Automatic Man
Encyclopedia
Automatic Man was an American
1970s progressive rock
quartet from San Francisco which also featured elements of funk
, space music
, psychedelic rock
, heavy metal
, Krautrock
, Musique concrète
, art rock
and Santana
-inspired jazz fusion
. Initially a side project of Santana's drummer Michael Shrieve
, Automatic Man brought together well respected musicians of diverse backgrounds within the rock, funk and jazz communities of the mid-1970s.
Despite a well reviewed 1976 eponymous début on Island Records
and a lone charting single, 1977's "My Pearl", which reached #97 on the Billboard Hot 100
., the line-up of Automatic Man was not cohesive. After a second album entitled Visitors, they disbanded in 1978, retaining a small but very loyal, global cult following.
With both releases being reissued on CD in 2004 after twenty eight years of only being available in vinyl format and with the advent of the internet, Automatic Man are being rediscovered and roundly praised for their genre defying, boundary breaking musical sound and unique lyrics.
decided to quit Santana
to explore other musical avenues. That led him to work with ex-Traffic/Spencer Davis group singer/keyboardist Steve Winwood
, percussionist Stomu Yamashta
, and synthesizer player Klaus Schulze
on the Go
album, an album of experimental progressive rock that had been released by Island Records a year later. It was at those sessions guitarist Pat Thrall
met Shreive, and the two decided to work together. Lou CasaBianca, who had originally managed Eddie Money
and who had also been a recording session engineer on GO, became their manager and producer.
Next to join Automatic Man was 25-year-old keyboard player and singer, Todd Cochran
, then known under the alias of "Bayete" . Cochran was a child prodigy
and formally trained keyboard player attending the Trinity College of Music
in England as a teen. Cochran had also been part of the jazz scene for nearly a decade, playing with renowned jazz artist Julian Priester
. He also released two jazz-funk solo albums on Prestige Records
in 1972 and 1973. Completing the lineup was bass guitarist Doni Harvey, who performed around the SF/Bay Area with his brothers and in blues, jazz, and soul bands, playing both bass and guitar. According to Harvey's brother, Regi Harvey, Doni joined the band sheerly by chance,
The final line up played around the Bay Area building up a fan base performing many high profile gigs including the Cow Palace
with Poco
, and Rush
. Impressing Chris Blackwell
, president of Island Records, he signed the band to a two record deal.
in London their base of operations recording at Olympic Studios
in Barnes with renowned recording engineer Keith Harwood
. The self titled debut album contains a mix of progressive space-rock and jazz fusion, with hard guitars and layered synthesizers. Allusions to space travel, Atlantis
, astral projection
, karma
, angels, aliens, belly dancers and other mystical and exotic subjects are covered on nearly every album track. Cochran wrote the tracks "Atlantis Rising-Fanfare", "Coming Through", "One and One", "Newspapers", "Geni-Geni" and Turning of the Axis [Theme from Atlantis Rising]". He shares co-writing credits with CasaBianca on "Automatic Man", "Interstellar Tracking Devices" and "Right Back Down." The entire band and CasaBianca share writing credits on "There's A Way." Steve Winwood
who worked with Thrall, Shrieve and CasaBianca on GO, is rumoured to have contributed an uncredited keyboard and vocal appearance on the title track.
Produced by Lou CasaBianca and Automatic Man
Mixed by Keith Harwood and Chris Kimsey
as "Bayete" , except where noted.
Side one
Side two
(My Pearl was released with the B-side song titled "Wallflower")
face staring out from space. This 'alien' face was meant to be representative of a human without a body, with just the spiritual energy or 'aura' providing the visual shape. The debut album is blue on blue, while the follow-up Visitors features the blue face on a shocking pink
and magenta background. The inside liner art of the first album includes the blue face with Egyptian wings, floating above a pyramid, rising Atlantis-like out of a raging ocean with a maelstrom in the background. The artwork for the "My Pearl" single featured a woman's face suspended over a misty crevasse crowned with wings and a self-consuming serpentine rainbow.
The art work for both Automatic Man LP covers was entirely original, and one of the first times (possibly THE first) that an alien face had been depicted in a mass market medium; it bears more than a passing resemblance to the alien face which would be seen on countless bumperstickers and decals from the early 1990s onward. Former band manager and producer, Lou CasaBianca, reputedly still owns the original paintings of the Dwain Zerio album art which he designed and had commissioned for the band's debut album.
in Switzerland. According to a later interview with Thrall, the band had trouble pulling off their material live. Part of the problem was that Bayete's multi-keyboard style was very difficult to resolve given the Public Address
technology of the era. Shrieve too would also recall that the band had not had enough chances to play live.
The band was also feted by fellow artists and luminaries of the day including the Rolling Stones and Hunter S Thompson who wrote a concert review. Though they would make a few more live appearances in their original Bay Area stomping grounds, infighting, clashes over music and disagreements over how the bands finances were being directed (living and recording in London during very high inflation, air travel and the meticulously detailed album art, while prestigious, had proved to be exorbitantly expensive) this led to Automatic Man's first line-up dissolving after returning to the United States in 1977.
on piano and vocals, and Brian May
on Guitar. From 1974 he had been musical director for Van Morrison
, playing on several tours and in 1976, he played on the Al Jarreau
's Grammy winning jazz album "Glow". Glenn Symmonds had been Eddie Money
's drummer since 1974, departing to record and tour with ex-Santana percussionist Coke Escovedo
.
Produced by Michael Lloyd
Lionel Conway- executive producer
Bruce Robb- engineer
Lou CasaBianca/Glyphics - art direction & album design
as "Bayete".
Side one
Side two
's 1981 disc, "All the Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes
" and for artists Mick Jagger
, The Rolling Stones
, George Harrison
, Steve Winwood
, Police guitarist Andy Summers
, film composer Mark Isham
, Freddie Hubbard
, Jaco Pastorius
, Wayne Horvitz
, Bill Frisell
, Zakir Hussain
, Airto Moreira
and Amon Tobin
. Michael Shrieve also composes music for film and television, working with Paul Mazursky
on the film, Tempest
and scored music for Curtis Hanson
’s The Bedroom Window. In the early 1980s, his power pop quartet, Novo Combo
scored minor hits with the songs "Up Periscope" and "City Bound."
Shrieve is also the past President of the Pacific Northwest Branch of the National Association of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS), and is currently writing the memoirs of jazz drumming legend Elvin Jones
. He also serves as Musical Director for Seattle Theatre Group’s "More Music at The Moore," a program that highlights gifted young musicians from Seattle’s various cultural groups. In 1998, Shrieve was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
with Santana
. He also received the Guitar Center’s first annual "Lifetime Achievement Award" in 2005.
