okay, I've got um actually I've got a little bit of a response uh from uh something that Justin texted uh this past week. Just a short kind of a little response to that. I've got uh an actual Easter album today, um, because this band had to write this song because they were opening for the Beach Boys for an Easter concert. So, what are the odds that we're doing a record club on Easter? Because I was telling Eric we probably odds of that happening again might not be that good because people do other things on Easter, but it worked out this time for us. But I told Eric I I maybe I'll just say that I was looking for an Easter record and found this one, but it was totally 100% accidental. Okay, so I'm gonna talk about that record, and then I've got a group that I've been into this past week that um I have Tom Derek. We uh we we I kind of talked about them maybe like a year or so ago, but they've got some really like important connections and they're they're super good, and they're I would consider them obscure too.

SPEAKER_01 5:06

All right, uh let's do our mission statement. We are very proud of our mission statement here in uh at the name of in the name of Wax. I can't talk this morning. Eric, take us away with the mission statement, please. All right.

SPEAKER_00 5:20

In the name of Wax is an exclusive record club for music lovers of the analog format through sharing experiences, memories, discoveries, and emotions tied to the albums. Our goal is to build continued appreciation for forgotten bands and members by understanding more of their histories and connections. We reinforce our bond with club members for level the groove. Hey man.

SPEAKER_03 5:44

Yeah, yeah, the groove's where it at where it's at. Yes. Can I respond to the Justin thing first?

SPEAKER_01 5:51

Yeah, yeah, Jerry, why don't you go first today?

SPEAKER_03 5:54

Okay, okay. Um when uh it was I don't know what day it was, a few days ago, whatever, when you you texted, uh, I need more Eric Clapton albums. Yes. And I'm thinking to myself, well, it popped into my head right away. I'm like, well, yeah. And then I'm like, well, I hope he knows he needs more of this guitar player's albums. So I just wanted to highlight this artist kind of quick, like he's always been like a favorite guitarist of mine. Um uh he's well, he's gotten like, I don't know, 16 awards and inductions into you know different Hall of Fame stuff. And in 2015, uh Rolling Stone had him number 20 of the 100 greatest guitarists of all times. And then a few years later in 2023, Rolling Stone moved him up to the 11th greatest guitarist of all times. I mean, he's got like 10 Grammys, you know, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in '98.

SPEAKER_01 7:02

And just to clarify, uh, are you talking about Eric Clapton or or this other art this other guitarist that you haven't?

SPEAKER_03 7:08

No, it's the other guitarist. Okay, okay. Just wanted to clarify that. And yep, yep. And he's got like seven studio albums. He's got other albums out. And the reason I wanted to bring him up for just he he's not that hard of a one to find. Maybe you have some of him already, and I just don't know it. I don't know. But I mean, he does stuff for on RCA and Polydor and Arista and Columbia, and his stuff is easy to find, and it's you know, it shouldn't cost that much or whatever either. And I don't know if you have any idea who it was. I'll give you kind of a major clue. Uh he got super noticed uh when he played at Woodstock.

SPEAKER_01 7:48

Did he play with Eric Clapton? Like, is there a connection with Clapton?

SPEAKER_03 7:53

Not that I know of, no. Okay. Okay. I was thinking, I was thinking Eric might get this. Okay, go ahead.

SPEAKER_01 8:00

I mean, there are a lot of guitar players at Woodstock, but I've got a couple in my head, but I'm not quite ready to uh that's okay. I'm not quite ready to read it.

SPEAKER_03 8:11

Okay, okay. I'll just say my it's one of my favorite guitars, it always will be. And I actually it was around the time that you got that text, it was just like a few days before that. I got one of his other albums that I didn't had never even seen before, and I was listening to it. I'm like, God, this guy's so good. Whenever I put him on, I love him a lot. Santana.

SPEAKER_01 8:31

That's kind of what I was thinking, but I didn't have enough information to go off of. But um, because I know, yeah, he was he was young in his musical career, I think, at Woodstock. And um I mean, obviously well known enough to to to play there, but he's still he's still out there, he's still slaying it, still playing.

SPEAKER_03 8:50

Yeah, I mean, he's got a different style, you know, kind of that, you know, Spanish, Mexican. I don't know how you say it, but it's like, dad, I'm amazed when I hear him play. I'm like, geez, how's he doing this? Yeah, yeah. So I just wanted to kind of make sure Justin had Santana on his radar a little bit there for that.

SPEAKER_01 9:10

So I'm gonna make a note of that.

SPEAKER_03 9:14

Yeah, yeah, you won't regret it. I'm right for sure.

SPEAKER_01 9:18

Need more Santana. Very good, very good.

SPEAKER_00 9:22

I I could probably send you back with a couple of hours.

