A Very Brief History
Shortly after the band Walrus recorded its album* at Morgan Sound Studio in 1973, band members Bill Etten and Mike McKelvy moved from Ann Arbor back to Marquette, Michigan effectively disbanding the group as an ongoing unit. The remaining members of Walrus at the time (Randy Tessier, Don Kuhli, Jim Bowers and Les Bloom) committed to continue to play music together. A cellist (Maggie Waltz) was added to the group and, out of the ashes, the band Synergy was formed. The band played regularly for several years at numerous venues in lower and upper Michigan. The songs below were recorded at the "Blind Pig" in Ann Arbor in 1975. While the recording mix is not ideal since the recording was made by a small tape recorder off to one side of the stage, the spirit, originality and creativity of the band shines through.
If anyone has any comments or anything to add or correct, please feel free to email me at lebloom @ yahoo.com (delete the spaces).
Best to all,
- Les Bloom
* Interestingly, the 1973 Morgan Sound Studio recordings were finally released in late 2019 by Fervor Records as two new Walrus albums: "Greater Heights" and "Indian Summer", available at Amazon, Apple, Spotify and YouTube.
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Live at the "Blind Pig" - 1975
Personnel:
Les Bloom - alto sax, flute, vocals
Jim Bowers - electric piano, vocals
Don Kuhli - drums
Randy Tessier - electric bass, vocals
Maggie Waltz - cello
Cold-Rolled Gold - Bloom
Primo Cafe - Bowers
Fallen Angels - Bloom
Seeds of Hope - Bowers
A Smiling Face - Bloom
Malibu Miracle Mask - Tessier
Unburned Bridges - Ensemble
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Here are links to two later instrumental versions of "Fallen Angels" by two different groups:
Fallen Angels - (Les Bloom - Bruce Dondero Sextet). More info and personnel list here.
Fallen Angels - (Les Bloom Quintet). "Fallen Angels" is the encore number in this link to two original tunes: "Fair Weather" and "Fallen Angels". More info and personnel list here.
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Below are the lyrics to the 3 tunes above that I wrote. (It occurs to me that one could modify the lyrics to "Cold Rolled Gold" slightly by changing the word "senator" to "President" and the phrase "church-going progenitor" to "slippery White House resident" and the song would be quite current).
Cold Rolled Gold
He's a class conscious senator in a metamorphic state,
A church-going progenitor exuding inbred fear and hate.
Misguided, undecided, he’s filled with greed and
power-lust.
Combustible, un-trustable, his ashes will not turn to
dust,
But to cold rolled gold, pathetic symbol of success.
Unsold mold, metaphor of all the mess he’s made.
A pork barrel senator in stomach and indeed,
His ivory tower’s out of touch, ignorant of human need.
Madison Avenue’s prototype, Clark Kent in phone booth
armor.
Illuminated super-hype, exploiting city man and farmer
For that cold rolled gold, prophetic stigma of regress.
Unsold mold, epitaph of the unhappiness he’s made.
Fallen Angels
The blind man sat
and dreamt about the future he could not see.
The ships inside his
head reached a shore that would never be.
All alone in the
autumn.
Battles lost, yet he
fought them.
Brought his soul to
the bottom.
And he could not
stop.
No he could not stop
his grief.
Green was the color
of her eyes, yet sorrow painted him blue.
The music of life
played on, but what could the blind man do?
He was thinking of
angels wings.
Yet all he could
hear was how the cruel wind sings.
Funny thing the way
its knife edge stings.
And he could not
stop.
No he could not stop
his grief.
Green eyes woke up
and smiled and sunshine filled the room.
Even the blind man
could sense that her presence erased the gloom.
Hand in hand they
stumbled, and together they laughed alone.
Each praying to a
separate God that their hearts don’t turn to stone.
Two people who once
were one, but the memory’s faded and gone.
A Smiling Face
A smiling face.
One last embrace.
Where are we, no one knows.
Love sonnets are so sentimental.
But the poem’s turned to prose.
A vacant stare.
A sad affair.
An emptiness inside.
New chapters yet to be unwritten.
I forget if we even tried.
* Copyright
© Les Bloom. All Rights Reserved.