, Teena Marie
, Maynard Ferguson
, Juan Carlos Quintero
, Stewart Copeland
, Peter Gabriel
and Grover Washington Jr in genres that included funk
, new age
, jazz
disco
and combinations thereof. He was a member of Fuse One
, a coalition of jazz musicians who released two album on CTI Records
in 1980 and 1981. Since 2000, Cochran has been primarily establishing himself as a film composer, as well as re-engaging with classical composition which he had explored at the start of his musical career. His first full soundtrack was for Doug McHenry's TV movie "Keep the Faith, Baby" from 2002, a portrait of the black senator Adam Clayton Powell. In 2004 he composed the music for the critically acclaimed, "Woman Thou Art Loosed
", an adaptation of Bishop T.D. Jakes' self-help novel, it won the Best Film Award at the "American Black Film Festival
".
In 2006, Robert L. Watt, Assistant Principal French horn with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, commissioned Todd Cochran to write a musical composition in memory of Miles Davis
. This resulted in a piece called "Missing Miles" – a suite for horn and piano. Film director Kim Bass made a thirteen minute film, also called "Missing Miles", which chronicled the creation of the composition and a performance of the work. In the Feb 2007 issue of "Film Music Magazine" called "Ebony and Ivory: The Door Only Swings One Way", focused on how black composers often only get offered "black" films. In the article, Todd referenced the limitations placed on black composers by the entertainment world,
and Alphonso Johnson
. In 1978, Thrall was chosen from seventy auditioning guitarists for the co-lead spot with Pat Travers
. He recorded on three LPs with Travers: Heat In The Street, Go For What You Know and Crash and Burn. The latter LP featured the FM hit, "Snortin' Whiskey
", which Thrall co-wrote with Travers. Thrall later joined Asia
, and played lead guitar for a resurgent Meat Loaf
during the 1990s. He has also recorded with Beyoncé
, Elton John
, Tina Turner
, and Dave Stewart
, to name a few. Thrall has also lent his talent and support behind causes such as Nelson Mandela
's foundation to fight AIDS in Africa.
Thrall's most acclaimed work, post-Travers, is undoubtedly the 'Hughes/Thrall' album from 1982, featuring Glenn Hughes on vocals and bass. A fusion of rock/synth/metal/pop, it is now considered a 'musician's favorite', going virtually unnoticed by the public at the time. Thrall was clearly influenced by the chording/effects guitar style of Andy Summers
of The Police
, and one track even features drums very much in the style of Stewart Copeland
. Hughes and Thrall worked together on and off for the next 15 years, and planned on releasing 'Hughes/Thrall 2' in 1997, but Thrall's full time work as a producer for other artists, and his desire to produce the album himself, constantly delayed any progress and in 2009, Hughes finally gave up on working on its release.
and in his own power trio, HARVEY. His credits include backing Clarence Clemons
and replacing Allan Holdsworth
as the guitarist in Gong
for a spell. In 1988, he joined the San Francisco based World Music
band, The Caribbean Allstars, as guitarist and backing vocalist. Harvey has been playing with the Caribbean Allstars for over two decades. He currently helms the group, "Doni Harvey and Deeper Shade of Blue" and together with fellow musicians Isis and Andy Jonson, formed The Unemployed Blues Band. Doni also became a permanent member of his brother's band Regi Harvey's Example, who died April, 25th, 2010. Doni died on June 1st. 2011.
movie. He also collaborated extensively with Thin Lizzy
's Phil Lynott
and together they produced the first independent single ever released by a Dublin based band called Blue Russia, released on Vixen Records in Ireland in 1983. Rimson has played or sang on albums for Steve Winwood, Donovan
, Topper Headon
formerly of The Clash
, Ron Roesing the drummer of the Smashing Pumpkins and many others. He now lives in Dublin, Ireland teaching master classes on music production and theory. He has finished his autobiography, "Renegade" which he describes as his life experiences in "the biz" and the countless people he has met on his journey including "...Phil Lynott's last years, from rock n roll on the road to his life now in Ireland."
, John Klemmer
, Elvin Bishop
, Dave Mason
, Duncan Sheik
and Etta James
.
It was in 1986 while touring with The Untouchables he once again joined forces with Eddie Money and has been drumming for him for over two decades. (Interestingly, Lou CasaBianca had been one of Eddie Money's first managers before producing and managing Automatic Man.) Now, based out of Nashville, Glenn Symmonds describe himself as a "...Drummer, guitarist, singer, songwriter, teacher, father."
Due to the overwhelming success of Automatic Man's re-release on Compact Disc, Lemon recordings also re-released, Visitors in 2005.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
1970s progressive rock
Progressive rock
Progressive rock is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." John Covach, in Contemporary Music Review, says that many thought it would not just "succeed the pop of...
quartet from San Francisco which also featured elements of funk
Funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...
, space music
Space music
Space music, also called spacemusic, is an umbrella term, synonymous with a segment of New Age Music and Ambient Music, used to describe music that evokes a feeling of contemplative spaciousness. Space music can be found within a wide range of genres. It is particularly associated with ambient, New...
, psychedelic rock
Psychedelic rock
Psychedelic rock is a style of rock music that is inspired or influenced by psychedelic culture and attempts to replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs. It emerged during the mid 1960s among folk rock and blues rock bands in United States and the United Kingdom...
, heavy metal
Heavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
, Krautrock
Krautrock
Krautrock is a generic name for the experimental music scenes that appeared in Germany in the late 1960s and gained popularity throughout the 1970s, especially in Britain. The term is a result of the English-speaking world's reception of the music at the time and not a reference to any one...
, Musique concrète
Musique concrète
Musique concrète is a form of electroacoustic music that utilises acousmatic sound as a compositional resource. The compositional material is not restricted to the inclusion of sounds derived from musical instruments or voices, nor to elements traditionally thought of as "musical"...
, art rock
Art rock
Art rock is a subgenre of rock music that originated in the United Kingdom in the 1960s, with influences from art, avant-garde, and classical music. The first usage of the term, according to Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, was in 1968. Influenced by the work of The Beatles, most notably their Sgt...
and Santana
Carlos Santana
Carlos Augusto Alves Santana is a Mexican rock guitarist. Santana became famous in the late 1960s and early 1970s with his band, Santana, which pioneered rock, salsa and jazz fusion...
-inspired jazz fusion
Jazz fusion
Jazz fusion is a musical fusion genre that developed from mixing funk and R&B rhythms and the amplification and electronic effects of rock, complex time signatures derived from non-Western music and extended, typically instrumental compositions with a jazz approach to lengthy group improvisations,...
. Initially a side project of Santana's drummer Michael Shrieve
Michael Shrieve
Michael Shrieve is an American drummer, percussionist, and later, an electronic music composer. He is best known as the drummer in Carlos Santana's eponymous band, playing on their first eight albums from 1969 through 1974...