SPEAKER_03 9:25

There you go. There you go. You're off to a good, it's a good day already. Yeah, that's I just wanted to get that done. So I can I it doesn't matter how we do it, but I can talk about that other record, that Easter record, if you want.

SPEAKER_01 9:42

Yes, please.

SPEAKER_03 9:44

Okay. Um, okay, let's see here. I was telling Eric, this group, okay. I have this album. It's this group's only album. And they were opening for the Beach Boys at a concert, and they wanted to write a song for that. Um so they wrote the song. Uh the group, well, they're called the Night Crawlers, is the name of the group. They were uh formed in Daytona Beach, Florida, 1965. They're known for the for the this is a was their hit, the little black egg. That's the song they wrote. Um let's see here. Okay. Yep. It got um, it reached number 85 on the U.S. national charts, and it reached number 74 on the Canadian charts. Um okay, I'm just gonna mention this because it's uh well, I'll keep going for a little bit here. Okay, they had three other, looks like they did three other uh songs that became singles. So I guess you can find some of this band's stuff on singles. Uh and their sound is described as uh sparse folk rock popularized by the Birds, the Bo Bremels, and other post-British invasion 60s bands. Um, and they released uh this one album on Cap Records. That's the one I have, and the one I have is uh a white label promo. It's this it's this band's only album, so this is this was it for them. Um uh let's see, original main songwriter. Okay, okay. They tried to kind of get back together. Some couple other studios tried to get them back together, but it just never really worked out for a bunch of different reasons. I mean, no major things or whatever, it just never worked out. Okay. And it says, although the group never gained wide fame, the simple rift uh of the little black egg made it a favorite cover for garage bands of each musical era since the 1960s. It was cover covered by in the 1990s by the Lemonheads, and the cars also covered the little black egg. Um uh, let's see, September 2008 World Premiere of the film. It was in a film too, okay. Um okay. Now there's not much to talk about them, but I went on, of course, you know. I looked okay, I'm gonna look on eBay. There was only three of these albums on eBay. One was $110, and there was a white label promo uh for $350. Those are the only two in the United States on eBay. Then there was one in Italy, and that was for $1,076. This is a super hard album to find. I mean, I sent, I think I sent you guys both a picture of it, didn't I?

SPEAKER_02 13:11

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 13:12

Yeah. Yeah. Um this could be, I mean, this is I mean, I don't know if it's maybe my most valuable record. I don't even know. But I just, you know, it was just kind of sitting there, and you know, I didn't co exactly remember it. And I played it, it's a great record, and it's a group that just never got back together. Well, then I went and looked on discogs just to kind of see what they and they had, I think it was uh I can't remember if it was 200 or 300 uh people that had it on Discogs, it looked like, but then there was just about 2,000 people that wanted it. And yeah, the price, but the the lowest price range on Discogs for it was 28 bucks. But I'm thinking to myself, eh, I wonder what the condition of that is or whatever. So I don't know. Anyway, so out of the blue, I found this Easter record, and I found out yesterday how how hard to find this thing would be. So that's what I wanted to talk about as far as like opening for Easter. Yeah, the nightcrawlers, a little black egg.

SPEAKER_01 14:30

I like it. There's some there's some pink on the on the cover too, it looks like pink's an Easter color.

SPEAKER_03 14:40

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know. Yeah, it's like uh you know, it's like the day before the concert. Let me see let me read this to make sure. Okay, grind okay, okay, Daytona Beach Florida. The group is best known for their single Little Black Egg, which was written in 1965 for an Easter concert in which the band opened for the Beach Boys. The single ultimately reached number 85 on the U.S. charts and number 74 in Canada. So a band that didn't go anywhere, you know, and hardly anybody knows about them. I mean, albums like that are that's why it's good to grab albums that you don't know what the heck it is.

SPEAKER_01 15:23

Right.

SPEAKER_03 15:26

And this would have been like way back in the day when I was just like picking up albums that you know looked weird or you know, picked up albums or whatever. So yeah. Great album. You ever want to stream it or listen to it? Uh that's that's that's good too. It's a great album.

SPEAKER_01 15:45

Sounds good.

SPEAKER_00 15:46

That was that was one of the uh albums that when I was uh over at your place for Record Club in person last year. Okay, we recorded that on cassette, so I have a recording.

SPEAKER_03 16:02

That's cool. Um we were we were uh accidentally smart or something there. Very good. I'm glad that you have it. Have you listened to it lately?

SPEAKER_00 16:14

Probably not, but uh I haven't. Uh only because well, one is the tape deck that I have, it's kind of like the sound is warbly, so there's nothing with uh the tape deck that needs to be replaced or fixed. Um but because I have it's good you got it, yeah. Okay, it's nice just to have an actual copy of it. And I think I wrote in the sleeve like the day that we recorded it, the equipment that we recorded it on, and the fact that it was a white label promo. Nice. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 16:53

Okay, very good. Well, I'm proud that we did that. Same here. Okay, that's it for me. Eric, you can take over, or anybody can take over, I guess.

