El Som revealed the other day that the first albums he purchased were the debut LPs by Rotary Connection and Blood, Sweat, and Tears. Commenter Erik Van Anglen chipped in with his (Chad and Jeremy and the Beach Boys) and asked for others to do the same.
Mine was Seatrain’s eponymous second album, released in 1970. This cover of the Lowell George tune, which Little Feat hadn’t recorded yet, was its opening track, and the song I heard on the radio that prompted me to buy the LP.
Philadelphia radio stations were promoting the band that spring in advance their appearance at a big outdoor festival in Fairmount Park on April 22. They were headlining the concert at a protest rally, something they were calling Earth Day. Roughly 30,000 people showed up.
Seatrain wasn’t well-known when they were together and have been mostly forgotten since. Their original lineup included bassist/flutist Andy Kulberg and drummer Roy Blumenfeld of the Blues Project and fiddler Richard Greene, a veteran of Bill Monroe’s Bluegrass Boys. They played a sort of rock/bluegrass/jazz fusion.
By the time of the 1970 album they were joined by another Monroe alum, Peter Rowan, who shows off his pipes on “I’m Willin’.” Seatrain’s uptempo arrangement makes him sound like he actually enjoys taking the backroads so he won’t get weighed (I always thought George’s slower pace and world-weary vocals made clear he was very reluctantly willing, and that weed, whites or wine had damn well better be forthcoming). Greene’s spirited solo further elevates a track that sounds like a hit to me. The record company didn’t think so. It wasn’t released as a single, which is why I ponied up for the album.
Fun fact: The LP was produced by none other than George Martin, his first work with a rock band after the dissolution of the Beatles.
This is the cut the record company released as a single instead. “13 Questions” never made it higher than No. 49 on the Billboard 100, possibly because we never find out what the questions are.
I mentioned that my first album purchase was tangentially related to the debut LP from Blood, Sweat & Tears, the only one recorded with its original lineup. Here’s how: Before Al Kooper left to form BS&T in 1968, he played with Kulberg and Blumenfeld in the Blues Project. After Kooper left, they formed Seatrain, but before assuming that name they released an LP as the Blues Project to fulfill their contractual obligation. A second connection: Seatrain’s gig before Earth Day was opening for Blood, Sweat & Tears.
Seatrain released two more albums before breaking up in 1973. Rowan and Greene went on to long careers in bluegrass. I still have the LP.