The Lewis and Clarke Expedition
Band members Related acts
line up 1 (1966-68) - Ken Bloom -- lead guitar, autoharp, clarinet, sax, flute, organ percussion
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- Owen Castleman (solo efforts)
- Michael Nesmith
and The First National Band (John London) |
Genre: pop Rating: **** (4 stars) Title: Earth, Air, Fire & Water Company: Colgems Catalog: COM-105 Year: 1967 Country/State: Dallas, Texas Grade (cover/record): VG+/VG+ Comments: -- Available: 1 Catalog ID: 5167 Price: $50.00
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Having enjoyed mammoth profits with their pre-packaged Beatles-clones The Monkees, it only made sense that Colgems (co-owned by RCA and Columbia) would attempt to manufacture a second corporate
super group. That said, how many of you remember The Lewis and Clarke Expedition?
Probably few of you. That's unfortunate since the band's sole album, 1967's
"Earth, Air, Fire & Water"
was surprisingly enjoyable.
While parallels to The Monkees were apparent (having a group with All American good looks and plenty of charm certainly didn't hurt), there were also some major difference; notably the fact the band were all capable musicians with namesakes Lewis and Clarke responsible for the majority of the material. That said, "Earth, Air, Fire & Water" was almost as good as anything in The Monkees catalog. Musically varied, the set included stabs at shimmering top-40 pop ('I Feel Good (I Feel Bad)'), folk-rock ('This Town Ain't the Same Anymore'), vaudeville ('Everybody Loves a Fire'), raga ('House of My Sorrow'), ecological messages ('Chain of Flowers'), and Byrds-styled jangle-rock ('Blue Revelations'). Rounded out by strong melodies and tight harmonies, mid-1960s pop simply didn't get much better. Highlights included the goofy 'Spirit of Argyle High' and the extended suite 'Memorial To the American Indian' which included one of the first covers of J.D. Loudermilk's '(The Lament of) The Cherokee Reservation Indian'. Paul Revere and the Raiders didn't have a hit with the tune until four years later. Unfortunately for the band, with Colgems devoting most of it's energy to marketing The Monkees, neither the band nor the LP got much in the way of promotional support. Needless to say, it failed to chart and within a year the band had called it quits.
1.) Windy Day (Travis Lewis - Boomer Clarke) - 3:00 rating: ** stars To
be honest, 'Windy Day' was a disappointment. With an old timey
feel and a rag-timey mid-song segment, it came off as one of those cutesy
tunes The Sopwith Camel, or Spanky and Our Gang might have tried to pull off.
Yech.
I liked thee sweet melody on 'Freedom Bird', but the lyric was ... well hyper-sensitive; almost fey. It almost sounded like a parody of a mid- '60s folk-rock tune, though that didn't stop Colgems from releasing it as a single:
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1967's 'Freedom Bird' b/w 'Destination Unknown' (Colgems catalog number
66-1011)
3.) Spirit of Argyle High (Travis Lewis - Boomer Clarke) - 3:15 rating: *** stars Strange,
strange, strange - 'Spirit of Argyle High' offered up a bizarre mix of
country, bluegrass, high school marching band, and lysergic touches.
Added in a football theme and the result was ... strange, strange, strange
...
'This Town Ain't the Same Anymore
' was a pretty, heavily orchestrated folk-rock ballad with a socially
relevant lyric. The heartfelt, it sappy lyric gave the song an almost
pre-rock and roll sound.
Opening up with a brief slice of Gregorian chanting, 'Everybody Loves a Fire' found the group slipping into goofy Vaudeville moves. The perfect tune for your favorite local pyromaniac. Everyone may have loved a fire, but I sure didn't love this song. 6.) House of My Sorrow (Travis Lewis - Boomer Clarke) - 4:24 rating: **** stars So remember this was recorded in 1967 when every recording contract seemingly included a requirement for at least one raga flavored tune .... Just kidding. No idea if this was a real sitar, or just a banjo tuned to mimic a sitar, but the result was classic lysergic. Very cool. Very trippy and one of the album highlights.
(side 2) 1.) I Feel Good (I Feel Bad) (Travis Lewis - Boomer Clarke) - 2:26 rating: *** stars Sounding
like it was recorded in the midst of a recording studio
party, 'I Feel Good (I Feel Bad) ' was the album's blatantly commercial
tune, though far from the best track
YouTube has an interesting clip of the group lipsynching the song for some
forgotten television show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roCAC4qFhQA
rating: *** stars Maybe
because it reminded me of a good Michael Nesmith song, or perhaps because of
the prominent xylophone, the sweet country-tinged ballad
'(I Call Them) Lies' was one of the
album's best tunes. A
fuzzed-up, hyper-speed rocker, 'Destination Unknown' was easily the
album's hardest rocking tune. The song was featured in the film "For Singles
Only" with the group playing a house band. You can see the clip
(with lots of fringe) on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWdAo-vNtTw
Social
commentary set to a hokey country-tinged tune. Pretty
hideous. The combination of a great folk-rock melody, sweet vocals, and some killer lead guitar made this one a keeper. It should have provided the group with a massive hit. COLGEMS tapped it as a single: - 1967's ' I Feel Good (I Feel Bad)' b/w 'Blue Revelations' (COLGEMS catalog number 66 1006)
6.) Memorial To the American Indian Goofy,
spoken word segment that probably pissed off most native Americans. At
least 'Send Me Rain' had a pretty Merseybeat sound. Back
to another round of spoken word narrative. If you'd turned this in as
a high school English project, you would have failed. rating; **
stars Yeah, Paul Revere and the Raiders enjoyed a massive hit with their version, but it took them an additional four years to get there. This version wasn't nearly as commercial (lot more chanting), but to my ears that actually made this version better.
The band briefly struggled on contributing music to the film "The Tiger Makes Out" which saw the lysergic ballad 'Why Need They Pretend?' and 'Daddy's Plastic Child released as singles. - 1968's 'Why Need They Pretend?' b/w 'Chain of Flowers' (Colgems catalog number 66-1022) - 1968's 'Daddy's Plastic Child' b/w 'Gypsy Song Man' (Colgems catalog number 66-1028)
Murphey subsequently reinvented himself as a country singer, enjoying a massive pop hit with the nauseating top-10 'Wildfire'.
Castleman also reappeared as a solo act, hitting the charts with 'Judy Mae'. He died in September, 2015
I've never been sure if this was the same group, or not. Produced by Jack Keller and credited to The Lewis and Clark Expedition (note the missing "e" on Clark), there's an obscure 1966 single for the small Chartmaster label:
- 1966's 'Expedition West' b/w '(Young Men Will Die) For Your Freedom Tonight' (Chartmaster catalog number 402)
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