| The Living Still Lives | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Template:Country data San Francisco San Francisco, Sierra |
| Genres | |
| Years active | 1965–1969 |
| Labels | Avocado |
| Associated acts | The Landing; Plastic Inevitable; Simon, Giles, Yorke, & Clapten; Metropolitan Airship |
| Past members | |
*Roger Isny
| |
The Living Still Lives was a Sierran rock band formed in San Francisco in 1965. After gaining a following as one of the leading members of Sierra’s psychedelic movement, the branched out and became distinguished for their extended and experimental compositions, unique sonics, philosophical lyrics, and elaborate live shows, becoming one of the earliest bands in the progressive rock genre.
The group was founded by students Roger Isny (lead vocals, guitar), Sean Yorke (bass guitar, vocals), Dalton Moore (keyboards, vocals), and Marty Wright (drums). Under Isny’s leadership the band would become a staple of the burgeoning San Francisco psychedelic sound, and write a number of charting singles. The band would gain the attention of Avocado Records, the label started by members of the famous band The Landing, leading to the Living Still Lives being signed as one of the label’s first bands outside the Landing circle. The group released a successful debut album, Obscured Revenant Contacts (1967), with Isny leading its songwriting. Soon after Oliver Frampton joined the group as a guitarist to cover for Isny’s increasingly erratic behavior due to worsening mental illness and drug use, and the following year the group announced that Isny would formally withdraw from the group.
After Isny’s departure the group became dominated by Yorke and Frampton, leading to the release of a second album—A Momentary Life As Animals (1968)—and extensive touring. This productivity and sudden stardom, coupled with increasing tensions been Yorke and Frampton, led to the band’s eventual disintegration. In 1969 the band disbanded, although each of its members would go on to have illustrious careers as solo artists or in other popular bands. Isny would release a solo album at the behest of the label, before disappearing into a hermit lifestyle until his eventual death in 1975. Dalton Moore would join the Plastic Inevitable, the band formed by former Landing members Yoko Ono and Keith Winston, while Yorke would form the supergroup Simon, Giles, Yorke (& Clapten).
History[]
Early Years[]
Sean Yorke and Dalton Moore first met in early 1965 while beginning studies for architecture at the City College of San Francisco, and the two began playing music together. The pair would be occasionally accompanied by numerous friends and musicians, including Yorke’s sister Theresa, guitarist Stephen Anderson, and drummer Tom Wilson, playing small shows and private functions, and rehearsing in a small room of the basement of Yorke and Moore’s college. The group would eventually settle on the name The Mantras. Later that year the group was introduced to one of Yorke’s childhood friends, Roger Isny, who was visiting while hitchhiking across the coast of Sierra at the time. Impressed by Isny’s poetry and singing abilities, the pair persuaded him to stay in San Francisco and join the group. Moore said about Isny: "In a period when everyone was being cool in a very adolescent, self-conscious way, Roger was unfashionably outgoing; my enduring memory of our first encounter is the fact that he bothered to come up and introduce himself to me.”
The Living Still Lives at a show in 1967.
By the end of the year a fairly steady lineup had begun to emerge and the group began playing live shows more often. During this time the most common lineup consisted of Isny on lead vocals and lead guitar, Yorke on rhythm guitar and vocals, Moore on keyboard or occasionally guitar when a piano wasn’t available, and Wilson on drums, and the group primarily played covers and songs written by Isny or Kenny Chapman, a friend of the group and its eventual manager. That November Wilson quit the group, while Yorke, Chapman, and Isny decided to rent an apartment together near Menlo Park and pursue music full-time. It was at their new home that they met fellow renters Stanley Nieves, a painter and photographer, and his girlfriend Grace Wright. It was through this couple that the group would be introduced to Grace’s brother Marty, a drummer, after the group struggled to find one in time for an upcoming show.
In early 1966 The Mantras discovered another band already using that name, and they decided to rebrand and solidify their lineup. At the suggestion of Isny they would eventually settle on The Living Still Lives, inspired by a painting by Salvador Dali of the same name. The group would secure their first recording time, at a studio belonging to one of Wright’s friends, in March 1966, recording a handful of demo tapes for free. Around the same time the group began to become involved in the nascent hippie movement around the city, culminating in a performance at the {{W|Acid Tests|Whatever It Is Festival in September 1966 alongside bands like the Grateful Dead. Afterward the band caught the attention of music professor Andrew Blackhill, who used his inheritance to help support the band and buy them studio equipment. With his backing the band experimented with long instrumental excursions, and began to expand them with rudimentary but effective light shows, projected by colored slides and domestic lights. The magazine Music Box, founded that year, would cover the group’s live shows, describing their performances as "leaping around ... madness ... improvisation ... [inspired] to get past his limitations and into areas that were ... very interesting. Which none of the others could do". Others were not as welcoming, including one club owner who refused to pay them after a show, claiming that their performance was not music. When the band’s management filed suit in a small claims court against the owner, a local magistrate upheld the owner's decision.
