Edison Electric Band - Bless You, Dr. Woodward 1970 (USA, Psychedelic,Blues Rock)
For a city renown for it's soul music scene, I'm always amazed at the number of good, but largely unknown 1960s and 1970s era bands that popped up out of Philadelphia. Add The Edison Electric Band to the list. It also happens that when I started collecting LPs back in the early 1980s, this was one of my first purchases - $1.00 at a local yard sale.
Bassist Dan Friedman and singer/drummer David Stock met in 1966 when they were attending The University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Interested in forming a rock band they quickly recruited fellow students keyboardist Mark Jordan and lead guitarist Mark Ziegler.
As The Thomas A. Edison Electric Band the quartet began playing local Philadelphia dances and parties, getting their first break when they were signed by Cameo-Parkway. The following the year they released their debut single:
1967's 'Methyl Ethyl' b/w 'The Name Of The Game' (Cameo-Parkway catalog number C-490)
While the single didn't do anything commercial, the band was hired to provide music for a quickie exploitation album on Cameo-Parkway's Wyncote budget label. Released in 1967 and credited to The Chimps, the album featured a throwaway collection of Monkees covers and garage numbers - "Monkey Business" Wyncote catalog W-9199
Frustrated with their inability to break commercially, in 1968 the group followed the rest of the country; packed up their gear and headed to San Francisco. Having shortened their name to The Edison Electric Band, in 1970 they scored a contract with Atlantic's Cotillion subsidiary, releasing their debut album; the Joel Dorn and Jack Shaw produced "Bless You Dr. Woodward". In an unfortunate turn of events during the recording sessions Ziegler broke his arm in motorcycle accident and T.J. Tindall (who'd already recorded a single as a member of the Trenton, New Jersey-based The Galaxies IV) was brought in as a replacement. Showcasing a largely original set of material, the album was exceptionally diverse with the band taking shots at a broad array of genres including blues, country-rock, pop, and conventional rock. Showcasing Stack's likeable voice and a line up with more technical proficiency than most of the competition, virtually all of the performances were good, but the absence of a distinctive sound certainly didn't help their cause. In fact the set was so diverse at times you almost wondered whether it was the same band. It almost sounded like they were recording a marketing demo intended to showcase their ability to handle any genre.
Shame they weren't able to imprint more personality on the album. 01. Ship Of The Future — 0:00
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