Sealed LP: Duke & the Drivers: Cruisin

$

38

Duke & the Drivers

Cruisin

FACTORY SEALED LP

Format: Sealed Album

Country: U.S.A.

Record Company & Release Number: ABC Records: ABCD-911

Original release date: 1975

Bar Code: NONE

Condition of the cover: Mint

Condition of this sealed album: Sealed - Assumed Mint

My inventory number: 209586B

Shipping Weight: 1 pounds, 1 ounces

Notes:

This Sealed Album came from a record store in Allentown, Pennsylvania called "Phantasmagoria" which went out of business in 1978. I purchased most of their unsold inventory several years later when I owned "Music Madness" - a new & used record store in Catasauqua, Pennsylvania.

Since this Sealed Album was part of Phantasmagoria's inventory when they closed in 1978, it cannot be any newer than a 1978 pressing. Being a Sealed Album, I cannot tell specifically what pressing it is prior to 1978. In some cases, hype stickers might help to determine if it is a first pressing, but I cannot be any more specific.

Phantasmagoria used round colored stickers to indicate the price of their inventory. They had a sign on the wall with the color sticker combinations for the customers to use so they knew the price of what they were purchasing. Some of the Sealed Albums still have these stickers on them, and in some rare cases, the stickers are written on. Some of the Sealed Albums have prices on them. This is the price you would have paid for this Sealed Album in 1978 if you had bought it at Phantasmagoria. If this Sealed Album has a price on it, please don't confuse the price with the current value for this Sealed Album.

- - -

• Rock 'N' Roll High
• Composed by:: Dee, Deluxe, Funk, Jack, Mudflapps, Swift
• I Got the Will
• Slow Motion
• Ain't Nothing a Young Girl Can Do for Me
• What You Got
• Dr. Rock and Roll
• Love Bones
• Joey
• Like I Want It
• Too Much Woman for a Henpecked Man

• Mad Mississippi Buffalo: Keyboards, Vocals
• Cadillac Jack: Guitar, Vocals
• Koko Dee: Bass, Vocals
• Sam Deluxe: Guitar, Vocals
• Dr. Feelgood Funk: Drums, Vocals
• Eddie Kramer: Producer
• Rhinestone Mudflaps: Saxophone, Vocals

Album Review for "Cruisin"

Review by Joe Viglione, All Music Guide

The only photo of the band has six faces peering out of a rearview mirror on the back cover. Duke & the Drivers look like the J. Geils Band, and listening to "Ain't Nothing a Young Girl Can Do for Me" with blindfold on will make one swear it is indeed the J. Geils Band. That was part of the charm of this '70s blues-rock act out of Boston. Eddie Kramer's production, especially on the big regional hit "What You Got," is immense. No, it didn't land in the national Top 40, but it should have. The arrangement sounds like Grand Funk Railroad's Top Three hit from December 1974; J.Ellison's "Some Kind of Wonderful" and the thunderous drums from Rhinestone Mudflapps (aka, the late, great Bobby Chouinard) are explosive dance stuff. The song should have catapulted them to fame and "Lovebones" from side two would have been a nice follow-up. The demo to "Lovebones" had a magic of its own and would be a nice bonus track addition to a CD re-release of this first effort. A blues-rock band covering Gamble & Huff, Otis Redding, Don Covay, and Ike Turner in a world that was home to the Cars and Aerosmith was risky stuff indeed, more so because this band walked on sacred ground with tongue planted firmly in cheek. Regardless, "What You Got" is a classic, and the reformed J.Geils Band would do well to consider adding it to their repertoire. The urban legend is that management for the band hired a flatbed truck parked outside of the big Top 40 radio station in Boston asking why they weren't playing "What You Got." It got added into rotation and brightened up the airwaves for awhile. Cruisin' has some fine moments recorded with great care by Eddie Kramer, and is worth searching for.

Duke & the Drivers biography by Joe Viglione

Blueblood young men turned musicians, this aggregation got together sometime in 1973 jamming on obscure rhythm & blues titles for fun and somehow it clicked. The name Duke & the Drivers evolved out of one of their myriad parties where they played for friends and consumed a cocktail called an Orange Driver, grain alcohol vodka and some orange drink. When people asked the name of the band, it was up to the harmonica-playing saxophonist who doubled as comedian, Rhinestone Mudflaps (birth name Ando Hixson), to say "Duke's not here." When people asked where Duke was, they got the standard reply: "Out drinking the orange drivers," and thus the name Duke & the Drivers was born.

