Fred "Sonic" Smith's Rendezvous Band

There you are in the studio.

You've recorded both sides of your first single.

However, you only have enough money to afford to mix the A side.

What are you going to do?

You decide to put the same track on the B side, of course! 

Not wishing to shortchange your fans, you make one side stereo and the other mono.

Except you don't. 

It's the same track - in mono - on both sides.

And so it was with Fred "Sonic" Smith (and his Rendezvous Band) with his first recorded release since a sickly MC5 imploded in 1972 - "City Slang", which ran for an unfashionable five minutes plus. 

In fact, this was the last official recording Smith would make for 14 years, and the only band he'd lead. Sonic's Rendezvous Band broke up in 1980, the year he married Patti Smith, and his musical efforts and energies were concentrated on her from then on; playing on, writing for and producing her 1986 album "Dream of Life" - his last major project. Smith died in 1994 of heart failure. 

Sonic's Rendezvous Band - SRB from now on! - comprised Fred on guitar and vocals, along with Scott Morgan on guitar and vocals, Gary Rasmussen on bass and Scott Asheton on drums. It was an interesting mix of talent, fostered by four major Detroit bands, and revealing their influences which drew from punk, soul, rock & roll, hard rock and even some late 1960s West Coast stylings. 

Fortunately, although the official output of SRB is basically one side of a single, there's quite a lot of live bootlegs - some of it good to very good quality, so it's here we have to go to understand what made the band so special.

So, what can we take away from these recordings?

First and foremost, Fred's snotty attitude - reflected in his vocals. Not a good voice in the conventional sense of the word, but full of passion that sometimes sneers at and harangues the listener. Then there's the superb guitar playing - razor sharp rhythm and a lead style that owes much to Chuck Berry as well as more modern rock guitar influences, and which combined seamlessly when he played a solo. Sometimes, he'd stretch out, as exemplified by the instrumental "China Fields" with its guitar interplay - a furrow further ploughed by Television a few years later.

The rest of the band spurred Smith on, with sympathetic guitar support from Morgan, and Rasmussen and Asheton's granite bedrock which kept the band anchored for the guitars and vocals to roar over.  

One thing the band wasn't was punk. OK, there were clearly punk influences, but an SRB set song was likely to contain extended guitar solos and stray into hard rock, as in this live track...  

Then there's the eclectic nature of SRB's set lists which can be found buried in the mess and mass of unofficial live material. There's a 10 minute slow blues, a 16 minute psychedelic raga jam (with improvised vocals and an extended sax solo from Smith!). covers of Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone", Huey Piano Smith's "Roberta", Ray Charles' "I Believe to my Soul", quite a few Chuck Berry songs and a couple from the Stones - "Flight 505" and "Heart of Stone".

Although we're lucky to have live recordings from SRB, they've been compiled, recompiled and released so often that there's often duplication, and some of the album's track lists are taken from various gigs, and so lack cohesion. Attempts have been made to rationalise the existing recordings, but without some sort of effective copyright control - which is absent, as is the case with bootlegs - they've just been bootlegged to create more albums. 

To sum up, here's that A side again - "City Slang" - sometimes described as the greatest rock & roll single ever. Perhaps...perhaps not, but it's hard to argue with this description and summary of the band:

"5:15 of assault guitars, railroad drumming and Smith's determined-rebel call - has all you need to know why SRB were masters of their domain."

 

Some prime SRB up for grabs as soon as I decide what to pick out from their messy back catalogue!