Happy Dragons, Phantoms, Fiddlers, Rockets and Spliffs
The Career of Scott Strawbridge: A seventh in a series of interviews with Detroit’s lost rockers
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Another misty layer shrouding the career of the Phantom of Detroit occurred in 2004, courtesy of a compact disc impress by the band/solo artist — the Happy Dragon. Radioactive Records, the pirating operation responsible for the 2003 impress of the Phantom’s Divine Comedy 1974 effort, needle-dropped the Happy Dragon’s new-wave effort, Band — originally recorded in 1977 and 1978 and released in 1978 as a 12”/33-rpm album by Fiddlers Music Productions out of Detroit, Michigan. The roots and branches of the Happy Dragon’s family tree are not as mysteriously twisted as the cryptic, online opines of the Phantom’s origins desire: Tommy Court and Tom Carson — endlessly cut ’n’ pasted on the Internet as the mastermind behind the Phantom’s Divine Comedy effort are, in fact, two different people after all — neither of which are Jim Morrison’s doppelganger.
Blogs and vanity web sites that discuss the mystery of the Phantom describe the musicians and producers behind the Happy Dragon effort as “rip-off artists” and “shamsters” who “stole” The Lost Album recordings by Phantom (actually the band Pendragon) and put their name on it — and took a proxy credit for Phantom’s Divine Comedy in the process.
As you, the reader, will come to realize, the Happy Dragon collective were unaware of the Pendragon tapes’ European-pirate impress and none of the musicians are culpable in the “theft” of the tapes or putting their names on it. While someone certainly pirated the tapes out of Detroit to Italy — it was not any of musicians shared on The Lost Album by Pendragon or Band by the Happy Dragon.
This writer was able to sit down with Scott Strawbridge, one of the “mysterious” musicians who appears on the Happy Dragon effort to speak about his Detroit-based music career — and his unknown “fame” connected to the mystery of the Phantom. Was he part of the Detroit-based “Jim Is Alive” hoax of 1974? Unbeknownst to him for over forty years, it turns out that Detroit’s Scott Strawbridge was the missing link to help this writer resolve the confusions between the Phantom’s Divine Comedy and the Happy Dragon projects exasperated by the European pirate industry with their issuing of Pendragon’s demos.
Scott Strawbridge: I have to say, when you first reached out to me, I was a bit curious why you would want to speak with me regarding Pendragon’s music and the Phantom. As for the Happy Dragon, the one album that Tommy made: it does have a cult surrounding it in Japan — that much I know. Tommy pressed 500 copies to distribute over there. The last I heard is that an original copy gets up to $500. Tommy wrote it, produced it, and drew a number of us into it to help him record it.
R.D Francis: And the Happy Dragon was never a live band. It was a studio project?
Scott Strawbridge: Correct. The only live band Tommy ever participated in was back in the 8th or 9th grade with a project that he and I put together at Pierce Middle School in Grosse Pointe. I wouldn’t say he never did a live gig after that, because we played a few parties and there were jam sessions along the way. But Tommy’s a solo guy; a very deep, deep musician and still very active.
R.D Francis: I am aware that Tom Carson and Clem Riccobono of the Lazy Eggs started Fiddlers. Did your and Tommy’s involvement with Fiddlers go beyond the Happy Dragon album?
Scott Strawbridge: That’s right. They were together in the Lazy Eggs. Tommy and I built the studio at Fiddlers. We were part of the team that constructed and put up the walls, built the stages, the control room, then rigged it all up. Tommy wired everything since he was the only one who knew how to do it.
Sadly, during the writing of Tales from a Wizard: The Oral History of Walpurgis, two of the Lazy Eggs — Sam Moceri and Tom Pointe — passed away in September 2018.
R.D Francis: Well Tommy was definitely an innovator in electronic music and foresaw new-wave music. Unfortunately, his work is not mentioned in critical circles alongside British bands who utilized electronics, such as the Normal, the Flying Lizards, or Joy Division.
