Neil Merryweather: Rock’s Rock ’n’ Roll Space Ranger, Dies
A career spanning the Just Us in 1965 to Lita Ford in 1983: December 27, 1945 — March 28, 2021
Canadian rock singer, bass player and songwriter Neil Merryweather recorded and performed with musicians including Lita Ford, Rick James, Billy Joel, Dave Mason, Steve Miller, and so many others. He passed away on March 29, 2021, in Las Vegas, Nevada, after a short battle with cancer.
This homage to Neil is by no means comprehensive, but an overview of an extensive, influential behind-the-scenes behind-the-shadows career for you, the reader, to discover.
Neil Merryweather, influenced by David Bowie with his Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars project, achieved his low-selling, yet critically acclaimed creative peak of seventies excess with two heavy-psych space-rock albums from his Space Rangers project, released in 1974 and 1975.
A Canadian singer and bassist, Neil Merryweather got his professional start with the Just Us, which released 1965’s “I Don’t Love You b/w I Can Tell” on Quality Records (the label had a major Canadian and U.S. chart hit with “Shakin’ All Over” from the Guess Who). Merryweather eventually joined Rick James (later known for his 1981 disco-funk smash, “Superfreak”) in the Mynah Birds (which featured Neil Young and Bruce Palmer, who had already left for Buffalo Springfield) and recorded the August 1967 single, “It’s My Time,” at Detroit’s Motown Studios. Upon the departure of Rick James, Merryweather kept the Mynah Birds active with fellow Canadian Bruce Cockburn (later known to U.S. radio and video audiences for the singles “Wondering Where the Lions Are” from 1980 and 1984’s “If I Had a Rocket Launcher”; Neil and Cockburn also played together in Flying Circus).
Devotees of early-seventies glam-rock and proto-metal obscurities may note the similarities in artwork and sound on the Space Rangers to that of the later, John Entwistle-fronted rock opera of the Flash Fearless vs. the Zorg Women (October 1975) project featuring Detroiter Alice Cooper; the album itself inspired by Bowie’s Ziggy persona.
Merryweather then established Mama Lion with lead vocalist Lynn Carey and signed with Ripp’s Family Productions (also the home to Billy Joel). After issuing two Janis Joplin-inspired, psychedelic-blues n’ soul efforts with Preserve Wildlife and Give It Everything I’ve Got (both 1972), Mama Lion — sans Carey — became the harder, blues-rocking Heavy Cruiser. Their critically acclaimed, two album stint with Heavy Cruiser and Lucky Dog (1972) attracted the attention of a more industry-reputable managerial suitor, Shep Gordon (he also attempted to sign Iggy Pop; he lost to Danny Sugerman). Gordon wanted to sign and book Heavy Cruiser as Alice Cooper’s opening act. Sadly, Artie Ripp and Shep Gordon didn’t get along, and the Gordon-Cooper deal soured. Along the way, Merryweather was offered — and turned down — the bassist spot in Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.
After assisting Billy Joel in the studio on an early demo of “Piano Man,” which led to Joel signing with Columbia Records, Merryweather devised the glam-inspired, proto-metal Space Rangers project around the then high-tech Chamberlin keyboard, also electronically augmenting the band with a then-groundbreaking use of Octivators and Echoplexes. Initially recording with Capitol, Merryweather issued Space Rangers (1974), then Kryptonite (1975), on Mercury.
Billy Joel, with Neil Merryweather and Heavy Cruiser (Rhys Clark and Alan Hurtz) jamming on “Heart of Gold.”
After losing Iggy Pop and Merryweather, Gordon signed Detroit guitarist Dick Wagner, formerly of the Frost, with his new endeavor, Ursa Major, which featured Billy Joel in its embryonic stages.
Ursa Major became Cooper’s opening act and Wagner wrote “Only Women Bleed.”
Tim McGovern, the drummer in Mama Lion and the Space Rangers, would find success as a guitarist. Starting with the L.A new-wave band the Pop, and then with the Motels, McGovern found MTV success with “Belly of the Whale,” as the frontman for the Burning Sensations. They placed their cover of Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers’ “Pablo Picasso” on the punk-influenced soundtrack for 1984’s Repo Man.
Merryweather, sensing the changing times, adopted a pop-rock, new-wave sound with Eyes, a Holland-based band featuring ex-members of the Nina Hagen Band and Herman Brood’s Wild Romance, which released Radical Genes on RCA Records. However, Merryweather returned to his heavy-metal roots — inventively streamlining and glamming the “old sound” for a wider, commercial appeal — as the manager, bassist, and chief songwriter for the solo career of ex-Runaway Lita Ford on her progenitive hair-metal debut, Out for Blood.
Leaving the industry after the Ford project, but not leaving his creative side behind, Merryweather forged a career as an award-winning painter, sculpture, and photographer and worked in the creative department for the City of Los Angeles Department of Public Works. As the calendar flipped to the 21st century, Merryweather returned to the music business, composing music for teen-oriented television shows and, with ex-Space Rangers Mike Willis and Jamie Herndon, made plans to enter the studio for a new, third Space Rangers album. His other music projects — formed with ex-Space Ranger Jamie Herndon and ex-Lita Ford drummer Dusty Watson were known as Hundred Watt Head and The La La Land Blues Band.
