The Unrelated Segments of Taylor, Michigan: Another Frijid Pink Sidebar, Part 2
From ’60s Beatlesque pop-rock to ’70s organ-grinding prog-rock with Lost Nation
As worldwide connoisseurs of ’60s progressive and psychedelic rock learn more about the career of Detroit’s world-famous Frijid Pink — by way of the numerous hard media retro-reissues in the online marketplace (yes, audiophiles still collect physical media) — they come to notice the name of a lesser-known band from Detroit’s local scene (those those outside the Motor City, natch) mentioned: the Unrelated Segments.
The connection between the like-minded Detroit-based rockers results from the joint departure of Gary Lee Thompson and Kelly Green from Frijid Pink to form Bullfrog (reported in Billboard on April 3, 1971). That joint departure resulted in a Frijid Pink roster change where Larry Zelanka and Craig Webb joined — during the band’s prog-rock Earth Omen period. Zelanka and Webb, in turn, departed Frijid Pink to join Ron Stults’s Lost Nation, which released the album Paradise Lost (1970/Rare Earth-Motown). Upon another roster upheaval in the ranks after their fourth and final album, All Pink Inside (1975, Fantasy), Frijid Pink’s founder and drummer Rick Stevers recruited a local band from Dearborn, Michigan, Heavyn, to form yet another version of Frijid Pink.
Ron Stults’s former band — the main subject of this essay — the Unrelated Segments, had a few Detroit/Midwest-regional pop-radio hits in the U.S with “Story of My Life,” “Where You Gonna Go?,” and “Cry, Cry, Cry” during its 1966 to 1969 tenure — each benefiting from airplay on the Motor City’s prominent WKNR “Keener 13” radio.
Image Left: Sharing the stage with the pre-Frijid Pink Detroit Vibrations for a show hosted by DJ Robin Seymour of CKLW-FM/TV.
Image Right: The Unrelated Segments at the CKLW hosted Hullaballoo.
Jon Wearing — who sang lead on Earth Omen, only to be replaced by Jo Baker for Frijid Pink’s fourth and final album, All Pink Inside — came from the Beatleseque Tidal Waves, which had a 1966 Detroit/Midwest-regional hit with “.” Another of their singles, “I Don’t Need Love,” was released by the U.S. label-imprint of Saturday morning cartoons-animation studio, Hanna-Barbera. The Tidal Waves did many shows alongside the Unrelated Segments, while the previous incarnation of Frijid Pink, the Detroit Vibrations, performed on stage with the Unrelated Segments.
Jon Wearing, later of Frijid Pink, second from left.
The Unrelated Segments first came together in the fall of 1966 out of ashes of the Village Beaus by that band’s members: singer Ron Stults and lead guitarist Rory Mack. The remainder of the band rounded out with rhythm guitarist John Torok, bassist Barry Van Engelen, and drummer Andy Angellotti.
Quickly, after two rehearsals, the quartet composed their first single, the oft-compilation included “The Story of My Life” b/w “It’s Unfair,” recorded at Detroit’s oft-used United Sound Studios and released on Dick Cioffari and John Chekaway’s local SVR label in the spring of 1967. Encouraged by a charting-hit on local Detroit stations (where it reached the lower regions of the “Top 10” on WKNR radio), and a few Midwest-regional radio stations, Hanna-Barbera picked up the song for national distribution.
Unfortunately, Hanna-Barbera Records poor, limited promotion and distributional issues impeded the band’s ability to chart nationally with their debut single; so the band signed with the more established Liberty Records (one of their artists at the time was Billy Joel’s first professional band, the Hassles) for their next two singles: the first, “Where You Gonna Go?” b/w “It’s Gonna Rain,” was their second overall.
Regardless of lacking a national hit, the Unrelated Segments still had two regional-charting hit singles, so the band quickly forgone the out-of-the-way club dates of other up-and-coming Detroit garage bands and went straight to the most-cherished of Detroit gigs: The Grande Ballroom. On that stage they opened for the Jeff Beck Group, the MC5, the Spencer Davis Group, Spirit, and the Who.
The Liberty Records-era of the Unrelated Segments.
By the time of their third single, “Cry, Cry, Cry” b/w “It’s Not Fair,” issued on Liberty in the summer of 1968, the band splintered with the rhythm section loss of drummer Andy Angellotti — who was fired and soon replaced with Ron Fuller. Then, by the spring of 1969, bassist Barry Van Engelen was drafted for Vietnam service (a roster shake up and career stumble that befallen the likes of Detriot’s the Coronados and the Shaggs, and Miami’s the Modds).
Shortening their name to the harder-edged sounding U.S., the revamped outfit filled their open bass spot with rhythm guitarist John Torok’s transition to four-string duties to make room for guitarist Daryl Gore. Unlike their previous incarnation, U.S. recorded several tracks but none were released, as the band disbanded by the dawn of the new decade.
Taking cues from Capitol’s Detroit-signing of the progressive-leaning SRC, Ron Stults deployed a Hammond B3 for his next effort: Lost Nation: a band best described as “proto-metal” with a sound similar to Deep Purple’s and Uriah Heep’s keyboard arrangements.
Today — amid twenty-four single-compilation entries — the Unrelated Segments issued a proper album: 1998’s Where You Gonna Go? on Cidadelic Records. By 2014, Guerssen Records released the compilation, The Story of My Life: Complete Recordings.
Ron Stults and Rory Mack passed away in 2010 and 2011, respectively.
Listen to the Music
In March 2025, Grapefruit Records, the garage-psych rock imprint of the U.K-based Cherry Red Records, reissued the Unrelated Segments’ “Where You Gonna Go?” as part of their three-disc homage, Motor City is Burning: A Michigan Anthology 1965–1972. The compilation also features Orchard Park, Michigan’s The Shaggs with “She Makes Me Happy.”
Credits: Bands/Flyers: The ’60s and Early ’70s Detroit Rock Scene, (Detroit) Local Bands that Never Made the Big Time, and (Michigan) Splatt Gallery Art Gallery Facebook Groups. Singles/Albums: Discogs.
