WELCOME TO THE ORIGINAL COMMANDER CODY MYSPACE FAN SITE! THIS PAGE IS A CELEBRATION OF ALL OF THE VARIOUS INCARNATIONS OF COMMANDER CODY BANDS THROUGHOUT THE YEARS. ALSO INCLUDED ARE BAND BIO'S OF BILLY C. FARLOW AND BILL KIRCHEN. CREATED WITH PERMISSION FROM COMMANDER CODY, BILLY C. FARLOW, AND BILL KIRCHEN. ENJOY!
Biography Written By George Frayne (Commander Cody) This and much, much more information available at http://www.commandercody.com
Some of the Story of Commander Cody
and His Lost Planet Airmen
In the fall of 1963 John Tichy was studying engineering at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, running the kitchen crew at the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity and playing guitar in the only student band on campus, the AMBLERS. I was washing pots in the kitchen and doing a pretty poor job at it, when we became friends, and John found that I had played some piano and had taken some lessons. He invited me to jam along, and soon I was playing on their version of "You are my Sunshine" (in Aminor), Frank Winchester was the lead singer, and a guy who was twenty years ahead of his time. He was 6'4" and had bleached blonde hair. He wore a black leather glove on his left hand when he played the Tambourine and blew a mediocre harp with his right. Michigan heavy weight wrestling champ Guy Curtiss played bass and Steve Conley was the drummer. When Frank died in a flaming (Chevy 409) crash on the Penn. Turnpike the following year, our hopes of recording went up in smoke. John had started another band, the SSB (Schwaben Stage Band), named after the sleazy bar he was playing that summer ('64). When I returned to school that fall we started a new band, The Fantastic Surfing BEEVERS. The new band featured Max Goldman (who owned the sound system) as "lead singer". Actually his mic was always turned off and it was Tichy who actually sang lead. At that time I had traded my Wurlitzer electric piano in for a classic Farfisa Combo Compact (96 tears). We mounted a surfboard on top of our old hearse, (EQ van) and did our first road gig, (at a Mich. State fraternity in 1965). The highlight of that group was that we discovered a U. of Mich. gymnast named Steve Davis, (a U. of Mich. cheerleader, and the trampoline champ of W.Va.), who played bass.
When I graduated from Mich. that spring ('66) we didn't know if we were going to continue, because I hadn't chosen a grad school yet, (John was going to stay at Mich.). Then the Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studies offered me a scholarship to stay, and we decided to start a new band in the fall of 1967, that I named Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen, after the 1950 movie of the same name, starring Kristen Coffen as Kommando Kody (we later did a promo with the guy in LA., for Paramount in 1973).
We had up to 36 members in that band including The Fabulous Tapdancing Green Sisters, The Galactic Twist Queens, Pat the Hippy Strippy and various assortments of honking, blowing and strumming neo radicals who specialized in a form of quasi-social mayhem, including my version of Charles Mingus "Please Don't Drop That A (H) Bomb On Me". The drummer, Ralph Mallory quit in the middle of Tichy's first version of "Family Bible". Steve Davis became the West Virginia Creeper, and began playing steel guitar when he returned from the Peace Corps in Ecuador. Steve Schwartz also played guitar, John Copley played drum (snare) and Billy C. Farlow's brother John wound up playing standup bass. Billy C and the Sunshine was a Detroit blues band that played at Midway Lunch in Ann Arbor, on Wed. nites. After seeing him and playing with him, he joined in the spring of 1968 and we featured him in our "Ripple Wine Time " segment of the show, of which "What's the Matter Now?" is an example we still play today. The band played in the basement of a coffee shop (Mark's Basement), discovered mescaline and dreamt big. Bill Kirchen at that time had his own band called the Seventh Seal. John and I heard them at the 1967 Ann Arbor Film Festival and talked him into joining.