Scott Strawbridge: Oh, Tommy was definitely “out there” when it comes to originality. As the studio at Fiddlers evolved, we got our first monophonic synthesizer; Tommy got his hands on an Arp Odyssey [made famous by Peter Howell with his theme for the BBC’s Dr. Who] and a Mini-Moog. At that point, they were monophonic and could play only one note, one set of tones. Tommy then quickly got into the world of sequencers. He began to innovate in the electronic space and never stopped and went onto Wayne State and taught electronic music for a couple of decades and just recently retired. If I mention Tommy’s name to any of the jazz musicians I currently work with, he’s a guru to them. They’re all Wayne State music majors and Tommy taught them technology and theory.
R.D Francis: And once and for all: Tommy Court is not the Phantom.
Scott Strawbridge: I can tell you that Tommy has a unique signing voice and it doesn’t sound anything like Jim Morrison. He doesn’t sound like Jim. He doesn’t look like Jim. I don’t think he’s ever covered a Doors song in his life. His music tastes probably don’t even go in that direction.
R.D Francis: And neither is Tom Carson. And they’re not the same person.
Scott Strawbridge: Correct. I got intrigued by all this after you reached out to me and did my own little bit of Googling and came across, in a book about Jim Morrison, the name “Tom Carson” being mentioned and that he was “Arthur Pendragon.”
Now, I haven’t seen Tom personally since I left Fiddlers in the late seventies, but we were good friends for many, many years. In fact, Tommy’s [Carson] mom died and I needed a place to stay; he let me stay in his home for a year and a half; we sailed the Bahamas and the Caribbean together. We made music together; we produced a record and flew down to Criteria [Studios] in Miami and mixed it there.
[Tom Carson and I] were not just coworkers or me his employee: we were very, very fast friends. And we became business partners. While a capable musician and guitarist, I can tell you that Tom’s vocal talents were very limited and there is no way possible that Tom Carson — in any way, shape or form — could have imitated Jim Morrison with any success or any credibility. No way, absolutely not.
R.D Francis: And where is Tom Carson these days?
Scott Strawbridge: The last I heard he was living in Ontario where his family is. We used to go there in the summers back in the day. He left Fiddlers and moved onto other interests outside of the music business.
R.D Francis: And you never met the real Phantom, Arthur Pendragon.
Scott Strawbridge: I know who he is, but I never met Arthur Pendragon — at least I don’t think I did. But I never had the pleasure of working with him. I did speak with deMar [Mike deMartino; who also appears in the pages of Tales from a Wizard] in the midst of all of this and he sent me a photo of the Pendragon quarter track-7 1/2-reel [he shared with you]. That was cut at Cloudborn, where we worked down the street at “the big studio.” Fiddlers served as the demo studio for much of the material cut at Cloudborn that was issued on the Fiddlers label.
R.D Francis: So you worked at Cloudborn as well?
Scott Strawbridge: I did from time to time; however, I was not a staff person there. But [deMar and I] had projects that would demo at Fiddlers; then evolve and moved to Cloudborn and be released on a variety of labels, some on the Fiddlers label.
Here’s a bit of the back-story [of the relationship] between Fiddlers and Cloudborn: Tom Carson was a rock ’n’ roll guitar player in the Lazy Eggs with Clem Riccobono and Gary Praeg. Gary founded Cloudborn Studios. Meanwhile, Clem, Sam Moceri, also of the Lazy Eggs, and Tom were down the street dealing all this equipment out of Fiddlers, which was a music store at that point. The catalyst of Fiddlers going into recording work was Tascam coming out with the half-inch eight-track deck, which was the solution to rent out studio time at an affordable rate to emerging musicians for them to make quality demos.
A bit of history on Gary Praeg: He recorded a pop album — Falling In Love (1981) — under the Shivers moniker at Cloudborn, which was released on Private Stock Records; the label issued the debut release by Blondie, along with Detroit’s Brownsville Station, and Frankie Valli’s solo hits of the seventies.
Before Praeg’s tenure in the Lazy Eggs, he worked alongside Angelo Palazzolo and Chris Birg in the late sixties with Katzanjammer, which worked as the house band at the historic Roostertail. Praeg’s establishment of Cloud Born led to his working with R&B legends Anita Baker, George Clinton and Bootsy Collins, and Keith Washington.
Katzanjammer reformed, somewhat, in 2004 as the smooth-jazz outfit Dove Grey, who released the album, Anything Is Possible.
