The Horror! The Horror!
The Greek Fountains were Danny Cohen, Tommie Miceli, Don
Chesson, Duke Bardwell and Cyril Vetter. Formed in 1962, the Baton Rouge,
Louisiana-based quintet were a popular attraction, and over a five year career
the band supported visiting acts including The Animals, The Dave Clark Five,
Paul Revere and The Raiders and Sonny and Cher.
The Greek Fountains issued at least half a dozen 45s
including Countin’ the Steps/Blue
Jean (with the odd credit of ‘vocal
producer Shelby Singleton Jr’) on Philips in 1966. They also put out a
fuzz-drenched version of the Monkees classic (I’m Not Your) Stepping
Stone, a rocking cover of Donovan’s Hey
Gyp (as Buy You A Chevrolet), and a reasonably faithful copy of The Who’s I’m
A Boy - although they clearly did not have
access to a copy of the lyrics at the time.
Failing to score a hit, they acquired a couple of new
members – Luther Leonard (a.k.a. Luther Kent, a.k.a. Duke Royal) and Butch
Swann – and changed their name to The Greek Fountain River Front Band in 1967,
releasing the album The Greek Fountain River Front Band Takes Requests. Unfortunately this would be the band’s last hurrah.
Drummer Cyril Vetter, who wrote the hit Double Shot of My Baby's Love, went
off to serve in Vietnam. Since his return he has enjoyed a varied career as an
attorney, a TV executive, a record producer and an author. Miceli went on to
become a well-known ER doctor in Baton Rouge, and for some time Chesson was
involved in aviation.
Danny Cohen (who, along with Vetter, wrote most of the
band’s original material) moved to New York City, changed his name to Casey
Kelly and kept working, often alongside Duke Bardwell. Bardwell is probably the
band’s best-remembered musician, having toured with Elvis Presley’s band,
written for Jose Feliciano, opened for Loggins & Messina (with
Cohen/Kelly), toured with the Byrds’ Gene Clark and recorded with Emmylou
Harris. Named, like every other member of his family, after a university
(seriously, he had a brother name Harvard!) he still plays and records today.
Cohen/Kelly moved to Nashville where he has written for Kenny Rogers (he was
Grammy nominated for the country number one Anyone Who Isn’t Me Tonight), Helen Reddy, George Strait and Tanya Tucker
amongst others.
The Greek Fountains were a respectable garage/r’n’b act, but
the perverse b-side An Experimented Terror
- the flip of their Hollies-inspired single I Can’t Get Away and named after the 1962 movie Experiment in
Terror - has to rank alongside Lieutenant Pigeon’s Opus 300, the Turtles’ Umbassa and the Dragon and the Beatles’ Revolution Nine as one of the most willfully ridiculous pieces of
music ever to be placed on a pop record. Sampled by Quasimoto for the song Shroom
Music, here are both sides of this highly
collectable, and rather expensive, 45.
I wonder why Bardwell is the only member of the group not to receive a writer credit?
I wonder why Bardwell is the only member of the group not to receive a writer credit?
Enjoy!