Crow Crow Music 1969 (USA, Hard/Blues Rock) Full Lp

Tracks: 01. Evil Woman (Don’t Play Your Games With Me) — 00:00 02. White Eyes — 03:22 03. Thoughts —07:35 04. Da Da Song — 12:24 05. Busy Day — 15:43 06. Time To Make A Turn — 18:13 07. Rollin’ —21:02 08. Listen To The Bop (Dedicated To Chuck Berry) — 24:24 09. Gonna Leave A Mark —27:35 10. Sleepy Woman — 30:29 Personnel: David Wagner – vocals Dick Wiegand – guitar Larry Wiegand – bass Dave Middlemist – organ, piano Denny Craswell – drums Bob Schiff, Skeet Bushor – horns Bob Monaco – producer In the mid-60s, two beat teams from Minnesota, the Rave-Ons and the Jokers Wild, merged into one, and the newborn ensemble was named South 40. The original line-up of the “southerners” looked like this: Dave Wagner (vocals), Dave Middlemist (organ), Harry Nehls (drums), Dick Wiegand (guitar) and Larry Wiegand (bass). Essentially a bar group, South 40 combined soul, rhythm and blues and rock ’n’ roll, and half their repertoire consisted of borrowed rock standards. In 1968, the musicians won a competition held by the National Ballroom Operators association. The prize was sessions at Chicago’s Columbia Recording Studios, but the band had to go through some changes before heading into the studio. Firstly, feeling that this was a chance to reach the national level, the guys decided to choose a more sonorous name for their gang and christened it “Crow”. Secondly, Harry Nehls managed to lure T.S. Atlantic“, and Mike Mlazgar took his place. In principle, the group’s first choice fell on Denny Craswell, but he was bound by contractual obligations with Blackwood Apology and joined the Crows a little later. In January 1969, Crow recorded five songs (’Time To Make A Turn’, ’Busy Day’, ’Gonna Leave A Mark’, ’White Eyes’, ’Evil Woman’), but these songs were not released by the Colombians. satisfied, and the company did not enter into a deal. However, Bob Monaco from Dunwich Productions was present at the sessions and liked the musicians’ work and began looking for a contract for them elsewhere. Unfortunately, of the two options on the horizon, Atlantic and Amaret, Monaco was the second choice, and the team had to start from a smaller level. Moreover, the label immediately began to dictate its terms and demanded that a brass section be used when recording the first album in order to make the sound similar to the fashionable “Chicago”. Under the threat of cancellation of the contract, the “Crows” had to make these concessions, but, as it turned out later, they did not greatly affect the result. The first single of “Amaret” was the funky song “Time To Make A Turn,” but when the EP failed, the company listened to the opinion of the musicians and placed the track “Evil Woman” on the next forty-five. This much heavier and more driving thing ensured the commercial success of the Crow Music album. The composition landed in the Billboard Top 20, and sales of “raven” records crossed the half-million mark. Monaco and the company immediately jumped in and sent “Crow” on a full-fledged tour, during which the band managed to headline a couple of festivals and open for Janis Joplin