Captain Beyond--Cross-Posted

[The Bear Jew]

I mistakenly posted this in the guitar forum... my bad.

 

Yeah, I'm doing it again--recommending another band.

 

Some of you may already know Captain Beyond. If you do, you can skip this thread and argue about picks or Geddy Lee basses or something.

 

These guys formed in 1972 and were a super-group of sorts, with Rod Evans on vocals. He was the original lead singer for Deep Purple and was probably best known for singing on "Hush." Larry Reinhardt (formerly or Iron Butterfly) played guitar. Lee Dorman was on bass. Also from Iron Butterfly. Bobby Caldwell was on the drums. He was known for playing with Johnny Winter.

 

The band's eponymous debut record is its best work, IMO.

 

The mish-mosh of elements, combined with the musical climate of that era yeilded some interesting, if not somewhat predictable, prog-rock results. For example, there are obvious Hendrixisms in the guitar work, you can hear The Moody Blues pop out from time to time, some Jethro Tull elements, Spirit, maybe some Nugent... The cool thing is that the band pulls off all the prog parts totally cleanly. These guys are worth the listen for that element alone.

 

Of course, it sometimes sounds almost like these guys did a cut 'n paste job with your favorite '60s and early '70s records... but it's kind of appealing for some reason. Even though the band never really amounted to much more than an "also-ran" in the history of rock bands, I'd recommend a listen, if only to hear how a band really can mix "House Burning Down" with "Nights in White Satin."

 

If you have a minute, do a little i-tunes search for Captain Beyond.

 

Thank you, drive through.

[EddiePlaysBass]

Thanks Erik, I've always been fascinated by this band without actually having heard a single note. Looks like it's one of those bands that slipped through the maze ... Will definitely check them out !!

[S_Gould]

Funny you should mention this now - Larry (El Rhino) just left my studio after 2 days of tracking 10 of his original tunes. We'll be overdubbing & mixing in the coming weeks. Not CB material, but some pretty smokin' guitar work from Larry.

 

 

Scott Gould

[b5pilot]

Thanks for the heads up. I'll give them a listen.

[The Bear Jew]

Neat stuff, Scott... is he recording for a label release or something else?

[jcadmus]

Eponymous. Heh.

 

You're eponymous.

[The Bear Jew]

I am, indeed, as is everyone.

[S_Gould]

No label involvement yet. He's waiting 'til it's "in the can" to worry about label/distribution. Everybody's working on 'spec'.