SPEAKER_00 17:05

Sure. All right, so I'm gonna talk about this musician first, and then I'm gonna get into the record and then the the discovery of it. So this artist we've talked about many times, Jerry, so I'm sure you'll be able to pinpoint who this artist is. Um this person was a jazz piano player, composer, leader, and he was an occasional percussionist. Um he was born um he was born in Massachusetts on uh June 12th of 1941. He died in February uh 9th of 2021. He was 79. Um his genres are jazz, jazz fusion, post-bop, avant-garde jazz, Latin jazz, classical, and prog rock. Um, two, three, four, five. He was in five different bands. Um so I'm just gonna go go into the history here. He was a member of uh Miles Davis' band in the late 60s. Um he was he participated in what was considered to be the birth of jazz fusion. Uh in the 70s, he formed another band, which I'll talk about that. Um some of the other band members that he played with was McCoy, McCoy Tyner, Herbie Hancock, and Keith Jarrett. He was considered to be one of the foremost uh pianists of the post-rock uh post-uh John Coltrane era. Uh he continued to collaborate frequently while exploring different musical styles throughout the 80s and 90s. He won 29 Grammy Awards and was nominated for the award 79 times. Uh let's see. Personal life. I won't really get into that.

SPEAKER_01 19:03

At some point, we're gonna have to talk about Herbie Hancock.

SPEAKER_03 19:06

Yes. Yeah, I was gonna say Herbie Hancock in the beginning.

SPEAKER_01 19:10

Because I honestly do not know who he is, other than the name that was dropped in the movie Tommy Boy with Chris Farley when he at the beginning of the movie he's uh he's doing his little college exam, and it was like you know, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and he's like or he writes down Herbie Hancock.

SPEAKER_00 19:33

I'll I'll let you borrow uh Headhunters. It's an album of his. It's considered to be like one of the is he jazz? Or who is Herbie Hancock? I I will let you listen to it again. Uh I'd rather I'd rather not not uh not give you any pretext.

SPEAKER_01 19:52

But our listeners right now, there are people driving in their cars listening to this. I want to know who Herbie Hancock is.

SPEAKER_03 19:58

Well, there's probably a lot of listeners that know who Herbie Hancock is.

SPEAKER_01 20:01

I don't, so that means there are other people that don't.

SPEAKER_00 20:04

Um so it is not Herbie Hancock, but he played with Herbie Hancock. Right, right. Um let's see, he learned the piano at age of at the age of four. Uh he recorded his first album in 1966. He performed with he okay, he performed with Blue Mitchell, Willie Bobo, Kyle uh Trader, or T J A D E R. Uh I don't know, that's Jader. And he played with Herbie Mann in the 1960s. And Jerry, we've talked about Herbie Mann many times, and he is wonderful.

SPEAKER_03 20:40

Um anything he does is good, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:44

And in the late 60s, he performed with Stan Getz and Mild Status. Uh he ranked with Herbie Hancock and Keith Jarrett as one of the leading lead leading piano stylists that emerged after Bill Evans and McCoy Tyner, and he composed such notable jazz standards as Spain, La Fiesta, and Windows. Is it Chick Korea? It is.

SPEAKER_03 21:08

It is. Wow, okay. I was thinking, I was I thought I was almost said Dave Brubeck, but it was Chick Korea good.

SPEAKER_00 21:16

Recent acquisitions. Uh Chick Korea is like um was like is like the Oblivion Express or player for Oblivion Express. He uh Brian Auger is like Keith or Keith, Chick Korea is like Brian Auger or like the Oblivion Express, where if I see any album of them that I don't have, I just grab it. I don't if it's a cover I don't know. I'm like, I yeah, I need I need to hear that. Um so this was another one of Chick Korea's and because I haven't heard a single bad album of his and it completely blows me away. Like he's considered jazz, but I I like how how they list him as like avant garde because it's It is. It's different. It's tense. It's beautiful. It's delicate. But then it's like he plays with an intensity at times, like kind of like how Keith Jarrett does. And it's it blows me away every single time. Uh this album I listen I listen to is called Crystal Silence. I don't know if you have this one, Jerry. It's from 1973. Uh the album is a simple blue, it's cover of this of the sky where you can see the sun in the background. Yeah, I don't have that one. And it's with Gary Burton. And so it's oh sure. Okay. So Gary Burton and Chick Korea. And yeah, it was a perfect record to relax to and just listen to, and no other things going on, no TV, no nothing, just music and silence, and just really soaking it in. And it was a very lovely record. Um, and so I was reading on Chick Korea, and the discovery I made that completely blew me away was he had a band called Return to Forever.

SPEAKER_03 23:14

I was just gonna ask you if you had any Return to Forever.

