Rock Redux: Fans of that Old Time Rock & Roll will Max out at Cadillac Jam

June 23, 2004

Every time a classic rock band makes its way to Northern Michigan I find myself revisiting their music. With four bands coming in on one weekend I sensed a potential overdose; instead I found myself reinvigorated by the sounds of the late ’60s and early ’70s. For fans of that old-time rock and roll the weekend of June 25-27 will be a little heaven on earth in Cadillac as developer Pat Johnson presents the inaugural Cadillac Jam. The Classic Rock All Stars, Steppenwolf w/ John Kaye, Mitch Ryder and Grand Funk Railroad will all perform within 24 hours of one another.

ALL STARS
Friday night kicks off with the Classic Rock All Stars, made up of members of Rare Earth, Blues Image, Iron Butterfly, Sugarloaf and Cannibal & The Headhunters. Their set is an array of number one songs and summer party tunes.
Songs like “Get Ready,” “Hey, Big Brother,” “Born to Wander,” “I Just Want To Celebrate,” and “I know I am Losing You,” are all reminders that Rare Earth was one of Michigan’s best bands of all time and that Peter Rivera not only is a great drummer but one of the best rock vocalists to come out of that era.
Joining Rivera on stage is Mike Pinera on lead guitar. Pinera founded Blues Image and wrote and sang their number one hit “Ride Captain Ride.” Pinera would go on to be the guitarist for Iron Butterfly on their signature song “In A Gadda Da Vida,” of which the All-Stars will perform a 14 minute blazing version.
The All-Stars have no shortage of vocal talent with keyboardist Jerry Corbetta, who wrote and sang “Green-Eyed Lady” with his band Sugarloaf and eventually would become one of the Four Seasons with Frankie Vallie.
Then there is that funky wild man on bass Dennis Noda, who played with Spencer Davis and Edwin Star and was in the party band Cannibal & The Headhunters with their number one hit, “Land of a Thousand Dances.”
The group looks forward to their return to Northern Michigan.
“Yeah I am from Michigan originally and it is always great to come home, people really love the music there,” said Rivera. “I remember playing Cadillac and Traverse City way back with Rare Earth, it is great up there.”
Is Rivera surprised that the music still resonates with fans?
“Not at all,” said Rivera. “In fact there are a lot of parents bringing their kids to the shows and the kids are getting into the music.”
For Rivera and the rest of the band the Classic Rock All Stars is a great way to get together a few times each month and jam out great songs.
“It really is a lot of fun, we all have other projects going on and probably perform 10 to 15 shows a month together,” said Rivera. “It is just one big party with people dancing and having a good time.”
Rivera’s big project is keeping up with the athletic prowess of his kids including his son Jesse who is trying to make the big leagues with the Los Angles Dodgers as a catcher and son Casey, also in the Dodger organization as a pitching prospect. But the real star of the family might be daughter Blake who a few weeks ago threw a no-hitter for Stetson University and a few years back was one of the top high school softball players in the country.
“It gives me great pleasure watching my kids excel at athletics,” said Rivera. “Probably the most nervous I have ever been was during Spring Training when Jesse played in his first major league game against the Mets. I wasn’t nervous for him but for me because they asked me to perform the National Anthem.”

