RIP Lee Dorman

[Denis]

http://music.yahoo.com/news/iron-butterfly-bassist-lee-dorman-dies-age-70-005219358.html

[uwe]

Didn't Rhino die this year too? And Willie Daffern as well? Looks like most of Captain Beyond will soon be dancing madly backwards on a sea of air to become starglow energy.

Saw Dorman together with Rhino at an Iron Butterfly concert in the late seventies. It was a double-bill, IB and - unannounced - Rhino's new melodic AOR project which featured an English bass guitarist so he and Dorman came and went (Rhino probably only agreed to do the tour if he could feature his new stuff) on stage. The English guy died in his sleep that night after the concert in Darmstadt.

[gweimer]

I saw Dorman on the In-a-Gadda-da-Vida tour with Iron Butterfly.  It was the first concert I ever saw, and remember very little outside the drum solo, and that was because of the lights.   I saw him again with Captain Beyond, who were quite disappointing live.  All the musicians we grew up with are starting to pass away.  McCartney and Jagger will probably outlast them all.

[Denis]

McCartney and Jagger will probably outlast them all.

Or Ringo!

[uwe]

I saw Dorman on the In-a-Gadda-da-Vida tour with Iron Butterfly.  It was the first concert I ever saw, and remember very little outside the drum solo, and that was because of the lights.   I saw him again with Captain Beyond, who were quite disappointing live.  All the musicians we grew up with are starting to pass away.  McCartney and Jagger will probably outlast them all.

Did you see CY with Rod Evans?

[gweimer]

Did you see CY with Rod Evans?

No, I think it was probably Will Daffern by then.  The band was auditioning singers all over Chicago at the time, too.  It was Rhino, Dorman and Caldwell, though.  Rhino had this HUGE, ugly tattoo of a gray rat on his entire forearm, and Caldwell was just amazing.  He was the only part of the show I liked, and watching him do quads on a single bass kit was awesome.  Dorman looked pretty grungy, and what I recall was that he looked like he was somewhere other than the show, mentally.

[uwe]

I like the debut and the one with Daffern, but Sufficiently Breathless is my eternal favorite. The title track, Bright-Blue Tango and Starglow Energy ... Great songs. The debut is more popular I know, but I find that a bit "muso music" (nothing wrong with that), the songwriting grew on the 2nd album and it relied less on technical prowess which the band undoubtedly had.

Evans' work with CY eclipsed what he did with Purple IMHO. He has disappeared since his ill-advised bogus DP fraud in the early eighties. No trace of him since then to the extent that he is now rumored to be dead in DP quarters.

[gweimer]

I like the debut and the one with Daffern, but Sufficiently Breathless is my eternal favorite. The title track, Bright-Blue Tango and Starglow Energy ... Great songs. The debut is more popular I know, but I find that a bit "muso music" (nothing wrong with that), the songwriting grew on the 2nd album and it relied less on technical prowess which the band undoubtedly had.

Evans' work with CY eclipsed what he did with Purple IMHO. He has disappeared since his ill-advised bogus DP fraud in the early eighties. No trace of him since then to the extent that he is now rumored to be dead in DP quarters.

The debut was written by Evans/Caldwell.  Sufficiently Breathless was all Dorman's compositions.  WXRT in Chicago still plays "Sufficiently Breathless" on occasion.  If you look at the album credits for SB, you'll find a common link to percussion players and the producer, who would all resurface on a Chicago album.  I can't recall the song, but there is a Captain Beyond song that has a nearly identical opening as a later Chicago song, with the same percussion section credited.

[uwe]

I remember reading that Dorman was uncredited as a writer on the debut for contractual reasons. Pretty much as Hughes was on Burn though he co-wrote though that has meanwhile been rectfiied on the more recent reissues.

I did like the percussion on the second CY album, it had - also due to more prominent keyboards - more color than the first. Wasn't there a Santana connection of one of the percussionists?

On a Southern Rock label such as Capricorn, CY sure were an unlikely act. Essentially though, I believe they were just ahead of their time. The mid- and later seventies would have been kinder to them. Where there was a place for Kansas and Rush there would have been a place for them.

[JazzBassTbird]

The debut was written by Evans/Caldwell.  Sufficiently Breathless was all Dorman's compositions.  WXRT in Chicago still plays "Sufficiently Breathless" on occasion.  If you look at the album credits for SB, you'll find a common link to percussion players and the producer, who would all resurface on a Chicago album.  I can't recall the song, but there is a Captain Beyond song that has a nearly identical opening as a later Chicago song, with the same percussion section credited.

The Chicago song in question is Wishing You Were Here. Same intro structure as As The Moon Speaks to The Sea. (it's just a D open chord form played at the 5th fret moving chromatically down with the open D string ringing. Simple enough, but sounds cool!) The way it's implemented thatough, sounds quite different, and of course, what follows in each songs is completely different. I didn't know that about the shared percussion players on both tracks.

Captain Beyond was/is one of my favorite bands. Like most, it was the 1st LP that got my attention. A bit later, (1975 or '76) I bought a copy of Sufficiently Breathless. Initially I was disappointed because I was expecting more in the style of the 1st LP, but it soon grew on me, and today i find it at least as good as the 1st album, just different. Dawn Explosion's just OK. Never cared for the singer, Willy Daffern, on that one.

[Barklessdog]

The Chicago song in question is Wishing You Were Here. Same intro structure as As The Moon Speaks to The Sea. (it's just a D open chord form played at the 5th fret moving chromatically down with the open D string ringing. Simple enough, but sounds cool!) The way it's implemented thatough, sounds quite different, and of course, what follows in each songs is completely different. I didn't know that about the shared percussion players on both tracks.

Captain Beyond was/is one of my favorite bands. Like most, it was the 1st LP that got my attention. A bit later, (1975 or '76) I bought a copy of Sufficiently Breathless. Initially I was disappointed because I was expecting more in the style of the 1st LP, but it soon grew on me, and today i find it at least as good as the 1st album, just different. Dawn Explosion's just OK. Never cared for the singer, Willy Daffern, on that one.

Agreed

[clankenstein]

i really liked some of the bass lines on Ball.(Iron Butterfly)