R.D Francis: And that’s when you [Scott] and Tommy built the studio.
Scott Strawbridge: Right. That’s when Tommy and I built the studio and we were able to tap into all the equipment that was for sale at Fiddlers. Along with the working studio and all the instruments, we were able, for $25 dollars an hour, to lock the door at night and [musicians] “owned the place.”
R.D Francis: The impression I got through my research on Fiddlers is that it was a go-to studio for Detroit musicians.
Scott Strawbridge: It was. [Fiddlers] worked with the Rockets and with Catfish Hodge. I also worked with Gene Simmons [of Kiss] and he recorded quietly and privately on some demos. We R & D’d [research and development] a whole lot of [music] back in those days. At the time I — all of us — didn’t think much of it. But now, I am working on this Knight Foundation and musical historical perspective project in Detroit and every time I do, I’m thinking back to all of the folks that walked through those doors and how Fiddlers was a huge hub in the Detroit and Midwest music network — and a significant hub in the national scene as well.
R.D Francis: I did a significant amount of research on Fiddlers Music for the first book and the bands that came through there, from Adrenalin to East Side Dee, then Rick Hall, Holy Smoke, Jett Black, Mouth, Stage, and Sweet Crystal — I can go on; it’s extensive.
Scott Strawbridge: Yep. I worked on all of those. Those were my records; deMar and me, actually. Tommy did a couple as well before he went on tour to be the soundman for the Rockets.
Other projects that Mike deMartino and Scott Strawbridge worked on included the single, “Mademoiselle b/w You Make Everything Dirty” by Jett Black. Led by Mark and John Jeffords, Jett Black, which hailed from Phoenix, was a personal project of Michael Bruce from Alice Cooper, who was friends with the band. Mike and Scott also co-engineered Jem Targal’s 1978 solo effort, Luckey Guy.
R.D Francis: I am glad you mentioned the Rockets. I wanted to ask you about Tommy Court’s involvement with the Rockets, as his name appears in their album credits. Of course, with his name on it and John Badanjek’s name appearing on the Pendragon European pirates, that’s what led to the confusion of Tommy Court being labeled as “The Phantom.” But we will talk about that a bit later.
Scott Strawbridge: Well, the Rockets had just gotten signed. It was a big deal for everyone. Somebody we knew, worked with and respected, got signed to a real label. So [the Rockets] offered Tommy a gig; when it came to sound and electronics in Detroit, Tommy was the man. Everyone, we all encouraged him to go. So me and deMar kept the studio going in his absence. I eventually became the studio manager and took over for Tommy — which was hard on me and hurtful for him; I was one of the ones who encouraged him to take the Rockets gig and it was the catalyst for his departure from Fiddlers. But that was all Tom Carson’s decision. But it’s all good. Tommy and I are still friends and, in fact, he’s married to my sister, Laurie.
R.D Francis: And am I correct in my understanding that Fiddlers was three floors? The first floor was equipment sales, the second floor was lightning and sound, and the third served as the recording studios?
Scott Strawbridge: That’s correct; however, it was bit more complex than that. The second floor also had a luthier studio and lesson rooms. We had about a 150 students a week coming through the doors. Fiddlers also had a product line: Superstar Products. We made and sold guitar, drum and cymbal polish, along with padded guitar slides, amp protectors, and various little accessories that were wholesaled across the country. We also had a big endorsement deal at the time with famous rock stars for our “Axe Wax.” Tom Carson was a smart businessman; he had a gift and he made a lot of money on that retail wholesale business unit. The retail unit kept the whole business going.
R.D Francis: So with all that behind the scenes work, I take it that Tom Carson didn’t have much time for producing or playing sessions on any projects. I ask because of his name appearing as the vocalist and guitarist on the Pendragon bootleg — again, which we will get into later.