SPEAKER_00 23:17

I have I so I unknowingly I do have some Return to Forever, and I thought because I have Chick Korea's Return to Forever, I thought that was the name of the album because it says Chick Korea's Return to Forever, but it's also considered to be his fourth solo album, but it's also the debut album of a band called Return to Forever, yeah. So I did not know that. And when I was reading on Return to Forever, like Al Damola or was in the band, uh, just so many different musicians he worked with, and I was like, I had no idea.

SPEAKER_03 23:58

Yeah, you you you made a discovery in your own living room, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:03

And I was like, I have that album. I'm like, okay, I thought that was a Chick Korea, just like a Chick Korea solo record. I was like, no, okay, so this is this group, and it seemed like every album was like different musicians, so like it was always rotating. Um, but yeah, just by hearing that, like I was completely blown away, or reading that, I was completely blown away by that. And I it just showed it proved to me more that there's so much more about any even when I do grab records of a musician that I think I know a lot about, I discover so much more when I do the individual deep dives, or when I just take more time just to read up on specific records, because that light is a feather, like that's uh that's a return to forever album, but it doesn't say that it says Chick Korea Light as a feather, but it's technically return to forever. So I was like, I did not know that. Cool. So for Chick Korea for studio albums, he has one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, he's still counting twenty, twenty nine, thirty, thirty-one, thirty-two, thirty three, thirty-four, thirty.

SPEAKER_01 25:20

He's still going.

SPEAKER_03 25:23

Do you have that friends one with those those they look like the the four like smurfs on the front?

SPEAKER_00 25:32

I do not. That one's really good.

SPEAKER_03 25:36

That one gets a lot of praise, too. And I think I either had it and or avoided it just because it had like smurfs on the front or something. But yeah, but yeah, any Chick Korea is good. And yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:51

I'll have to count how many Chick Korea albums I have because he has 60 studio albums.

SPEAKER_03 25:56

Yeah, I'm my jazz is upstairs. I'm not gonna go upstairs to look, but I you know, I don't know how many. I don't, it's not like I have a ton of them, but I mean, he's not uh you can't find him easily in thrift stores, it doesn't seem like anymore. But yeah, any trickery is good.

SPEAKER_01 26:21

Uh do we have an origin story on his name? Like, is that his birth name? That's a that's a good question. That's it's an unusual name.

SPEAKER_03 26:33

Boy, I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 26:34

Let me check. And I I had to peek over at the uh record that that Eric has because I wanted to see if Korea was spelt with a K, but it's indeed spell with a C.

SPEAKER_00 26:48

And then yeah. Uh Armando Korea was born in Chelsea, Massachusetts to parents Anne and Armando Korea. His famil his father's family was was from Albi and a commune in the province of Catanzaro, uh let's see, in Calabria region of Italy. His father, a trumpeter who led in the Dixieland band in Boston in the 1930s and 40s, introduced him to piano at the age of four.

SPEAKER_01 27:22

Oh, very cool. So they're Italian.

SPEAKER_03 27:25

I was just gonna say he died a few years ago too. I didn't know that.

SPEAKER_00 27:29

Yeah, he died in 2021.

SPEAKER_03 27:32

Yeah. And I guess if your name's Armando, changing it to Chick is probably a good idea for music.

SPEAKER_01 27:43

I don't know if that's why or whatever, but no, there's a lot of stories like that, especially in in like Hollywood, too. Well, like I think like Charlie Sheen is a good example of that too. Um, you know, his last name was Esteves, and same thing with like Martin Sheen, they changed their names because they didn't think the last name of Esteves would get them any um any acting gigs. So and that's just one example, but I think yeah, entertainers, musicians, artists, they change their names all the time. I think that's why they have their stage names.

SPEAKER_03 28:15

Yeah. Yeah, all this stuff's good, and I'll probably end up looking for more again, or I'll kind of go through what I have and I'll probably listen to some more today.

SPEAKER_00 28:27

Yeah, so just like so. Chick Korea is like kind of similar to like Herbie Man, where he has like over 50 albums, 60, 60 studio albums and 29 live albums. So I don't know how many records of his that I have. I'm thinking I might have maybe close to maybe nine or ten of his records. Um and maybe some stuff that is with other artists. I because I'm pretty sure I have a Chick Korea album where he's with Herbie Mann. Um, so I'm just uh always delighted just to kind of find a connection to from one artist to another, or even just uh making the discovery of uh a band's musicianship with other other bands, like the Return to Forever. I thought that was just the name of an album of his not knowing that it was the name of a band that had separate releases.

SPEAKER_01 29:27

Yeah, what what instrument did Gary Burton play? Because on the back of this record, so it says piano, chickarea, and then for Gary Burton it lists vibes, vibes, like vibraphone. Oh, wow, yeah. Yeah, yep, yep. Very cool.

