The Pendragons of Ocala, Florida, and Chicago, Illinois
Sidebars to Detroit’s Phantom’s Divine Comedy mystery . . . and a few Phantoms and Happy Dragons, too
When video and audio sharing-site uploads appeared by the dueling Pendragons hailing from Ocala, Florida, and Chicago, Illinois, Phantomphiles believed they found a missing link of possible, lost recordings by the Phantom of Detroit, he the masked musician behind the “Jim Morrison” solo album, Phantom’s Divine Comedy, Part 1, issued on Capitol Records in March 1974. That Pendragon-confusion resulted from the discovery that Detroit’s Phantom — previous known as the progressive-rock driven Madrigal and Walpurgis — transformed into the streamlined, pop-oriented Pendragon, which haunted Detroit stages from 1976 to 1983.
Pendragon of Ocala, Florida: 1973
The first single we’ll examine, “They Told Me You Were Leaving” b/w “Show Me an Honest Man,” written and performed by Edward Clark Sanford, was issued on his vanity-press, Armadillo Records, based out of Ocala, Florida (a then small town situated north of Orlando and south of Gainesville). While there’s no issue date listed on the record, the Discogs repository indicates the single was not issued in the late ’60s as initially thought, but in 1973. While recorded at Sanford’s home studio, the record was mastered at Nashville Record Productions, Tennessee (#NR 3512).
Ecumencial Drugstore: 1968
Edward Clark Sanford was active in the Central Florida local scene since the late ’60s with his first professional band, Ecumencial Drugstore. Their single, “I’d Really Like to Watch You Fly” b/w “I’m Tired,” recorded for Eric Schabacher’s Tener Custom imprint (1968), seen a reissue in 2014 as part of Gear Fab Records’ 4th volume of their Psychedelic States: Florida in the ’60s series (the best-known, as result of their later chart-accomplishments, featured on Vol. 4 are Mike Pinera and Ben Schultz’s A Quest, with “Message in a Bottle”).
While not much is known about Pendragon and Armadillo Records (there was a taptalk.com thread that’s since link-rotted), according to another (safe) thread-discussion at tapatalk.com in 2012, courtesy of Jeff Lemlich, in a conversation with Sanford: Ecumencial Drugstore performed at the Ocala Auditorium on December 6, 1969, with the Tropics (the same day as the infamous Altamont Speedway Free Festival with the Rolling Stones), on Sanford’s 21st birthday.
Ecumenical Drugstore’s sound is described as similar to San Francisco jam bands the Grateful Dead and Quicksilver Messenger Service, as their sets featured threaded-together covers and originals.
Ed Sanford — guitar and vocals
Rex Daughtery — guitar and vocals
Tommy Hanson — guitar (replacing Rex)
Brenda Woodling Sanford (wife) — vocals (and is most likely the female vocalist on the Pendragon single)
Horace Camp — bass (Sept 17, 1948 — Jan 23, 2012)
Jimmy Rizzo — drums
Ben McEarchin — drums (added as fill-in; then the band continued with two drummers)
The Comets, 1981
According to press materials from the reissues label Reminder Records, Edward Clark Sanford continued to work in music publishing and promotions in the Central Florida area, then came to cultivate the Ocala-based career of a late ’70s, British-inspired punk-pop trio, the Comets (think Paul Weller’s Mod-inspired The Jam).
Impressed when attending one of the band’s rehearsals, Sanford created Orange Records to issue the Comets’ singles, “See It In Writing” b/w “Living the Answer” (1981), and “Big Business Jokes” b/w “Help Me” (1983). Orange’s output was mastered by QCA Custom Pressing of Cincinnati, Ohio.
Reminder Records issued a Comets’ album proper to vinyl in 2022, featuring both singles, as well as other unreleased material recorded in Edward Clark Sanford’s home studio and at the Pasco County, Florida, studio of country legends, the Bellamy Brothers.
Pendragon of Chicago, Illinois: 1969
The next Pendragon single we’ll examine is “Never Gonna Go Back” and “Desert of Time,” issued in 1969 by Tower Records, a Capitol subsidiary that was active from 1964 to 1970. While the label specialized in lower-profile artists compared to their parent label, Tower’s the Standells and the Chocolate Watchband nonetheless achieved a national prominence: both are now considered prime examples of the “garage-psych” era of the ’60s. Tower released the initial singles by Freddie and the Dreamers; when Freddie Garrity and company became the newest “British Invasion” flavor of the month on both sides of the Atlantic, they graduated to the Capitol big leagues.
