Customer Reviews

Lost in the Ozone

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It's difficult to remember how we took this music when it was originally issued in the early 70s. Many of us were busy listening to the last remnants of 60s guitar rock morphing itself into the overblown stadium prattle that would hang on for several more years. So how did we end up listening to stone country, boogie-woogie and jump blues? It can all be pinned on Commander Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen.

The wedding of hippie sentiment ("Seeds and Stems") with country, rock and boogie-woogie classics ("Hot Rod Lincoln" "20 Flight Rock" "Beat Me Daddy Eight to the Bar"), backed by the stellar playing of everyone concerned, and topped off with Cody's incredible showmanship (both live and on LP) was a package destined to gather up a lot of new ears.

This is the band's debut LP, and though they'd record many more excellent releases, I'm not so sure they ever topped this one as a statement of just who they were. A stone classic, so to speak.

stephen arnade palm bay-florida
This is an outstanding first album from a new band. The hit song "Hot Rod Lincoln" is on this album. Commander Cody and The Lost Planet Airmen throw away the normal formula for music that so many bands did back in the 1970's. The music created a new type of sound called "Truck Stop Rock", with their emphasis on the truck driving culture. The music is combination of; Texas Swing, Boogie-Woogie, Country Rock and Rock-And-Roll. While so many bands/musicians created over-produced formula music, Commander Cody created a honest new sound. The Commander Cody And His Lost Planet Airmen maybe the most original rock-and-roll music from the 1970's. The first album show their unique style and the albums that followed kept the formula going.

The Commander Cody has this great "deadpan" style voice and great boogie-woogie piano playing he is a gem. With Billy C. Farlow singing lead on songs also, it just makes for a unique band.

Bill Kirchen, was in the band and went on to become a star in his own right. Bill Kirchen did his own career after Commander Cody band broke up, and was a big hit in his own career. Producing "rockabilly" to "Country-Rock" to "dieselbilly/high-octane country", to playing "smokin' Telecaster" music.

This band was full of incredible talent !
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I had the pleasure of being in Ann Arbor, MI in the late '60s and early '70s, when Commander Cody and the Lost Planet Airmen were regulars at bars and coffeehouses around town. This CD reflects their earliest (and best) original compositions and covers, and very much captures the ambience which accompanied their live performances.

If the only Commander Cody you've ever heard is "Hot Rod Lincoln," then you don't know the band... that was their "novelty" song "rapped" by George Fraine (the Commander). The best stuff was sung by their lead singer, Billy C. Farlow. The guys in the band, somewhere along the way, also learned how to play saxaphone and trombone, and this CD has several cuts featuring them on those instruments (besides their guitars). The peddle steel work is especially sweet.

I too had the opportunity to see CC and his LPA in Ann Arbor in 1970 (and many times thereafter), and they were truly one of the great live bands of this era. Nevertheless, their studio recordings (of which this was the first) were outstanding in their own right. It's unfortunate "Country Casanova" and "Hot Licks, Cold Steel & Other Truckers' Favorites" remain out of print. These were my favorite recordings and hopefully this will someday be rectified.

"Ozone" features much of the band that remained together until the latter part of the '70s, including the Commander, Andy Stein, Billy C. Farlow, Bill Kirchen, John Tichy, Buffalo Bruce Barlow, and Lance Dickerson. The West Virginia Creeper, who played steel guitar, was replaced after the 1st LP.

A hippie era relative introduced Commander Cody to me some years ago, and I've been hooked ever since. The truck stop music is unmistakably American and quite catchy (unless you find all things American to be gauche), the songs occaionally in turns counter-cultural (e.g., about dope smoking) or traditional (e.g., about the family Bible). Though I have most of the Commander's discs, this one is my favorite.

I'd love to see the Commander live, not only to hear them play but to soak in the ambience of the venue and crowd.

It's great, and some say they never topped it. I've never found an album put out by these guys that I didn't like. This album was a statement of things to come...a great album, but when you get right down to it, they where a live band, a bar band, and best heard in that form. But this album is great, buy it. Beware of MCA bastardizatoin. The cover art & liner notes are GONE on the CD issue. Too bad.

"Lost in the Ozone" by Commander Cody & His Lost Planet Airman is one of the classic underground records of the late 60's and early 70's that while not enjoying "Top 10" status, has remained a sense of notoriety. The irreverence of Commander Cody hides true musicianship as is heard on this album. "Hot Rod Lincoln" is probably the most famous track, but one of my favorites is also "Stems and Seeds Again." The situation of the sinder of this song is that all of the most terrible things in the world have fallen down onto him: he's lost his job, lost his girlfriend, his house has been repossessed and his dog has died. But to add insult to injury, he's "Down to seeds and stems again, too." What more can I say? I loved this album 35 years ago and it still is as fresh today as it was then.

The Commander and company are one of the greatest bands to combine country, rock and roll, and western swing. They came out of the small towns and truck stops from the highway before the interstate came through. I lived through this period, I guess thats why I love the Airmen! Damn it sure went by fast! They do not make them like this anymore.

I remember looking through the bins in my favorite record store in Tucson AZ in the early 70's when this one caught my eye - Cool band name, great title and comic cover art - it had it all! I bought it without knowing anything about the band based solely on the cover. I'm so glad I did!! I've had the album (recently updated to a CD) for 35 years and still tap my toes to it and sing along. My favs: Back to Tennesee, Wine Do Yer Stuff, Seeds and Stems. Sure do miss "Hot Licks, Cold Steel & Other Truckers' Favorites" - Please bring that back!!

I had to go to a wedding rehearsal one Friday night in 10BC but opted to go see CC&TLPA opeining for BYRDS at the Armory. (With my sneaky little girlfriend in a Monkeyfur coat)
After the set, I saw Billy C hiking toward the concession stand.
"Nice set man!" I said
"Uh Huh" was all he said back.
Lost in the Ozone was a sleeper then, known to many Florida musicians but not the run-of-the-mill Country crowd.
My, how time has grown and flown. These guys are an INSTITUTION like The Outlaws, Asleep at the Wheel, Greazy Wheels or Moby Grape....And "Ozone" put them out there in fine fashion with a good mix of old and new material. Eventually older folks were humming along to Family Bible as if it was always done that way.