After graduating in the spring of 1968, I took a job as instructor of art at Wisconsin State University in Oshkosh. I went back to Ann Arbor every weekend, which kept the band going, but eventually got me fired. Danny Erlewine took Tichy's place as 2nd guitar and Bill and Billy C shared lead vocals, until Kirchen took of to San Francisco. Through phone calls he told us the time was right in SF, and in June of '68 Creeper, Farlow and me jumped in my van and headed West. Our first gig was with Kirchen's band, (the Ozones) at the Town Pump on Mission St. Later the first Cody gig was playing on Telegraph Ave. in Berkeley, for Cody's Bookstore on July 4, with the Skiffle Bands "Pookie" on drum (snare).That date was one of the famous Berkeley Riots and we all wound up being gassed by the cops, (we grabbed our shit and split). Later that month we all moved into a big house on the Emeryville border, called it Ozone West and started practicing and going out on the street, (Telegraph Ave.) to play, (I played a really bad accordion). Here we met our very first "groupies" the fabulous Richmond Girls, (who were actually from Portland Ore). We got audition dates with Bill Graham in the City, and at Mandrakes in Berkeley.
That summer there were a lot of our old fans from Ann Arbor there, and we packed the joint, thereby getting our first gig. There Barry Olivier discovered us and booked us at the 1968 Berkeley Folk Festival, and we were off and running. We stole bassist Buffalo Bruce Barlow and drummer Lance Dickerson from Charlie Musselwhite, for a killer blues rhythm section. It was here where we met our first stars (musicians who actually made records), Kristofferson, Odetta, Janis Joplin, and the Cleanliness and Godliness Skiffle Group, (headed by Dynamite Annie Johnson and Phil Marsh). They gave us a lot of help and support, and we fit in with, and met all the established Berkeley ACTS, (Sky Blue, Country Joe, and the Joy of Cooking). We jammed, hung out, got high and generally LIVED THE LIFE. Things were great, although we quit living together, - everyone got a girlfriend who had a job, and we enjoyed a couple of years of fun while we were looking for our first record deal. We made a tape at Reggies Guerage Productions, which we sold to Paramount records, and we went off to SF to record with Bob Cohen, (who actually hated C&W).Hot Rod Lincoln was the second single off that first album (Lost in the Ozone was the first). Somehow it got radio play, (thanks to Dino Barbis, an exec that later went on to WB, and helped us get our second record contract). We bought an old double decker Greyhound bus and fixed it up with 12 bunks and hit the road.
Bobby Black was one of the best pedal Steel players in the world, when we met him playing with his brother Larry, in a San Jose bar called Cowtown. We found out they had a Wed. nite talent contest that paid $100 to each weeks's winner. Bill kirchen went down and won, followed by Andy Stein, (who had moved out from NY to play fiddle), Billy C, and by the time John Tichy won, they had figured us out.
After firing the W .Va. Creeper for being too creepy, we hired Bobby and recorded our second album, Hot Licks, Cold Steel and Trucker's Favorites, in Larry Black's studio in San Mateo. This album bombed horribly, partially because it was recorded on 8 tracks, and was too funky for the execs. The third album "Country Casanova" featured "Smoke that Cigarette", an old Tex Williams swing favorite that cracked the country charts. We were invited to play at the 1973 C&W Convention, in Nashville, and were literally booed off the stage with cries like "Get a Haircut", "find a rock concert", and the term "Commie BUTTF---ER" was heard for the first time from the crowd. Of course that year, 1973, we were the headliners at the international communist party festival in Paris, (the "Fete Du Humanitie") so they weren't exactly wrong. On the other hand the Viet Nam veterans came back, mostly Cody fans who heard Hot Rod Lincoln in the foxholes. That year the Indian Movement took control of Alcatraz Island, and Russell Means invited us to visit them there, when Fidel Castro invited us to come and play in Cuba. We didn't of course, but we were protesting this unrighteous war, and wanted to bring everybody home before anybody else got killed.
The fourth Paramount record was the best, and was featured by Rolling Stone Magazine in their best 100 albums of all time. "Live from Deep in the Heart of Texas" was recorded live at the infamous Armadillo World Headquarters, (the coolest club that state has ever seen, then or now), and stands as everybody's favorite. The crowd was so great that Wally Heider, recording in SF, leaked out our crowd noise, to other live albums they recorded, to make other bands sound better.