, Automatic Man brought together well respected musicians of diverse backgrounds within the rock, funk and jazz communities of the mid-1970s.
Despite a well reviewed 1976 eponymous début on Island Records
Island Records
Island Records is a record label that was founded by Chris Blackwell in Jamaica. It was based in the United Kingdom for many years and is now owned by Universal Music Group...
and a lone charting single, 1977's "My Pearl", which reached #97 on the Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
., the line-up of Automatic Man was not cohesive. After a second album entitled Visitors, they disbanded in 1978, retaining a small but very loyal, global cult following.
With both releases being reissued on CD in 2004 after twenty eight years of only being available in vinyl format and with the advent of the internet, Automatic Man are being rediscovered and roundly praised for their genre defying, boundary breaking musical sound and unique lyrics.
Formation
Automatic Man formed in San Francisco around 1975 when drummer Michael ShrieveMichael Shrieve
Michael Shrieve is an American drummer, percussionist, and later, an electronic music composer. He is best known as the drummer in Carlos Santana's eponymous band, playing on their first eight albums from 1969 through 1974...
decided to quit Santana
Santana (band)
Santana is a rock band based around guitarist Carlos Santana and founded in the late 1960s. It first came to public attention after their performing the song "Soul Sacrifice" at the Woodstock Festival in 1969, when their Latin rock provided a contrast to other acts on the bill...
to explore other musical avenues. That led him to work with ex-Traffic/Spencer Davis group singer/keyboardist Steve Winwood
Steve Winwood
Stephen Lawrence "Steve" Winwood is an English international recording artist whose career spans nearly 50 years. He is a songwriter and a musician whose genres include soul music , R&B, rock, blues-rock, pop-rock, and jazz...
, percussionist Stomu Yamashta
Stomu Yamashta
Stomu Yamashta Stomu Yamashta Stomu Yamashta (born is a Japanese percussionist, keyboardist and composer. He is sometimes credited as Stomu Yamash'ta. His father was the band director Kiyoharu Yamashita (1907–1991)....
, and synthesizer player Klaus Schulze
Klaus Schulze
Klaus Schulze is a German electronic music composer and musician. He also used the alias Richard Wahnfried. He was briefly a member of the electronic bands Tangerine Dream and Ash Ra Tempel before launching a solo career consisting of more than 60 albums released across five decades.-1970s:In...
on the Go
Go (Go album)
Go is the first album by Stomu Yamashta's fusion supergroup Go.- Personnel :*Stomu Yamashta - percussion and keyboards*Steve Winwood - vocals and keyboards *Klaus Schulze - synthesizers*Michele' D'Adamo - guitar*Al Di Meola - lead guitar...
album, an album of experimental progressive rock that had been released by Island Records a year later. It was at those sessions guitarist Pat Thrall
Pat Thrall
Pat Thrall is an American rock guitarist. Thrall is a native of the San Francisco area, and began his recording career in 1972. He played guiatar,vocals and percussion with the group Cookin Mama album: new day , that also had this brother Preston Thrall on percussion.Thrall has worked with former...
met Shreive, and the two decided to work together. Lou CasaBianca, who had originally managed Eddie Money
Eddie Money
Eddie Money is an American rock guitarist, saxophonist and singer-songwriter who found success in the 1970s and 1980s with a string of Top 40 hits and platinum albums...
and who had also been a recording session engineer on GO, became their manager and producer.
Next to join Automatic Man was 25-year-old keyboard player and singer, Todd Cochran
Todd Cochran
Todd Cochran, later Bayete and Umbra Zindiko is a prolific American pianist, keyboard and synthesizer player. He released two albums on Prestige Records in 1972 and 1973....
, then known under the alias of "Bayete" . Cochran was a child prodigy
Child prodigy
A child prodigy is someone who, at an early age, masters one or more skills far beyond his or her level of maturity. One criterion for classifying prodigies is: a prodigy is a child, typically younger than 18 years old, who is performing at the level of a highly trained adult in a very demanding...
and formally trained keyboard player attending the Trinity College of Music
Trinity College of Music
Trinity College of Music is one of the London music conservatories, based in Greenwich. It is part of Trinity Laban.The conservatoire is inheritor of elegant riverside buildings of the former Greenwich Hospital, designed in part by Sir Christopher Wren...
in England as a teen. Cochran had also been part of the jazz scene for nearly a decade, playing with renowned jazz artist Julian Priester
Julian Priester
Julian Priester is an American jazz trombonist and composer.He has played with many artists including Sun Ra, Max Roach, Duke Ellington, John Coltrane and Herbie Hancock.-Biography:...
. He also released two jazz-funk solo albums on Prestige Records
Prestige Records
Prestige Records was a jazz record label founded in 1949 by Bob Weinstock. The company was located at 203 South Washington Avenue in Bergenfield, New Jersey, and recorded hundreds of albums by many of the leading jazz musicians of the day, sometimes issuing them under the names of several...
in 1972 and 1973. Completing the lineup was bass guitarist Doni Harvey, who performed around the SF/Bay Area with his brothers and in blues, jazz, and soul bands, playing both bass and guitar. According to Harvey's brother, Regi Harvey, Doni joined the band sheerly by chance,
"During the break we heard a band practising in the big space. We went in to see who it was. It turned out to be "Automatic Man". That night the bass man wasn't working out and stomped out of the room.They spotted Don and asked him to sit in and to finish rehearsing. He stepped up to the plate that night. When they stopped for a break we went back in the small space we were practising in to finish. During that time they asked him to join the band. One of the reasons was that he played so well that they were that impressed. The other was that Doni and I had gone to Junior College with the keyboard and main writer "Bayete" at the newly opened "Skyline College. Lou CasaBianca the manager noticed the camaraderie and jumped on it ."
The final line up played around the Bay Area building up a fan base performing many high profile gigs including the Cow Palace
Cow Palace
Cow Palace is an indoor arena, in Daly City, California, situated on the city's border with neighboring San Francisco, notable as a sporting arena.-History:...
with Poco
Poco
Poco is an Southern California country rock band originally formed by Richie Furay and Jim Messina following the demise of Buffalo Springfield in 1968. The title of their first album, Pickin' Up the Pieces, is a reference to the break-up of Buffalo Springfield. Highly influential and creative,...
, and Rush
Rush (band)
Rush is a Canadian rock band formed in August 1968, in the Willowdale neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario. The band is composed of bassist, keyboardist, and lead vocalist Geddy Lee, guitarist Alex Lifeson, and drummer and lyricist Neil Peart...
. Impressing Chris Blackwell
Chris Blackwell
Christopher Percy Gordon "Chris" Blackwell is a British record producer and businessman, who was the founder of Island Records, acknowledged as the most successful and groundbreaking independent record company in history. Blackwell has been a music industry mogul for over fifty years...
