The Early Years 1967-1970

Artist	Commander Cody
Format	CD
Genre	Rock
Label Name	Blue Label
Release Date	2008 01 15
Song List	1: What's the Matter Now? (2:53) 2: Midnight Shift (2:09) 3: When My Blue Moon Turns to Gold Again (3:11) 4: My Bucket's Got a Hole in It (2:29) 5: Honky Tonkin' (2:29) 6: Mountain Dew (3:22) 7: Midnight Shift (1:57) 8: I Ain't Got Nothin' But Time (2:59) 9: Cravin' Your Love (4:29) 10: Daddy's Gonna Treat You Right (2:35) 11: I'm Satisfied with You (3:19) 12: Honky Tonk Song (3:10) 13: Cravin' Your Love (3:37) 14: Back to Tennessee (2:38) 15: Semi-Truck (3:01) 16: What's the Matter Now? (5:17) 17: Stranded in the Jungle (4:01) 18: I Ain't Never (2:34) 19: First I Look at the Purse (4:02) 20: The Shadow Knows (2:24) 21: Get It (2:49) 22: Boppin' the Blues (2:44) 23: Rip It Up (2:46) 24: Jambalaya (3:23) 25: Shout Bamalama (4:20) 26: Hot Rod Lincoln (2:41) 27: It Should've Been Me (3:02) 28: Back to Tennessee (2:54) 29: Lawdy Miss Clawdy (2:41) 30: Lookin' at the World Through a Windshield (2:21) 31: (I'm Gonna) Burn That Woman (3:00) 32: Big River (2:35) 33: What's the Matter Now? (3:48) 34: Semi- Truck (2:29) 35: Lost in the Ozone (2:41)
Style.Categories	Bar Band, Country Boogie, Honky Tonk, Roots Rock, Rockabilly, Country-Rock, Traditional Country, Rock & Roll

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Let's get the truth of the matter out of the way first: this double-disc collection of unreleased early material by Ann Arbor, MI's Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen is for the hardcore fan only, and for those who are freaks for musical history. Is that a bad thing? Not at all. If anything, this is one of the more revelatory documents to be issued in the CD era. While many music listeners -- even the most fervent -- don't like to dig into the guts and grit of a band's early rehearsals and fumbling-in-the-dark material to find the spark that ignited the fire, there are those who live for stuff like this. SPV's Blue series has licensed from Billy C. Farlow -- the LPA's lead vocalist and chief songwriter -- these rough, rowdy, garagey demos that give more than a clue as to how the unique roots sound of that band came together and transformed the sound of American roots music by weaving together early rock & roll, honky tonk and Western swing and blues into a heady, intoxicated brew that landed them one Top Ten hit ("Hot Rod Lincoln") and made them one of the nation's premier roots and live bands for a few years in the early '70s.
Farlow's wonderful liner notes give the history in a folksy, funny, rambling way. The music -- 35 tracks' worth -- begins with six tunes from 1968 comprised of basement sessions with Farlow playing acoustic guitar with a bass player, a pedal steel, and hand percussion, and Bill Kirchen playing his trademark burning hot acoustic leads. They were working out future Cody classics like Farlow's "What's the Matter Now," the Lee/Ainsworth nugget "Midnight Shift," Billy Walker's "When My Blue Moon Turns to Gold Again," "My Bucket's Got a Hole in It," "Honky Tonkin'," and Scotty Wiseman's "Mountain Dew." In the late '60s, through the middle of the '70s, Commander Cody were playing a wide repertoire of songs from the American cannon, whether they be blues, rock & roll, country, folk ballads, and swing tunes was not only de rigueur for a lot of the hippie bands like the Grateful Dead, Dan Hicks, and others, but it was welcome by fans who were interested in virtually anything transformed by rock bands. Commander Cody's band numbered nine pieces at its zenith, made it their mission to present this music across genre lines, along with rootsy originals. The original members were George Frayne (Commander Cody), Kirchen, John Tichy, Steve Davis (aka West Virginia Creeper), fiddler Andy Stein, and Farlow, with Farlow's brother Johnny helping out on string bass, and John Copley playing brushes. The first six cuts feature this early incarnation; they were wasted -- wasted -- excited and discovering the alchemical magic that became the Airmen. Cuts like a reworked version of "Midnight Shift," and Hank Williams' "I Ain't Got Nothin' But Time" were recorded at Ann Arbor's fabled campus radio station WCBN (still on the air, look 'em up on the internet) in early 1969, sound rough because of primitive recording gear, but the performance is loose yet righteous. The first disc shifts to early 1970, to rehearsals when the band moved west to San Francisco with bassist Buffalo Bruce Barlow and drummer Lance Dickerson. Dickerson had been Farlow's drummer in an early band in from Detroit called the Sunshine (see SPV's other volume, Billy C. & the Sunshine's The Lost 70s Tapes) and both he and Barlow had been playing with Charlie Musselwhite. The Airmen swiped them. There are five tracks from these rehearsals that portray a much more electric, swinging, instrumentally dazzling Airmen.