We signed with Warner Bros in 1974 and put out three albums on that label. The first, (the Purple Dragons album), entitled CCHLPA, featured our version of the classic rocker "Dont Let Go" Our single reached the top 40 on the Billboard chart, before the payola scandal of that year ended that idea. Hoyt Axton produced the second studio album for WB called "Tales From The Ozone", which was not promoted or liked by them. Consequently we opted to finish our commitment to them by recording "Got a Live one Here" which ended CC&HLPA, the original cast, forever. This album featured Norton Buffalo and our best live swing to date. It was recorded at Hammersmith Odeon in London where some Beatles were in attendance, (we were told).
After we returned from Europe in the winter of 1977 we all went in different directions, except for Bobby and Bruce who joined me in the New Commander Cody Band. We signed on to Arista records, and hired Nicolette Larson and the Reno band Sutro Sympathy Orchestra and hit the road again. The tune "Stealin' at the 7-11" was released as a single, (big mistake). The second Arista album "Flying Dreams" really sucked, and put me in a hole that I have been digging myself out of until this very day. The song Lone Ranger was the only highlight of this piece, with Jeff Baxter and Buzzy Fieten on guitars.
Nicolette got discovered and lured away by WB, and that band crumbled. A band with Delaney Bramlett lasted 2 months and one tour in the spring of '78.
Next I hired Bill Kirchens's band the "Moonlighters", and worked with them on and off for eight years, with various big musicians including the excellent steel player, (now Nashville producer), Steve Fishell, saxman Steve Mckay and drummer Tony Johnson. We produced a good R&R album called Lose it Tonite, for a German company, that was released in the states by Peter Pan records. This included the song 2 Triple Cheese, Side Order of Fries, (the only video I ever made, now in NYC's Museum of Modern Art, in the permanent video collection). We also recorded an album for Blind Pig Records, called Lets Rock, that featured the fantastic Austin Delone. (played for Nick Lowe and Elvis Costello). This band broke up after a long European tour in 1986. I was involved in a horrible auto crash at the end of that year and sat out the majority of 1987.
In the Moonlighters era, the backup band went off to London to record a solo album with Nick. During that interlude I used various backup personnel, the most outstanding of which were Glen Sciurba (Tex Burbank) on guitar, Pete Siegel on steel and Doug Kilmer on bass. This was an outrageous time and featured my 3 appearances on the David Letterman Show, until I was 86'd for being drunk. I did a song called We're Drinkin, We're Nuts. This included the time Hunter Thompson threw a bomb into my Fla. hotel room after my interview with him (never released).
After a year off I started touring again in 1988 with various musicians, (see Pete Frame's band family tree at his website). I remixed some of the old Cody trax from Texas and released them and several other CD's for Relix Records, of Brooklyn NY...Commander's Sleazy Roadside Stories, Aces High, Commander Returns from Outer Space and the Best of CC. I recorded some wild trax after these, but none were ever released, especially my Mill Valley Anthem, (I Want it All Rite Now; featuring Tex Burbank). This group wound up with saxist Keith Crossan, (who went to Tommy Castro), guitarist Peter Walsh, (Hoodoo Rhythm Devils), and Dave Tolmie, (Maria Muldaur), on bass. Along with songwriter Dave Erdmann, we recorded a CD for an Australian label, called "Worst Case Scenario". MCA had taken over the Paramount catalog in the early nineties and released all the Paramount records on CD. The Very Best of CCHLPA was released by them in 1994, and many chains (Borders/Circuit City etc.) feature them today.
In 1997 I was finally forced, by Political Correctness...(no one in Marin County drank any more!), to leave my home in Stinson Beach, my home in Ukiah Ca. by my ex-wife, and I moved back to NY State, where I had grown up. I moved to Saratoga Springs NY, where I began to gather the best local side men, and renew my friendship with John Tichy, who by that time had become Chair of Aeronautical Engineering (Rocket Science) and Mechanical Engineering, at RPI in Troy NY.- George Frayne -
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*****These days along with George, the band is, Mark Emerick on guitar, Rick Mullen on bass and Steve Barbuto on drums.