, president of Island Records, he signed the band to a two record deal.
Debut album
Rather than continue to build on their burgeoning following in the San Francisco/Bay Area, Automatic Man headed for London under the direction of producer and manager Lou CasaBianca. Automatic Man made Chelsea's King's RoadKing's Road
King's Road is a street in Chelsea, London, England.King's Road or Kings Road may also refer to:* King's Road * King's Road * King's Road * King's Road...
in London their base of operations recording at Olympic Studios
Olympic Studios
Olympic Studios was a renowned independent commercial recording studio located at 117 Church Road, Barnes, South West London, England. The studio is best known for the huge number of famous rock and pop recordings made there from the late 1960s onward....
in Barnes with renowned recording engineer Keith Harwood
Keith Harwood
Keith Harwood was a recording engineer, most notable for his work at Olympic Studios with such musicians as David Bowie: , the Pretty Things and Ron Wood. Harwood collaborated on engineering the Rolling Stones albums It's Only Rock 'n' Roll and Black and Blue with brothers Andy and Glyn Johns,...
. The self titled debut album contains a mix of progressive space-rock and jazz fusion, with hard guitars and layered synthesizers. Allusions to space travel, Atlantis
Atlantis
Atlantis is a legendary island first mentioned in Plato's dialogues Timaeus and Critias, written about 360 BC....
, astral projection
Astral projection
Astral projection is an interpretation of out-of-body experience that assumes the existence of an "astral body" separate from the physical body and capable of traveling outside it...
, karma
Karma
Karma in Indian religions is the concept of "action" or "deed", understood as that which causes the entire cycle of cause and effect originating in ancient India and treated in Hindu, Jain, Buddhist and Sikh philosophies....
, angels, aliens, belly dancers and other mystical and exotic subjects are covered on nearly every album track. Cochran wrote the tracks "Atlantis Rising-Fanfare", "Coming Through", "One and One", "Newspapers", "Geni-Geni" and Turning of the Axis [Theme from Atlantis Rising]". He shares co-writing credits with CasaBianca on "Automatic Man", "Interstellar Tracking Devices" and "Right Back Down." The entire band and CasaBianca share writing credits on "There's A Way." Steve Winwood
Steve Winwood
Stephen Lawrence "Steve" Winwood is an English international recording artist whose career spans nearly 50 years. He is a songwriter and a musician whose genres include soul music , R&B, rock, blues-rock, pop-rock, and jazz...
who worked with Thrall, Shrieve and CasaBianca on GO, is rumoured to have contributed an uncredited keyboard and vocal appearance on the title track.
Personnel on Automatic Man
- Pat ThrallPat ThrallPat Thrall is an American rock guitarist. Thrall is a native of the San Francisco area, and began his recording career in 1972. He played guiatar,vocals and percussion with the group Cookin Mama album: new day , that also had this brother Preston Thrall on percussion.Thrall has worked with former...
- Guitar, vocals - Todd CochranTodd CochranTodd Cochran, later Bayete and Umbra Zindiko is a prolific American pianist, keyboard and synthesizer player. He released two albums on Prestige Records in 1972 and 1973....
- Keyboards, vocals - Doni Harvey - Bass guitar, vocals
- Michael Shrieve - Drums
Produced by Lou CasaBianca and Automatic Man
Mixed by Keith Harwood and Chris Kimsey
Track listing
All songs written and composed by Todd CochranTodd Cochran
Todd Cochran, later Bayete and Umbra Zindiko is a prolific American pianist, keyboard and synthesizer player. He released two albums on Prestige Records in 1972 and 1973....
as "Bayete" , except where noted.
Side one
- "Atlantis Rising-Fanfare" – 5:07
- "My Pearl" – 3:34 (Automatic Man)
- "One and One" – 5:57
- "Newspapers" – 3:57
- "Geni Geni" – 5:32
Side two
- "Right Back Down" – 5:55 (Bayete/CasaBianca)
- "I.T.D. (Interstellar Tracking Devices)" – 5:14 (Bayete/CasaBianca)
- "There's a Way" - 5:14 (Automatic Man/CasaBianca)
- "Automatic Man" – 3:55 (Bayete/CasaBianca)
- "Atlantis Rising Theme (Turning of the Axis)" – 3:16
(My Pearl was released with the B-side song titled "Wallflower")
Album art
Painted by Bay Area artist Dwain Zerio (1950–1995), both front covers of each Automatic Man album feature a simple luminously-painted blue alienlikeExtraterrestrial life
Extraterrestrial life is defined as life that does not originate from Earth...
face staring out from space. This 'alien' face was meant to be representative of a human without a body, with just the spiritual energy or 'aura' providing the visual shape. The debut album is blue on blue, while the follow-up Visitors features the blue face on a shocking pink
Shocking Pink
Shocking Pink is the eighth cartoon produced in the Pink Panther series. A total of 124 6-minute cartoons were produced between 1964 and 1980.-Plot:...
and magenta background. The inside liner art of the first album includes the blue face with Egyptian wings, floating above a pyramid, rising Atlantis-like out of a raging ocean with a maelstrom in the background. The artwork for the "My Pearl" single featured a woman's face suspended over a misty crevasse crowned with wings and a self-consuming serpentine rainbow.
The art work for both Automatic Man LP covers was entirely original, and one of the first times (possibly THE first) that an alien face had been depicted in a mass market medium; it bears more than a passing resemblance to the alien face which would be seen on countless bumperstickers and decals from the early 1990s onward. Former band manager and producer, Lou CasaBianca, reputedly still owns the original paintings of the Dwain Zerio album art which he designed and had commissioned for the band's debut album.
Original lineup dissolves
After their album debut, Automatic Man promoted the disc with appearances at a number of European music festivals including the prestigious Montreux Jazz FestivalMontreux Jazz Festival
The Montreux Jazz Festival is the best-known music festival in Switzerland and one of the most prestigious in Europe; it is held annually in early July in Montreux on the shores of Lake Geneva...
in Switzerland. According to a later interview with Thrall, the band had trouble pulling off their material live. Part of the problem was that Bayete's multi-keyboard style was very difficult to resolve given the Public Address
Public address
A public address system is an electronic amplification system with a mixer, amplifier and loudspeakers, used to reinforce a sound source, e.g., a person giving a speech, a DJ playing prerecorded music, and distributing the sound throughout a venue or building.Simple PA systems are often used in...
technology of the era. Shrieve too would also recall that the band had not had enough chances to play live.