SPEAKER_00 29:50

Yep, so virophone. So this is all like vibraphone and piano, and it's yeah, it's very, very good.

SPEAKER_01 29:56

Cool. And it I always kind of like to looking at the looking at the records and seeing like the so for each song. So there's actually a mix. It looks like half the songs are credited. Um when it credits the musician, it lists as cap next to them, and then some of them are BMI, so there's a there's a mix on this one.

SPEAKER_00 30:17

Probably because uh each one might have been signed or recognized by different companies at the time. Yeah. Or maybe the maybe if some of the songs are covers and then they're giving homage to still who owns the rights to that song.

SPEAKER_01 30:31

Very cool. And this one's Polydor Records.

SPEAKER_00 30:34

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 30:35

Very cool. Yeah, this is in good condition. Sorry, the listeners can't can't can't look at it right now, but someday we will have video podcasts for our listeners so they can see the records that we're looking at.

SPEAKER_00 30:50

That'll be good. Um so yeah, so just like Chick Korea, like this, the it's the excitement of finding a a record of a of a musician that you already appreciate, but then finding the the it's the discovery of seeing so much more about the musician, even when you already like them, and then having your mind blown by knowing more about them. And it's just it gets me so excited just to and actually take it doing that while listening to the record, it just makes it so much more uh exciting and interesting, and it just makes me excited to always be a part of Record Club and just doing this every week. It's uh and that's why we've been doing it for 10 years, just talking about the recent discoveries and well, over 10 years now.

SPEAKER_03 31:40

Uh similar thing happened to me this week. I I wasn't gonna talk about it, but you reminded me of it, uh, just kind of briefly. It's a band that you know, I like this band, but I never really listened to them that much. And uh I I one of the members of that band kind of went out on his own after a while, and and he's he's one that I did like, and I knew he was with this band anyway. Well uh well, the band is Spirit, and I saw a little kind of documentary on him, and it was like I would only that 12 Dreams of Doctors or Donicus or whatever, that was usually the one I'd listened to, and I didn't really listen to the rest hardly, but I would listen to all of them this past week, and it's like, geez, these guys are really good, and and that uh I always thought Jay Ferguson, he's uh kind of I've always liked him. I kind of thought Jay Ferguson was a songwriter for those guys, but uh Randy California, he was uh another songwriter, and I didn't know that. And then I always kind of thought it was weird that his name was going by Randy California, but then I then I found out the reason why was they were in the same studio or working with uh Jimi Hendrix, and there was two Randys there, and Jimi Hendrix just started calling him Randy California, just uh so he knew which one he was talking to. So I'm like uh I'm like okay, well then I'm not gonna I'm gonna not think uh negative things about that. And uh so yeah, the Randy California, he wrote quite a few of the songs too, and um I did uh order a couple of his uh records that he did on his own too. So so yeah, it was like a band that I've had for a long time. I always liked them, but I never really looked into them that much. So it was like a kind of a discovery that happened to me that way, too.

SPEAKER_01 33:49

The Jimi Hendrix connection's fun, too. The nickname that he gave him. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:56

Uh Robert Robert Fripp has a really great uh How I Met Hendrix story where he shares that at a show of King Crimson, I believe it was Jimi Hendrix was sitting next to his girlfriend uh listening to or watching King Crimson live. Yeah and at the end of like the last song or something like that, I guess he stood up and instantly cheered and applauded, and he just said, This is the greatest band in the world. Wow. And he met Robert Fripp after that, and he just told him that, and he just said, You guys are the greatest. He's like, That's my only experience with Jimi Hendrix was telling me that we were the best band in the world.

SPEAKER_01 34:45

Yeah. I I I remember you telling me that story one time, uh uh not in that much detail. So that was that was very cool, but um, yeah, I did not know who King Crinsman was until you showed them to me. And then and then you tell me about what Hendricks said about them, really just put it into perspective. Like, because a lot of people like it's Hendricks is arguably the best guitar player, like most people will argue that he is like number one, and for him to say they are the best band in the world, that says something. Yeah, which I mean they are very good.

SPEAKER_00 35:22

They they are, and they're con they were constantly changing, which and Robert Fripp, he's a genius. I mean, I don't want to like fall into like that rabbit hole, but he yeah, he's by far one of my favorite, all-time favorite musicians, and that won't ever change.

SPEAKER_01 35:41

Yeah. Actually, I got lured into some clickbait uh about two weeks ago. I I saw something on social media and it almost looked like that beat tour was coming back to North America, and I got super excited. Or no, I think it was the context of like coming to Minneapolis, and so like I clicked on it and was going through it, and I I think it was just fake. So um, so yeah, I I don't think they're I don't think they have any tour dates to come back to North America, but they are doing another Europe tour. Yeah, yeah, good for them. They did a um like a Latin America tour too, I think. So yeah, they're going everywhere. I mean, kudos to them. They're they're cashing in. That's that's all musicians are making money these days by by by touring. But man, they uh uh if we wouldn't have gone to see Gilmore, yeah, we would have been seeing the beat tour.