JOHN KAY & STEPPENWOLF
John Kay and Steppenwolf will keep the night going as the sun sets over the festival grounds. Steppenwolf embodied the 1960’s social, political and philosophical restlessness by building an impressive body of edgy, uncompromising rock that retains its emotional resonance more than three decades after the band’s formation. Such Steppenwolf standards as “Born to Be Wild,” “Magic Carpet Ride,” “Rock Me” and “Monster” stand amongst rock’s greatest anthems.
“For the times, Steppenwolf was an uncharacteristically tight band,” said Kay. “Our philosophy was ‘hit ‘em hard, make your point and move on.’”
John Kay was born Joachim Fritz Krauledat in 1944 in Germany. He lost a father he never knew to the war. Kay grew up learning to speak his mind in post-war Germany, a trait he carried into his music.
“That idea of speaking your mind in the lyrics is something I had picked up in the folk music community, and from growing up in post-World War II Germany,” said Kay. “We didn’t see why you couldn’t have music that worked on a gut level but still offered some food for thought.”
When Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda’s film “Easy Rider,” came out and featured “Born To Be Wild” and “The Pusher,” Steppenwolf reached iconic status in the rock world. Creative differences would eventually lead the band to break up and reform several times during the 1970s.
Eventually, two of Kay’s former bandmates began touring under the name of Steppenwolf. Upset at what he considered to be a bogus band destroying the name and reputation of Steppenwolf by playing small no-name clubs, Kay sued and won the right to the band’s name and has been on a mission ever since in rebuilding its legacy. In 1980 he started with new band members.
“That was a real ego adjustment, and a real test -- do you want to do this badly enough to rebuild this thing from the ground up,” said Kay. “It was a tremendously humbling experience, grinding it out 20 weeks at a time, re-conquering small chunks of real estate step by step. But it showed me that there were people out there who still felt a deep connection to Steppenwolf. By 1987 or thereabouts, we came up for air and looked around and saw what we’d accomplished.”
What was accomplished was a restored legacy. Despite no major label support the group remains popular on the festival circuit around the world. At the age of 60, Kay, like Mick Jagger still has stage presence and the pipes to keep the crowds coming back. Despite all of the ups and downs, Kay sees it all as worth it.
“There’s a lot of truth in that old cliché about whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger,” Kay concludes. “Looking back, I realize that it’s the struggles that have taught us how to gain our independence and live the rock ‘n’ roll of life on our own terms.”
The Classic Rock All Stars and Steppenwolf perform Friday night June 25 at the Cadillac Jam Festival Grounds located at the 115-131 Interchange 3 miles south of Cadillac. Tickets range in price from $15 to $35. Gates open at 6 p.m. with local bands taking the stage first. For tickets or additional information visit www.cadillacjam.com or call (231) 775-4383. Cadillac Jam will feature 3-on-3 Basketball, Classic Car Show and Arts & Crafts display. Entrance to the general festival grounds is free.
Grand funk and Mitch Ryder cap the Cadillac Jam

On Saturday night two of Michigan’s all-time greats: Mitch Ryder and Grand Funk Railroad will close out the Cadillac Jam Festival. The weekend will also feature a 3-on-3-basketball tournament, a classic car show and an arts and craft show.
Cadillac developer Pat Johnson has taken 120 acres of prime real estate at the 131-115 Interchange just south of Cadillac and converted it into festival grounds. This retro-in-the-field festival sets itself up perfectly for two bands that played a lot of outdoor festivals in their days.

MITCH RYDER
“Yeah I remember those days in the ‘60s -- it seemed like every show was in some field or parking lot,” said Mitch Ryder. “It all works and this will be no different.”
Known as the Godfather of the Detroit rock scene, Ryder will open for Grand Funk. But it could have easily been the other way. Both bands are on several short lists to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Ryder was born William Levise Jr. in Detroit nearly 60 years ago. He took the stage name Billy Lee in high school fronting the band Tempest. Soon he began turning heads with his booming soulful voice at Detroit area clubs in the early ‘60s and joined up with the black R trio, The Peps. The group fronted by Ryder recorded a few singles for the Motown gospel label Carrie.
It was with The Peps that Ryder met up with guitarist Jim McCarty, bassist Earl Elliot, rhythm guitarist Joe Kubert and drummer Johnny “Bee” Bandanjek. They formed the band Billy Lee and The Rivieras and by 1965 the band was tearing up the Detroit music scene. After opening for several national acts and blowing them off the stage, legendary producer Bob Crewe of The Four Seasons fame discovered The Rivieras.
Crewe convinced the five teenagers to move to Manhattan to play Greenwich Village clubs until he could work out a label deal for the band. After a few gigs the group found out that another band had the name Rivieras and had an album out so a name change was in order.
“I grabbed a Manhattan phone book and started flipping through it and came across the name Mitch Ryder so I took it,” said Ryder. “The Wheels came out of us wanting to let the world know that we were from Detroit.”
The next four years found Ryder on the wild roller coaster ride of the rock and roll world. From 1965-’67 he and The Wheels were among the top rockers in the business with hits like “Jenny Take A Ride,” “Little Latin Lupe Lu,” “Sock It To Me Baby,” and the medley “Devil With A Blue Dress On/Good Golly Miss Molly.”
By 1967 Crewe decided Ryder should be a solo act and shipped the artist to Las Vegas and sent The Wheels back to Detroit. The Las Vegas experiment didn’t work and Ryder found himself without a band, management and gigs so he decided to head back to Detroit.
“I went to Memphis first and hooked up with Booker T & The MG’s and the legendary Memphis Horns to record an album,” said Ryder. “Unfortunately while the album received great reviews it was never a commercial success so I headed north hoping to reunite with some of my old band mates.”
Ryder did end up reuniting with Bandajek and forming the super group Detroit, but the band was short-lived and Ryder again found himself without a band and frustrated with the business. Like many musicians of his day, he found himself sinking in the world of heavy alcohol and drug use so he retreated to Colorado and took on a 9-to-5, Monday through Friday job.
“At this point in my life I needed a sense of security, the feeling of coming home at the same time everyday,” said Ryder. “It was very peaceful out there in Colorado and during that period I really thought my music career was over. Eventually, my need to create and perform overtook my desire of traditional security. So I came back on my own terms and again feel good about making music.”
Ryder enjoyed a lot of renewed popularity during the ‘80s when super rockers Bruce Springsteen and John Cougar Mellencamp both paid public tribute by acknowledging him as the primary influence in the development of their musical careers. Springsteen regularly brought Ryder up on stage during show encores to perform extended versions of “Devil With A Blue Dress On.”