Yes. The misprinted “Michael Bean” on the single is actually the better-known Michael Been. Well, you know him better than you think.
Starting out with HP Lovecraft/Lovecraft (1967 to 1971; three albums with Phillips and Reprise), then Aorta (with Columbia; two albums in 1969 to 1970; part of the band Chicago’s axis), and Fine Wine with Bob Mosley of Moby Grape (one album on Polydor in 1976), Been found his greatest success with the Call (formed in 1980) by way of their MTV video hits, “When the Walls Came Down” (1983) and “Let the Day Begin”; the latter 1989 single gained a renewed interest when used by Al Gore during his 2000 presidential campaign.
In later years, Been came to work as the live soundmixer for Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, which featured his bass-player son, Robert Levon Been. We lost Michael Been in 2010 while on tour with BRMC.
Other Phantoms from Around the World
As is the case with most indie-to-obscure 45-rpms lacking information, such as a city or company address, this record by Phantom — a band lead by one, Dino Rocco — is a mystery. At least it has a year of release, which is more than can be said for most 45-rpms.
As with the two, late ’60s Pendragon we’ve examined from Ocala and Chicago, neither is this Phantom of unknown origin from 1980 connected to the Phantom’s Divine Comedy project or its Detroit-based Pendragon outgrowth.
However, before we discuss the 1980 Phantom, let’s discover the first “Phantom Elvis.”
Yes, before Jimmy “Orion” Ellis surfaced post-Elvis Presley’s 1977 death as “Elvis” (chronicled in the documentary Orion: The Man Who Would Be King), ’50s crooner Pat Boone devised a “Phantom” marketing plan for one of his discoveries.
The Phantom, aka Jerry Lott, aka Marty Lott: 1960
Upon Boone hearing a demo-pressing of the Jerry Lott-composed “Love Me” single, fascinated with its Elvis-like qualities, Boone placed a Lone Ranger mask on Lott and tricked everyone to believe it was a new song by the King of Rock ’n’ Roll. Courtesy of the research by the administrators of seven45rpm.com: we know the musicians backing Jerry Lott on “Love Me” were Frank Holmes on lead guitar, Pete McCord on electric bass, Bill Yates on piano, and H.H. Brooks on drums.
Boone’s gimmick worked. The Phantom’s “hillbilly hiccup” of “Love Me” b/w the ballad “Whisper Your Love” was a hit.
Then Lott suffered a fatal car accident that left him paralyzed from the neck down.
Lott sidelined, Pat Boone kept the Phantom mystique alive with his brother, Cecil Boone, alias “Nick Dodd,” performing as the Phantom. The Boones’ issued another 7”/45-rpm, “Whisper Your Love” b/w “Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue,” under the Phantom moniker — and collectors of obscure 45-rpms still debate if it is Lott or Dodd on record. While Lott wrote “Whisper,” “Has Anybody Seen My Girl?” is a cover of the famed, Gatsby-era ’20s hit. Nick Dodd also wrote and recorded “Your Love’s Gotta Grip on Me” b/w another pressing of “Love Me” — which is marketed as by Dodd, but again: collectors debate it’s Lott on either recording, as they believe Dodd only toured — and did not record — as the Phantom.
Regardless, the Phantom Elvis’s real name was Jerry Lottis.
Beginning his career in 1956, he used the stage name Marty Lott; then reverted to Jerry when he signed with Dot. He died on September 4, 1983.
Phantom on Gramma Records: 1980
That brings us to the Phantom band that issued their lone single in 1980. So, who are Dino Rocco and Ken Collins on this lost Phantom single?
Initially, it was assumed the duo were British or Dutch, even South African musicians; this based on the fact that Gramma Records is a Zimbabwe-based (located in Southern Africa, borders north of South Africa) record label, and was the region’s top label, until recently. Then again, it could be a completely different “Gramma” imprint. Because of the assumed Dutch connection, could this possibly be a band from the Netherlands? It’s not uncommon for records from South Africa and the Netherlands to end up in the other’s country. This is, of course, an educated guess based on the presence of the Gramma label (not “Grandma” as sometimes reported).