Isny Era and Album Debut (1967)[]
Despite this, the group began to form a small but dedicated fanbase, and with funding from Blackhill, Chapman, and donations, the group recorded a series of demos. It was from these sessions that a popular song from their live shows, "Strange Brew" was first recorded on tape, eventually being distributed across the city as an unofficial first single. This would be enough to gain the attention of Mick Bowie, manager for The Landing, who got the Living Still Lives in front of the burgeoning label the band was creating Avocado Records. The band would negotiate a recording contract which included unprecedented freedom in recording, as well as a $5,000 advance (equivalent to $39,602.21 in 2021). As a result the band would essentially be able to book unlimited studio time and produce music whenever they felt, much to the later chagrin of Avocado executives.
Promotion artwork for Obscured Revenant Contacts.
"Strange Brew" would be rerecorded and formally released as a single soon after, eventually peaking at number 6 on the Sierran charts. The band would follow this with the single “Alice and Tea” in April 1967, which faired similarly despite bans on some radio stations due to references to cross-dressing. These singles, paired with a co-sign from The Landing, would launch the band suddenly into stardom, landing them a prominent spot at the Monterey Pop Festival that summer. The band would begin a largely inconsistent schedule of touring and recording music, running up a large tab for Avocado Records. The band’s interest in extravagant live shows led to their advance quickly being spent on lighting and sound equipment, with more money being borrowed from the label and from Landing member Mitch Richards directly. During a television performance on Sierran Bandstand, Isny and Yorke received intensive questioning from the show’s host, Clark Sullivan, where Isny appeared visibly uncomfortable. During the ensuing performance of “Strange Brew”, Isny’s impromptu changes to the lyrics to be provocative and his erratic behavior led to the band being banned from the show for the rest of their career. According to Moore, this would be the beginning of Isny’s declining mental health, describing him as "completely distanced from everything going on". By this time Isny was also reportedly using LSD almost daily, along with other psychedelic drugs.
That fall Avocado Records assigned producer Dennis Crosby to the band and booked an extended session at RCA's Studio A in Porciúncula in the hopes of finishing a full album release. Crosby discovered that the band had recorded dozens of songs over the course of months, but each varied wildly in terms of recording quality and style. Crosby fit in well with the band’s lackadaisical mannerisms despite the label’s hopes, and recording soon extended for weeks. It was during these sessions that several songs for the band’s eventual debut were recorded, including “Green is the Color” and “A Song for All Seasons”. These were joined with compositions produced under Chapman and Blackhill’s oversight, namely the extensively long and chaotic “Interstellar Overdrive”, “Matilda Mother”, and “Lucifer Sam”, the band’s eventual third single. Moore would remark that these sessions would be the band’s only that were pleasant and trouble-free. However, Crosby would disagree, stating that Isny was unresponsive to constructive criticism and often difficult to work with. After numerous delays the band presented their first album, Obscured Revenant Contacts, complete with cover art by Stanley Nieves, which was released November 1967.
Despite the fears of the label, the album became immensely popular and commercially viable, peaking at number 3 and spending 16 weeks on the Sierran charts. The band was immediately booked on a large tour of Sierra for the end of the year into the following year, however, Isny’s behavior continued to worsen and cause alarm. Initially thought to be a passing phase, the group’s label pushed the band to continue regardless. On one occasion the band had to delay a show while they searched for Isny, eventually finding him spaced-out in a hiding place. After walking him to the stage he refused to play or move while the rest of the band played, causing confusion among the crowd. The small remainder of the band’s Sierran tour was canceled, with the stated reason being “nervous exhaustion” on the part of Isny. During this time the band would attempt medical care for Isny, with Yorke on one occasion bringing him to see a psychiatrist, however Isny refused to exit the car upon arriving.
In early 1968 the band was booked as the opening act for English guitarist Jimi Redding at a series of European shows. Despite initial success, Isny became increasingly depressed during the tour, and during a filmed performance refused to sing, much to the band’s embarrassment. With the rest of the band’s shows canceled, the band eventually entered the studio and began searching for a musician to fill in for Isny. They eventually settled on Oliver Frampton, a friend of the band who had previously played once with the band in The Mantra days. After a mutual parting with Dennis Crosby, the band began production on new material with Chapman setting up Frampton initially as a salaried session musician. Avocado Records, which was under financial pressure and struggling to support its acts, hired an ex-military man named Norman Griffin as financial manager and eventual president. One of Griffin’s first instincts would be to attempt repeated contract negotiations with the Living Still Lives, hoping to rope them into a more strict recording contract with set deadlines. When this failed, Griffin effectively became executive producer for the group’s next album and attempted to impose structure on them regardless.
One of the last photographs to feature Isny as a core member of the band, 1968.
During this period Isny effectively became a non-performing songwriter for the group, much to the confusion of Griffin, who instead came up with the idea of appointing Frampton as a permanent replacement. Working with Isny eventually proved too frustrating, with the occasional visit to the studio by him at the same time as the other members resulting in confusing and aggravating compositions. At the insistence of Griffin, in February 1968 Isny agreed to leave the band. Believing that Isny was the creative genius behind the band’s success, Blackhill withdrew support for the Living Still Lives and eventually aided Isny in a solo career. Despite Isny’s withdrawal, a number of songs written by him would still be released, including songs, “It Would Be So Nice”, “Althaea”, and “See-Saw”, the last of which would become a hit single in March 1968. Despite conflict with Griffin and an initial creative slump, the band eventually fell into a new rhythm of recording, with Yorke becoming the band’s lead singer and songwriter, joined partially by Frampton, who also became lead guitarist. Most of the band’s recordings from this period would eventually be released on the compilation album After Looking for Light in 1969, a contentious label project consisting of a series of previously released singles, Isny-penned songs, and live recordings.
