Week of September 23, 2007
Personnel:
Lester Brown Jr. - Drums
Wayne Erwin - Guitar
Michael Racoon - Piano, Organ
Album:
Rockin Foo (Hobbit HB 5001) 1969; CD: Second Harvest 404
Rockin Foo (Uni Records 73115) 1971
45:
Rochester River/Stranger In The Attic (Hobbit 42001) 1969
A Californian hippie rock trio, Rockin Foo released their album on the
same label as Sapphire Thinkers. Housed in a rather intriguing sleeve
with a black and white front cover with the ying/yang symbol and a seagull and a
back cover with a Chinese ideogram, the album was produced by Les Brown, their
drummer.
Clearly a minor group, their songs combined pseudo poetic lyrics with second
rate melodies. Only some instrumental parts (organ and guitar) are of interest.
All the songs were written by Wayne Erwin, save "Old Friends" co-written by
Erwin and M.Clark. The overall result sounds a bit like a lightweight version of
Morning.
Les Brown also produced Plain Jane on the same label.
(Stephane Rebeschini)
Taken from: Fuzz, Acid & Flowers - American Garage, Psychedelic & Hippie Rock 1964-1975
What do Roger Corman, the now famous and prolific B-movie producer and
director, legendary singer Doris Day and her first hit, "Sentimental
Journey", an early session guitarist for the band The Monkees and the
tragically killed Saturday Night Live comedic actor Phil Hartmann have in
common? The band Rockin Foo that's what! See the bios below.
Rockin Foo was a short lived musical experiment in the late 1960's. Many
bands are reviewed with what I feel are jaundiced eyes because of the sheer
volume and quality of music produced during this period 1965 to 1975. Most
reviewers are always in comparison mode. This band sounds like these or those
and this band is not as good as that or their music is categorized as dark,
hippie, pop, country, hair, metal or whatever.
This practice often misses the point and true nature of music. To me music is
that which is produced from the heart, soul and mind of one human being and
offered to another for the sheer purpose of making a human connection. This is
how I want to tell you what I see (hear) in Rockin Foo's music through a
couple of their songs.
Rockin Foo subtly communicates activists themes ("You Are the Music"). "I
make you a promise; I will treat you like my brother." Opening as a ballad this
civil rights proclamation slips into fast shuffle with Les driving the groove as
Michael Racoon's staccato counters and the backup singers shout out their gospel
influenced harmonies. This tune is a fun uplifting commitment to civil rights.
"El Camino Real" - this short tune opening with a Harmonium and Beatlesque bass
sound, telling a sad story of a man shaped by hunger robbing and slinging guns
until he is inevitably killed along that famous road.
"All We Need is Time" - this heartfelt plea for a connection with someone is
really three versions of the same song in one. First is Wayne plunking a ballad
with just piano, part way through the song the whole band enters and perks it up
to a mid tempo rock song. Last but not least, the song jumps into a fast paced
oompah Polka beat to the finish, again, seasoned with some great gospel backing
harmonies.
Fun band, interesting, even unusual arrangements and lyrics that tell a story,
sounds like a good band to me
Here's what connects the above named artists to Rockin Foo.
Wayne Erwin - Rockin Foo songwriter, lead guitar, lead vocals. The main
songwriter, lead singer and guitarist, Wayne Erwin, sang backing vocals and
played guitar on several of the Monkees' early releases, including "Not
Your Steppin' Stone", "Last Train To Clarksville" and "Valleri". In 1966, Erwin
replaced Warren Zevon in the band "Lyme And Cybelle" the duet with
Zevon had charted on Billboard at #65 with their first single "Follow Me" on
White Whale Records. Erwin replaced Zevon and the duo released "Song 7"
on the A-side and "Write If You Get Work" on the B-side. The songwriting was
attributed to Joe Glenn, who some believe to be a pen name for Erwin. Some of
Erwin's other credits include guitar on "I Wonder What She's Doing Tonight" by
Boyce and Hart, the self-titled Brian Wilson, as re-mixer, background
vocals on "The First Sessions" by Warren Zevon and guitar on Del
Shannon's "Home and Away", the complete recordings 1960-1970.
Michael Racoon (Clark), Rockin Foo keyboards and backing vocals. Michael
Clark went on to become sound supervisor for Roger Corman's
Concorde Studios
in Venice, CA, and is a respected keyboardist/music director, who has worked
with many rock legends, Chuck
Berry, Fats Domino, Chubby Checker, The Temptations,
etc. (Paul Carlson)
Michael is also listed as contributing a song to the Hal Jepson surf film
compilation "A Sea For Yourself", which also contains 3 other Rockin Foo
songs.
Ron Becker, Rockin Foo's bassist on the second album. Other than some
killer bass riffs and generally good playing he did for Rockin Foo, I can
find no other attributions. Great playing though, dude, hope you are still at
it!
Les Brown Jr., Rockin Foo drummer and backing vocals. Les Jr. entered the
music and entertainment world at the tender age of 15, when he spent his summer
vacations on the road with his father's famous "Band of Renown" as a drummer.
Les Jr.'s father Les Brown and his band recorded Doris Day's first hit
song, "Sentimental Journey" in 1945. In 1960, after leaving Duke University, Les
Jr. joined his dad's band full-time as the "boy singer". In 1962, Brown released
two solo instrumental records, "Surf Crazy", which featured surf-themed songs of
the day and "Wildest Drums Yet", both on Crescendo records. The discs are quite
collectable now both here and in England and can go for up to $100 in good
condition. Les Brown Jr. has had a varied and successful career in music, TV and
film.
By 1962, Les Jr. turned to his other passion in life - acting - and worked both
freelance and under contract for CBS and ABC TV, appearing in over 200 segments
of various situation comedies and dramas. In 1964, he starred with Paul Ford and
Judy Carne in the series, "The Bailey's of Balboa" and later spent two years on
the daytime drama "The Young Marrieds" and "General Hospital."
Les Jr. switched his career back to the music business when he became head of
production for International Management Combine (IMC). In that position he
produced and oversaw the production of many albums from soundtracks to pop for
all the major labels. IMC also started its own label at that time and Les
produced and/or oversaw all of IMC's albums. (IMDb)
Phil Hartman, roadie and album cover artist. Phil was a roadie for Rockin Foo
and drew both of Foo's album covers. After graduating college with a degree in
graphic arts, he designed album covers for bands like Poco, America
and Rockin Foo. Hartman joined the comedy group The Groundlings in 1975
and there helped comedian Paul Reubens develop his character Pee-wee Herman.
Hartman co-wrote the screenplay for the film Pee-wee's Big Adventure and made
recurring appearances on Reubens' show Pee-wee's Playhouse. Hartman became
famous in the late 1980s when he joined the sketch comedy show Saturday Night
Live. He won fame for his impressions, particularly of president Bill Clinton,
and stayed on the show for eight seasons. Hartman won a Primetime Emmy Award for
his SNL work in 1989. Hartman married Brynn Omdahl in 1987. On May 28, 1998,
Brynn shot and killed Hartman while he slept in their Encino, Los Angeles, home,
then committed suicide several hours later.
Chris Faust, June 2014