The Goliath Story
Two Towns, Two Bands, Three Albums, A Tax Scam, A Warp, and a Counterfeit
Goliath – “Hot Rock and Thunder” (Bridges, 1975; Tomorrow, 1977)
Raven – Who Do You See…(Golden Pavilion, 2013)
Goliath was founded in Terre Haute in 1969 by members of three garage bands: Sons of Sound, Kicks and the XL’s. The XL’s and Sons of Sound released well regarded 45’s. The Sons of Sound were originally the Checkmates, formed at Gerstmeyer High School, but changed their name after learning of Fort Wayne’s more established band of the same name.
Goliath’s only contemporaneous release was ““Hot Rock and Thunder”” on the Bridges label around 1975. Bridges, a Louisville label, also had Bloomington band Dawson and several Kentucky acts on its roster. Goliath members did not consider the recordings finished to their satisfaction. Nevertheless, “Hot Rock and Thunder” offers an appealing brand of 70’s heavy rock with psychedelic and progressive touches.
Most collectors and fans of Goliath are only aware of this part of the Goliath story, but there’s much more to it. Band member recollections sometimes contradict which leads to a degree of uncertainty in the narrative.
Goliath first recorded in Louisville in 1970. Those sessions remained unreleased until 2009, when rock archivists Gear Fab issued a CD, strangely calling it “The Complete Recordings” despite the obvious existence of “Hot Rock and Thunder”, none of whose tracks were included. “Complete Recordings” is characterized by soulful lead vocals and backing harmonies, anchored by muscular, smoky bar-band guitars, organ and rhythm. It’s far more “rootsy” than “Hot Rock and Thunder”.
Goliath is often thought to be a Louisville band. Goliath recorded both albums in Louisville and their booking agency, Triangle Talent and label, Bridges, were based there, so that conclusion is warranted. It appears the first version of the band did reside for a time in Louisville as the musicians did contract work for a recording studio. Yet all members of the band, at least up through “Hot Rock and Thunder”, were from Terre Haute and the band, at least by the time “Hot Rock and Thunder” was released, seems to have settled back in Terre Haute. Ultimately, both Louisville and Terre Haute have a legitimate claim to Goliath.
An offshoot band, Raven, was formed in 1972 in Louisville by former Goliath members George Egy, George Phelps and Paul (Doug) Mason, along with ex-Micah drummer Robert Wolff and bassist Tim Allen when an attempt to reform longtime Louisville band The Carnations fell apart. Micah was formed in Terre Haute that moved to upstate New York in 1971, quickly releasing a very scarce progressive rock LP, which is a story for another time. Wolff was lured back to the Midwest by the Raven opportunity after performing on the Micah record.
Raven established itself in Louisville and toured across 24 states and may have relocated to Atlanta. Raven recorded in Atlanta in 1976 and secured a record deal from Capricorn Records, home of The Allman Brothers among others. According to the band, Atlanta-based Capricorn filed bankruptcy two weeks later and the band’s contract was voided; subsequently, the master recordings were lost in a fire. The band’s recollection of timing does not square with historical dates—Capricorn’s official bankruptcy occurred 1979 rather than 1976. There were, however, financial troubles in 1976 at Capricorn connected to The Allman Brothers’ initial breakup which could have affected Raven’s deal. Regardless, Raven was dealt a lousy hand and eventually disbanded.
Golden Pavilion, a Portuguese label, afforded the recordings a posthumous release in 2013. Raven’s “Who Do You See…” is powerful, with similarities to the “Hot Rock and Thunder” record, mining the progressive/arena rock genres and drawing comparisons to Deep Purple, Rush and Yes. According to the members of the band, the surviving tapes were unfinished (once again), lacking a final master mix and planned overdubs.
Phelps, Egy and Mason were central to the 1970 Goliath recordings, departing before the band recorded “Hot Rock and Thunder”. They were replaced by Jim Kitchen (who had been in Sons of Sound and was Goliath’s initial vocalist), Dave Wood and Paul Bays, joining with founding members Bill and Steve Peters. According to Phelps, Kitchen and Joe Adams appeared on one track of the 1970 recordings.
At least partially financed by John Beeson of the The Music Shoppe in Terre Haute, “Hot Rock and Thunder” was released to some fanfare in Terre Haute, but lacked effective promotion and distribution, with hundreds of unsold copies tucked away in The Music Shoppe’s storage.
The dead stock was acquired in the early 1990’s by an Indianapolis record dealer and in 1994, at least 100 copies were sold to Missing Link Records, a shop I co-owned in Indianapolis. By that time, “Hot Rock and Thunder” had become sought after by record collectors and was considered quite scarce until the cache of old stock surfaced. There was a problem, though. Almost every copy from the dead stock was warped enough to affect a few tracks. For years we attributed the warp to poor storage conditions.
