Nazz
Band members Related acts
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line up 1 (1967-69) - Robert "Stewkey" Antoni (RIP 2023)-- vocals, piano, organ - Thom Mooney -- drums, percussion - Todd Rundgren -- guitar, piano, vocals - Carson Van Osten (RIP 2015) -- bass
line up 2 (1969-70) - Robert "Stewkey" Antoni -- vocals, piano, organ NEW - Craig Bolyn -- guitar (replaced Todd Rundgren - Thom Mooney -- drums, percussion NEW - Greg Sempler -- bass (replaced Carson Van Osten)
line up 3 (1970-71) - Thom Mooney -- drums, percussion NEW - Craig Myers -- guitar (replaced Craig Bolyn) NEW - Rick Nielsen -- guitar, keyboards (replaced Robert Antoni) NEW - Tom Petersson -- bass (replaced Greg Sempler)
line up 4 (2004) - Robert "Stewkey" Antoni -- vocals - Dennis Barth -- bass, backing vocals - Rich Carley -- keyboards, backing vocals - Otto Capobianco -- guitar, backing vocals - Dave Palan -- drums, percussion, backing vocals
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- Cheap Trick (Rick Nielsen and Tom Petersson) - The Curtis Brothers (Thom Mooney) - The Fuse (Robert "Stewkey" Antoni, Rick Nielsen and Tom Petersson) - Doug Legacy and the Legends of the West (Todd Rundgren) - Money (Todd Rundgren) - The Munchkins - The New Cars (Todd Rundgren) - Noel and the Red Wedge (Thom Mooney) - Paris (Thom Mooney) - Tom Petersson and Another Language - Tattoo (Thom Mooney) - Todd Rundgren - Runt (Todd Rundgren) - Utopia (Todd Rundgren) - Woody's Truck Stop (Todd Rundgren and Carson Van Osten)
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Genre: psych Rating: 3 stars *** Title: Nazz Company: SGC Catalog: SD
5001 Country/State: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Grade (cover/record): VG+/VG+ Comments: gatefold sleeve Available: 1 Catalog ID: -- Price: $35.00
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I started buying used LPs after graduating college (didn't have much money) and I think "Nazz" was one of the first purchases I made. I remember recognizing Todd Rundgren's name and vaguely recall finding it along with a copy of Rundgren's "Something/Anything" at a yard sale for $1.00 apiece. Ah, the good old days. = )
Guitarist
Todd Rundgren started playing in the R&B oriented band Money while
attending high school in the Philadelphia suburb of Upper Darby.
Graduating in 1965 he joined the Philadelphia-based blues-rock outfit
Woody's Truck Stop. Within a year Rundgren and bassist Carson Van
Osten had bailed, deciding to form their own group. The pair quickly
recruited singer/keyboardist Robert "Stewkey" Antoni and drummer
Thom Mooney. Taking their name from a Yardbirds song
One of the most amazing things about 1968's "Nazz" is Screen Gems-Columbia management allowing a bunch of twenty year olds to essentially produce themselves. Yeah Traut was there for adult supervision, but when you realize the band had no experience recording, let alone producing ... what was the label thinking? Good thing they weren't thinking since the band's debut is really good. With more and more bands turning to blues and a heavier rock sound, Nazz was interesting for clinging to a more pop and commercial sound that made no effort to hide their affection for English pop. Shoot, just check out the album's "Meet the Beatles!" styled cover. With Rundgren responsible for the majority of the material, tracks like 'Open My Eyes', 'Back of Your Mind' and 'When I Get My Plane' were rich in melodies, sweet harmonies, lysergic touches and plenty of top-40 commercial potential. Mind you, we're not talking saccharine pop a-la Carpenters, or a bubblegum corporate creature. Think of this album as the opening shot of the power pop movement, laying down a path for the likes of Big Star, Cheap Trick, The Flamin' Groovie and even The Replacements. All hyperbole aside, song-for-song this was a tremendous debut. The playing may not have been ground-breaking innovative, but they were tight with each member showcasing their talents in different places. Yeah most of the attention focused on Rundgren, but Mooney was a talented drummer with a flair for Keith Moon-styled energy (check out the closer 'She's Goin' Down'). While he was largely invisible in his role as keyboard player, Antoni was a talented singer and Van Osten bass was highly melodic. Not one of the ten tracks is a clunker. Even better, it's one of those albums that you can still find at an affordable price. Maybe not the $1.00 I paid for a copy back in the mid-1980s, but still affordable.
I always wondered how much Rolling Stone reviewer Jon Landau was paid for his fawning liner notes. Guess music reviewers have to pay their bills and Jann Wenner wasn't known as the most generous paymaster in the magazine world.
