Rastus....The Best Music You Never Heard! (Pt. 2)
As I mentioned earlier....Rastus was one helluva band. No one wanted to open for them because they performed so well that they made the opening act look bad and vice versa.After the Ike and Tina Turner Review debacle, the band sat with very few gigs for almost two months. Try feeding thirteen people with no money. Times were decidedly tough for this great band.
In Part Two of this interview between Jim Cantale and myself, we discuss those times when tempers were starting to flare and the band was threatened with dissolvement. External management came into being when the management company of Three Dog Night expressed an interest in managing Rastus. More problems came about because of this.
Most of the cuts from Part Two come from the Steamin' LP which was rehearsed completely by myself and the band prior to them jettisoning me in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Hell! The band had been playing these songs for nearly eight months before they went into a studio in Chicago to produce themselves. After they had laid all the tracks and over-dubs, I received a call from Angelo Crimi, (the band's manager) while I was home in Detroit asking that I come back to the band as the mixes they were getting from the studio in Chicago (Paragon) did not sound the way the band expected. I knew the band and what they wanted their sound to be. So, reluctantly, I went to Chicago and spent several days there mixing and editing Steamin'. I couldn't let this marvelous group down no matter how badly I had been hurt by our disassociation.
John Rhys-Eddins/BluePower.com
The music for Part Two:
1)...."Lucy Bluebird"....Rastus/B. Jameson
2)...."Keep On Pushin' "....Rastus
3)...."Up/Down"....Rastus
4)...."Tryin' To Find Her"....Rastus
5)...."Sinnin' For You"....Keef Hartley
6)...."Be Kind To Your Web-Footed Friends"....Ann Arbor Demo Sessions
Click here to listen to....Rastus....The Best Music You Never Heard (Pt. 2)!
posted by John Rhys at 2/19/2007 10:47:00 AM
5 Comments:
Thanks guys for bringing back Rastus to us.
I saw Rastus at least four times in Indianapolis, Indiana. They were awesume. Their recordings do not do them justice compared to the amount of energy and power the band would produce live.
They played the Indianapolis Music festival and the crowd loved them. The guys in the band were very friendly. I got invited to hang out in the band's bus that afternoon while it was raining.
When they opened for the band "Spirit" at Clowes Hall they blew the audience away. After their performance Spirit had a tough time impressing the crowd. People were walking out.... they had got their money's worth thanks to Rastus.
Steve Hart
Cape Canaveral, FL
I was amazed to run into this blog. I saw Rastus so many times I lost count. Sherwood Country Club in it's hey day. These guys always always energized like very few people could back in the day (and I saw all the acts and have the ticket stubs to prove it lol)I only wish a reunion tour could happen. They would flat kill em out there. Think of "The Mummies" but better!!! Thanks for the "Rest of The Story"!!!
Rastus! Little Italy! Rastus Rocks with Lucy BlueBird. From all your friends in the neighborhood.
I saw this group only twice - both times in New Castle Indiana in '72 or '73. I thought they were even better than BS&T and Chicago combined. Thankfully I got the "Steamin" lp before it closed out of store. Still have it!
Rastus-instrumentally the best group I ever heard.They were best with Bocky-the Terry Kath(Heart and Soul)of Rastus.Saw them live many times in Cleve//and was working at Nagels during the day when they were rehearsing.Great guys,Great music-wish we could go back one more summer night.
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