SPEAKER_00 36:33

Yeah, yeah, that would have been amazing to see uh Tony Levin and Danny Carey, Steve, Adrian Blue.

SPEAKER_01 36:40

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:42

Um yeah, actually the name of that group, Beat, was given to them by Robert Fripp because he didn't want to be up, he said no to doing the tour, yeah, but after he gave them his graces to use that material. And he's like, You should go by the name of Beat.

SPEAKER_01 37:01

Yeah. I was just imagining for a second what if Robert Fripp would have gone on uh to join that tour. So all the same members plus Fripp plus Danny Carey, man. Yeah. Um Jerry, do you know who Danny Carey is?

SPEAKER_03 37:20

Um no, I was just kind of thinking to myself. I mean, I got you know King Crimson and I've got at least two Robert Fripp albums. I don't know if I've ever listened to them. I'm thinking, geez, I should listen to them.

SPEAKER_01 37:31

Um you familiar with the band Tool?

SPEAKER_03 37:34

Uh only from hearing you or you and Eric talk about them.

SPEAKER_01 37:39

Okay. Um, yeah. 90s uh you know, prog metal band, um, weird time signatures, just very uh well, I'm not gonna go into details, but their drummer, Danny Carey, again, arguably probably one of the best drummers alive today. Um, he was just voted uh number one best drummer by I think it was like prog drummer magazine or something like that. Um well anyway, so he went on tour with the remaining members from King Crimson, and they they called their what do you call it a band or ensemble? They called it beat, and so they went on tour as beat, so they it was the beat tour. Um, so it was just very enjoyable, and and apparently um uh it's Bill Bruford, right?

SPEAKER_00 38:30

Bill Bruford, he he was one of the drummers on um the beat tour, but yeah, from from King Crimson, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 38:37

Yep, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 38:38

So yeah, I've got a couple of his albums too.

SPEAKER_01 38:41

So he was a big influence of Danny Carey's. Yep. So Danny Carey, I think I think between Bill Bruford and John Bonham, I think those two were like Danny Carey's like biggest uh like idols when it comes to drumming. Um so it's just kind of cool seeing him start, you know, go from the the prog metal scene and then he gets on a tour with probably you know, I'm guessing probably one of his favorite bands. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 39:07

Yep. So and playing his favorite music that influenced him the most because there was an interview that he did in the early early 90s, like 91, 92, where he was just showcasing um discipline as why he appreciated King Crimson so much, and he just plays like he takes the CD, puts it in CD Blair, and he plays it, and he's like, just listen to the polyrhythm and listen to how the count it goes from like one to five or three to five to seven, and just hear that, and he's like, and this is all done by the guitar player. Then the drummer comes in and it's like wow. Um so yeah, just like he I know he has like a really great respect for like the 80s King Crimson albums, and yeah, it's uh it's a very lovely thing. Yeah, so uh so yeah, so Robert Fripp, King Crimson, they're they're amazing, but yeah, that's that's the uh Jimi Hendrix story that Robert Fripp had of hearing uh Hendrix say that they were the best band in the world.

SPEAKER_01 40:09

Yep, very cool. That was a good rabbit hole we just went down. All that started with uh Chick Korea and then uh went into Hendricks and then King Crimson and Beat and yeah, that that whole thing.

SPEAKER_00 40:25

Uh what Robert Fripp albums do you have, Jerry?

SPEAKER_03 40:30

I'd have to go look through my random Fs.

SPEAKER_01 40:33

What part of it what part of the house is that in?

SPEAKER_03 40:37

Uh right. Uh sort of in front of me.

unknown 40:43

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 40:44

And I got a couple Bill Bruford albums too. Cool.

SPEAKER_02 40:47

Like soul albums?

SPEAKER_03 40:49

I'll have to pull, I'll have to listen to them. I you know, I flip through and I see them, I'm like, I should listen to that, but then I go for something else. And just by listening to you guys talk about them, it's sort of like, okay, I really need to like pull these out, set them by my turntable so that I don't overlook them anymore.

SPEAKER_00 41:08

Yeah, I have a couple of Bruford's solo albums too, and they are amazing. It's just like him with like a synthesizer and drumming over it for the whole album.

SPEAKER_02 41:18

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 41:19

It's amazing. Like, and yeah, and I think he played with I believe he played with Eddie Jobson, who was in UK. I believe it was him. Um but yeah, like they're the solo albums that they did afterwards, and I know like that's what I was asking, like what albums of Frip you have, because I know he did um like a project called like the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. And he was basically uh kind of like a classical he was like a he was a classical teacher basically of music, and he was just teaching proper technique and hand playing uh or finger picking and playing styles with tons of different musicians. So I know he did stuff like that. I don't I don't believe I have any of those albums, but I have a couple of his solo records.

