Label: One Way Records (U.S.), OW 33639
Style: Rock, Hard Rock
Country: Los Angeles, California
Time: 38:01
Format: Flac Tracks 16/44,1 kHz
Size: 245 Mb
The CAPTAIN BEYOND story
researched by Hartmut Kreckel with the help of Lee Dorman (interviewed in Elbingerode, Mehrzweckhalle 22.03.97 and Halle, Easy Schorre 24.03.97), Larry "Rhino" Reinhardt and Bobby Caldwell (interviewed in Karlshamn, First Hotel 11. and 13.06. 99) and Reese Wynans: interviewed in Ludwigshafen, Stadthalle 04.86.
How Captain Beyond came together...
Lee Dorman remembers: "Rhino and I were touring with Iron Butterfly through Europe in early 71 and we knew that this band would be officially over after the summer US tour of that year, so we decided to do something together... Bobby Caldwell was playing the same places as we did in Europe with Johnny Winter two weeks behind us and Rhino stayed in contact with Bobby, whom he knew from Florida. It also seemed at that time that Johnny Winter was going to take a rest for six months to a year. So we got Bobby interested in doing something. I personally financed the whole thing and we all wanted to go that Jazz Rock direction, we got together in July 71 and played 2 or 3 weeks and then we started to look around for a lead singer and through our old manager we found out that Rod Evans wasn?t working, so we contacted him and he came down to a audition and liked the situation, so we jammed more and we had a recorder in the house... so that?s how the band got together... Bobby and I recorded the first album in two days only, that?s how tight it was! We knew the songs from a to b, Rhino was hitting a few chords and we just recorded it along..."
Rhino remembers: "Lee and I played with Bobby and it just clicked, we wanted to do something totally different and just the way Bobby plays makes it totally different. Chris Squire from Yes came one morning to me, when we were uploading the bus and said to me "you guys look like Captain Beyond!"
Bobby Caldwell remembers: "Rhino and Lee came out to see me play with Johnny Winter to check me out"
The first demo of Captain Beyond...
Rhino remembers: "We did it at my studio, it had "Can?t Feel Nothing"..."
Bobby remembers: "... and it had "Icarus"... it was like 20min. of material... I guess "Ranging River of Fear" was on it too..."
Lee Dorman remembers: "I believe it was the whole first album being demoed"
The name "Captain Beyond":
Lee Dorman: "... when we were on that european tour of Iron Butterfly in 71, we were travelling with Yes, with whom we did the tour and there was a strike by Lufthansa, so we had to chart a airplane by a company named "General Air". A game of words started and suddenly, we were on a bus late one night, someone said "Captain Beyond", we thought it sounded good and kept it..."
The crystal ball in the hands of the Captain on their album cover contains the earthsign symbols of fire and water.
First and second album songwriting credits:
Lee Dorman: "It was a financial, publishing decision to credit all the songs to Bobby Caldwell and Rod Evans, as Rhino and myself were under contract and in litigation with Iron Butterfly, so we did it that way... All four of us wrote the whole first album together, the music and the lyrics. On the second album Bobby was no longer in the band, Rhino still was in liquidation with Iron Butterfly, Rod was in litigation with Deep Purple and I was free of contract, so it says "All songs by Lee Dorman". But when the money came in for the first two albums we were all equal! When Bobby quit, Larry and I thought about going into a different direction and tried out a few things, keyboards, percussion players sax, maybe a second guitar and once we found the players we wrote along that feel. The lyrics on "Sufficiently Breathless" were written all by Rod, Rhino and myself and 90% of the music too, but we gave Guille and Marty a point as well, although they were sidemen they contributed to the arrangements".
Gigs:
Lee Dorman: "The president of Capricorn, our label, was also our manager and suddenly all these Southern Rock bands became quite popular, and we were quite different, so we kind of got pushed backwards and there was never enough being done for us. We only played like 60-70 gigs in the that two year period with Rod".
From the first album they played live AFAIK every song, except "Ranging River Of Fear" and "Thousand Days Of Yesterdays (Time Since Come And Gone)". It?s also known that the song "Dawn Explosion" was performed live during the time with Rod, the same goes for "Pandora?s Box (The Land Of...)", which was done in Arlington 73, and according to Lee was played a few times only.
Lee Dorman: "From "Sufficiently Breathless" we performed live Distant Sun, Drifting in Space, Starglow Energy, Everything?s A Circle and Bright Blue Tango. We became involved in a problem with the record company in late 73, everyone was tired of sitting around and doing nothing, rehearsing and nothing happening, so we decided to call it a day..."
Reese Wynans remembers: "Captain Beyond was a great band to play with, but from the management side it was terribly organized... I was very poor at that time, living in somebody?s else garage, so I needed to work and had to quit. I played on all the songs on "Sufficiently Breathless", except the title track. I only played one show with them..."
About Rod Evans:
Lee Dorman: "... Rod walked out of the studio midway through the recording of "Sufficiently Breathless", I really don?t know the reasons why, his wife was making pressure or something and he felt disgusted with the management situation, but he never really talked about it. He finished the album and that was it... not too long ago we found out that Polydor Japan was releasing our records and after a while we got the royalties cheques... so we had to put Rod?s share on hold, as nobody could find him. I contacted him via his manager and forwarded my number to him, saying please call back... never heared of him. He seems to live in the San Francisco area now and I haven?t seen him since he left the band, same goes for the other band members, noone has talked to Rod ever since he left... We had some rough times together, he was a great guy, I liked him."
Reformation:
Lee Dorman: "Warner and Capricorn had a deal and contacted us in 1976 to do another album. In the interim I was working as a engineer/producer for demo bands for Warner Bros. We started to audition singers and were quite happy with Willy Daffern. We have a outtake of "Icarus" and a studio version of the song "Dawn Explosion" that wasn?t used for that album. We did like 15 to 20 gigs with that line-up."
Rhino: "... I first met Willy in a liquor store..."
Bobby Caldwell: "... after Willy left, we tried out Jimmy Henderson for a time in 1978..."
Rhino: "... and then Jimmy went with me in my band named "Rhino", we were managed by the manager of Styx and toured for six months in 1979..."
In Retrospective...:
Lee Dorman: "Looking back, we lacked of proper management. I think if we?d gone out doing 150 gigs a year it would have done much better. Our management did nothing for us, it was like "we?ll get back to you" and they never did a thing, so what could you do about it... They should have bought us into a tour to open up for someone who would really draw some people, but it never happened... There were several attenpts of reforming Captain Beyond over the years, but it never got beyond talking about it, and the only chance to do it seemed, if I was going to do anything... I?m now with Iron Butterfly and surely I can do one thing at the time only, but THERE?LL ALWAYS BE A PLACE IN MY HEART FOR CAPTAIN BEYOND...?CAUSE THIS WAS REALLY A LABOUR OF LOVE..."
(The Unofficial (European) Captain Beyond Website.)
Band members:
Willy Daffern – lead vocals
Larry "Rhino" Reinhardt – lead guitar, acoustic guitar, slide guitar
Lee Dorman – bass, backing vocals, string ensemble synthesizer
Bobby Caldwell – drums, backing vocals, percussion
01. Do Or Die (03:38)
02. Icarus (04:17)
03. Sweet Dreams (05:29)
04. Fantasy (06:02)
05. Breath Of Fire: (A) A Speck Within A Sphere (03:04)
06. Breath Of Fire: (B) Alone In The Cosmos (03:12)
07. If You Please (04:12)
08. Midnight Memories (04:01)
09. Space Interlude (00:52)
10. Oblivion (02:14)
11. Space Reprise (00:55)
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