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Tower of Power Announces The Release of The East Bay Archive Volume I, produced by David Garibaldi
This is a 2 CD set, featuring 18 songs recorded live on 4/23/73
David Garibaldi joined Tower of Power in July of 1970, shortly before the band's first album "East Bay Grease" was recorded for Bill Graham's San Francisco Records. Already well known in the San Francisco Bay Area, "East Bay Grease" made Tower of Power big celebrities in the Bay area. Tower's next album, "Bump City" included the first song that Emilio Castillo and Stephen "Doc" Kupka ever wrote, "You're Still A Young Man", which rose to number 29 on the national charts in 1972, providing Tower of Power with a whole new level of fame. "Young Man" is still played at just about every Tower live show, and is still a crowd pleaser to this day.
The East Bay Archive Volume I, produced by David Garibaldi, was recorded in Boston, on April 23, 1973, just weeks before another landmark Tower album would be released. The original recording is part of David's personal collection of audio tapes of rehearsals and Tower of Power live shows. This initial release offers a view of Tower of Power in the weeks before a very important event in the band's history was about to unfold.
The self titled album "Tower of Power" was set to be released in early May of 1973, and this was the second album that the band recorded for Warner Brothers. At the time that this show was taped, the song "So Very Hard To Go" had already been released as a single and was climbing the charts. "Hard to Go" reached number 17 on Billboard's Hot 100. " Hard To Go" landed in the Top 10 on the surveys of many West Coast Top 40 radio stations, hitting #1 on most of them. The album also charted two other singles on the Billboard Hot 100, "This Time It's Real" and "What Is Hip? The "Tower of Power " album received a gold record award for sales in excess of 500,000.
The April 1973 show featured here includes band members Emilio Castillo, Doc Kupka, Rocco Prestia, David Garibaldi, Greg Adams, Mic Gillette, Lenny Pickett, Bruce Conte, Chester Thompson, and Brent Byars. Gone were Skip Mesquite (lead tenor), Willy Fulton (guitar) and Rick Stevens (Lead vocals).
Rick Stevens had been the vocalist that was supposed to sing on "Tower of Power", but according to a recent phone interview with bandleader and producer Emilio Castillo, Steven's relationship with the band had begun to deteriorate. When all of the tracks were concluded, Stevens was having difficulty laying down his vocals. He was dismissed by Castillo, and Lenny Williams was hired to front the band. Lenny Williams was known to the band, and in fact they had spoken to him previously about joining. When he was called this time, and told that Rick Stevens was going to be replaced, he knew that this was a serious offer and he accepted the position as the lead vocalist for Tower of Power. Time was needed to rehearse with Lenny Williams, to have him learn all of the songs. Sensing the potential of "So Very Hard To Go", they started there and released it as a single, while they were finishing up the rest of the album.
This is an important part of the story, because, had things been different, this would have been a very different sounding album. The addition of Chester Thompson on keyboards, the masterful work of Bruce Conte on guitar, and the virtuosity of Lenny Pickett on lead tenor sax was complimented by Tower's new vocalist, Lenny Williams' unique vocals. This was a landmark album, including two of Tower's most memorable songs, "So Very Hard To Go" and of course, "What is Hip", written by Castillo, Kupka, and David Garibaldi. For me, it's hard to imagine this particular recording done in any other way.
In the East Bay Archive Volume I, you will hear every song that was on the "Tower of Power" album, with the exception of "Clever Girl", and "Will I Ever Find A Love". A notable inclusion for Bruce Conte fans is "Just Another Day". Bruce wrote it, and performs an extended guitar solo on this tune. All in all, there are 18 great songs on this double CD, including a never before released instrumental written by Chester Thompson called "Check It Out".
Some people refer to the "Warner Years" as glory days for Tower of Power, and in many ways they certainly were. After the release of this album, Tower of Power attained great national success and exposure with television appearances on "Midnight Special", "Rock Concert" "In Concert" and "Soul Train".
For me, Tower of Power's glory days are now. This band, now recording and touring for 40 years, has never slowed down, and continues to delight fans all over the world. Today, Tower of Power is attracting new legions of young fans, some of which are actually studying their music and performing it as part of their college education.
The East Bay Archive Volume I belongs in any Tower of Power fan's collection. The music, the artwork, the liner notes, it's classic Tower of Power, and we can only hope that there are many more gems like this tucked away and that we will have the opportunity to hear much more.
Tower of Power, 1973
Back Row: Greg Adams/Chester Thompson/Bruce Conte/Emilio Castillo
Center Row: Doc Kupka/Lenny Pickett/Rocco Prestia/Mic Gillette
Front Row: David Garibaldi/Lenny Williams/Brent Byars
Above Photo By Bruce Steinberg
PhillyBrian 2008