The more logical conclusion: Dino Rocco may be “Dino “Bengiamino” Rocco, aka Ben Rocco, who was part of Danny and the Memories with Danny Whitten, Billy Talbot, and Ralph Molina.
In 1963, for Valiant Records, the Memories recorded “Can’t Help Lovin’ that Girl of Mine” b/w “Dont’ Go.” They also recorded a version of “Land of 1000 Dances” for play on ice cream parlor and drug store-based Scopitone video jukeboxes.
The doo-woop outfit — without Rocco, it is said — moved to San Francisco from Los Angeles, inhaled some “Summer of Love” down at Haight-Ashbury, and became Psyrcle, releasing “Baby, Don’t Do That.” Upon Rocco leaving the band (?), Psyrcle became Rockets (releasing two singles and a full album; not to be confused with the Detroit one that born out of Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels). We know the rest of the story: Whitten, Talbot, and Molina became involved with Neil Young and Crazy Horse was born.
You can learn more about Dino Rocco at The Doo Woop Blog and at Doo Woop Collector. You can also read Dino “Bengiamino” Rocco’s insights in Shakey: Neil Young’s Biography by James McDonough (sampled at Google Books; pages 276 to 279).
As for Dino Rocco’s later years: A search for the “Dino Rocco Band” on You Tube uncovers a few original and cover tunes: if he’s the same Dino Rocco from Danny and the Memories — and up through Phantom (1980) — is anyone’s guess.
A Phantom in the Rain: San Diego, California’s The Source
While audiophiles name check San Diego’s Iron Butterfly, Los Angeles’ Steppenwolf and the Chocolate Watchband, San Francisco’s Quicksilver Messenger Service, Detroit’s SRC and Phantom (both signed to Capitol, natch), the Tony Hill-fronted High Tide, and Boston’s Omnibus as “Morrisonesque” — the obscure acts more fitting of that doom n’ gloomy moniker are the private-press artists Circuit Rider, Fraction, Wicked Lady and Lucifer, and the even more blatant, 45-single garage bands Hoppi & the Beau Heems from Tampa, and Loose Enz from York, Pennsylvania. Other Doorsphiles will go deeper, siting Bridges, the ’70s, Norwegian psych-prog rock concern of Paul Waaktaar-Savoy and Magne Furuholmen — later of ’80s popsters Ah-a — as having “Doorsesque organ with Jim’s vocals.” Another early-’70s, limited-edition private press release tossed into the Doorsesque vinyl morass, also courtesy of an early ’90s compact disc-reissue discovery, is Cleveland, Ohio’s Dragonwyck — who sound more like SRC and less than the Doors . . . but SRC sounds like the Doors . . . and collectors believe Dragonwyck’s output sounds like the Phantom . . . who sounds like the Doors. . . .
Then there’s that one artist missing from today’s internet-compiled tributes and “soundalike” asides to the Doors: Richard Bowen’s the Source from Iron Butterfly’s hometown: a band featuring keyboardist Robert Gilly, bassist-guitarist Harold Finch, and drummer Danny Heald. Perhaps if their lone soundtrack album and single output was reissued to compact disc, they’d be a better-known “Doorsesque” band?
Starting a solo recording career in his teens with the Los Alamitos, California-based impress Dale Records — courtesy of a lost, 7-inch 45-rpm acetate single, “Little Girl Lost” b/w “Heart Ache is a Lonely Thing” — Richard Bowen’s more-ambitious the Source signed with American International Pictures’ music division, American International Records: a label incorporated on March 19, 1959, to produce and market music for the studio’s films. As with all of the label’s artists, the Source would cut music for one of those films: A Bullet for Pretty Boy (1970), directed by self-professed “schlockmeister” Larry Buchanan, based on the infamy of 1930’s gangster Charles “Pretty Boy” Floyd.