The band was also feted by fellow artists and luminaries of the day including the Rolling Stones and Hunter S Thompson who wrote a concert review. Though they would make a few more live appearances in their original Bay Area stomping grounds, infighting, clashes over music and disagreements over how the bands finances were being directed (living and recording in London during very high inflation, air travel and the meticulously detailed album art, while prestigious, had proved to be exorbitantly expensive) this led to Automatic Man's first line-up dissolving after returning to the United States in 1977.
Visitors
The second Automatic Man album was entitled "Visitors" and released in 1977 with a stronger funk and less art rock sound than the first LP. No longer being produced by Lou CasaBianca who receives an album design credit, Bayeté solely wrote each track. Guitarist Pat Thrall was still a member but Shrieve and Harvey were now replaced by bassist Jerome Rimson (also from the "Go" project) and drummer Glenn Symmonds. Originally from Detroit, Rimson played bass on the track "Man from Manhattan" which features on the album Ghost Of A Smile with a pre-Queen Freddie MercuryFreddie Mercury
Freddie Mercury was a British musician, singer and songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist of the rock band Queen. As a performer, he was known for his flamboyant stage persona and powerful vocals over a four-octave range...
on piano and vocals, and Brian May
Brian May
Brian Harold May, CBE is an English musician and astrophysicist most widely known as the guitarist and a songwriter of the rock band Queen...
on Guitar. From 1974 he had been musical director for Van Morrison
Van Morrison
Van Morrison, OBE is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and musician. His live performances at their best are regarded as transcendental and inspired; while some of his recordings, such as the studio albums Astral Weeks and Moondance, and the live album It's Too Late to Stop Now, are widely...
, playing on several tours and in 1976, he played on the Al Jarreau
Al Jarreau
Alwin "Al" Lopez Jarreau is a seven-time Grammy Award winning jazz singer.- Background :Jarreau was born in Milwaukee, the fifth of six children. His web site refers to Reservoir, Inc., the name of the street where he lived. His father was a Seventh-Day Adventist Church minister and singer, and...
's Grammy winning jazz album "Glow". Glenn Symmonds had been Eddie Money
Eddie Money
Eddie Money is an American rock guitarist, saxophonist and singer-songwriter who found success in the 1970s and 1980s with a string of Top 40 hits and platinum albums...
's drummer since 1974, departing to record and tour with ex-Santana percussionist Coke Escovedo
Coke Escovedo
Coke Escovedo was an American percussionist born April 30, 1941 in Los Angeles, California. Coke Escovedo first rose to prominence in 1969 as a member of Santana. Coke would be a featured on Santana's) Santana III album. In early 1972 Coke formed Azteca along with his brother Pete Escovedo...
.
Personnel on Visitors
- Pat ThrallPat ThrallPat Thrall is an American rock guitarist. Thrall is a native of the San Francisco area, and began his recording career in 1972. He played guiatar,vocals and percussion with the group Cookin Mama album: new day , that also had this brother Preston Thrall on percussion.Thrall has worked with former...
- Guitar, vocals - Todd CochraneTodd CochraneTodd Cochrane is a technology writer and commentator. Mr. Cochrane is the CEO of RawVoice Inc. which includes several podcast networks. Blubrry, Tech Podcast Network, Podcaster News and PodcastFAQ.com....
- Keyboards, vocals - Glenn Symmonds- Drums
- Jerome Rimson - Bass
Produced by Michael Lloyd
Lionel Conway- executive producer
Bruce Robb- engineer
Lou CasaBianca/Glyphics - art direction & album design
Track listing
All songs written and composed by Todd CochranTodd Cochran
Todd Cochran, later Bayete and Umbra Zindiko is a prolific American pianist, keyboard and synthesizer player. He released two albums on Prestige Records in 1972 and 1973....
as "Bayete".
Side one
- "Give it to me" - 3:49
- "Live Wire" - 4:45
- "So You Wanna Be Me" – 4:00
- "Y-2-Me" – 4:18
Side two
- "Visitors" – 3:50
- "Here I Am Now" – 5:14
- "There's a Way" -4:26
- "Daughter of Neptune" – 4:13
- "What's Done" – 6:22
Critical reception to Visitors
Fans of the band did not receive the second album as warmly. Music reviewer Doug Watson's description is that Visitors is "just a mediocre shot at mesh funk-rock, although arguably ahead of its time in predicting the ghastly and overblown rock guitar productions of the 80s." However, the record collector's website Progrography declared,"...Visitors isn’t a concept album. It’s also not the commercial sellout that some have mistakenly branded it. Like the music of Santana, Automatic Man was on a quasi-mystical quest that relied on the conventional language of funk/rock but also rode beyond those borders in pursuit of a grander statement. It’s probably on that last point that prog fans have hung their hat, but Visitors is not a progressive rock album. Bayete’s bid to be a rock star ended with the Automatic Man albums, leaving behind two impressive albums that bespeak the transitional phase between jazz, disco and ambitious (if not progressive) rock as well as any records from the period."
Band breakup
Partially due to no longer having the name recognition of Shrieve, the album failed to make waves in the music press and Automatic Man permanently disbanded in 1978.Afterward
All four members of the original Automatic Man line up became prolific and well respected solo and session musicians with Shrieve and Cochran emerging as sought after composers and arrangers. Lou CasaBianca, the band's producer/collaborator for the first disc, moved into video production and media technology writing. Glenn Symmonds and Jerome Rimson, drummer and bassist on Visitors respectively, continued on in the music industry to steady work and success as well, with Rimson writing an autobiography. There has, to date, been no talk of a possible Automatic Man reunion.Michael Shrieve
After leaving Automatic Man, Shrieve continued to be one of the most sought after drummers in the music world. His credits number well into the hundreds and include work on Pete TownshendPete Townshend
Peter Dennis Blandford "Pete" Townshend is an English rock guitarist, vocalist, songwriter and author, known principally as the guitarist and songwriter for the rock group The Who, as well as for his own solo career...
's 1981 disc, "All the Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes
All the Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes
All the Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes is the third official solo album by English rock musician and songwriter Pete Townshend. It was produced by Chris Thomas and recorded by Bill Price at Eel Pie, A.I.R. and Wessex studios in London...
" and for artists Mick Jagger
Mick Jagger
Sir Michael Philip "Mick" Jagger is an English musician, singer and songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist and a founding member of The Rolling Stones....
, The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...
, George Harrison
George Harrison
George Harrison, MBE was an English musician, guitarist, singer-songwriter, actor and film producer who achieved international fame as lead guitarist of The Beatles. Often referred to as "the quiet Beatle", Harrison became over time an admirer of Indian mysticism, and introduced it to the other...
, Steve Winwood
Steve Winwood
Stephen Lawrence "Steve" Winwood is an English international recording artist whose career spans nearly 50 years. He is a songwriter and a musician whose genres include soul music , R&B, rock, blues-rock, pop-rock, and jazz...