His last project, prior to his passing, was a third album with Janne Stark, formerly the guitarist with Swedish New Wave of British Heavy Metal upstarts Overdrive, which released the classic hard rock albums Metal Attack (1983) and Swords And Axes (1984). You can learn more about the Merryweather Stark band — and their albums Carved in Rock (2018) and Rock Solid (2020) — at their official Facebook page. You may leave condolences at Neil Merryweather’s personal Facebook page, which will continued to be managed by his survivors.
It was my distinct pleasure to have Neil’s friendship as a part of my journey — even for a short time. He was truly one of God’s most talented creations. Keep rockin’, Neil. Heaven’s a little bit more colorful. . . .
Lita Ford and Out for Blood: Behind the Vinyl
By the mid-70s, Neil resided in the Netherlands, where, through Chrysalis Records in London, he set up an imprint, Clear, in cooperation with the Dutch company, Dureco. While developing new acts out of Chrysalis’ studios in Miami and Los Angeles, he released his 12th album, his three-years later follow up to Kryponite (1975) by the Space Rangers, with the solo album, Differences (1978). He then formed the more timely, new-wave outfit Eyes, which released their lone album, Radical Genes.
Then, with new wave and punk on the downward stroke and glam metal on the rise: a new musical adventure called forth. . . .
You know the story: Lita Ford was a member of the Runaways. Joan Jett was fed up with Cherrie Currie as the frontwoman. Currie was tired of being pushed on back burner. Joan wanted to take the band in a punk vein (which she did: with members of the Clash and the Sex Pistols, which morphed into her solo debut, Bad Reputation). Lita wanted to take the band in a metal direction, which Joan hated.
So, Neil, as he did with Lynn Carey, first with the Vacuum Cleaner duo project, and their two albums with Mama Lion, found a new muse for his next musical direction: a creative detour that returned to his ’70s hard-rock roots first explored in the bands Heavy Cruiser and the Space Rangers.
As the mastermind behind a new, full-metal Lita, Neil served as her manager and producer (Billy Joel’s ex-Svengali, Artie Ripp, co-produced; both were signed to Ripp’s Family Productions). In addition to playing bass — his career instrument of choice — Neil wrote four of the albums nine cuts: the album’s title cut song, “Ready, Willing and Able,” “Die for Me Only (Black Widow),” and “On the Run.” If you know Neil’s artistic side: He designed all of his own albums covers, costumes, and stage shows throughout his career: Out for Blood was no exception: he constructed the chain-web, the cover, and the band’s outfits; he also production-designed the MTV video single.
Sadly, his partnership with Lita Ford was short-lived. The experience was such that Neil retired from the business to work as a graphic artist — his second biggest love — for government agencies in Los Angeles and Las Vegas. He’s won numerous awards for his paintings and multi-media pieces, since.
The Seven Minutes (1971): Behind the Reels with the Music of Neil Merryweather
Leave it to Russ Meyer of Beyond the Valley of the Dolls fame to be the only filmmaker to realize the soundtrack potential of the musical scope that is Neil Merryweather. And the potential behind the well-researched, sexually-charged novels of screenwriter Irving Wallace: his early ’60s books, published by Simon & Schuster — The Chapman Report, The Prize, The Man, and 1976’s The R Document — were all adapted, as was The Seven Minutes.
While Russ Meyer’s name immediately says “sex” to exploitation film fans, the film carries a deeper meaning on the effects of pornography and its relationship to issues regarding freedom of speech: It’s also a meta-movie: about a book, The Seven Minutes, purported as the “most obscene piece of pornography ever written.” A district attorney on the political fast track for a senatorial seat uses the book’s erotic infamy to indict a college student for a brutal rape and murder, as well as the book store owner who sold the book to the student.
As for Neil Merrryweather’s soundtrack contribution: “Midnight Tricks” — his pre-Mama Lion joint-album with Lynn Carey, Vacuum Cleaner (1971), as the duo Merryweather & Carey — appears in the film. (While this is a 20th Century Fox film: Neil’s works with Heavy Cruiser and Mama Lion were distributed by the Paramount Studios-imprint, Family Productions.)
The duo’s relationship with Meyer goes back to the smut-auteur recruiting Lynn Carey for the soundtrack to Beyond the Valley of the Dolls: Lynn sings “Find It” and “Once I Had You” for that film’s character in the faux band, the Carrie Nations. While Lynn’s voice appears in the film, for legal reasons, she does not appear on the subsequent, original soundtrack album.
As a child actress, Lynn appeared in the U.S ’60s television series The Man from U.N.C.L.E and Lassie. In the early ’80s she had a stint on the U.S. daytime drama, Days of Our Lives. She made her lone film appearances in Lord Love a Duck (1966) and How Sweet It Is! (1968). Lynn’s attempt at moving into ’80s AOR (think ’80s glam-bent Heart) resulted in her songs appearing in the films I Married a Centerfold (1984), Challenge of a Lifetime (1985), Radioactive Dreams (1985), Hollywood Harry (1985), and Combat High (1986).
As for Neil Merryweather: Flash forward to 2016: “Star Rider,” from the Space Rangers’ 1975 second and final album, Kyrponite, appears in “Home,” the first episode of the second season — where it served as the introduction to Lee Major’s character as Ash’s father — of the U.S Starz cable television series, Ash vs. Evil Dead.
A “Neil Merryweather Tribute Playlist” featuring the bands of his youth, the bands that inspired him, bands that he inspired, and musicians that he worked with during his career. The playlist features over 100 + songs (dependent on any uploads-by-others deleted on those accounts).
All images courtesy of Discogs unless otherwise noted.
