Quick Critic: It Shined
Michael “Supe” Granda’s Ozark Mountain Daredevils success story, It Shined, has a dark side
Living in 417-land in the ’70s meant witnessing the ascension of the Ozark Mountain Daredevils to the top of the pop and rock charts. The book It Shined stirs pleasant memories. Unfortunately, bass player Michael “Supe” Granda’s 494-page first-person account of the band’s formation, rise and disintegration also leaves you yearning for what might have been.
I was around in 1971 and 1972 to watch them perform under the name Family Tree on Sunday afternoons at Lake Springfield; at a “Get Out The Vote” concert at Southwest Missouri State; and live on the air at KWTO radio, where I worked as a rookie news writer.
Granda successfully captures the casual encounters that led the six original Daredevils into a loose collaboration of songwriters and musicians that put them in the pages of Rolling Stone magazine. Songs like “Country Girl,” “Chicken Train,” “Standing on the Rock” and “Road to Glory” were the band’s common bond, and their ticket to fame. Some familiar names are given credit for paving the way. Les Sweckert (who now goes by Les Garland) first put them on the air at KWTO. Suze Dunville Powell gave them a place to jam at the Trilogy after their first home, the Bijou Theatre, burned down. Mark Marymont kept them on the air and in the newspaper when Sweckert/Garland moved away to co-create MTV.
From the start, Granda also hints at the differences that eventually drove the band to part—and occasionally reform in various combinations for 30 years. Originals John Dillon and Randle Chowning competed for the affection of fellow musician Elizabeth Anderson. Later Chowning is depicted as out of step with other band members Dillon, Granda, Steve Cash, Buddy Brayfield and Larry Lee when he wants to rehearse and record each song over and over, while the others get frustrated with Chowning’s quest for perfection.
Granda’s book pulls no punches. As the band enjoyed a growing national audience, mostly on the success of their biggest hit, “Jackie Blue,” the band also enjoyed a growing appetite for the pot, hash, cocaine and liquor that were paid for by the record’s royalties. For example, Granda’s memory of a backstage meeting with Paul McCartney is highlighted by the smoking of a joint. “The first thing Paul did was make sure we knew that he was aware of our band,” Granda writes. “The second thing he did was ask if any of us would like a hit off his joint. I couldn’t believe my lungs. I reached into my pocket and handed him one of mine.”
As record sales fall, band member marriages broke apart and the lure of the road faded. By 1991, even Granda’s appetite for partying was gone. The band was always special because of its hard-to-define sound, which made (and still makes) it hard to market by music promoters. This book is similar in that it can be a fun, nostalgic read, but hard to categorize as a success story when there are so many clues that even greater success and more great music was within the Daredevils’ reach.
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