Spare Creativity #5: March 1968 - 1969: It's Kinda Autobiographical

Pictured above: The United States of America, 1968

Shortly after their debut self-titled effort was released, tensions within the band Los Angeles experimental rock band known as The United States of America quickly rose, with disagreements between Joseph Byrd, Gordon Marron, and Ed Bogas on the band’s musical direction. This led to among other things a backstage fistfight between Marron and Byrd after the band's performance supporting the Troggs at the Fillmore East when the latter band's fans had heckled the United States of America and Byrd and Marron competed against each other in turning up the volumes on their amplifiers.

Despite the internal conflicts, Columbia Records insisted on the recording of a second album, much to the disgruntlement of the band members. During recording sessions, members had left one by one subsequently being replaced by different musicians, with only Joseph Byrd and Dorothy Moskowitz remaining as the sole original members.

“At that point, the album had basically become a solo effort with several studio musicians and Dorothy on vocals. I wanted to put it out under a different band name, but Columbia insisted on us keeping The United States of America name. They did, however, let me pick the name of the album.”

 - Joseph Byrd, 2013

Following up on the recording of the album, Byrd and Moskowitz went their separate ways. Byrd later released a number of additional recordings under his own name, as well as scoring films, writing music for television and commercials, and working as a music producer. In the 1970s he founded the Yankee Doodle Society, dedicated to the popular music of the mid-19th century, and released several albums of songs of the period. He is married, lives in northern California near the Oregon border, and since 2000 has taught music-related classes at College of the Redwoods. 

Moskowitz later became a member of Country Joe McDonald's All-Star Band, touring and recording with them. She also composed theater music, recorded commercials, and sang jazz in clubs. After a brief retirement from music she began writing music for children in the 1980s and 1990s. In 2003, she became a music teacher for elementary schools in Piedmont, California, introducing students to the basics of brass instruments and vocal techniques. She has developed a number of other music projects in the San Francisco Bay area and lives in a suburb of Oakland, California.

Gifts and Creatures
 

Side A:

01. Kalyani (3:53) [1]

02. You Can’t Ever Come Down (3:38) [1]

03. Tailor Man (3:11) [1]

04. Nightmare Train (3:36) [1]

05. Osamu’s Birthday (2:11) [1]

06. Don’t You Follow Me (2:34) [1]

Side B:

07. No Love (2:49) [1]

08. The Sing-Along Song (3:58) [1]

09. Perry Pier (2:32) [1]

10. Invisible Man (3:16) [1]

11. The Sub-Sylvian Litanies (0:44) [1]

12. The Elephant at the Door (5:13) [1]

13. The Sing-Along Song (Reprise) (0:49) [1]

Released: 1969

Track sources:

[1] - Gifts and Creatures - soniclovenoize’s Albums That Never Were