, Police guitarist Andy Summers
Andy Summers
Andy Summers is an English guitarist born in Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire, England. Best known as the guitarist for rock band The Police, he has also recorded twelve solo albums, collaborated with many other artists, toured extensively under his own name, published several books, and composed...
, film composer Mark Isham
Mark Isham
Mark Isham is an American trumpeter, synthesist, and film composer. He works in a variety of genres, including jazz, electronic, and film.-Life and career:...
, Freddie Hubbard
Freddie Hubbard
Frederick Dewayne "Freddie" Hubbard was an American jazz trumpeter. He was known primarily for playing in the bebop, hard bop and post bop styles from the early 1960s and on...
, Jaco Pastorius
Jaco Pastorius
John Francis Anthony Pastorius III , known as Jaco Pastorius, was an American jazz musician and composer widely acknowledged as a virtuoso electric bass player....
, Wayne Horvitz
Wayne Horvitz
Wayne Horvitz is an American composer, keyboardist and record producer.-Biography:Horvitz, a "defiant cross-breeder of genres", has led the groups The President, Pigpen, Zony Mash, and the Four Plus One Ensemble...
, Bill Frisell
Bill Frisell
William Richard "Bill" Frisell is an American guitarist and composer.One of the leading guitarists in jazz since the late 1980s, Frisell's eclectic music touches on progressive folk, classical music, country music, noise and more...
, Zakir Hussain
Zakir Hussain (musician)
Zakir Hussain , , is an Indian tabla player, musical producer, film actor and composer.-Early life:Hussain was born in Mumbai, India to the legendary tabla player Alla Rakha. He attended St...
, Airto Moreira
Airto Moreira
Airto Moreira is a Brazilian jazz drummer and percussionist. Airto is married to jazz singer Flora Purim, and their daughter Diana Moreira is also a singer. He currently resides in Los Angeles.-Biography:...
and Amon Tobin
Amon Tobin
Amon Adonai Santos de Araújo Tobin , known as Amon Tobin, is a Brazilian musician, composer and producer of electronic music. He is described as a virtuoso sound designer and is considered to be one of the most influential electronic music artists in the world...
. Michael Shrieve also composes music for film and television, working with Paul Mazursky
Paul Mazursky
Paul Mazursky is an American film director, screenwriter and actor.-Personal life:He was born Irwin Mazursky in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Jean , a piano player for dance classes, and David Mazursky, a laborer. Mazursky was born to a Jewish family; his grandfather was an immigrant from...
on the film, Tempest
Tempest (1982 film)
Tempest is an American comedy-drama film directed by Paul Mazursky. It is a very loose adaptation of the William Shakespeare play, The Tempest....
and scored music for Curtis Hanson
Curtis Hanson
Curtis Lee Hanson is an American film director, film producer and screenwriter. His directing work includes The Hand That Rocks the Cradle , L.A...
’s The Bedroom Window. In the early 1980s, his power pop quartet, Novo Combo
Novo Combo
Novo Combo was a power pop and New Wave rock group who enjoyed some popularity in the early 1980s. The initial lineup was Pete Hewlett, Stephen Dees, Jack Griffith and drummer Michael Shrieve, formerly with Santana. Carlos Rios replaced Jack Griffith on the band's second album...
scored minor hits with the songs "Up Periscope" and "City Bound."
Shrieve is also the past President of the Pacific Northwest Branch of the National Association of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS), and is currently writing the memoirs of jazz drumming legend Elvin Jones
Elvin Jones
Elvin Ray Jones was a jazz drummer of the post-bop era. He showed interest in drums at a young age, watching the circus bands march by his family's home in Pontiac, Michigan....
. He also serves as Musical Director for Seattle Theatre Group’s "More Music at The Moore," a program that highlights gifted young musicians from Seattle’s various cultural groups. In 1998, Shrieve was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is a museum located on the shore of Lake Erie in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It is dedicated to archiving the history of some of the best-known and most influential artists, producers, engineers and others who have, in some major way,...
with Santana
Santana (band)
Santana is a rock band based around guitarist Carlos Santana and founded in the late 1960s. It first came to public attention after their performing the song "Soul Sacrifice" at the Woodstock Festival in 1969, when their Latin rock provided a contrast to other acts on the bill...
. He also received the Guitar Center’s first annual "Lifetime Achievement Award" in 2005.
Todd Cochran
Todd Cochran's career continued to see many radical musical shifts in direction as he wrote, produced, performed keyboards, guitar and/or synthesizer programming for a widely diverse number of artists including Aretha FranklinAretha Franklin
Aretha Louise Franklin is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Although known for her soul recordings and referred to as The Queen of Soul, Franklin is also adept at jazz, blues, R&B, gospel music, and rock. Rolling Stone magazine ranked her atop its list of The Greatest Singers of All...
, Teena Marie
Teena Marie
Mary Christine Brockert, better known by her stage name Teena Marie, was an American singer, songwriter and producer...
, Maynard Ferguson
Maynard Ferguson
Maynard Ferguson was a Canadian jazz musician and bandleader. He came to prominence playing in Stan Kenton's orchestra, before forming his own band in 1957...
, Juan Carlos Quintero
Juan Carlos Quintero
Juan Carlos Quintero Pérez is a Colombian football midfielder, who currently plays for Atlético Huila in the Copa Mustang.Quintero played for Colombia at the 1993 FIFA World Youth Championship in Australia....
, Stewart Copeland
Stewart Copeland
Stewart Armstrong Copeland is an American musician, best known as the drummer for the band The Police. During the group's extended hiatus from the mid-1980s to 2007, he played in other bands and composed soundtracks...
, Peter Gabriel
Peter Gabriel
Peter Brian Gabriel is an English singer, musician, and songwriter who rose to fame as the lead vocalist and flautist of the progressive rock group Genesis. After leaving Genesis, Gabriel went on to a successful solo career...
and Grover Washington Jr in genres that included funk
Funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...
, new age
New Age
The New Age movement is a Western spiritual movement that developed in the second half of the 20th century. Its central precepts have been described as "drawing on both Eastern and Western spiritual and metaphysical traditions and then infusing them with influences from self-help and motivational...
, jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
disco
Disco
Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...
and combinations thereof. He was a member of Fuse One
Fuse One
Fuse One were a group of Jazz musicians who collaborated for two albums released on CTI Records and one album released on GNP Crescendo Record Co..The albums Fuse One and Silk were produced by Creed Taylor...