The Source recorded eight songs with the label’s in-house producer, Harley Hatcher; six were used on the soundtrack’s A-Side, three of which Hatcher wrote: “It’s Me I’m Running From,” “I’m Gonna Love You (’Til I Die),” and “Got Nowhere to Go”; that final song was paired for the Source’s second 45-single release (July 1970) with “Gone Tomorrow,” penned by Richard Bowen. Bowen wrote the remaining songs “Ruby Ruby” and “Ballad of Charles Arthur Floyd,” while Hatcher composed the score comprising the soundtrack’s B-Side.
And what of the band’s first single for the label — “Yesterday Is Gone” b/w “Phantom in the Rain” — a standalone single (March 1970) that never appeared in any American International Pictures’ film?
Whatever A.I.R’s intentions in releasing that rare, non-soundtrack single to radio and retail, as well as the “It’s Me I’m Running From” b/w “Gone Tomorrow” single from the A Bullet for Pretty Boy soundtrack, both singles failed to chart; the film equally failed with critics and at the drive-in box office — thus sinking Fabian Forte’s hopes for an “adult” film career.
However, as much “Phantom in the Rain” sounds like the Doors, that’s how much its A-Side, “Yesterday Is Gone,” does not. The same can be said for the remainder of the band’s six-song output on the A Bullet for Pretty Boy soundtrack: none of the tracks come close to having a Doors-like quality. During his tenure with the Source, Richard Bowen also came to work with Terry Furlong of the Grass Roots; the duo wrote the song “Trivial Sum,” recorded by The New Buffalo Springfield, aka Blue Mountain Eagle, for their lone album released on Atco Records in 1969.
In the early ’80s, as Larry Buchanan put together Down On Us (1984), his faux-biographical drama — mixed with speculations and conspiracies regarding the deaths of Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Jim Morrison, and needing soundalike artists to represent each — he remember the “Doorsesque” quality of “Phantom in the Rain” all those years ago. So, Richard Bowen recut a non-orchestrated version of the 1970-song for the film, as well a new song: the ragga-inspired “Knock So Hard,” as stand-ins for the Doors.
Then, in 1989, with Oliver Stone beginning production on Hollywood’s long-gestating bio-pick on Jim Morrison, Buchanan re-released his drive-in bomb to home video as Beyond the Doors. When Phantomphiles and Doorsphiles heard Bowen’s faux-Doors tunes for the first time via the widely-distributed VHS, they believed they found the missing piece to the mystery behind the Phantom’s Divine Comedy effort: Richard Bowen was “The Phantom” of Detroit.
Nope. No more than Edward Clark Sanford from Ocala, Florida, or Michael Been from Chicago, Illinois . . . but not as much as Earl Theodore Pearson from Detroit, Michigan. . . .
By the late ’70s, Richard Bowen founded Circle Sound Studios in the eastern outskirts of San Diego, in the city of El Cajon. Working as an independent artist for the remainder of the ’80s — as the studio hosted sessions for both local and national acts (including Jimmy Buffett live sessions and a series of popular “Jazzercise” albums in the ’80s) — he recorded as the Bowen-Jenkins Band (releasing songs on San Diego’s KGB-FM’s “Homegrown” album series), as the Dharma Bums (featuring longtime associate Joel Edelstein and ex-Source keyboardist Robert Gilly), as well as two private-press solo albums under his own name in the ’80s, and as Mission Street in the ’90s: a band featuring his lead guitar-playing son Richie and his bassist-son Jesse, and other longtime associates in ex-Source drummer Danny Heald, and synthisist Nick Garett.
Don’t Let the ‘Pentagram’ Cast a Spell . . .
Then there’s the other the Source from the early ’70s, aka Source Family, alternately known as Tim and Robin — that’s not to be confused with the San Diego one. Part of the Los Angeles-based The Source (Family) cult lead by one, James Edward Baker, aka Father Yod, Tim Garon (vocals, guitar) and Yod’s teen wife Robin Baker (vocals) made a number of musical recordings with/for Father Yod that funded the church.
As with Richard Bowen and the Source, the Source on Pentagram Records appeared on film with a version of Exuma’s “You Don’t Know What’s Goin’ On” (backed with the non-film cut, “Hummingbird”) for the Peter Boyle-starring film, Joe (1970). During their end of year overview of films released that year, the industry trade paper Variety noted the film — grossing over 19 million against its 100 thousand dollar budget — was the 13th highest grossing film of 1970. Unfortunately, the film’s box office success wasn’t enough to push the Source into the U.S. Billboard Top 40.