"Nazz" track listing: 1.) Open My Eyes (Todd Rundgren) - 2:48 rating: **** stars The album's energetic rocker 'Open My Eyes' has always reminded me of a Who outtake. It certainly succeeded in capturing the energy of English bands like The Move, The Small Faces and The Who. For me the song's most captivating ingredient was Rundgren's flanged lead guitar. When the producer couldn't tell them how to get the sound Rundgren figured it out by manipulating the recording tapes. Great melody; fantastic vocals and the phased effects are a classic '60s production effect. The track was tapped as the leadoff single:
- 1969's 'Open Your Eyes' b/w 'Hello It's Me' (SGC catalog number 45-001) # 118 Billboard pop charts / # 66 Billboard pop charts Screen Gems-Columbia clearly had high hopes for the band, even forking out money for a promotional video produced by the late Ray Dennis Steckler. Infamous for his extensive string of low budget "B" and porn flicks, you can even see flashes of Steckler classics like "The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies" in the video (and no I didn't make that film title up): Nazz - Open My Eyes (1968) (youtube.com) 2.) Back of Your Mind (Todd Rundgren) - 3:48 rating: **** stars The star on the rocker was Mooney's take-no-prisoners drumming. Rundgren's fuzz guitar provided the glue that holds the song together. Perhaps just my old ears but with Stewkey and Rundgren sharing lead vocals, the refrain on this one has always reminded me of a classic Cream performance (think along the lines of 'Strange Brew). 3.) See What You Can Be (Todd Rundgren) - 3:00 rating: *** stars One of the album's more laidback efforts, the harmony rich ballad 'See What You Can Be' found the band stepping into The Association, or The 5th Dimension-styled MOR territory. Certainly not one of the stronger compositions, but I actually quite liked the breezy arrangement and the interlocking vocals. It was also one of the few tracks where Antoni's keyboards were prominent in the mix. 4.) Hello It's Me (Todd Rundgren) - 3:57 rating: **** stars Perhaps nothing more than urban myth, but supposedly 'Hello It's Me' was the first song Rundgren ever wrote. Like all good ballads, the inspiration coming from a breakup. Slowed down to almost a dirge tempo and cloaked in a lysergic aural cloud, the song boasted one of Rundgren's prettiest melodies with the vocals doing a great job of capturing the grief and pain of such a split. Van Osten's melodic bass line was stunning. The track was original tapped as the "B" side to Nazz's debut 45 'Open My Eyes' but radio stations started to play it instead of the "A" side with the flip side eventually hitting the Bill board charts. A couple of years last Rundgren released a speeded up version as a solo single earning him his one and only top-10 Billboard appearance. You can find a US 45, but it's seemingly a bootleg. The song was tapped as a legitimate 45 in the UK.
- 1969's 'Hello It's Me' b/w Open My Eyes' (SGC catalog number 45-001) - 1969's 'Hello It's Me' b/w 'Crowded' (SGC catalog number 219002) 5.) Wildwood Blues - (Todd Rundgren -Thom Mooney - Robert Stewkey - Carson Van Osten) - 4:39 rating: **** stars Perhaps a love note to their home stomping grounds of Westwood, New Jersey, surprisingly 'Wildwood Blues' was actually a bluesy garage-rocker; well until the ending where it spun off in a psychedelic mess. Nah, you weren't going to mistakes these guys for B.B. King, but as the album's only group composition it demonstrated they could give most garage bands a run for their money. Be sure to check out Mooney's frenetic drums. Keith Moon would have been proud.
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2) Imagine a strong Left Banke ballad cloaked in a good lysergic trip (I'm guessing about the latter) and you'll have a feel of what to expect on the sweet ballad 'If That's the Way You Feel.' Stewkey's warm vocals and the beautiful groups harmonies were impressive. Hard to imagine that the 20 year old, self-taught Rundgren was responsible for the orchestration. Interestingly I've read Rundgren claimed the song was an attempt to write something along the lines of a Jimmy Webb song. 2.) When I Get My Plane (Todd Rundgren) - 3:08 rating: **** stars Beach Boys harmonies melded with European-styled Toy Town psychedelia and some Who-styled lead guitar (Rundgren) and drumming (Mooney). What a great song !!! 3.) Lemming Song (Todd Rundgren) - 4:26 rating: **** stars Clearly the album is a late-'60s timepiece which means not ever one of these tunes has aged well. Among those tracks is the pounding 'Lemming Song.' Musically it seemed stitched together from whatever genres seemed to be lying around the studio floor. On the other hand, Rundgren's guitar work was awesome; Van Osten's chunky, hyperactive bass line a blast and Stewkey's frustrated vocals were a hoot. 4.) Crowded (Thom Mooney, - Robert Stewkey) - 2:20 rating: **** stars The only tune without a Rundgren writing credit, 'Crowded' was a wonderful ballad that mixed Beach Boys harmonies with a touch of Bee Gees angst and a lysergic coating. One of Stewkey's best performances. 5.) She's Goin' Down (Todd Rundgren) - 4:58 rating: *** stars Hum. Was the song title a reference to a threat, or an act that may have been illegal at the time the song was written? Powered by Rundgren's thick, sustained lead guitar and Van Osten rib shaking bass blasts the opening sounded like something lifted from a Jimi Hendrix album, but then the top-40 chorus hit you in the head. You even got a Mooney drum solo which ultimately cost the song one star (though I did like the channel-to-channel phasing mix).
Sadly the original Nazz line-up is one of those bands with a high mortality rate.
Suffering from lung cancer, Antonio/Stewkey passed on in October, 2023.
Best known for his subsequent career working for Disney as a cartoonist, Van Osten died in December 2015.
© 06/2024 Scott R. Blackerby
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('The Nazz Are Blue'), they found mentors in the form of Philadelphia record
store owners Jack Warfield and Jerry Bartoff. The pair signed on as
the band's managers, making one of their storage rooms available as a
practice room. Given they band were not old enough to play
Philadelphia clubs, Warfield and Bartoff arranging for Nazz to make their
live debut opened for The Doors at a June, 1967 concert at Philadelphia's
Town Center. Their performance and the resulting publicity attracted
the attention of local talent A&R men John Kurland and Michael Friedman
who promptly bought their contract. Kurland and Freidman started
marketing the band. In late1968 when they were showcased at Boston's
The Boston Tea Party theater. The resulting publicity saw Screen
Gems-Columbia sign them to a recording contract. Teamed with producer
Bill Traut, the album was recorded in Hollywood's I.D. Sound Studio, but the
sessions were apparently marred by the band's growing frustrations with
Traut. Traut was seen as adding little value to their work after the
initial recording sessions were completed the band when back to New
York where they remixed two songs; 'Open My Eyes' and 'Hello It's Me' with
producers Michael Friedman and Chris Hutson. 
