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The United States of America

 
Artist: The United States of America
Home > Library > Entertainment & Arts > Pop Artists

Group Members:

Joe Byrd, Craig Woodson, Dorothy Moskowitz, Gordon Marron Strings, Edward Bogas

Similar Artists:

Pink Floyd, Pearls Before Swine, Soft Machine, Jefferson Airplane, Broadcast, Fifty Foot Hose

Influenced By:

Steve Reich, Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Terry Riley, Pierre Henry, Luciano Berio, Darius Milhaud

Followers:

Broadcast, Seeland, The Books, Simian, Northern Picture Library, Monade, Bobb Trimble

Performed Songs By:

Dorothy Moskowitz

Formal Connection With:

Joseph Byrd, Joe Byrd
  • Formed: 1967, Los Angeles, CA
  • Disbanded: 1969
  • Genres: Rock

Biography

Despite releasing only one LP, the United States of America was among the most revolutionary bands of the late '60s -- grounded equally in psychedelia and the avant-garde, their music eschewed guitars in favor of strings, keyboards and haunting electronics, predating the ambient pop of the modern era by several decades. The United States of America was led by composer and keyboardist Joseph Byrd, a Kentucky native raised in Tucson, Arizona; there he appeared with a series of rock and country bands while attending high school, subsequently playing vibes in a jazz outfit as a student at the University of Arizona. Despite winning a fellowship to study music at Stanford, Byrd instead relocated to New York, intrigued by the avant-garde experiments emerging from the city's downtown music scene; there he began earning international notoriety for his own compositions, at the same time working as a conductor, arranger, associate producer and assistant to critic Virgil Thomson.

Byrd eventually returned to the west coast, accepting an assistant teaching position at UCLA and moving into a beachfront commune populated by a group of grad students, artists and Indian musicians. He soon began studying acoustics, psychology and Indian music, but quickly turned back to experimental composition, leaving the university in the summer of 1967 to write music full-time and produce "happenings." To perform his new songs -- material inspired in no small part by the psychedelic sounds produced during the Summer of Love -- Byrd recruited a group of UCLA students (vocalist Dorothy Moskowitz, bassist Rand Forbes, electric violinist Gordon Marron and drummer Craig Woodson) to form the United States of America; the group's lone self-titled LP, produced by David Rubinson, was recorded for CBS in 1968, its unique ambience due largely to their pioneering use of the ring modulator, a primitive synthesizer later popularized by the Krautrock sound.

The subject of critical acclaim, the album spent over two months in the lower regions of the Billboard charts; still, the United States of America disbanded soon after, with Byrd resurfacing in 1969 with The American Metaphysical Circus, credited to Joe Byrd and the Field Hippies, a group of a dozen musicians including vocalists Susan de Lange, Victoria Bond and Christie Thompson. A critical and commercial failure, the LP was his last until 1975, at which time he released Yankee Transcendoodle, a collection of synthesizer pieces. Three years later Byrd also produced Ry Cooder's Jazz album, and in 1980 he issued another synthesizer record, Christmas Yet to Come. He additionally wrote for films, television and advertising jingles. Fellow United States of America alum Dorothy Moskowitz, meanwhile, later resurfaced in Country Joe McDonald's All-Star Band, with the remaining members of the group essentially disappearing from the contemporary music scene. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide
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Wikipedia: The United States of America (band)
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Home > Library > Miscellaneous > Wikipedia
The United States of America

(Back, l-r, Byrd, Moskowitz, Marron.
Front, l-r, Bogas, Woodson, Forbes)
Background information
Origin Los Angeles, CA, U.S.
Genres Experimental rock
Progressive rock
Psychedelic rock
Psychedelic pop
Years active 1967 - 1968
Labels Columbia
Associated acts Joe Byrd and the Field Hippies
Former members
Ed Bogas
Rand Forbes
Gordon Marron
Dorothy Moskowitz
Craig Woodson
Joseph Byrd
For the '90s alternative group see: The Presidents of the United States of America.

The United States of America was an experimental rock and psychedelic band whose works are an example of early electronic music in rock and roll.

Contents

History

Formed in 1967 by Joseph Byrd, the band membership consisted of the following: Joseph Byrd (electronic music, electric harpsichord, organ, calliope, piano, and Durrett Electronic Music Synthesizer), Dorothy Moskowitz (lead vocals), Gordon Marron (electric violin, ring modulator), Rand Forbes (an early adopter of the fretless electric bass) and Craig Woodson (drums and percussion). Ed Bogas also performed on the record with occasional organ, piano, and calliope; he became a full member of the band on its first and only tour.

Album

For further information see The United States of America (album)

Their self-titled record was recorded in December 1967, produced by David Rubinson for CBS Records, and released in 1968. It was rereleased on CD by Sundazed Records in 2004 with various alternate takes, demos, and outtakes.