GRAND FUNK
While Ryder and The Detroit Wheels were hitting it big in 1960s, Mark Farner, Don Brewer and Mel Schacher were tearing it up on the Michigan circuit as Grand Funk. The group got its start in 1968 when Terry Knight and The Pack members Farner and Brewer left the band to form Grand Funk with The Mysterians bass player Schacher.
In a few short years Grand Funk reached the pinnacle of success in the eyes of the fans by selling millions of albums and selling out Shea Stadium faster than The Beatles. But the critics were not buying it.
“Rolling Stone panned us a commercial creation of Terry Knight, who was our manager in the beginning,” said drummer Don Brewer. “Knight thrived on irritating the critics and felt any publicity was better than none.”
By 1972 the group parted ways with Knight and brought in Todd Rundgren to produce their new album. The 1973 song “American Band” from that album would become the group’s first number one hit. The group’s other hit songs include “Some Kind of Wonderful,” Loco-Motion,” “Closer To Home/I’m Your Captain,” “Footstompin’ Music,” “Rock & Roll Soul,” and “Bad Time” all dominated the charts in the 1970s.
“We were funk and R based where everyone else was blues based,” said Brewer. “It wasn’t something we set out to do, it just happened because of where we were from. Being from Flint we were into Motown more than the blues. We loved doing covers and putting our own twist on them.”
Those covers included the Rolling Stones “Gimme Shelter,” and Traffic’s “Feelin’ Alright,” both became staple songs at Grand Funk’s live shows.
Early songwriting duties fell on the shoulders of lead guitarist Mark Farner. Farner who lives near Petoskey is not part of the current Grand Funk Railroad and tours as a solo artist. Brewer was not willing to discuss Farner’s absence but rather the others who joined Grand Funk in 2000.
“Max Carl is a phenomenal vocalist, who spent years with 38 Special and Bruce Kulick who was the guitarist in Kiss for 12 years and Tim Cushion who played keyboards for Seger and Robert Palmer,” said Brewer. “It is a great line-up. We try to capture that energy we had 35 years ago and I feel like a kid every time I take the stage.”
Rounding out the current line-up is bass player Mel Schacher who lives outside of Traverse City and is a founding member of the band. Critics have looked favorably on the tour that began four years ago. More importantly the fans continue to come out and support the band.
“We are making a lot of new fans and I love it,” said Brewer. “I see myself doing this until I die.”

Mitch Ryder and Grand Funk perform Saturday night June 26 at the Cadillac Jam Festival Grounds located at the 115-131 interchange. Ticket prices are the same as Friday’s show.