SPEAKER_01 42:16

I didn't realize he played in Genesis. Or maybe uh maybe he was just like a guest, but so on the Yeah, yeah. Along with Yes, and then of course King Crimson. He's still alive. Yeah. He was born May 17th, 1949. Very good. Did we lose you, Jerry? You still there?

SPEAKER_03 42:41

Yeah, I'm still here. I'm just I got my other band ready.

SPEAKER_02 42:45

Oh, sure.

SPEAKER_01 42:46

Go ahead.

SPEAKER_03 42:46

Yeah, okay. Like I think I mentioned or I might have talked about this like a year ago or so. Anyway, generally a new this week. They're an English jazz rock band mixing blues rock and jazz bass improvisation. Um and this reviewer from I think Rolling Stone made the quote about this band that they are the commercial acceptance of jazz rock in the UK. Um the the commercial acceptance of jazz rock in the UK was mainly due to this band. Okay. Um one of the first bands from 68 to 71. Okay, one of the first bands to fuse jazz rock and blues um were former drummer, okay, John Heisman, Tanner Sachs. Uh I'm not gonna name all the rest of these people here. Let's see. They played together in the new jazz orchestra. And the Graham Bond organization, where Heisman had replaced Ginger Baker in 1966. They met up ear again early in 1968 when they both played in John Mail's Bluesbreakers, during which time they both played on the Bear Wires album. And then this other guy that joined them, Dave Greenslade. I don't know if you know him or not, but he's he's he's a crazy organ player that is super good. Let me just go down here. I do have their first, I have their double live album, and I also have their first album, uh Those Who Are About to Die Salute You. Um they this was interesting. They got signed on uh Phillips and Fontana labels in '69, and in March of that same year, they were invited to take part in a super show, uh two-day film jam session, along with the modern jazz for quartet, Led Zeppelin, Jack Bruce, Roland Kirk Quartet, Eric Clapton, Steven Stills, and Juicy Lucy. Um, and then they later did an album. This is cool. They later did their second album in '69, which is called Valentine's Suite. I would love to get that album, don't know that I ever will. And you'll know why when I read the rest of this paragraph. Uh, this album was notable as the first release on Phillips' newly launched Vertigo label, and they established Vertigo to develop to sign and develop artists that did not fit their main Phillips brand. And the first label to sign heavy metal pioneers Black Sabbath.

unknown 46:11

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 46:13

Um, their third album, The Grass is Greener. I think I'm getting that one. It was only released in the United States in 1970. Uh, let's see here. I might jump down. That green site. Oh, here we go. Okay. Well, the band split in 71. They kind of got back together and split a few different times. Anyway, um uh one of them went and joined Atomic Rooster, and another one went and joined Hummelpie. And the main, this Heisman, the main guy. Well, the the name of the group is Coliseum. And after they kind of broke up, the main guy uh put together another band and call them Coliseum 2. And they're just as good. And they had the uh they featured the guitarist Gary Moore uh from uh well then Nizzy and I forget all who Gary Moore played for, but he's he's not around anymore, but he's really good. Okay. Uh let's see. There's quite a bit about this band. There's kind of a paragraph on each album. Let me get down. But this is like such uh uh spacey psych rock music. I'm like, this is great. They did how many albums? 69, 2 and 69, 2 and 70. Then they got together, looks like in 97 and 2003, and did a couple. But their early albums, they're 69, they're two and 69 and 2 and 70. Those are the ones I want. Um, I have two of their albums, but I'd like to get the other two. Um well, the live album. Yeah, I've got that live album. Okay, yeah, this band is like uh well, a lot of bands you can say is like this band's really a trip or whatever. But this band, it it feels like I was tripping when I was listening to them. I'm like, I'm like, where am I? Who am I? What is this? Yeah, this stuff is really good. Um and the double live album, like I always like the double live albums, but how many albums did uh Coliseum have? They just had the four. Okay, they just did um, well, besides the 71 live album, double live album, then they did uh 2 in 69, Those Who Are About to Die Salute You, and Valentine's Sweet. That's the one that's on Vertigo. You can get a reissue of it for like you know 50 bucks or something, but I don't know if but then the grass is always greener, that one's a gettable, and the daughter of time. I think I'm gonna get that daughter of time. They did uh uh one, two, looks like four more like in '97, two thousand, sort of. Sure. But I just sort of want the early stuff.

SPEAKER_00 49:45

Yeah, just knowing that there's a connection between uh Atomic Rooster and Humble Pie that like that's amazing.

SPEAKER_03 49:54

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 49:56

Uh was that who was the musician who went on to uh Atomic Rooster Roosters?

SPEAKER_02 50:02

Uh let me see here.

