Song of the Week – Pulse, Ten Wheel Drive

Ignored           Obscured            Restored

In the late ‘60s, at the height of the “horn band” craze, musician/songwriters Aram Schefrin and Michael Zager hooked up with Genya Ravan to form Ten Wheel Drive.  The name refers to the 10 person lineup in the band.

Ravan was a pioneer woman in rock with her all-female band Goldie and the Gingerbreads.  Except for Ravan, the ability to read music was a requirement for joining the band.  These were serious musicians.

In her 2004 autobiography, Lollipop Lounge: Memoirs of a Rock and Roll Refugee, Ravan tells of an early gig at the Fillmore East where she aroused her audience when she shed her see-through jacket and continued to perform with her painted breasts exposed.

I have the band’s first two albums in my collection and I’m partial to the second – Brief Replies (1970).  It contains their version of “Stay With Me”, the original of which was released by Lorraine Ellison and was the subject of a SotW post on September 19, 2015.

Today’s choice for SotW is “Pulse.”

It features a driving beat and exploits the group’s great horn players.

Brief Replies has the sax player Dave Liebman in the horn section.  Liebman went on to record and release several excellent jazz fusion albums that are worth checking out, including Lookout Farm (1974).

Ravan currently hosts a SiriusXM show, Goldie’s Garage, on Little Steven’s Underground Garage channel.

Enjoy… until next week.