Scott Strawbridge: No, that’s not quite true. In this one instance, Tom came up with this “one hit wonder” idea. And it’s where our business relationship fell apart. We were all involved in it: Tommy, deMar, Clem [Riccobono], and Sam [Moceri]. After Princess Di [Diana] was killed and disco was coming up, Tom had an inspiration and came up with this song, “Sweet Lady Diana,” a disco-dance song that we mocked-up at Cloudborn. We had Lamont Johnson, who’s a well-renowned session bassist, on it along with Marcus Belgrave [Ray Charles, the Temptations, the Four Tops] on trumpet. We went “first class” all the way and took it to Criteria [Studios in Miami] to mix. It didn’t go anywhere and it was a total flop. And that financial disaster caused the business relationship between Tom and me to fall apart.
But also contributing to the problems: drugs got into the mix at Fiddlers and that whole environment was a very enabling environment. Everyone was having way too much of a “good time.” So it came to a point where you can’t live that way anymore. The non-stop party doesn’t work anymore. You know that movie coming out, White Boy Rick?
R.D Francis: Sure, with Matthew McConaughey. You can’t go wrong with Matt in a movie.
Scott Strawbridge: Well, we all knew Rich Wershe — all the musicians did. Anyway, on top of that, the Detroit economy started to get [really bad]. So I met my wife, my priorities changed, I got married and headed to Florida and ended up at Artisan Recorders.
R.D Francis: And that’s when you started working with the Reggae Sun Splash and Jaco Pastorius.
Scott Strawbridge: Right. That’s when I went into concert production and band management for reggae artists, such as Toots & the Maytals, Eek-A-Mouse, and Yellowman. What happened is that I reconnected with an old classmate of mine from Pine Crest Academy in South Florida, Peter Yianilos. Like Tommy, Peter was an electronics genius who started the company and was the chief designer of the mobile studio used by Artisan. Peter became Jaco’s co-producer and did Jaco’s Word of Mouth album off that mobile truck — recording Jaco in his living room, a dog kennel off 53rd and 13th street in Fort Lauderdale, in warehouses, and in Jaco’s backyard.
R.D Francis: I had no idea you worked on such an iconic album. Then you worked with Peter Graves and his Jazz on the Green events in Southern Florida as well?
Scott Strawbridge: Oh, sure. We worked a lot with Graves’s Atlantean Driftwood Orchestra, which, as you know, gave Jaco Pastorius his start.
R.D Francis: Let’s talk about the Pendragon European bootleg recordings issued as Phantom: The Lost Album. Are you aware of the album?
Scott Strawbridge: No, I didn’t know of the Pendragon stuff being issued until deMar was telling me about it, I guess after he spoke with you. So what is the connection? How did the Happy Dragon become attached to the Pendragon tapes?
R.D Francis: The Lost Album lists Tom Carson, Gary Meisner, Mike deMartino, Dennis Craner, and John Badanjek as its “members.” And that was marketed by the Euro-pirates as the “Part 2” to Phantom’s Divine Comedy: Part 1. So when the pirated Happy Dragon effort comes out, everyone notices the common rosters between the two albums. That’s how Tommy Court and Arthur Pendragon became the “aliases” of Tom Carson.
Scott Strawbridge: Well, I have to tell you that line-up you read off — it just doesn’t jive. I know all those cats. And they all had their own projects and helped each other on their own projects. Yes, we all assisted Tommy on the Happy Dragon project. And again, I have to stress that we were not the Happy Dragon. Tommy is the Happy Dragon and we were just studio musicians.
You also have to realize that those guys were the Fiddlers’ equivalent of Motown’s the Funk Brothers [or Phil Spector’s The Wrecking Crew]. And also, Mike Skill and Jimmy Marino of the Romantics did a lot of session work for us during those years. For $25 bucks a piece an hour, they could lay down a rhythm you could set a chronometer to. So, it’s even possible they’re on the Pendragon tapes.
R.D Francis: Mike deMartino told me he doesn’t recall playing any keyboards on [Arthur] Pendragon’s stuff. He said he definitely engineered their stuff, but he didn’t play on them.
Scott Strawbridge: Yeah, I am just not catching a Pendragon connection at all with those cats together on those tapes. You know, I think I have a theory on this “mix-up.”
R.D Francis: So then I was right in my assumption, partly. They did work as contract players on sessions.
