Fifty Foot Hose
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Fifty Foot Hose | |
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Origin | San Francisco, California, United States |
Genres | Psychedelic rock[1] |
Years active | 1967–1970, 1995–present |
Labels | Limelight, Mercury, Big Beat, Weasel Disc |
Fifty Foot Hose is an American
1960s – original group
The original group comprised three core members: founder and bassist Louis "Cork" Marcheschi, guitarist David Blossom, and vocalist Nancy Blossom, augmented by Kim Kimsey (drums) and Larry Evans (guitar).[2]
David and Nancy Blossom brought both psychedelic and jazz influences to the band. Together, the trio recorded a demo which led to a deal with Limelight Records, a subsidiary of Mercury Records. They released one album, Cauldron, in December 1967.[2] It contained eleven songs, including "Fantasy", "Red the Sign Post" and "God Bless the Child", a cover of a Billie Holiday number.[2] It was an intriguing mix of jazzy psychedelic rock tunes with fierce and advanced electronic sound effects.[2] "I don't know if they are immature or premature", said critic Ralph J. Gleason.[citation needed]
The record sold few copies at the time, although the group had a small but intense following in San Francisco and also toured with other acts including Blue Cheer, Chuck Berry and Fairport Convention, when the band was augmented by Robert Goldbeck (bass). They broke up in late 1969, when most of its members joined the musical Hair, Nancy Blossom becoming the lead in the San Francisco production and later singing in Godspell. Larry Evans returned to his hometown of Muncie, Indiana, where he fronted several club groups until his death in 2008.
1990s – reformation
Interest in Fifty Foot Hose resurfaced in the 1990s, as they became recognized as precursors to the electronic rock sounds of groups like
In 1995, Marcheschi reformed the group for live performances in San Francisco, with a new set of musicians. These performances led to the release of the album Live & Unreleased, which was followed in 1997 by a new studio album, Sing Like Scaffold. On the latter album, Fifty Foot Hose essentially comprised Marcheschi (on echolette, twin audio generators, squeaky stick, white noise generator, theremin, spark gap, and saw blades), Walter Funk III (jokers Ulysses and Cupid constructed by Fred 'Spaceman' Long, Bug (Tom Nunn), vocoder, Hologlyphic Funkaliser, and other electronix), Reid Johnston (guitube, guitar, tools, horns, harmonium, hardware, bikewheel), Lenny Bove (bass, electronics, vocals), Elizabeth Perry (vocals), and Dean Cook (drums).[citation needed]
Funk and Johnston subsequently formed the avant-garde electronic band Kwisp, the first of whose two albums also featured Marcheschi.
In 2006, Marcheschi, Funk, Johnston, and Konstantine Baranov (producer of Sing Like Scaffold), known as CWRK Musical Environments, installed a public sound installation in an atrium in Hong Kong.
Discography
- Cauldron (1968, Limelight Records)
- ...Live... And Unreleased (1997, Captain Trip Records)
- Ingredients (1997, Del Val)
- Sing Like Scaffold (1998, Weasel Disc Records)
References
- ISBN 9781623561536.
- ^ ISBN 0-85112-939-0.