Orpheus is a Worcester, Massachusetts-based rock band that enjoyed brief popularity in the 1960’s. Original members included guitarist/vocalists Bruce Arnold and Jack McKennes, bass guitarist Eric "The Snake" Gulliksen, and drummer Harry Sandler. Orpheus recorded three albums and four singles for MGM Records produced by musical legend Alan Lorber, including their best known hit, Can’t Find The Time.
History of Orpheus
Beginnings
The band’s origins began in the summer of 1964 when Arnold and McKennes of Worcester, MA, formed a folk duo called The Villagers (based on their origins as a house band of a Cape Cod coffee house called the Villager). While the pair at first performed cover songs, they began developing Arnold's original material in the Fall of 1964 and Winter of 1965, and soon began playing regularly at the Carousel in Hyannis.
Formation of Orpheus
By early 1967, the Villagers had gained wider popularity, performing at venues such as the Loft, the Odyssey, the Unicorn, and the Pesky Sarpint. That summer bass guitarist Gulliksen was added and the group rehearsed as a trio until drummer Sandler, who had been playing with a surf band called The Mods, joined as the fourth member. In the Summer of 1967 the still unnamed quartet settled on the name "Orpheus" and recorded a demo tape with nine songs, including Can't Find The Time To Tell You, I'll Fly, As They All Fall and The Dream. After shopping the demo tape and receiving nine recording offers, the group eventually signed with Alan Lorber and recorded their first album, Orpheus, in the Fall of 1967.
The album and a single Can’t Find The Time were subsequently released in January 1968, and the group played a few small clubs in Chicago, Detroit, and Philadelphia, before making their official debut in late February of that year at the Bitter End in Greenwich Village. Shortly after, the group opened for Cream at a concert at Brandeis University. The group followed the success of their first album with the release of Ascending in 1968 and Joyful in the early spring of 1969. While together, Orpheus played on the same bill with a number of major acts of the era, including Cream, Janis Joplin, Led Zeppelin, The Who, and many others.
Orpheus' first album was released almost simultaneously with MGM's release of the first albums of Beacon Street Union & Ultimate Spinach. These were grouped together by the label as a part of its somewhat ill-fated "Boston Sound" promotion.
The first album peaked at #119 on the Billboard Albums chart in May 1968. The single Can't Find The Time ultimately peaked at #80 on the "Hot 100" in 1969. It is important to note that neither Gulliksen or Sandler play on the band's debut album. Bassist Joe Macho Jr. and drummer Bernard "Pretty" Purdie were employed by producer Alan Lorber and would go onto play on all of the band's subsequent singles for MGM. Written by Arnold, at least seven cover versions of the song exist. These include one by Rose Colored Glass, which peaked at #54 in 1971, and a version by Hootie and the Blowfish which was featured in the 2000 Jim Carrey movie Me, Myself and Irene.
Ascending peaked at #159, and also was a winner (#10) of Playboy magazine's 1969 Jazz & Pop Poll, Vocal Album of the Year category.
Joyful peaked at #198 on the Billboard chart. A single from this album, Brown Arms in Houston, peaked at #97.
It's interesting to note that "Can't Find the Time" went to #1 in virtually every market in which it competed. It did not chart higher nationally because those instances did not occur at the same time. Recognizing this, MGM re-released the song three times over the first three years.
Breakup and reformation of Orpheus
The group disbanded in December 1969 when McKennes and Sandler were fired. Gulliksen left in February 1970 to pursue other interests. Arnold formed a new newly-constituded Orpheus with songwriter Steve Martin, childhood friend Elliot Sherman, Howard Hersh, K.P. Burke and Bernard "Pretty" Purdie. This Orpheus recorded one album and one single on Bell Records in 1971. Arnold disbanded that group in 1972, when he relocated to California, though he continually wrote and recorded Orpheus songs, making the new material available to the Orpheus fan base through his website and Facebook page: Bruce Arnold-Orpheus. In 1976 he established a charitable foundation to oversee funding for ecumenical low-income housing, education and the arts. In 1988 Arnold performed at the Boston Music Awards with another incarnation of Orpheus which re-enlisted Purdie, Sherman and Hersh and included the late Boston (band) member Brad Delp. Throughout 2000 Arnold performed "Can't Find the Time" with Hootie and the Blowfish in venues like the Fillmore and Golden Gate Park in San Francisco and the House of Blues in L.A. In 2001 he was the featured performer at the San Francisco BMI Christmas Party.
"Can't Find the Time" has had over 360,000 radio airplays in the US alone and has been enjoyed by millions more in the Jim Carrey movie "Me, Myself and Irene"" Over the years Orpheus has found many other notable fans including musicians Laura Nyro, The B52s, Boston, the Jefferson Airplane and actors Chuck Norris, Chevy Chase and Pernell Roberts.
Discography
- Orpheus (1968)
- Ascending (1968)
- Joyful (1969)
- Orpheus 4 (1971)
- The Best Of Orpheus (Ace Big Beat Release, 1995)
- The Very Best Of Orpheus (2001)
- The Complete Orpheus (2001)
- The Best Of Orpheus (IMG Release, 2009)
Trivia
Jeff Herdman was the first Orpheus road manager. Others who served in this capacity included Burton Swan and his brother Bob Swan; Van Leister and Jack Petersen of Harry Sandler's previous band, The Mods; Russ Levine, former drummer for Ultimate Spinach; Ralph Wyman; and Lester Arnold (Bruce’s brother). Burton Swan was the “longest tenured” of these. Burton and Lester were considered by Arnold to have been the band’s best sound men.
Orpheus Reborn
In 2004 original members Gulliksen, McKennes, Sandler, and Martin, along with well-known Boston area musicians Bob Dunlap and Kathi Taylor, formed a new group called Orpheus Reborn. The new band, though content to use the name, made a point of being very different from the original, and strived to avoid imitating or "paying tribute" to the original group. Orpheus Reborn concentrated on new material, and performed only a few radically changed arrangements of Orpheus' songs. Although no longer performing as an entity, the group continues to add audio clips, photos and other content to its already extensive web site.
Stephen & the Snake
Late in 2007 Martin and Gulliksen began a "side project" called Stephen & the Snake, which since has become the pair's primary thrust. Their efforts comprise an experimental musical form, blending elements of poetry, folk, jazz, blues and ambient sound. Stephen & the Snake have been signed to Alan Lorber's Iris Music Group, which released their first single in December of 2008. The pair maintains a deep web site, including a lot of previously unavailable content, much of which is Orpheus-related.
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