THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
927) Ten Wheel Drive Featuring Genya Ravan — “Tightrope”
From the opening bass groove and hand claps, you know this is going to be special. “[F]ive-minutes-and-ten-seconds of psychedelic blues-jazz-funk. This is the sound Janis Joplin would refine for her Kozmic Blues experience”. (Joe Viglione, https://www.allmusic.com/album/construction-1-mw0000858365) The song has “a memorable bass line . . . [and] horns [that] punctuate the groove, echoing Ravan’s vocals throughout the chorus. At the three-quarter mark, the band goes off into an absurd breakdown which makes you think at least eight of the ten wheels have fallen off, before [they are brought] back in line. Then Ravan starts wailing again.” (Justin Cober-Lake, https://www.popmatters.com/cutoutbin-2-tenwheeldrive-2496016497.html)
Of Genya Ravan, Cober-Lake says:
Genya Ravan’s never received her due. Even if you haven’t heard her music, you should recognize her place in music history. She led Goldie and the Gingerbreads, the first all-woman rock band to record for a major label . . . . After her own singing career faded, she became the first established female rock producer, working with the Dead Boys (including “Sonic Reducer”), Ronnie Spector on her comeback, and countless other New York City punk groups in the early ’80s.
https://www.popmatters.com/cutoutbin-2-tenwheeldrive-2496016497.html
Jim Sullivan tells us that:
[Genyusha “Goldie” Zelkovicz] was born in Lotz, Poland, in 1940. Her older sister and parents were transported to a Nazi work camp . . . where their job was to manufacture bullets. Genyusha was not with them. Her mother, hiding in a cellar, had given her away shortly after birth to another family for safekeeping. Two of her brothers, her grandparents and numerous aunts and uncles died in concentration camps. . . . After the war, [she] was reunited with her parents and they were relocated to a Russian displacement camp.
https://forward.com/culture/500774/genya-ravan-punk-legend-cbgb-goldie-gingerbreads-holocaust-survivor/
Fast forward 15 years. Joe Viglione writes that:
In the summer of 1962, she asked to sing with the Escorts, who were performing at the Lollipop Lounge in Brooklyn, New York. . . . After she left the Escorts, Zelkowitz formed Goldie & the Gingerbreads, an all-female band . . . . The[y] released singles . . . in the U.K., with “Can’t You Hear My Heart Beat[]” . . . hitting on the British charts. . . . Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun signed [them] . . . and released their singles in the U.S. [Later,] Zelkowitz formed the electric and brass rock group Ten Wheel Drive and took the name Genya Ravan. . . . Ten Wheel Drive was a highly influential rock/jazz group . . . . [Ravan says]: “I went to see Billy Fields, he was going to manage me. He had a friend in New Jersey that befriended two guys that were writers and they were looking for someone to sing their songs. . . . I met with Mike Zager and Aram Schefrin . . . . They . . . got me interested even though I thought they sounded more like show tunes, I was also an actress, so I liked it. . . . I knew some good jazz players, so (we) got the musicians and started to audition and rehearse.” When asked how the idea took shape, Ravan replied: “When I heard Blood, Sweat & Tears — (the) first record with Al Kooper (Child Is Father to the Man) [see #765], my fave, I said, oh I want a horn band. . . . [The bandd’s first album, Construction #1 — including “Tightrope” — was an] exemplary recording . . . highly experimental . . . . Imagine Ronnie Spector leaving the Ronettes to join Blood, Sweat & Tears and realize the sweet Goldie . . . did just that . . . . Ten Wheel Drive were getting such a buzz they turned Woodstock down. . . . [Construction #1] is such an adventurous and remarkable record by such a talented crew . . . . [They] could, like Etta James, play to those who crave this wonderful fusion of jazz and blues with a rock edge. . . . And then she left the group she founded: “Things started to get complicated. The music was not the main thing anymore, it was too expensive to have that many people involved. We had accountants, lawyers, roadies, and of course the group, we could not tour Europe because it was to expensive to get there and stay there. I just felt like there would be no future for me with the band anymore, also some personal stuff went down, that made it awkward. It just felt like it had hit the end for me.”
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/genya-ravan-mn0000165261/biography,
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/ten-wheel-drive-mn0000747820, https://www.allmusic.com/album/construction-1-mw0000858365
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