DEWEY MARTIN & MEDICINE BALL

Posted on 28 September 2015

LOST TREASURES

DEWEY MARTIN & MEDICINE BALL

“Dewey Martin & Medicine Ball”

Dewey Martin LP Cover

By Peter Marston

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Like a lot of pop fans, I like to follow the post-break-up careers of the members of my favorite bands. Often, this is easy to do, as it was in the ’70s when the solo Beatles were regularly on Top 40 radio. I also remember tracking down Michael Nesmith’s LPs with the First and Second National Bands (and beyond) in the hopes of fanning the embers of Monkeemania. However, it is not at all unusual for some such post-break-up works to slip through the cracks or be downright obscure. Take the Buffalo Springfield, for example. Following Stephen Stills career after the Springfield? Easy. Neil Young’s? Ditto. Ritchie Furay’s? OK, now you have to pay attention, but not too much. Dewey Martin’s? Um, who? Indeed, it wasn’t until several years after its original release that I came across a copy of Dewey Martin and Medicine Ball, the only major release by the former Springfield drummer. (For the record, bassist Bruce Palmer also released an obscure post-Springfield LP, The Cycle is Complete).

Young Dewey

Dewey Martin was one of three Canadians in Buffalo Springfield (the others being Neil Young and Bruce Palmer) and the last member to join the band. After the band broke up in 1968, he quickly formed a new group to capitalize on the Springfield’s success. Unimaginatively named New Buffalo Springfield, the band was soon delivered with cease-and-desist orders and shortened their name to New Buffalo which was deemed acceptable by the lawyers involved. Still, the band folded less than a year after they formed, never releasing an album or single. In early 1970, Martin formed Medicine Ball, a band with a fairly loose roster, including―at various times―former Springfield bassist Bruce Palmer, Billy Darnell, Pete Bradstreet, Bob Stamps, Randy Fuller (Bobby’s brother), Terry Gregg, Harvey Kagan, Steve Lefever, and Buddy Emmons. As Martin was under contract with UNI Records since mid-1969, the Medicine Ball album was undertaken under the auspices of that contract and finally released in August of 1970.

Dewey Martin Inside Cover

The most surprising thing about Dewey Martin and Medicine Ball is that Martin is just a terrific singer, sounding quite a bit like Joe Cocker on the latter’s seminal first two albums.  The arrangements, too, share a lot in common with those Cocker albums: bluesy rock with an eye to dramatic melodies and pretty chord changes. The big difference is Medicine Ball’s prevalent use of pedal steel, which, on the whole, works well. Now all that said, on “Indian Child,” the opening track, Martin sounds a little closer to David Clayton Thomas than Cocker, but, hey, that’s in the same ballpark at least. For me, the highlights on the album are the ballads “Silent Song Thru the Land” and “I Do Believe” and the country-rock “The Devil and Me.” A mere curiosity is “Recital Palmer,” a meandering free-form instrumental written (though that may be an overstatement) by Bruce Palmer. The album also features a slowed-down and countrified cover of Buddy Holly’s “Maybe Baby” and a very Cocker-esque reading of “Yesterday.”

 

No singles were pulled from Medicine Ball. Shortly after the release of the LP, however, RCA did put out a single credited to the band (“There Must Be a Reason” written by Joe Cocker and Chris Stainton  b/w “Caress Me Pretty Music” written by Alan O’Day ―that’s right, of “Undercover Angel” fame), though the recordings actually feature Martin backed by Elvis’ TCB Band. The single, like the LP, failed to make any impression on the charts.

Dewey Martin single

Martin left the music business in 1971, working for a period as a mechanic, but in the ’80s, he returned to play with various bands, including Buffalo Springfield Revisited, a band put together by Bruce Palmer but, of course, featuring none of the three main singers or songwriter. Martin passed away in 2009.

 

Dewey Martin and Medicine Ball has never been reissued on CD or in the digital domain. Used copies are readily available on the resale market and the album is frequently posted on various blogs and file-sharing sites. Fans of the Springfield and Joe Cocker will definitely want to seek this one out!

 

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Pop Pioneer and “Lost Treasures” writer, Peter Marston is the leader of long-running power pop band, Shplang, whose most recent album, “My Big Three Wheeler” has been described as “the Beatles meet Zappa in pop-psych Sumo match.”  Peter has a new project in 2015 under the name MARSTON.   They will have a track on the upcoming “Power Pop Planet – Volume 5” compilation due in June, 2015.

You check it out at this link:  http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/shplang

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LINKS:

Wikipedia:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dewey_Martin_(musician)

AMG:  http://www.allmusic.com/album/dewey-martin-medicine-ball-mw0000846685

Article:  http://www.rockdetector.com/artist/usa/dewey+martin++medicine+ball

VIDEO:

 

INDIAN CHILD:

 

LOVELESS LIES:

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