The song playing is a small example of the direction Ron was heading and with Mark Kincaid, both had great chemistry sharing lead/rhythm guitar parts. Ron always wanted to work with a capable guitarist for doing "Duel Leads". However, the outcome of this album was somewhat of a disappointment to Ron because it was poorly mixed by the engineer, whom Ron said disliked the music and didn't care about the outcome. If you ever listened to it, it is very obvious and the sound quality is below standard. Regardless, Ron & Mark's complimentary Guitar work, Richard's solid Percussion & powerful Vocals, Brett's amazing Bass/Flute work, John Herron's skill and full Hammond sound, says much about the talent this lineup had. It is too bad this Band was short lived and didn't get a chance to enjoy a well deserved notoriety.
Ron and I had discussed how "experimental" progressive blues/ pop/ rock music seemed to be slipping from the mainstream audience and the radio stations were showcasing a more commercial variety of easy listening rock music. To us, the early to mid 70's was looking unkind to rock music to some extent and the very unique garage/ pop/ progressive rock bands went underground; Save for acts like Led Zeppelin that did enjoy mainstream success. Artists like Jeff Beck, Captain Beyond, Coliseum, King Crimson offered a free style progressive approach, yet didn't enjoy the airplay they should have. This of course may have been different on the West & East Coasts, but the stations in the majority of the cities played very little on the "AM" stations and with their large listening audiences; Over-shadowed much of the new "FM" stations. Then came the "Disco ERA", an example of the trends that appeared as though Rock and Roll was under a threat of extinction. Some may disagree with this, yet if you look at the Billboard top 40 of the early to mid 70's, you'll see outfits like "Captain and Tennille" charted higher than many groups of the latter 60's - early 70's. Percussion & Bass players were being replaced by drum machines-midi-keyboard electronica foundations. This actually pissed Ron off to some degree... he'd describe it as, "You could be replaced... by an electronic rectum". Ron also added that he thought perhaps there was this secret club, whose members were reading the same manual; Conspiring to destroy Rock n' Roll forever (the band "Devo" really brought this on... laughing). Of course he was trying to be humorous about it; Ron tried not to take or view some things too seriously, well... maybe music. It wasn't until after the Disco played itself out (1976?), that you saw a more Progressive "Raw" Rock resurfacing in bands like Aerosmith, Blue Oyster Cult, Rush and like bands that set the stage for the hard rockin' 80's.
All the above were frequent discussions I had with Ron and may have played a huge part on Ron's departure of the "Music Scene". For in his disenchantment, he would only focus on the Roots Rock/Pop/Blues music as a source of his inspiration. He was keen about seeing trends for instance; when the Beatles released "Get Back", Ron said it was a statement to get back to the roots and perhaps re-invent them, that Rock/Pop music had reached a plateau. This may have had a impact on his approach musically as well; But there were moments when he, Mark Kincaid and myself touched upon some very interesting mixes of hard rock - bluesy/jazzy - avant/garde - pop stuff (Ron was doing some incredible acoustic - Mason Williams meets Pink Floyd numbers).
When the group Dire Straits came out with "Sultans of Swing", Ron's face distorted (or Ron would put it, "That just knocked my dick in the dirt"). We were copping a very similar style; Ron and Mark Kincaid were developing an intricate finger picking funky approach as Mark Knopfler had mastered. Mark Kincaid flipped out on this, seemed to become more distant with Ron, became noticeably discouraged and seemed less interested in playing anymore. Ron had been married for a few years during this time; raising his son Dylan (born 1979) and those duties put music in a low priority. Ron really got his head and act together; the responsibility was good for him and he worked steadily. Mark Kincaid disappeared and went to California to hook up with old friends (Doug Hastings possibly) and maybe came to Denver a few times before Ron left us. Last I spoke with Mark was in June of 89'; he was very distraught of Ron's passing.
Update June 2007: I heard from Mark Kincaids Brother and got the sad news of Marks passing in June of 2000. I have much to thank Mark for, as he had a huge impact on me (as well as others) as a Friend and Musician.
... more stuff later (Ron's statement to me, " Tell everyone... Morgan's back" 1986).
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The Electric Prunes
HERE