SPEAKER_00 50:03

Because Atomic Rooster primarily they were a trio.

SPEAKER_02 50:07

Why can I find that out?

SPEAKER_00 50:10

Do you know if um Coliseum 2 was the original members of the band, or was it uh the main guy?

SPEAKER_03 50:18

Was the original guy, okay, and he got these guys together. I can't remember if Greenslade was in with uh two or not, but they they got Gary Moore. So when I saw that they got Gary Moore in Coliseum 2, that's when I uh bought those Coliseum 2 albums. Cool. Um, my son Nick told me about Gary Moore, so that was good.

SPEAKER_01 50:45

So when you guys mentioned Coliseum, I was I I had a memory triggered, so I went back in my notes back on February 7th. We were talking about Lucifer's friend, the singer Mike Starz is also uh in Coliseum. And so I just looked him up.

SPEAKER_02 51:06

Yeah, that sounds strange.

SPEAKER_01 51:07

I just looked him up here, and yeah, Michael Starr, Scottish rock singer, best known for his work in Coliseum and Lucifer's Friend.

SPEAKER_02 51:15

Yep, yep.

unknown 51:17

Cool.

SPEAKER_02 51:18

Why in the heck can I have a little connection there?

SPEAKER_03 51:20

Oh, here we go. The Tommy Cruiser. Okay. Uh okay, this was in '71. Okay, after the band split, John Heisman, he's the main guy, formed Tempest. So that's another band that he did, I guess, with bassist Mark Clark, Dave Greenslade. Greenslade went off and did his own band, and I wouldn't mind getting some of his either. Um, together with Tony Reeves, Chris Farlow. Yeah, Chris Farlow is the one that joined Atomic Rooster.

unknown 51:54

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 51:55

And Clem Clemson is the one that joined uh Humble Pie. That would have been in 71. And then, you know, it just talks about he formed another group called Coliseum 2 in 75, uh with a stronger orientation toward jazz fusion, and the band featured uh guitarist Gary Moore and Don Barry on keyboards. They released three albums before disbanding in 78. Yeah, this stuff is really good. I mean, their double live album I've had for a while, and back when I talked about them before a year or whatever ago, uh, but then I ran across it the other day and I thought, eh, I haven't listened to this for a while. I remember really liking it. And uh and then I got another one of their albums, and it's just as good.

SPEAKER_00 52:52

Very cool.

SPEAKER_03 52:53

Yeah, just yeah, yeah, Coliseum. It's one of those bands I think that not a lot of people know about. Besides Vertigo, they were they were on Dunhill and Fontana. And they call them, they call them jazz rock and prog rock, but then I'm thinking, okay, this is like totally psych rock. I mean, what's the difference between prog rock and psych rock? Is is prog rock where they just progress from rock to psych? I don't know. Where's the line on that?

SPEAKER_00 53:26

Yeah, I think with prog rock, it's just it's considered to be like polyrhythms and sequence, sequence-based, where it's not all in 4-4 timing. Um, and maybe with some of it uh having a lot of musical transitions, I think that's what's primarily considered to be more prog where it's like it's like flying through outer space.

SPEAKER_03 53:50

I mean, I'd close my eye. I mean, I might try the old uh listen to it in the dark thing, which is fun when the speakers are separated, nice like they are. And if you want to have a different like um uh experience with your albums, listen to them in the dark when it's totally dark. Yeah, yeah. But yeah, I just wanted to talk about Coliseum again. It's kind of a band that I think a lot of people don't know about. Um and uh yeah, they're great.

SPEAKER_01 54:28

So when you say listen to them in the dark, you just talk and just turn your lights off in your living room dark, or so dark you can't see your hand in front of your face dark.

SPEAKER_03 54:36

The darker the better. Okay, yeah. I'll try that. So that's what I have. Can't think of anything really. I did pull out that family album after just listening to one of our recordings. I thought, yeah, I'm gonna sit this one out here too.

SPEAKER_00 54:49

Yeah, there's uh like a couple times when I've listened back to a few of our episodes, I'm like, okay, I gotta listen to more of this record, or I gotta keep an eye out for that. That's the one thing I I appreciate the most is like hearing about bands that I haven't heard of, even like Coliseum or uh the connections with new groups that spin off from discovering new bands anyway. It's like okay, it's just the interest of wanting to uh keep an ear or keep an eye out for some of these groups, and just by the discussions, that's what makes all of this so worthwhile, and especially with recording them and listening back to them and um and just rediscovering stuff that we have in our own collections. It's it's a very beautiful thing.

SPEAKER_01 55:35

Yeah, yeah. All right, well, this will conclude this episode of Record Club on April 5th, Easter Sunday, 2026.

SPEAKER_03 55:47

Very good. We will carry on.

SPEAKER_01 55:50

Alrighty, all right, gentlemen. You have a good day.