Scott Strawbridge: Absolutely. They all did. We all did. They were house players. Gary Meisner was also a luthier down in the woodshop and an incredible guitar player in his own right. Dennis Craner worked in our lesson rooms and taught bass at Fiddlers. deMar was behind the boards and worked sales in our piano room. Then I was in the studios and doubled on the sales floor.
R.D Francis: So, what is your theory on the pirating of those Pendragon tapes?
Scott Strawbridge: There was a big, old plywood locker on the third floor [where the studios were located] for tape storage. It has two plywood doors with straps and padlocks and had client tapes and raw tape in there. It served as our “client library” and many, many clients left their masters and copies of masters in our custody.
It’s funny, because this very same conversation has come up many times with others over the years. In fact, deMar and I just talked about this. What happened to all of those tapes? I took all of mine when I left for Florida. When I checked out that final time, there was [tape] in there from clients who hadn’t been around the studio for a year or two — or three. There was lots of product in there.
R.D Francis: Other words: it was organized chaos.
Scott Strawbridge: There was no cataloging system, no organization; no policy and procedure. No log-in system. We had some worksheets, but you could do whatever you wanted — fill ’em out, don’t fill ’em out. So when Tom [Carson] left for Canada, I believe someone purchased the interest or the debt was purchased; the carcass of Fiddlers, really, was assumed by others. At that point, who knows who has or what happened to those tapes.
R.D Francis: This is incredible. We’re finally getting to the bottom of the mystery behind the Pendragon tapes. Please, continue.
Scott Strawbridge: So, all the boxes those tapes were in, there were lots and lots of boxes with all those guys you mentioned [listed on The Lost Album]; their names were on all of those boxes — in one form or another, or sometimes not. So there were lots of tapes from different people that could have been pulled out and folks could have pretty much, at that point, made up whatever “story” they wanted [for those tapes].
And that’s because [the tapes] were demos or unreleased works and nobody had a benchmark to refer to, that is, to compare [the tapes] for their accuracy as to “who” was on them. They were all one of kind recordings. So my theory is that whoever the successor interest was at Fiddlers, they found the tapes and they, in turn, found somebody who said they can turn [the Pendragon tapes] into money.
R.D Francis: I agree. Someone sees the tapes, sees “Pendragon” and knows the linage to the Phantom mystery of 1974, and puts out the tapes. “Hey, I can make money off this.”
Scott Strawbridge: And that would have been a couple years after we — myself, deMar, Tom Carson, and everyone — all left. Besides, we wouldn’t have known back then that we could “make money” off Arthur’s work. Again, whoever the successor was to Fiddlers’ interests had an “ah ha” moment. That’s my theory. And you say the Pendragon pirate is popular in Italy?
R.D Francis: Yes, all over Europe in fact. As well as the Happy Dragon band.
Scott Strawbridge: I had no idea. That’s wild. And all because of the Phantom’s Divine Comedy connection?
R.D Francis: There’s a massive Jim Morrison Doors cult in Italy that was rooted in this specialty radio program, sort of like The Grateful Dead Hour or The Beatles Brunch here in the states — only for the Doors. They play all these live Doors bootlegs, along with Manzarek’s solo work, the Butts Band, and so forth — along with the Phantom’s Divine Comedy album. And Arthur became “famous.”
Scott Strawbridge: This is another “Rodriguez” story.
R.D Francis: Yes. It’s exactly like the Sugar Man. Only in Italy instead of South America. While Rodriquez was the “Bob Dylan” of Detroit, Arthur was the “Jim Morrison” of Detroit.
Scott Strawbridge: I didn’t get that part — until now. That is wild.
R.D Francis: So that airplay led to the first pirating of the album on vinyl in 1989. Then the Pendragon pirates appear in 1990. Then they got played. Next thing you know, the Happy Dragon is pirated and that gets played along with the Doors stuff.
Scott Strawbridge: And Tommy’s work is as revered as Arthur’s stuff?
R.D Francis: Oh, yes. There’s a massive cult in Europe, not only for Arthur’s two albums, but Tommy’s as well. That’s how you and Mike got all mixed up in the lineage of the Phantom’s Divine Comedy. Your names, along with everyone else from the Happy Dragon, are tossed around and bantered on web sites and so forth.
