The Legend — “The Sky that Is Blue”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — May 16, 2024

THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD

1,210) The Legend — “The Sky that Is Blue”

A beautiful song for a beautiful day, this “pop psych delight[]” (TYMETRIPS https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfmzlOd-XII) from Colorado is “a tasty blend of tight, Bealtesque harmonies and surprisingly commercial melod[y] . . . . a breezy, mid-tempo pop song that showcased some nice vox organ and wonderful group harmony vocals that would made The Beach Boys proud.” (RDTEN1, https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/the-legend/the-legend/)

Of the band and the album, guitarist Randy Russ recollects:

The Legend was playing all over Colorado, breaking all kinds of attendance records and beer sales at clubs we played at. We had heard that a record company was looking for a group to sign up. We played a couple of more gigs, saved our money and headed out for LA. When we got there, we found out that the record company was auditioning groups and trying to steal different members to make up their own group. They wanted our drummer, Barry [Davis], who turned them down. [Singer] Gerry [Jimmerfield] had been out in LA a couple years previous and knew of these two guys that were managers, said he would give them a call, but he warned us about them. They came over and heard us and said they could do something with us. But they wanted us to sign a contract, which we did. One of the managers, Tony Sepe, had a brother who owned a Chicago based company. He talked him into backing a record company. Thus the birth of Megaphone records. . . . We went into the studio and recorded a few songs. We had run out of money and couldn’t play in LA because we weren’t in the union. Tony and Marty Brooks (the other manager) would drop by our motel and give $10 to $12 a day to live on. We were eating bologna sandwiches three times a day. A lot of times, we would buy thr bread and cigarettes and one of us would steal the bologna. Speaking of the motel, one of those run down slime pitts on Sunset Strip, two of us would sleep in the bed, some would sleep in our converted bread truck, and I would sleep in the 396 Chevelle. We needed money, so we went back to Colorado to play some gigs, make some money and eat. When we came back, Tony and Marty had hired some studio musicians and Gene Page, a producer, and the basic tracks were done on the Legend album. We had no idea that this was going to be done and when we
confronted them, they just laugh us off and said that this is the way it was done. We put on the vocals and different guitar parts. It was put out as the Legend. . . . Tony and Marty had no idea what they were doing. The Legend album had no distribution to speak of. They were skimming as much money as they could out of the record label. They even had custom made alligator brief cases made. Things like that made us angry. We weren’t getting anything. . . . [W]e were restricted by harsh comments and brow beating by Tony and Marty. . . . But let me
tell you, when I was in their doing my overdubs and I knew something was coming off pretty good, I would feel so good. It would be a total rush.

https://www.psychedelicbabymag.com/2013/02/dragonfly-interview-with-randy-russ.html

They then became Dragonfly . . . .

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