In addition to their music featured in Joe, The Source appeared in the early Donald Sutherland film, Alex In Wonderland (1970). After their tenure with Pentagram, Tim and Robin recorded demos for Playboy Records (home to hitmakers Mickey Gilley and Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds, and the rock ’n’ roll mystery that is Jim Sullivan) that never saw release.
In all honesty, the arrangements and production — as well as the vocals of Richard Bowen verses Tim Garon — on their respective singles are analogous, so past web-confusions between the two groups are excusable. And while Bowen may, Garon sounds nothing like The Lizard King; his voice is mesmerizing, nonetheless.
You can learn more about Tim Garon’s musical endeavors at My Life in the Source Family blog, as well as watch their rare, December 1975, local Los Angeles television appearance on You Tube.
Pendragon of Detroit: 1983
This brings us to Pendragon hailing from Detroit, Michigan, in existence from 1976 to 1983.
The band was led by Ted Pearson, who came to legally change his name in the mid-‘70s to Arthur Pendragon, his stage persona when fronting the rock opera-inflected Walpurgis.
Walpurgis’ roots began in 1966 with the Revolvers. Pearson, with that band’s bassist Harold Beardsley, then developed a harder, less British pop-edge with Madrigal (featuring Paul Cervanek of Good Tuesday) and drummer Jim Roland. Amid more roster changes as the band ventured into an even darker, harder prog-rock direction, the band became alternately known as Walpergis/Walpurgis.
Upon signing a contract with Bob Seger’s manager Ed “Punch” Andrews’s Hideout/Palladium Productions (it is said Pearson engineered sessions for the company, notably Suzi Quatro’s The Pleasure Seekers) and adding a new keyboardist in Russ Klatt from Downtown Clergy, Walpurgis became known as “Phantom” to capitalize on their Doors soundalike qualities.
When Phantom dissolved in early 1975, Ted Pearson formed the first version of Pendragon out of the ashes of Mitch Ryder’s solo touring band, of which Pearson was a member. The band’s many roster changes featured Jerry Zubal, formerly of the Kwintels, and the Free‘s Joe Memmer.
Pendragon came to record its first demos with (still debated) studio musicians in 1977 at Fiddlers Music, the studio founded and owned by Tom Carson of the Lazy Eggs, who also produced (still debated).
By 1983, Pendragon — with a new guitarist, Rick “The Lion” Stahl, formerly with the Sincerely Yours — recorded four sides: “Lone Wolf” b/w “Storms” and “Queen of Air” b/w “(This Is) Your Life” for the band’s vanity press, Dragon Lady Records. Each were recorded at Cloudborn Studios, owned and operated by Gary Praeg, also of the Lazy Eggs. Mastering was completed at United Sound Studios.
It is the 1977-era, unmastered Fiddlers Music demos of these four songs by Pendragon, along with three other songs from those sessions, which appear on the oft-pirated Phantom: Lost Album — first issued on vinyl and compact disc by the Italian-based imprints Ghost (1990; vinyl) and Flash (1997; compact disc), respectively. And no: it wasn’t recorded in 1973 before the Divine Comedy effort. The Ghost pirated-version was released on the heels of their 1989 impress of Capitol’s Phantom’s Divine Comedy in the Italian marketplace to capitalize on a renewed interest in Jim Morrison.
Still not a believer?
You can listen to the mastered, 45-rpm version of “Lone Wolf” released locally in Detroit in 1983.
The Phantom-Pendragon Connection to Bob Seger
It’s oft bantered by Detroit scenesters of the ’60s — but widely, and rightly so, discredited — that Ted Pearson wrote two songs for Bob Seger. Then again, according to a March 1977 issue of the Eastern Pennsylvania newspaper, The Mercury (seen below): Bob Seger was The Phantom of Detroit . . . at least until everyone thought it was Iggy Pop.