Scott Strawbridge: So I finally got my 15 minutes! Alright! That is really cool. I had no idea Arthur’s and Tommy’s works are so well known. Again, I have to note that although myself and deMar [Mike DeMartino] worked on it, we’re not the Happy Dragon. Tommy Court is the Happy Dragon and the Happy Dragon franchise is still alive and he’s still active. In fact, Tommy has recently really gotten popular with the hip-hop scene through his work behind the scenes on projects for Dr. Dre and Eminem.
R.D Francis: Now that I did not know about Tommy. He worked with Dr. Dre? Very cool. So that’s the deal with Arthur’s posthumous fame and, in turn, Tommy Court’s — all through the pirate mismarketing that stems from Capitol’s “Ghost of Jim Morrison” marketing for Arthur’s 1974 album.
Scott Strawbridge: Well, it sucks that musicians had their music stolen. And while [the fans] got the story wrong, it’s really cool that people have the sense that “something important” was going on then — when it really wasn’t.
To me, as a businessman, I am really [angry] that people steal your work. But as an artist, I am glad that more people got to enjoy [The Happy Dragon] and gave it some credibility, which it very much deserves. I can’t wait to tell Tommy, if he doesn’t really already know. He was very gratified that, as the Internet came up, that people were trading his vinyl records in Japan and we saw the price go up and up and we just thought that was really cool. That’s art appreciating and being appreciated. And that’s what it’s all about. The “art.”
As 2019 begins, Tommy Court continues to make music; who would think an article about the Phantom of 1974 would name drop current, chart-topping musicians such as Dr. Dre and Eminem (or Jaco Pastorius and Marcus Belgrave)? Perhaps there’s a hip-hop sample in the Phantom’s future. Action Bronson sampled Detroit’s Frijid Pink, so why not?
It is this writer’s hope that, forty-four years after Ted Pearson released his debut album in March of 1974 that he will continue to make music through the efforts of one of his friends or music associates, or relatives of those individuals. Hopefully, we will see the release of the rumored Walpurgis demos cut at the infamous Catley Manor; or their 1971 New York audition recordings cut at Astral Studios; or the post-Divine Comedy L.A. tapes; or the lost-Eighties Pendragon recordings cut at Detroit’s Cloudborn and United Sound Studios.
One thing is certain: It’s a new beginning for Arthur Pendragon’s second career resurgence in 2019. Not bad for a guy that, according to the Doors’ Ray Manzarek, was “some weird guy who dressed all in black and wore lots of silver jewelry” — as opposed to that aloof guy who wore billowy shirts and tight leather pants, and obsessed over Indians and lizards that previously fronted his band.
Photo Right:
Ted Pearson with Alice Cooper, Ray Manzarek, and Iggy Pop backstage at the Whisky on June 15, about a half-month prior to the Phantom’s debut as the Doors new lead singer on July 3, 1974.
This photo offers proof that Ted joined the Doors and was in rehearsals with the band to ready for their debut at the “Third Anniversary of Jim’s Death” party. This photo is credited to/taken by noted rock photographer James Fortune.
Photo Left:
Iggy Pop, the Phantom (then Ted Pearson), and Ray Manzarek.
Jim Parrett — of the Southern California Demin Delinquent fanzine — shot this photo, which appeared in a December 1974 issue of Creem. The photo was shot on July 3, 1974, backstage at the Whisky for the “Jim Morrison 3rd Anniversary Disappearance Party,” the show that served as the debut for the “new” Doors.
END
The Ghosts of Jim Morrison, the Phantom of Detroit, and the Fates of Rock ’n’ Roll and Tales from a Wizard: The Oral History of Walpurgis are available worldwide as multi-platform eBooks at all eRetailers and as Amazon-exclusive softcover editions. Amazon eBook editions, when purchased, have options to translate the English-content into your language of choice.
MUSIC SECTION with tunes from Detroit’s Arthur Pendragon, Mike de Martino, Scott Strawbridge, and Tommy “The Happy Dragon” Court. Sadly, we lost Jem Targal on October 8, 2021. You can read Jem’s obituary at Pitchfork.com.
For the full listening experience, you can now enjoy the official digital stream of the album courtesy of Songcast, Inc. on You Tube and through Spotify.
