Merrell Wayne Fankhauser was born on 23 December 1943 in Louisville, Kentucky, and after his family moved to San Luis Obispo, California while he was in his teens, he began playing guitar, and got his first break playing in movie theaters and talent shows. In 1960, after one of these shows, he joined local band The Impacts as lead guitarist, and their Ventures-influenced sound developed a strong following at the start of the surfing scene. In 1962 he met Norman Knowles, who was the saxophone player from The Revels, and he convinced The Impacts to record a session with Tony Hilder at a backyard studio in the Hollywood area. As much as this seemed like a notable event for the band, it was more of a lure than a lucky break, as after recording twelve tracks, including Fankhauser's own 'Wipe Out', as well as 'Blue Surf', 'Impact', and 'Sea Horse', Knowles and Hilder took the tapes to to Del-Fi Records, where owner Bob Keene signed the album for immediate release as the 'Wipe Out!' album. Knowles and Hilder never revealed to the band how much money they made by doing this, and they also tricked the young band into signing a contract for one dollar, meaning that the band was unable to collect royalties on this music for 36 years, as Hilder and Knowles claimed both artist and publishing royalties with Del-Fi Records. In late 1963 Fankhauser left the band and moved to Lancaster, California, where he met Jeff Cotton (later of Captain Beefheart's Magic Band), and in 1964 they formed The Exiles.
With the addition of Greg Hampton on drums and Jim Ferguson on bass, they started paying local gigs, and record label owner Glen MacArthur heard them and offered to record them in his Palmdale studio. Their first single under their new name was 'Too Many Heartbreaks', a song that Fankhauser had written in 1961, backed by a new song called 'Please Be Mine', and it was released on Glenn Records in March 1964, reaching number 9 on the local KUTY radio chart. This coincided with The Beatles' invasion of America, and Merrell And The Exiles were the Antelope Valley's answer to them, going on to record five singles for Glenn Records. Later in 1967 Fankhauser moved back to the California central coast, and formed another band with his old guitar playing friend Bill Dodd, who had taken over from him in The Impacts when he left. After playing with several drummers and bass players as Merrell And The Boys, they decided one night that they needed a new name for the band, and as this was the beginning of the psychedelic era, they felt they needed a more far out moniker, so he took the two letters from each band members last name and put them together FA (for Fankhauser), PAR (for Parrish, bass player at the time), DO (for Dodd) and KLY (for Dick Lee, the drummer), and Fapardokly was the result. He was contacted again by Glen MacArthur who wanted to release an album with some singles and unreleased Merrell And The Exiles songs that he had on the shelf, and so the band drove the two hundred miles from the coast over to the desert and recorded enough songs to complete the album.
The 'Fapardokly' album was released on UIP Records in 1968, and has since gone on to become one of the most highly sought after and valuable albums from the late 1960's, with a sealed copy going for over $1,000. At the time, however, it was not a success, and so Fankhauser and Dodd then formed another, more overtly psychedelic, band with Jack Jordan on bass and Larry Meyers on drums, naming it HMS Bounty. They won a recording contract with Uni Records, and their self-titled album was released in 1968, followed by the single 'Tampa Run', a remake of another old Exiles song. However, success was again thwarted by personal and record company problems, and the band split up. Reuniting with Jeff Cotton in 1970, Fankhauser then formed Mu, and in 1971 their first album was released and became a radio hit. Increasingly fascinated by legends of the lost continent of Mu, Fankhauser then relocated to the Hawaiian island of Maui in February 1973, where he has continued to record, releasing over two dozen albums as Mu and under his own name. This post collects together some of the recordings that they had made for Glen MacArthur which were not then released as singles on the Glenn Records label, showing that Fankhauser was a prolific writer from the start of his musical career, and they had enough material to be able to release an album as early as 1964 had they wanted.
Track listing
01 Ready To Roll
02 Run Baby Run
03 She's Gone
04 Long Time Gone
05 Exiles Blues
06 Don't Let Go
07 Remember Me
08 The War
09 Yes I Love You
10 Be A Good Neighbour Week
11 Pain In My Heart
12 Let The Time Go By
13 Let Me Go
14 Shake my Hand
15 Please Be Mine
16 Don't Call On Me
17 Send Me Your Love