The first song, said to be part of the 1977 Fiddlers Music recordings, is “Hollywood Nights,” from Seger’s 1978 breakthrough album, Stranger in Town. To date, there is no recorded evidence of such a version existing from those R&D demo sessions (the Ghost pressing has only seven songs; but full-length albums have eight songs; was “Hollywood Nights” cut due to copyright issues?). The band’s past members — guitarist Chris Marshall (who co-wrote several songs on the demos; notably “(Release Me) Morgan le Fey”), Joe Memmer and Jerry Zubal, each with the band during that period — have stated they never recorded or played a live version of the song.
The second song, “Lucifer,” appears on Seger’s third studio album, Mongrel, released in August 1970. This would have been around the Madrigal years, as the band became Walpurgis by 1970 for their debut appearance at the Grande Ballroom. Again, there’s no recorded evidence of such a recording existing or as part of the band’s live sets. Keyboardist Paul Cervanek — who played with Walpurgis, as well as its precursor, Madrigal — has stated, while Ted’s lyrics were “dark and sometimes devil-ingesting,” no such song was rehearsed, recorded, or played live.
In a plot twist: Deep Purple covered “Lucifer” as part of their latest album, Turning to Crime (2021), which placed the Seger obscurity back on the musical radar — and stirred up the obscure Motor City rumor of Ted Pearson’s “authorship” of the song.
When these tales, well, unsubstantiated rumors, of “Hollywood Nights” and “Lucifer” are mentioned to Detroiters — those knew both Bob Seger and Ted Pearson — their response is, “Teddy said that?”
“The way I look at it,” insights Russ Klatt in 2021, “the incredible songs that Bob has written over the years, lyrically, he could just write lyrics, all day long. Look at the kudos from musicians like Garth Brooks, and others, showered on Bob. To think about all the songs Bob has written, along with those, so many Eagles’ tunes he co-wrote with Glenn Frey: Why in the hell would somebody like Ted . . . Plagiarism? Bob? No way.”
So goes the twisted tales of the obscure singles by the Pendragons and the Phantoms issued in the 7”/45-rpm netherworlds. And you know the rest of the story . . . uh, oh. . . .
The Phantom Goes Country with Flat Broke: 1975
Well, maybe you don’t . . .
It’s shades of Little Feat with the self-professed “Black Sabbath of Bluegrass,” Detroit’s Flat Broke, featuring Phil Bliss of Tea/1776, Gary Gawinek of Tea and All the Lonely People, and Jim Roland, formerly of Walpurgis and Phantom. Remember that Jerry Zubal, later of Ted Pearson’s next band, Pendragon, was a founding member of Tea/1776.
Flat Broke formed in 1975 in Rochester Hills, Michigan. The band featured Phil Bliss, guitar, vocals; Bill Dayner, bass; Dave Dymon, banjo, pedal steel, vocals; Gary Gawinek, lead vocals; and Dave Heins, mandolin, guitar, vocals.
While not at the same time, Gawinek, Dayner, and Roland worked with Ted Pearson in Walpurgis and Phantom. Gary, serving as the band’s producer, with Jim Roland on drums and Keith Abernod as their soundman, worked on the Walpurgis project in Pampa Studios as they transitioned into “Phantom” and put out the Divine Comedy effort in March 1974.
Flat Broke added Jim Roland on drums a short time after the band started; Keith Abenrod replaced Bill Dayner on bass in 1978. The band recorded in Ted Pearson’s garage-loft home studio — with Ted producing those recordings.
You can listen to the recorded output of Flat Broke on ReverbNation.
The Phantom Becomes a Happy Dragon: 1978
In 1978, two musicians entered the 3rd floor recording loft of Fiddlers Music located on Outer Drive and Mack Avenue in Detroit: one was Tommy Court, the other was Arthur Pendragon.
Fiddlers Music — founded by Tom Carson, he formerly with the Detroit pop band, the Lazy Eggs — operated a retail outlet on the first floor with music lessons and repair services on the second floor; Tommy Court, an electronics prodigy and then student at the University of Michigan, constructed the recording studios and served as the studio’s chief engineer. The studio consisted of Tascam’s then groundbreaking Model-10 console and a Series-80 1/2” 8-Track tape deck.