BILLY C. FARLOW...THEN AND NOW
Regardless of where Billy C. Farlow's travels take him, the rhythm and blues of his deep Southern roots stay firmly imbedded in his soul. Growing up in Alabama, Indiana and Texas, he drew his inspiration from both black and white musicians. In his early teens he learned the guitar and harmonica. He wasn't satisfied with simply mastering renditions of the classics. His musical ear and attraction to poetry combined to form original blues, gospel, and rock n' roll tunes.Billy C's family moved to the Detroit area in the early 60's. The transplanted homeboy started sitting in at various coffee-houses and blues clubs hanging out and jamming with artists such as Sippie Wallace, Big Joe Williams, and the King of Detroit Blues, John Lee Hooker.In the fall of 1966, Billy C formed his first band, Billy C & the Sunshine with pianist Boot Hamilton and guitarist Larry Welker. They gained a small but fanatical following in the Detroit-Ann Arbor area. Billy C & the Sunshine worked gigs with the MC-5, Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels at the Grande Ballroom and other area venues. On New Year's Eve of 1967 Billy C. and the Sunshine opened for Eric Clapton and Cream at the Grande Ballroom on Cream's first American tour. Billy C. often sat in with the James Cotton Band during their frequent visits to the Motor City and became friends with drummer Sam Lay. When Lay left Cotton's Band to form his own in 1968, Farlow joined following the untimely and tragic death of harmonica master, Little Walter Jacobs, who was with the band at the time.The Sunshine clouded over and the group finally disbanded when Welker and drummer, Lance Dickerson joined the Charlie Musselwhite Blues Band in California and Boot Hamilton left to go with Mitch Rider. Billy C. joined Sam Lay for an East Coast tour in February 1968 and continued to work with Lay's band off and on through 1968 and 1969. At the same time he was doing a lot of jamming with a band called Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen, led by pianist George Frayne and guitarist John Tichy, both students at the University of Michigan. They shared a mutual love for old Country music and early Rock and Roll and were soon joined by concert violinist Andy Stein and folk guitarist Bill Kirchen. Numerous musicians drifted in and out of the band as they gigged around southeastern Michigan, but the five-man nucleus remained constant.In 1969 the Airmen moved to Berkeley, CA, and in the process changed from a loose assemblage of talented musicians into a real band. The timing was perfect. The Bay Area music was at its all-time zenith, and the Airmen's twisted brew of roots music went well with the mind-expanded locals. The band opened for Jefferson Airplane, The Grateful Dead, The Doors, Eagles, and many others. As they worked their way up to the top of the bill, record companies came calling. Over the next several years they recorded multiple LP's with Paramount Records and Warner Brothers' Records, scoring a top ten hit in 1972 with the classic "Hot Rod Lincoln". Farlow penned many of the bands best known songs, such as "Too Much Fun", "Seeds and Stems " and the band's theme song, "Lost in the Ozone".After the Cody band broke up in 1976, Billy C. stayed in California and formed his own Western Swing/Rockabilly band with virtuoso pianist, Billy Philadelphia and Sonoma-born guitar ace, Tommy Thompson. They toured extensively on the West Coast and Southwest, working with such artists as Chuck Berry, Ricky Nelson, Kenny Rogers, Bo Diddley, Asleep at the Wheel, Merle Haggard and the Byrds.In the mid-1980's Billy C. relocated to the South where he began a long and productive association with Nashville-based producer/guitarist, Fred James. Dedicated to his Blues/Rockabilly roots, he recorded five CD's of original songs over a 12-year period for various labels. Billy C.'s current release on TKO Magnum is entitled Billy C. Farlow-Rockabilly Blues.Hot sidemen on these recordings include D.J. Fontana, drummer of Elvis fame; Buddy Holly's original bassist, Joe B. Mauldin; Lonnie Mack, whose recording of "Memphis" and other instrumental classics set the standard for rock guitar playing in the early 1960's; Jimmy Gray, bassist from Waylon Jennings' early days in Nashville; veteran Mississippi slide guitarist Roger Younger and J. T. Thompson former percussionist with rock band Kansas. During this period Billy C. also did extensive studio work on harmonica for Chicago bluesman Homesick James and singer/songwriter Bleu Jackson. Billy C. was reunited in the early 90's with old friend Sam Lay for three CD's including a spirited nightclub performance documented on Appaloosa Records as Sam Lay Blues Band-Live! from the Boardwalk Café in Nashville.Increased touring, both in the U.S. and Europe followed the success of these recordings and today Billy C is as busy as ever, traveling the world, spreading his musical gospel where ever he goes, and having one hell of a time!
