CAT MOTHER AND THE ALL NIGHT NEWSBOYS. THE STREET GIVETH … AND THE STREET TAKETH AWAY, CONSIDERED (1969): The musicians not the music?

For the moment let's not worry about the music on this old album pulled from the shelves at random for consideration in this on-going series. The music will make itself known to us as we go.

Let's instead just concentrate on the names involved, who they were, where they went and who they became.

There is a story worth telling right there.

The co-producer of this debut album by the New York band was Jimi Hendrix and the 11 tracks were recorded at the Record Plant and among the engineers was Tony Bongiovi (aka “Motown” and a cousin of Jon Bon Jovi).

He'd learned his craft as a teenager in Motown's Hitsville studio in Detroit on a flying visit and applied it to New York rock bands working with the great Shadow Morton.

He moved to the Record Plant to work with Hendrix on Electric Ladyland and later alongside Alan Douglas on Jimi's controversial posthumous albums.

Oh, and Cat Mother – more of them in a moment – were managed by the notorious Mike Jeffrey, the ex-manager of the Animals who controlled Hendrix's money and did quite nicely for himself, thank you very much.

So that's the back end.

The band were co-founders Roy Michaels (bass, guitar and vocals) and keyboard player, drummer and singer Bob Smith. Michaels had worked with Stephen Stills and Richie Furay before they formed Buffalo Springfield.

Also on the album are drummer, guitarist and singer Michael Equine, Larry Packer (lead guitarist, mandolin, vocals and violin) and singer/guitarist Charlie Chin (born William Chin).

That was quite a nexus of talented players who had folk and rock in their background, and in their early days they played at folk club Cafe Wha? in downtown before becoming the house band at the psychedelic Electric Circus in the East Village taking over from Velvet Underground.

So now we have the players and the context.

And the music?

Well here is where it gets a little odd because their sole hit was a medley Good Old Rock'n'Roll which pulled together bits of Sweet Little Sixteen, Long Tall Sally, Whole Lot of Shakin' Goin' On and other rock'n'roll classics into a fraction over three minutes.

Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels had greater success with their Devil With the Blue Dress/Good Golly Miss Molly medley three years previous, which maybe where the idea had come from?

However in 1969 it went top 20 in Canada and just under in the US. Which seems odd given the day-glo aspect of the hippie era. But here's the clue.

One of the most popular acts at Woodstock in 1969 was the retro-rock'n'roll act Sha Na Na because what they sang were the songs that generation had grown up on and so were immediately familiar. (Cat Mother's Packer joined Sha Na Na briefly in 1970).

So retro-rock'n'roll opened Cat Mother's debut album.

Thereafter the music gets more in tune with its own era in slighty-delic rock, a bit of politics (How I Spent My Summer), more rockn'roll revivalism and pretty decent folk-rock (Favors).

But it never settles on any particular Cat Mother style. Inevitable when you have four writers all contributing together in different configurations and solo.

The nine minute-plus jam on Track In A right at the end is perhaps the most interesting

So The Street Giveth isn't much cop really.

But . . .

They played at the famous Toronto Rock and Roll Revival concert (where the Plastic Ono Band recorded their Live Peace in Toronto album) and shortly after the album's release they relocated to California.

They ended up in Mendocino where they became a much more interesting folk-rock band.

And the subsequent careers of the various original members are fascinating: Michaels moved to Thailand where he recorded with that country's great folk-rock band Carabao, headed by Aed who is revered for his political stance, guitar playing and blend of local folk with hard rock. Think of him as the Santana of Thailand. 

Packer not only played with Sha Na Na and the New York Rock Ensemble but also live with Lou Reed, Judy Collins, Hall and Oates and many others.

Smith played in numerous bands in the Mendocino area.

Over their five year career as Cat Mother a number of others passed through the ranks, most of whom had interesting careers before or after their tenure.

After Michaels died in 2008 (back in Mendocino where he'd come home for treatment), many of the original Cat Mother members re-formed for a tribute concert.

So even if The Street Giveth . . . and The Street Taketh Away isn't up to much as an album, it's an interesting portal into the period and the players.

It was worth the $3 in a secondhand shop to find all that out.

And now it goes back on the shelf for the foreseeable future.

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Needless to say this particular album is not available on any streaming services but a few later rock'n'roll tracks are on Spotify here.

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Albums considered in this on-going page of essays are pulled from the shelves at random, so we can get the good, the bad or the indifferent from major artists to cult acts and sometimes perverse oddities.