In a January 2019 interview with Scott Strawbridge, who served as the studio’s assistant engineer, later becoming the studio’s chief engineer when Tommy Court went on the road as the soundman for the Rockets: we learned the musicians noted on The Lost Album by Phantom (aka Pendragon), and the Happy Dragon effort, Band, served as Fiddlers’ version of Motown’s the Funk Brothers; Gary Meisner (who taught guitar and worked as a luthier), Dennis Craner, formerly of Catfish and the Rockets (who worked in sales and taught bass), the Rockets’ drummer John Badanjek (during this time he worked on new Alice Cooper tracks with Bob Ezrin in Toronto), and keyboardist Mike deMartino (who also worked as an engineer at Cloudborn Studios owned by Gary Praeg, he also formerly of the Lazy Eggs), appeared on many projects recorded at the studio. In fact, many projects were researched and developed at Fiddlers, with final recordings and mastering completed at Cloudborn. Sometimes, Fiddlers recordings were mastered for release at United Sound Studios, which had a record lathe.
In his own social media posts with fans over the years, Tommy Court explained he wrote, performed and engineered the Happy Dragon project (as one of Fiddlers’ first, if not the first, recording sessions) as an “engineering exercise” to test the studios. While almost every track has at least one “guest player” (some noted above, who also appeared on the Pendragon sessions), 95% of all vocals, guitars, synths and effects were completed by himself.
Now, this is where the confusion between Tom Carson, Tommy Court and Arthur Pendragon — and their respective recordings — comes in:
According to Scott Strawbridge: Fiddlers had a big, old plywood locker on the third floor for tape storage; it had two plywood doors with straps and padlocks and had client tapes and raw tapes which served as the studio’s “client library” — and many clients left their masters and copies of masters in the studio’s custody. While there were “work sheets” to keep track of sessions, there was no organized cataloging system; no official policy or procedures for logging projects.
As result of this lack of cataloging, it is surmised when Fiddlers went out of business (in the early ’80s; opened in 1969), whomever the successor interest was at Fiddlers, they found the Pendragon tapes, knew of its quasi-connection to the Phantom mystery of 1974, and they, in turn, found someone who said they can turn the tapes into money. That “someone,” who could make up whatever tale they wanted, was in Italy.
By 1989, when vinyl-pirated copies of the Phantom’s Divine Comedy effort from 1974 appeared in the Italian marketplace — to assuage a renewed interest in Jim Morrison sparked by the album’s airing as part of a radio tribute to the Lizard King — the Pendragon demos and the Happy Dragon album, both cut in 1978, were also re-released (pirated) — with each marketed as the product of “The Phantom”; thus began the confusion of the Fiddlers Music-connected trio being the same person, with one serving as the alias of the other.
By the late 1990s, when all three efforts were reissued to compact disc, the Internet — with video sharing sites, such as You Tube — was in full swing, as fans ripped and uploaded the Morrison-connected music. So began the spread of misinformation that the Happy Dragon of 1978 was the return of the Phantom from 1974 . . . as the long-forgotten legend that a three-years dead Jim Morrison recorded another album, returned on the dawn of the 21st century.
You can listen to the remastered and reissued version of Band by the Happy Dragon on Spotify. In April 2023, ‘70s-era photos of Tommy Court were discovered and posted at Dangerous Minds.
— R.D Francis
R.D Francis is the author of the books The Ghost of Jim Morrison, the Phantom of Detroit, and the Fates of Rock ’n’ Roll, and its sequel, Tales from a Wizard: The Oral History of Walpurgis. Both are available through Amazon, Smashwords, and other online eRetailers for all eReader platforms. You can learn more about his work on Facebook and Linktree.
You can enjoy more photos of the Phantom and other Detroit musicians at the Facebook Author’s Page of R.D Francis.
Photo Credits: Jim Morrison-Phantom banner montage: Morrison photos by Joel Brodsky, 1967; Phantom photos by Tom Weschler, 1973/1970. All single/album images are courtesy of Discogs, unless noted. The Tener single image is provided by 45 Cat and the Sanford/Comets images are courtesy of Reminder Records. Logo pinback button for the Detroit-based Pendragon is courtesy of Worthpoint. Happy Dragon banner by Klemen Breznikar/It’s Psychedelic Baby Magazine. Flat Broke image courtesy of band/ReverbNation. Pendragon/Phantom band promos courtesy of Tom Weschler.
