Sunday November 8, 2009
The USA of yesterday
Music Myths & Legends
By MARTIN VENGADESAN
Unlike the land it was named for, USA’s influence did not spread far and wide.
WHEN a group chooses to name itself after a place it can lead to all sorts of confusion. The Bay City Rollers were from Scotland, not Michigan, Japan was a London-based art-rock group, Europe was “just” Swedish and Asia comprised a quartet of Englishmen. One little-known group from Los Angeles, California, certainly picked itself a difficult name to live up to ... and disappeared with nary a trace.
The United States of America (USA) was a band based around the talents of the quirky electronic music pioneer Joseph Byrd and lead vocalist Dorothy Moskowitz. Taking their cue from the sonic experiments conducted to such great effect on Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band by the Beatles, the group used its classical training to create a pastiche of rock music that resulted in one amazing, but sadly undervalued, album.
In 1967, record companies were looking for bands influenced by the burgeoning psychedelic movement. In such an environment the band formed around the Byrd/Moskowitz duo, and which also included electric violinist Gordon Marron and a rhythm section of Rand Forbes and Craig Woodson, was eagerly snapped up by Columbia Records.
USA was paired with the soon-to-be-acclaimed producer David Rubinson (who, while going on to have lots of success with a range of performers, from Santana and Herbie Hancock to the Pointer Sisters, was unfortunately at the helm with a couple of underachieving artistes, including USA itself and the legendary, ill-fated Moby Grape).
With Byrd and Rubinson given full creative control, the band set about crafting a unique record. University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) music professor Byrd was no ordinary songwriter, having studied under avant-garde supremo John Cage (in fact his first public performance was at the home of fellow student Yoko Ono!).
Blending a string of contemporary sound effects (and stuff that was state-of-the-art for the late 1960s like ring modulators) with brass band sounds, string sections and more conventional rock instruments (although notably excluding a guitar), USA’s music was offbeat, edgy and yet somehow attractive.
Capable of veering wildly from the realms of psychedelic reverie to jarring garage rock but always managing to convey the urgency and chaos of the times ... although strangely enough the politically-titled Long Song for the Dead Che doesn’t really come off as much of a political call to arms when compared to some other tracks.
At times the album, The United States of America, seems so hip and alive that it almost sounds like the soundtrack to a documentary about the more dramatic moments of the 1960s. And the concluding suite The American Way of Love is practically a cacophonic potpourri of all the elements that makes up the band, throwing soul, rockabilly, sci-fi sounds and a reprise of many of the album’s themes all into one chaotic pot.
Unfortunately, after a solitary tour (which featured supplementary member Ed Bogas giving them a rare double keyboard sound), the poor sales and conflicting aspirations tore this promising group apart.
Amazingly, Byrd went on to produce another brilliant album under the name of Joseph Byrd and the Field Hippies (the album itself was titled The American Metaphysical Circus which confusingly was the name of the opening cut on the USA album). It furthered his reputation for being able to blend psychedelic sensibilities with political commentary and including a bitter indictment of then-US president Lyndon B. Johnson.
Still, it is arguable that he never quite reached the creative heights that he had managed on the one and only USA record. Despite lingering in the industry (as did Moskowitz who was briefly with Country Joe and The Fish), Byrd remains a sadly underappreciated figure.
Fans may argue that if USA had persevered a little longer they could have made the big time a la Jefferson Airplane, but I suspect that the intense quality of their music was just suited for that perfect single shot.
Martin Vengadesan, a music lover and history buff, combines his two passions in his fortnightly column. If you have any interesting stories you want him to research, do drop him a line at starmag-feedback@thestar.com.my .
RSS