, a coalition of jazz musicians who released two album on CTI Records
CTI Records
CTI Records was a jazz record label founded in 1967 by producer/A&R manager Creed Taylor. Initially, CTI was a subsidiary of A&M Records, but the label went independent in 1970...
in 1980 and 1981. Since 2000, Cochran has been primarily establishing himself as a film composer, as well as re-engaging with classical composition which he had explored at the start of his musical career. His first full soundtrack was for Doug McHenry's TV movie "Keep the Faith, Baby" from 2002, a portrait of the black senator Adam Clayton Powell. In 2004 he composed the music for the critically acclaimed, "Woman Thou Art Loosed
Woman Thou Art Loosed
Woman Thou Art Loosed is a 2004 film directed by Michael Schultz and written by Stan Foster. It was produced by Stan Foster and Reuben Cannon. It is the 44th film or series directed by Schultz and is adopted from the self-help novel by Bishop T.D. Jakes. The film tells the story of a young woman...
", an adaptation of Bishop T.D. Jakes' self-help novel, it won the Best Film Award at the "American Black Film Festival
American Black Film Festival
The American Black Film Festival is an independent film festival that focuses primarily on works by Black members of the film industry. It has been called “the nation’s most prominent film festival.” The festival is held annually and features full-length narratives, short films, mobile...
".
In 2006, Robert L. Watt, Assistant Principal French horn with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, commissioned Todd Cochran to write a musical composition in memory of Miles Davis
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...
. This resulted in a piece called "Missing Miles" – a suite for horn and piano. Film director Kim Bass made a thirteen minute film, also called "Missing Miles", which chronicled the creation of the composition and a performance of the work. In the Feb 2007 issue of "Film Music Magazine" called "Ebony and Ivory: The Door Only Swings One Way", focused on how black composers often only get offered "black" films. In the article, Todd referenced the limitations placed on black composers by the entertainment world,
"two people can go through the same training – the same schools – and reach the same level of ability, and as soon as they step out of the schools, (and come to Hollywood) one is a black composer, and the other is just a composer ... unfortunately the need for African American film composers to deconstruct the existing stereotypes of musical aesthetic limitations persists."
Pat Thrall
Thrall went on to work in the fusion field with musicians including Narada Michael WaldenNarada Michael Walden
Narada Michael Walden is an American producer, drummer, singer, and songwriter. He was given the name Narada by guru Sri Chinmoy in the early 1970s and his musical career spans three decades, in which he was awarded several gold, platinum and multi-platinum awards...
and Alphonso Johnson
Alphonso Johnson
Alphonso Johnson is an American jazz bassist who has been influential since the early 1970s.-Biography:Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Johnson started off as an upright bass player, but switched to the electric bass in his late teens. Beginning his career in the early 1970s, Johnson showed...
. In 1978, Thrall was chosen from seventy auditioning guitarists for the co-lead spot with Pat Travers
Pat Travers
Patrick Henry "Pat" Travers is a Canadian rock guitarist, keyboardist and singer who began his recording career with Polydor Records in the mid-1970s...
. He recorded on three LPs with Travers: Heat In The Street, Go For What You Know and Crash and Burn. The latter LP featured the FM hit, "Snortin' Whiskey
Snortin' Whiskey
Snortin' Whiskey is a blues-rock song written by Pat Travers and Pat Thrall. It was originally recorded by the Pat Travers Band, and released on the album Crash And Burn in 1980 on the Polydor label and also as US single the same year...
", which Thrall co-wrote with Travers. Thrall later joined Asia
Asia (band)
Asia are an English rock group formed in 1981. The band was labelled a supergroup as it included former members of several veteran progressive rock bands, namely John Wetton , Geoff Downes , Steve Howe and Carl Palmer Asia are an English rock group formed in 1981. The band was labelled a...
, and played lead guitar for a resurgent Meat Loaf
Meat Loaf
Michael Lee Aday , better known by his stage name, Meat Loaf, is an American hard rock musician and actor...
during the 1990s. He has also recorded with Beyoncé
Beyoncé Knowles
Beyoncé Giselle Knowles , often known simply as Beyoncé, is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress. Born and raised in Houston, Texas, she enrolled in various performing arts schools and was first exposed to singing and dancing competitions as a child...
, Elton John
Elton John
Sir Elton Hercules John, CBE, Hon DMus is an English rock singer-songwriter, composer, pianist and occasional actor...
, Tina Turner
Tina Turner
Tina Turner is an American singer and actress whose career has spanned more than 50 years. She has won numerous awards and her achievements in the rock music genre have led many to call her the "Queen of Rock 'n' Roll".Turner started out her music career with husband Ike Turner as a member of the...
, and Dave Stewart
David A. Stewart
David Allan Stewart , often known as Dave Stewart, is an English musician, songwriter and record producer, best known for his work with Eurythmics. He is usually credited as David A. Stewart, to avoid confusion with other musicians named "Dave Stewart".-Early life:Stewart was born in Sunderland,...
, to name a few. Thrall has also lent his talent and support behind causes such as Nelson Mandela
Nelson Mandela
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999, and was the first South African president to be elected in a fully representative democratic election. Before his presidency, Mandela was an anti-apartheid activist, and the leader of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing...
's foundation to fight AIDS in Africa.
Thrall's most acclaimed work, post-Travers, is undoubtedly the 'Hughes/Thrall' album from 1982, featuring Glenn Hughes on vocals and bass. A fusion of rock/synth/metal/pop, it is now considered a 'musician's favorite', going virtually unnoticed by the public at the time. Thrall was clearly influenced by the chording/effects guitar style of Andy Summers
Andy Summers
Andy Summers is an English guitarist born in Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire, England. Best known as the guitarist for rock band The Police, he has also recorded twelve solo albums, collaborated with many other artists, toured extensively under his own name, published several books, and composed...
of The Police
The Police
The Police were an English rock band formed in London in 1977. For the vast majority of their history, the band consisted of Sting , Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland...
, and one track even features drums very much in the style of Stewart Copeland
Stewart Copeland
Stewart Armstrong Copeland is an American musician, best known as the drummer for the band The Police. During the group's extended hiatus from the mid-1980s to 2007, he played in other bands and composed soundtracks...
. Hughes and Thrall worked together on and off for the next 15 years, and planned on releasing 'Hughes/Thrall 2' in 1997, but Thrall's full time work as a producer for other artists, and his desire to produce the album himself, constantly delayed any progress and in 2009, Hughes finally gave up on working on its release.