Their sound blended a range of musical genres, including avant-garde, psychedelic, and progressive. One of the more notable points of the band was that it had no guitar player, which for its time was quite radical, as the electric guitar occupied a central position in rock music of the time. Instead, they used strings, keyboards and electronics, including primitive synthesizers, and various audio processors, including the ring modulator.

The record was released in early 1968, at a time when there was a receptive audience for “underground music” which combined musical experimentalism with radical social and/or political lyrics – other examples, in their very different ways, including the Velvet Underground (who shared a common background in the New York experimental music scene; according to Moskowitz, Nico at one point tried to join the USA), Frank Zappa (whom Byrd considered a niche-marketer "subsumed in a self-referential loop"[1]), Love’s Forever Changes, Country Joe and the Fish, and Jefferson Airplane.

Whether intended or not, the record took the form of a coherent “song cycle”, a radical commentary on contemporary American society. The words ranged from satires on decadence ("The American Metaphysical Circus" , "..Wooden Wife..", the title being a parody of the old music hall song, "I Wouldn't Leave My Little Wooden Hut for You" by Tom Mellor and Charles Collins) to lyrical expressions of longing (the pastoral "Cloud Song", the political "Love Song For The Dead Che"). Musically, the songs ranged from pseudo-classical elegance ("Stranded In Time", "Where Is Yesterday") to aggressive discordance and hard rock ("The Garden of Earthly Delights", "Hard Coming Love"), with heavy electronic distortion and collages of “found” music such as brass bands, Byrd being heavily influenced by Charles Ives. The final suite "The American Way of Love" integrates most of these elements, with a dreamlike ending containing a collage of earlier tracks.

Break-Up

Despite the widespread support of music critics, the album sold poorly and soon disappeared - at least in the USA, although in the UK it remained fondly remembered, in part because of one track ("Wooden Wife") being used on a popular CBS sampler album.

The band's tour in support of the record led to difficulties of its own. Members of the band were arrested for drug possession, and they had a number of serious equipment failures - these and other tensions made Byrd increasingly difficult to work with, and the group largely unmanageable, and resulted in the band splitting up.

  • Joseph Byrd went on to form Joe Byrd and the Field Hippies, who released an LP, The American Metaphysical Circus, in 1969. Byrd also released a number of additional recordings under his own name, as well as scoring a number of films, writing music for television, and working as a music producer. He is married, lives in northern California near the Oregon border, and teaches music-related classes at College of the Redwoods.
  • Dorothy Moskowitz(-Falarski) later worked with Country Joe McDonald's All-Star Band, married, has two daughters, and lives in a suburb of Oakland, California. She writes for and teaches music to children in her local school system, and has developed a number of other music projects in the San Francisco Bay area.
  • Gordon Marron became a Los Angeles studio musician and now lives in Hawaii.
  • Craig Woodson teaches percussion in the Cleveland, Ohio area and has toured with the Kronos Quartet. He has also developed the educational World Drumming project used in American schools nationwide.
  • Ed Bogas composed soundtracks for Peanuts and Garfield TV cartoon specials and for Ralph Bakshi's film Fritz the Cat.
  • Rand Forbes has worked as an Oracle DBA, owned a software development company, and continues to play classical bass in Southern California. Rand currently lives in the Cleveland, Ohio area, close to Craig Woodson.

Influence

Snakefinger covered "The Garden Of Earthly Delights" on the 1982 release "Manual Of Errors".

British indie band 14 Iced Bears covered "Coming Down" on their "Mother Sleep" single in 1989.

The British group Northern Picture Library released a cover version of "Love Song For The Dead Che" as their debut single in 1993.

The USA were thanked by the trip hop group Portishead in the liner notes of their 1997 album Portishead, for the song "Half Day Closing" which bears a more than superficial resemblance to "American Metaphysical Circus".

UK band Broadcast also cite USA as a major influence.

Serious Black/Steve Mecca covered "The Garden Of Earthly Delights" on the 2002 CD "Barbican" [1].

The song "Over! Over!" on the 2007 album "Reformation! Post-TLC" by British band The Fall has been described [2] as "steal[ing] both chorus and riff" from the USA song "Coming Down".

Discography

Albums

Year Title Peak chart positions
UK[2] US[3]
1968 The United States of America — 181

Singles

  • The Garden of Earthly Delights / Love Song For The Dead Ché (CBS 3745, UK, 1968)[4]
  • Hard Coming Love (2004)

References

  1. ^ Kevin Holm-Hidson. Progressive Prck Reconsidered, Routledge, 2002, p. 61
  2. ^ Warwick, 2004. p.320
  3. ^ "The United States of America > Charts & Awards > Billboard Albums". Allmusic. http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:jvfqxqe5ldae~T3. Retrieved 2008-06-09. 
  4. ^ Record Collector Rare Record Price Guide 2010, ISBN 978-0-9532601-9-5

External links


This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

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