The Myddle Class - Gates Of Eden (1967)

In the early 60's The King Bees got together, consisting of Dave Palmer on lead vocals, Rick Philp on guitar, Chris Irby on bass guitar (soon replaced by Charles Larkey), Danny Mansolino on organ, and Mike Rosa on drums. They soon became known for their exciting live shows, which included songs such as 'Shout', 'She's Not There' and the original, 'It's The Season', and after a show at the Berkeley Heights CYO in December 1964, the band met the New York Post columnist Al Aronowitz, who, despite his lack of experience in the business side of music, became the group's manager. He introduced the band to Carole King and Gerry Goffin, the well-known husband-and-wife song writing team, and they agreed to write songs and produce the group. In late 1965, the King Bees changed their name to the Myddle Class to distinguish themselves from Danny Kortchmar's King Bees, who just had just released a record on RCA Victor, and in October, Goffin and King signed the Myddle Class to their new label, Tomorrow Records. Their first single, 'Free As The Wind', backed with a full-band rendition of Bob Dylan's 'Gates Of Eden', was released on Tomorrow in December 1965, and the Goffin/King penned A-side was a well-produced piece of garage-informed folk rock. The song became a hit in Albany, New York, but despite a glowing Billboard review, it failed to catch on outside the region, and so the band played at many of New York's leading clubs, such as the Night Owl and Cafe Au Go Go, to enhance their live reputation. 

In 1966, the Myddle Class released a follow-up single, 'Don't Let Me Sleep Too Long', which the band took from a demo by the Blues Project that later became their hit 'Wake Me Shake Me', and this hard-rocking single more accurately reflected the band's live sound, and reached #2 on the Albany charts, but like their first single did not reach a wider market. After Goffin and King's distribution deal with Atco fell apart, they were able to sign a deal with Cameo-Parkway to distribute the Tomorrow label, but the band encountered a number of discouraging setbacks around this time. They had a successful audition with producer Tom Wilson for MGM Records, but apparently Al Aronowitz did not allow the deal to go through, while in February 1967 they opened for the Animals, but their set was marred by technical problems in the microphones and public address system, resulting in poor reviews for the band's performance. In April 1967, the Myddle Class released one last single, with a cover of The Temptations 'Don't Look Back' as the A-side, backed by their own 'Wind Chime Laughter'. 

By late 1967, with some of the band's members either away at college or pursuing other musical ventures, the Myddle Class was rarely performing live, and what little active time they had was used to record demos for Goffin and King songs intended for other artists. Palmer and Philp signed a publishing with Screen Gems-Columbia, the same publishers representing Goffin and King at this time, but a promise from Don Kirshner to sign the group to Colgems never materialized. Danny Kortchmar replicated Philp's guitar parts for the Myddle Class' last recordings in 1969, and an album was planned for the summer, but any future chances of the band re-activating were dashed when guitarist Philp was murdered by his former roommate in Boston in May. By this point, the band's enthusiasm was had long receded, and they broke up shortly afterwards, with Dave Palmer going on to join Steely Dan as the vocalist on their early records. The band had already recorded enough material for an album-length release by 1967, but most of these recordings were released as singles, leaving little over for a long-player, but as most of us won't have heard those singles then this album hangs together extremely well as a summary of their work up to the end of 1967.   

Track listing

01 Gates Of Eden
02 I Happen To Love You
03 Lovin' Season
04 Don't Look Back
05 Wind Chime Laughter
06 Man On The Bridge
07 You Better Know
08 Free As The Wind
09 Don't Let Me Sleep Too Long
10 An Angel Walks Beside Me
11 Who Does He Love
12 Fun & Games