Recently I learned that the Dawson record was also often warped (when it could be found at all, copies are quite elusive). In 2013, I purchased a collection of 1970’s records from a woman who’d lived in Terre Haute, including a copy of “Hot Rock and Thunder” with an old Headstone Records (longtime Terre Haute record store) sticker still intact. I expected that I’d finally found my first flat copy, yet it too was warped. So maybe, the warp problem began with the pressing itself rather than improper storage? Is there a broader problem with Bridges LP’s?
It gets worse (and weirder) for Goliath. Decades later, it was learned that ““Hot Rock and Thunder”” had also been released by a New York label, Tomorrow Records, in 1977. And the band had no idea, nor likely did anyone in Indiana, at the time.
Tomorrow Records was a vehicle for a (temporarily legal) accounting loophole utilized by some major labels in the late 1970’s to generate fake losses. Special imprints were created (now known as “tax scam labels”) and some “released” as many as 100 titles, though Tomorrow is credited with only a dozen or so. Each title was entered into the books as if many thousands were pressed; most copies were marked unsold.
In reality, the pressings were tiny (hundreds, maybe less); just enough to provide proof of existence and no attempt was made to market them. The parent company claimed a big loss without actually incurring it, useful to offset taxable income. Copies of tax scam releases were probably dumped into warehouses along with cut-out (discontinued) records, surfacing randomly years later. Collectors like Aaron Milenski and Paul Major eventually put the puzzle together, though the identities of the true perpetrators and details are still shrouded in mystery.
In order to pull off the tax scam, labels had to release records with confidence that the artist or its agents would be unaware. Unsolicited demo tapes were tailor made for the situation as there was no contractual obligation; accordingly, most tax scam records were made from demos.
Tomorrow used a Goliath demo tape for its release, its origin is unknown. The track order on the Tomorrow LP is different than the Bridges release and the mixes are somewhat different. As with other Tomorrow releases, the cover featured abstract artwork by New York artist Sonia Eisenberg (without her knowledge).
Intriguingly there is another Tomorrow Records label that carries a New York address, which seems to be a project of influential Indianapolis talent managers Carousel Productions, owned by Bill Overman. This Tomorrow released two Joys of Life (Indianapolis band) 45’s and one by Terre Haute’s Massachusettes Assembly in the 1969-70 time frame, several years prior to the Goliath release on Tomorow. Are the Tomorrow labels related, or is it just a coincidence?
Another tax-scam version has surfaced, this one on Vibrations Records. Not much else is known as yet.
Goliath finally appears to have reached its end in 1983, when vocalist Jim Kitchen left for the West Coast.
Fast forward. “Hot Rock and Thunder” was released on CD in 2004, which should have been a great moment for Goliath. Unfortunately, the label, Radioactive (based in UK) was a shameless pirate label responsible for dozens of unauthorized reissues via inferior transfers from vinyl. Rather than a proper homage, the Radioactive CD was theft and a poor representation of the record. Once again, “Hot Rock and Thunder” had been released without the band’s involvement or benefit.
Chicago based Numero Group, well regarded for its licensed reissues of obscure music, released ““Hot Rock and Thunder”” in digital only form. The accompanying liner notes provide essential info on the band’s formation and early times.
What a weird run. Add in the woes of Raven, and this becomes a case study on how “success” in the music industry almost always comes with an asterisk.
Sorry, guys. You all deserved better.
Thanks to the following for information integral to the article: Tim Cox, Indiana 60’s Band Szene blog; Aaron Milenski, It’s Psychedelic Baby blog, johnkatsmc5 blog, Progarchives.com, Golden Pavilion Records and Numero Group
Goliath members “Complete Recordings”
George Phelps (ex-Kicks?)
Bill Peters (ex-Sons of Sound)
Steve Peters (ex-Sons of Sound)
Ted Bennett (ex-XL’s)
George Egy (ex-Kicks?)
Paul (Doug) Mason (ex-Sons of Sound)
Goliath members ““Hot Rock and Thunder””
Jim Kitchen (ex-Sons of Sound)
Paul Bays
Dave Wood
Bill Peters (ex-Sons of Sound)
Steve Peters (ex-Sons of Sound)
Goliath members, prior to recording
David Graham (ex-Sons of Sound)
Goliath members, post ““Hot Rock and Thunder””
Joe Adams
Bob Harris
Frenchy Massinon
Raven members
George Phelps (ex-Goliath)
Robert Wolff (ex-Micah)
Tim Allen
Paul (Doug) Mason (ex-Goliath)
George Egy (ex-Goliath)