Who is Neil Merryweather, and how come I’ve never heard of him? Well, turns out he’s a Toronto bassist/vocalist/songwriter who started out playing the blues before putting out (with his band Space Rangers) a positively wonderful late-era, capital “G” Glam album in 1975’s Kryptonite.
I’ve never read about Merryweather in any of the many books about Glam Rock I’ve read, which boggles the mind. As does his backstory: he went from the Mynah Birds (who also spawned Rick James and some guy named Neil Young), played in a whole bunch of bands you’ve probably never heard of, was asked by Stephen Stills to play bass for Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (and turned him down), recorded a 1969 album (Word of Mouth) featuring the likes of Steve Miller, Dave Mason, and Charlie Musselwhite, and then meandered around (he briefly fronted a band called Mama Lion) before finally forming another band called Space Rangers, which recorded two great albums in 1974’s Space Rangers (which included spacy covers of “Eight Miles High” and “Sunshine Superman”) and the superior Kryptonite. Before disappearing for forty-odd years!
Space Rangers were Neil Merryweather, bass and vocals; Michael “Jeep” Willis, lead guitar; James Herndon, Chamberlin, synthesizer, guitar, and slide guitar; and Tim McGovern, drums and guitar. The Chamberlin (which was news to me) is an electro-mechanical keyboard instrument and precursor to the Mellotron, and Merryweather bought his from Sonny and Cher! It had a piano-style keyboard and used prerecorded tapes featuring various musical instruments or special effects. It, along with the synthesizer, helped Merryweather make the transition from blues/hard rock musician to Space Glammer.
Krytonite is a remarkably solid album—Glam with a hard edge, and consistently up-tempo. I was so excited by “The Groove,” a T-Rex-school Glam opus, that I immediately sent it to my pal Steve Mitchell, Glam lover and the Svengali behind UK “theft band” The Pooh Sticks, to see what he thought.
Well, he kindly listened to the entire album, and he had a strong opinion—it just wasn’t the opinion I was hoping for. He wrote back saying, “I can see the appeal, because the guitarist is entertaining, but the songs are weak, and if I really wanted that kinda guitar—which I do sometimes—I’d listen to Mick Ronson’s Play Don’t Worry LP (especially “Angel No.9”). I think the singing’s weak, too. I know he was highly regarded in some circles, but it’s almost like some kinda ‘outsider’ record, like maybe the guitarist was on permanent day-release from the care-home.”
Ouch! But what does a guy who knows a whole lot more about music than I will ever know know? Of course, “the Jeep” is no Mick Ronson! Mick Ronson was a God! Still, “permanent day-release from the care-home”? Aww, c’mon!
“The Groove” is a lost Glam masterpiece—T-Derivative for sure, but beefier and fuller-sounding than your average Bolan song. Merryweather even SOUNDS English, and Willis plays this incredible guitar riff that is Glam Archetypal while the backing vocalists chime in. Rapturous, that’s how I’d describe it, right down to Willis’ soloing during the jam that takes the song out. I’ll take it over T. Rex’s “The Groover” any day, and the same goes for “New York Groove” and Heatwave’s “The Groove Line,” and “The Groove Line” is disco fabulous! But “The Groove”? All I can say is “Wham bam thank you Glam!”
As noted above, Merryweather injected a lot of hard rock into his Glam, and it gives songs like the spacy “Star Rider” punch galore. Monster guitar and synthesizer whooshes give way to a long guitar solo, and if Willis is indeed on day release from home care, his home caretaker is the ghost of Mick Ronson. And how Ziggy Bolan is that title? It’s positively Glamtastic, every bit as Glamtastic as the space-hippie silver bellbottoms Merryweather’s sporting on the back of the album cover.
“Real Life Love” is a breakneck exercise in rocksmanship, with Merryweather really belting out the lyrics while Willis goes whiz-bang ace on guitar. His solo is killer, and the drummer behind him has a fever for cowbell. “Give It Everything We Got” is high-tech space rock funkadelia with a bass that could well be the Chamberlin up front. Sure, it’s about as original as “Mockingbird,” and the instrumental comes up short on incendiaries (Willis swaps out the hard rock for a jazzier sound), and frankly, it goes on too long, but it’s more than just filler.
The title track opens with crowd applause (which sounds canned to me) and some synthesizer before Merryweather comes in sounding mean while Willis goes on a tear. Merryweather screams, and frankly, he shouldn’t, but this baby has big muscles and could beat up Superman no sweat.
The title of “Always Be You” makes you think ballad, but it’s a pop-accessible funk-boogie with great group vocals, lots of guitar chime, and Merryweather singing “All my life I’ve been a roller,” which is so much cooler than “All my life I’ve been a rocker.” And it has this long and very cool take out that has Merryweather repeating “It will always be you” over soaring backing vocals, and it’s far-freaking out is what it is.
Which leaves us with closer “Let Us Be the Dawn,” which is space rock all the way—think Steve Miller at his most cosmic, combined with Robin Trower at HIS spaciest, with these huge washes of synthesizer backed by more synthesizers playing this melody that came straight from Mars. Merryweather is in cosmic mode as well, and singing about spaceships to boot, and as the song gets bigger and bigger, you’ve got voices coming in from all directions before the song goes out with these big space blips and sounds like a rocket ship taking off.
Neil Merryweather is one of those artists who slipped through the cracks, which is a damn shame because Kryptonite may not be a great album, but it’s a damn fine Glam album, and the world can never have too many Glam albums, especially ones as high octane as Kryptonite. It has a great cover, too. It has the guys flying around in space above a green planet, which is far cooler than floating around in a tin can like that Major Tom guy.
Give it a listen. Especially give “The Groove” a listen. It’s a goddamn moonage daydream. And the guy was from Canada! Who knew Maple Syrup Glam was even a thing?
GRADED ON A CURVE:
A-
