Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen Down to Seeds and Stems Again Blues

When Commander Cody & His Lost Planet Airmen Were 'Lost in the Ozone' (Once more)

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When Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen arrived on the music scene in 1971, there actually wasn't annihilation else quite like them. Here was an viii-piece band—whose members came from such far-flung locales equally Alabama, California, Connecticut, Michigan, West Virginia, Idaho and New York—to whom genre was fiddling more than fabricated-in-America component parts meant to exist composite seamlessly into something new.

The recipe went something like this: Take a dollop of Western swing and some classic honky-tonk state, add some 1950s rockabilly, a chip of blues and even some gospel, and filter it all through good ol' boogie-woogie, primal rock 'n' curl and—as 1 of their song titles put information technology—"Also Much Fun." Then pour it into the hands of a bunch of long-haired virtuosos, ship it out at that place to stages all over the U.S.A. and picket what happens.

To some rock fans, the Commander Cody story begins and ends with the band's sole hit unmarried, "Hot Rod Lincoln," a cover of a speedy rockabilly-esque saga written and outset recorded by country artist Charlie Ryan in 1955. The Cody version reached #9 in 1972, only by that fourth dimension the group had already built upward a stiff fan following based on their sweaty, good-time live shows and significant radio play on college and AOR radio stations in key markets.

Listen to the hit single, "Hot Rod Lincoln"

They'd already been together for five years past then, having formed in Ann Arbor Mich., in 1967 effectually the gravel-voiced George Frayne, who took his nickname from a 1950s sci-fi character actually called Commando Cody. In addition to Frayne, a skilled pianist with a mischievous and somewhat lascivious streak and a penchant for boogie-woogie rhythms, the classic lineup included Alabama-born vocalizer Billy C. Farlow, guitarists Beak Kirchen (lead) and John Tichy (rhythm), bassist "Buffalo" Bruce Barlow, fiddler and saxophonist Andy Stein, drummer Lance Dickerson and pedal steel guitarist Steve Davis, who went by the stage proper noun The Due west Virginia Creeper (he was replaced past Bobby Black early on).

Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen, circa 1971 (sitting, 50. to r.): Andy Stein, Billy C. Farlow; (continuing, l. to r.): Bill Kirchen, Lance Dickerson, Bruce Barlow, John Tichy, Bobby Black, George "Commander Cody" Frayne

The band relocated to the San Francisco Bay Surface area after a few years, where they speedily built a reputation as a hot live deed in the region'southward sardine-can-packed clubs. Embraced by fans of bands such as the Grateful Dead and the New Riders of the Purple Sage, Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen shortly caught on in other areas outside of Northern California, especially in the Northeast—they were headlining gigs in the New York City surface area by the fourth dimension their debut album, Lost in the Ozone, was released by Paramount Records in November 1971.

Related: Our obituary for Frayne who died in 2021

Listen to the title runway from Lost in the Ozone

That album—with encompass art by graphic creative person Frayne—represented accurately what i might hear at a Cody gig at that fourth dimension, a combination of original tunes, nigh written by Frayne and Farlow, and covers, amongst them "Midnight Shift," lifted from Buddy Holly's 1958 That'll Exist the Twenty-four hours album; a gospel carol, "Family Bible," written past a young Willie Nelson simply attributed to others due to a convoluted financial deal; "Home in My Hand," originally by rockabilly artist Ronnie Self; Eddie Cochran'southward "Xx Flight Rock"; and "Vanquish Me Daddy Viii to the Bar," a showcase for Frayne's boogie-woogie piano dating dorsum to 1940.

This ad for the album appeared on the dorsum cover of the Nov. xx, 1971 upshot of Record World

While every track on the LPA's debut was sung and played flawlessly, a few tended to find more favor than others among radio programmers. In add-on to "Hot Rod Lincoln," which, in performance, always featured an improvised variation past Frayne on the bones car-race tale, the well-nigh popular tunes on the album turned out to be its Frayne-Farlow-penned title track, "Lost in the Ozone," a sprightly land-rocking paean to the power of gin and wine in instances of failed dearest, and the stoner ballad "Seeds and "Stems (Again)," a tale of woe that leaves narrator Kirchen with no pick other than to face his suffering with a bowl of some of the saddest-looking weed around.

Seriously, information technology merely doesn't become any more pathetic than this spoken-word poetry:

"Well, my dog died just yesterday and left me all alone
The finance company dropped by today and repossessed my home
That'southward just a drop in the saucepan compared to losing you
And I'one thousand down to seeds and stems again, too"

Intoxicants surface once once again in the weepy midtempo ballad "Vino Do Yer Stuff," yet another tale of love on the rocks:

"Now the color of this warm red wine is the color of her pilus
Every bit I stare into my glass I see her face up in there
Ane more bottle if y'all please, the goin'southward getting' rough
Come on wine, wine, wine, practice yer stuff"

Related: The year 1971 in archetype stone albums

It'due south non all about drowning one'southward sorrows after the fact though. The album's opening rails, the rollicking "Dorsum to Tennessee," finds the Cody crew being proactive. This time our protagonist is not waiting around to get dumped. He's out of there right now:

"I was livin' upwards in Detroit, simply me and my little wife
I did everything that I could do, but I got no ambition in life
I'1000 tired of sniffin' gum, I wanna breathe that southern breeze
I'grand gonna hijack one of those big jet planes
I'thou goin' back to Tennessee"

Some other couple of originals, "Daddy's Gonna Treat You Right," with its ensemble song, and "What's the Thing At present?," a shuffling country tune recorded alive, balance out the rockabilly and boogie numbers and confirm that this is i resourceful and versatile group of musicians. With four atomic number 82 vocalists—Frayne, Kirchen, Farlow and Tichy—trading off, each offering distinctive approaches, there was never a chance of stagnation from ane Cody song to the next.

Listen to "What'southward the Matter At present?"

Lost in the Ozone only reached #82 in Billboard, but like many bands based in San Francisco the LPA's strength was the concert stage, not so much the record player. Alive, they truly whipped up a oversupply, and although they simply stuck around until the middle of the decade before the usual calamities that befall a band took them downwardly, many today withal recollect fondly the early days of ane of the most unique American bands of its day, Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen.

Listen to "Trounce Me Daddy Eight to the Bar," recorded live

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All-time Classic Bands Editor Jeff Tamarkin has been a prolific music journalist for more than four decades. He is formerly the editor of Goldmine, CMJ and Relix magazines, has written for dozens of other publications and has authored liner notes for more than 80 CDs. Jeff has also served on the Nominating Commission of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and as a consultant to the Grammys. His starting time book was 'Got a Revolution! The Turbulent Flight of Jefferson Airplane.' He is also the co-author of 'Shell Shocked: My Life with the Turtles, Flo and Eddie, and Frank Zappa, etc.,' with Howard Kaylan.

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