A Momentary Life As Animals (1968)[]
Throughout the middle of 1968 the band rotated between studios in Porciúncula, San Francisco, and the homes of band members. With the help of engineer Nick Thompson, the band managed to build a primitive studio in Frampton’s house and record several demos, however, Griffin remained unconvinced in the band’s ability to self-produce. Wright recalled Smith's attitude about the sessions, "Norman gave up on the second album ... he was forever saying things like, 'You can't do twenty minutes of this ridiculous noise'". Frampton would pen the song "Fat Old Sun" and perform lead vocals to the track, while the song "Summer '68" was written and sung by Moore. The songs “Echoes” and “One of These Days” would be a joint composition by both Frampton and Yorke, while the rest of the band’s eventual album would be written primarily by Yorke and feature him on lead vocals.
For the group’s second album they began to largely shy away from their psychedelic origins, especially with the addition of Frampton. In contrast to songs written by Roger Isny, the band’s new material was becoming longer and more expansive, with compositions often evolving into complex songs much longer in length than a standard pop song. In particular Frampton introduced more harmonically and melodically dense solo playing to the group’s repertoire. Yorke’s lyricism would incorporate themes of disillusionment and absence, partially inspired by the band’s experiences with Isny and in touring in general. Stanley Nieves, who again returned to design the band’s cover art and promotional material, described the title track “A Momentary Life as Animals” as, "The idea of presence withheld, of the ways that people pretend to be present while their minds are really elsewhere, and the devices and motivations employed psychologically by people to suppress the full force of their presence, eventually boiled down to a single theme, absence: The absence of a person, the absence of a feeling."
A Momentary Life as Animals would be released in September 1968 in Sierra and the American market, and two weeks later in the United Kingdom and Europe. The album surpassed sales of their first album, debuting at number 2 on the Sierran charts and number 6 in the United Commonwealth, and also reached number 46 in the United Kingdom and number one in France. The album’s reception critically was mixed at the time of its release, with Lester Roberts of the Music Box calling the album “ahead of its time” and highly praising its songwriting, while Rolling Rock said it was “dull in comparison to their debut”. Reception of the album in retrospect would eventually become highly positive, with Rolling Rock placing the album as number 19 on its 2003 list of the great albums of all time.
The band was scheduled for an extensive world tour that would last for several months in support of the album’s release. Although highly successful, the tour would begin to strain the band member’s relations, especially as both Frampton and Yorke veyed for creative control over the group’s musician direction. The band would enter the studio sporadically during their touring period, never settling on a central theme or unifying idea for a third full length project. In early 1969 the group returned to Sierra to hopefully begin work at Pacific Recording in San Mateo, but these sessions proved stressful and conflict-ridden. After Griffin approached the band expecting a single the band recorded a number of demos that spring, but didn’t settle on anything releasable. Instead the band would reluctantly greenlight the creation of a compilation album called After Looking for Light, consisting of older material particularly from the Roger Isny days.
Breakup (1969)[]
The band would begin touring once more throughout the summer of 1969, partially in order to fulfill contractual obligations after their earlier accrued debt. One of the few songs recorded during this period would be the single “Us and Them”, which featured lyrics of annoyance at the pressures of fame, and was released in June 1969. During their Sierran tour of 1969 the antagonism between Yorke and Frampton continued to create tension, with Frampton also feeling that the members of the band did not listen to each other enough. Equipment during these years had also improved; new Marshall amplifier stacks produced more power, and Frampton pushed the volume levels higher, creating tension for Wright, who would have trouble competing with roaring stacks. Moore spoke of a concert during which he stopped playing and the rest of the band didn’t notice. Moore has also commented that the band’s later shows mainly consisted of its members showing off.
The band would eventually make the decision to break up. Griffin and executives at Avocado attempted to negotiate for one final album, but when this was unsuccessful Griffin accepted the band breaking up under the assurance that they would continue profitable solo careers under Avocado once placated. After the band announced their breakup in July 1969 they were compelled to perform a series of final shows in Sierra, including a free show in San Francisco. Although their final shows were heavily attended, the band regarded the performances as sub standard. York would remark on their final concert: "It wasn't a good gig ... we were better than that ... We knew it was all over. We knew we were just finishing it off, getting it over with."
Discography[]
| Title | Album details | Peak chart positions | Certifications | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SA | UC | NA | UK | GER | SCA | FRA | |||
| Obscured Revenant Contacts | 3 | 47 | 39 | 131 | 48 | 87 | 15 | ||
| A Momentary Life As Animals | 2 | 6 | 4 | 46 | 59 | 80 | 1 |
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See also[]
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