Contemporaries of the J. Geils Band with album jackets less ominous than the diesel-drivin' Bachman-Turner Overdrive, it was the original bassist and owner of the Boston-based Jelly Records, Greg Morton, who got them booked at the legendary Western Front outside of Central Square in Cambridge, MA. They went into the club with only 25 minutes of music in their repertoire, extending the tunes into an early version of what would become jam band style, taking an intermission, and going back to perform the same elongated set again. Rhinestone Mudflaps would wear lights on his head, rubber gloves on his hands, and trampoline skates, honing an identity as the comic out front. Other bandmembers included drummer Dr. Feelgood Funk (birth name Danny McGrath), Sam Deluxe on electric and acoustic guitar and vocals, Jo Lilly on electric and slide guitarist and vocals, Cadillac Jack (born Henry Eaton, later to be a newscaster and district attorney), and Mississippi Tom Swift on keyboards and ARP strings.

With success on the club level, the goal shifted to obtaining a major-label recording contract. By December 1973, they were opening for Lou Reed's legendary Rock N Roll Animal band at Boston's Orpheum Theater and generating a buzz. They performed dates with the Leslie West Band as well as Blue Öyster Cult, with ZZ Top opening for Duke & the Drivers on the Blue Öyster Cult show. Personal manager Peter Casperson of Boston's Castle Music Productions signed them to ABC Records in 1973, with their debut album produced and engineered by Eddie Kramer appearing in 1974. That album, Cruisin', featured a minor hit song, "What You Got," and the band started to make some real noise. Prior to the recording, Greg Morton was replaced by bassist Koko Dee, the first of many personnel changes. A second album was recorded, Rollin' On, with percussionist Dr. Feelgood Funk being replaced by the drummer from the band Orphan, the late Bobby Chouinard (dubbed Bobby Blue Sky for his role with Duke), who would go on to work with Billy Squier, Alice Cooper, and many others.

Rollin' On failed to generate another radio hit and the band started feeling the pressure. Shortly after the LP's release in September 1976, the group broke up. With bookings to fulfill through 1977, Tom Swift contacted drummer Mark Hylander, who had opened for Duke & the Drivers with his group the Connection in 1975, both artists being managed at one point or another by the man who orchestrated Aerosmith's comeback, Tim Collins. Ando Hixson left, as did Koko Dee, with Greg Morton coming back to play bass. Vocalist Jo Lilly took a leave of absence and was replaced by his brother George Lilly and a reconstituted band holed up at the legendary Cambridge Music Complex practicing for three to four weeks until their debut at three sold-out shows over the 1977 July 4th weekend at the Frolics Ballroom in Salisbury Beach, MA. In August 1977, they recorded the 45-rpm "Looking for a Fox" b/w "Wonderful Love" at Northern Studios in Maynard, MA. Their summertime tour took them to Cleveland's Agora Ballroom, a concert broadcast live on WMMS. They opened for Starz at the Tomorrow Theater in Youngstown and performed on bills with Elvis Costello, Pat Travers, and others.

Worcester/Boston radio station WAAF broadcast the group live from Northern Sound on the day Elvis Presley died, August 16, 1977, with approximately 1,000 people jammed into the studio atop a Woolworth's five-and-dime. Despite the success of the live broadcast, their popularity began to wane and the group filled out its contractual obligations, ending it all at a high-school gig in April 1978. There were reunion shows in the '90s, and in 1993 a 20th anniversary commemorative live CD of a performance on a radio show from the '70s (Rock Around the World) was released featuring Bobby Chouinard on drums. The band still gets attention, the 45 of "Looking for a Fox" used on a national televised broadcast of the New England Patriots football team in 2001. Drummer Mark Hylander is still active, teaming up with bassist Danny Klein of the J. Geils Band for their blues group, Stonecrazy.

This sealed album is being sold as a collector's item and cannot be returned due to manufacturer's defects. It may be almost impossible to replace many of the sealed albums I am selling. If I am aware of any defects, I will list it in the notes and pictures above.

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All album reviews, credits and artist biographies are from AllMusic Guide. If you haven't been to their web site, you should check it out. It's one of the most comprehensive music references on the internet. In some cases, credits may include reissue (CD) information. Obviously any credits referenced to CDs might not apply to this release.

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