Doni Harvey
Harvey went on to do session and live gigs in many different arenas both in Northern California and internationally, including playing on the film soundtrack of The Spy Who Loved MeThe Spy Who Loved Me (soundtrack)
The Spy Who Loved Me is the soundtrack for the 10th James Bond film of the same name.The theme song "Nobody Does It Better" was composed by Marvin Hamlisch with lyrics by Carole Bayer Sager and was performed by Carly Simon...
and in his own power trio, HARVEY. His credits include backing Clarence Clemons
Clarence Clemons
Clarence Anicholas Clemons, Jr. , also known as The Big Man, was an American musician and actor. From 1972 until his death, he was a prominent member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, playing the tenor saxophone. He released several solo albums and in 1985, had a hit single with "You're a...
and replacing Allan Holdsworth
Allan Holdsworth
Allan Holdsworth is an English guitarist and composer. He has released twelve studio albums as a solo artist and played many different styles of music over a period of four decades, but first drew attention for his work in jazz fusion...
as the guitarist in Gong
Gong (band)
Gong is a Franco-British progressive/psychedelic rock band formed by Australian musician Daevid Allen. Their music has also been described as space rock. Other notable band members include Allan Holdsworth, Tim Blake, Didier Malherbe, Pip Pyle, Gilli Smyth, Steve Hillage, Francis Moze, Mike Howlett...
for a spell. In 1988, he joined the San Francisco based World Music
World music
World music is a term with widely varying definitions, often encompassing music which is primarily identified as another genre. This is evidenced by world music definitions such as "all of the music in the world" or "somebody else's local music"...
band, The Caribbean Allstars, as guitarist and backing vocalist. Harvey has been playing with the Caribbean Allstars for over two decades. He currently helms the group, "Doni Harvey and Deeper Shade of Blue" and together with fellow musicians Isis and Andy Jonson, formed The Unemployed Blues Band. Doni also became a permanent member of his brother's band Regi Harvey's Example, who died April, 25th, 2010. Doni died on June 1st. 2011.
Jerome Rimson
Rimson continued working steadily with Van Morrison until 1984 and still works with him intermittently. He played bass on The Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band soundtrack for the notorious Bee GeesBee Gees
The Bee Gees are a musical group that originally comprised three brothers: Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb. The trio was successful for most of their 40-plus years of recording music, but they had two distinct periods of exceptional success: as a pop act in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and as a...
movie. He also collaborated extensively with Thin Lizzy
Thin Lizzy
Thin Lizzy are an Irish hard rock band formed in Dublin in 1969. Two of the founding members, drummer Brian Downey and bass guitarist/vocalist Phil Lynott met while still in school. Lynott assumed the role of frontman and led them throughout their recording career of thirteen studio albums...
's Phil Lynott
Phil Lynott
Philip Parris "Phil" Lynott was an Irish musician who first came to prominence as a founding member, principal songwriter, and frontman of the Irish rock band Thin Lizzy....
and together they produced the first independent single ever released by a Dublin based band called Blue Russia, released on Vixen Records in Ireland in 1983. Rimson has played or sang on albums for Steve Winwood, Donovan
Donovan
Donovan Donovan Donovan (born Donovan Philips Leitch (born 10 May 1946) is a Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist. Emerging from the British folk scene, he developed an eclectic and distinctive style that blended folk, jazz, pop, psychedelia, and world music...
, Topper Headon
Topper Headon
Headon was extensively interviewed for the Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten documentary film about the late Clash frontman. He related his experiences during this period, how he became addicted to heroin and how there were problems before his dismissal...
formerly of The Clash
The Clash
The Clash were an English punk rock band that formed in 1976 as part of the original wave of British punk. Along with punk, their music incorporated elements of reggae, ska, dub, funk, rap, dance, and rockabilly...
, Ron Roesing the drummer of the Smashing Pumpkins and many others. He now lives in Dublin, Ireland teaching master classes on music production and theory. He has finished his autobiography, "Renegade" which he describes as his life experiences in "the biz" and the countless people he has met on his journey including "...Phil Lynott's last years, from rock n roll on the road to his life now in Ireland."
Glenn Symmonds
From his base in L.A. Symmonds continued to tour and record with many diverse musical groups including Steve PerrySteve Perry (musician)
Stephen Ray "Steve" Perry is an American singer and songwriter best known as the lead vocalist of the rock band Journey from 1977–1987 and 1995–1998. Perry had a successful solo career throughout the late 1980s and early '90s.Perry's voice has garnered acclaim from musical peers and music...
, John Klemmer
John Klemmer
John Klemmer is an American saxophonist, composer, song writer and arranger.He was born in Chicago, Illinois and began playing guitar at age 5 and alto saxophone at age 11. His other early interests included graphics and visual art, writing, dance, puppetry, painting, sculpting and poetry...
, Elvin Bishop
Elvin Bishop
Elvin Bishop is an American blues and rock and roll musician and guitarist.-Career:Bishop was born in Glendale, California, and grew up on a farm near Elliott, Iowa. His family moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma, when he was ten years old...
, Dave Mason
Dave Mason
David Thomas "Dave" Mason is an English singer, songwriter, and guitarist from Worcester, who first found fame with the rock band Traffic...
, Duncan Sheik
Duncan Sheik
Duncan Scott Sheik is an American singer-songwriter and composer. Sheik initially found success as a singer, most notably for his 1996 debut single "Barely Breathing". He later expanded his work to include compositions for motion pictures and the Broadway stage, leading him to involvement in the...
and Etta James
Etta James
Etta James is an American blues, soul, rhythm and blues , rock and roll, gospel and jazz singer. In the 1950s and 1960s, she had her biggest success as a blues and R&B singer...
.
It was in 1986 while touring with The Untouchables he once again joined forces with Eddie Money and has been drumming for him for over two decades. (Interestingly, Lou CasaBianca had been one of Eddie Money's first managers before producing and managing Automatic Man.) Now, based out of Nashville, Glenn Symmonds describe himself as a "...Drummer, guitarist, singer, songwriter, teacher, father."
Remastered CD
In 2004, Cherry Red released, under their UK based Lemon subsidiary, a remastered version of Automatic Man to receptive music collectors. There has been controversy on the internet as to whether the original master tapes were used or not used by Lemon UK in the remastering process. Tom Karr of Progressive World gave the disc a five star rating in his review,"People have a strong desire, an urge, to categorize things, to put them in boxes. To place this with that and make order out of disorder. Music is one of those things we have to make sense of, to understand. How can some obscure band be so important? They are very, very good at what they do. This isn't a progressive rock band is it? Yes, they are, absolutely. If a visionary assemblage of influences and the power of moving music forward, are progressive, and for the purposes of this review, I will say it is, then this is fine progressive rock, indeed. And no, in the sense of Automatic Man fitting into a pre-conceived sub-genre of progressive rock as understood now is concerned, then no, they are not a prog band, but they are much, much more than any label given them could describe. This San Francisco band had strong elements of spacey synthesizer driven progressive. Definitely. They could just as well be described as a hard rocking funk band as well. Both are true. Neither is accurate. No group I can think of so defies categorization as does Automatic Man."
Due to the overwhelming success of Automatic Man's re-release on Compact Disc, Lemon recordings also re-released, Visitors in 2005.
Albums
- Automatic Man (1976, Island Records US Chart Position #75)
- Visitors (1977, Island Records, US Chart Position #109)