Artist description a quintessential West Coast band that absorbed all American styles and synthesized them into a new creative expression

Music Style American styles from hard rock to folk, pop, jazz, blues, country, and R&B

Artist History A folk musician gone electric, Stoney Young came west from Detroit at the age of 19 to the golden music mecca of Los Angeles in late 1965 (shortly after the Watts riot) to follow in the footsteps of Dylan, the Beach Boys and the Beatles, to put it all together and realize his vision of a group whose sum was more than that of its individual parts. He connected with his 16 year old drummer cousin, Lucky Parker of Bell Gardens, Calif., someone influenced by wildly different styles of music, surf and jazz. They met countrified guitarist Richard T. Wyatt, 21 (of Laredo, Tex.), in a drunken stupor at the Whiskey a-Go-Go during a Byrds show. They met up again by chance at a Holiday party and proceeded to jam with Efrem "Stretch" Goldman, 22 (from New York), a fabulous pop and jazz guitarist, and lyrical bassist Tyrone Wilson, 20, son of a Watts deacon, who brought with him an extra shot of the blues, rhythm and blues, jazz and Gospel. Later, in the studio, they picked up classically-oriented pianist and arranger Merlin Stein, 21, a U.C.L.A. student. Together they developed a repertoire of some 40 songs. They played out their brief year-and-a-half together against the backdrop of events that would shape them, their music and their generation

Group Members Livingstone "Stoney" Young (vocals, guitars), Efrem "Stretch" Goldman (vocals, guitars), Richard E. Wyatt (vocals, guitars), Tyrone Wilson (vocals, bass, organ), Franklin "Lucky" Parker (vocals, drums) 1950-1969, Merlin Stein (organ, piano, experimental electronics)

Instruments Vocals, guitars, bass, drums, piano, organ, early electronic synths

Albums The Cosmic Storyteller

Location Los Angeles, CA - USA

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