Automatic Man was an American rock band from San Francisco. The band consisted of musicians from rock, funk, and jazz backgrounds, Automatic Man played progressive rock and space rock.
Automatic Man had one charting single with Island Records, "My Pearl", which debuted in 1976 and reached No. 97 on the Billboard Hot 100. The band's line-up, however, was not cohesive. After a second album entitled Visitors, Automatic Man disbanded in 1977. Both of the band's albums were reissued on CD in 2004, 28 years after their disbandment.
Formation Automatic Man formed in San Francisco around 1975 after Michael Shrieve left his role as drummer with the band Santana to explore other musical avenues. Following his departure, Shrieve worked with Traffic and Spencer Davis Group singer/keyboardist Steve Winwood, percussionist Stomu Yamashta, and synthesizer player Klaus Schulze on the Go album, an experimental progressive rock album released by Island Records the following year. Pat Thrall was approached by Shrieve in 1975 to audition for a band he was forming with Todd Cochran.
Cochran, then known under the alias of "Bayeté" (pronounced Bye-yet-tay), was a child prodigy and formally trained keyboard player who had attended the Trinity College of Music in England as a teenager. Cochran had already been part of the jazz scene for nearly a decade, playing with renowned jazz artists Bobby Hutcherson and Julian Priester. He also released two jazz-funk solo albums on Prestige Records in 1972 and 1973.. Completing the lineup was bass guitarist Doni Harvey, who performed around the Bay Area with his brothers and in blues, jazz, and soul bands, playing both bass and guitar. According to Harvey's brother, Regi Harvey, Doni joined the band by chance:
During the break we heard a band practising in the big space. We went in to see who it was. It turned out to be "Automatic Man". That night the bass man wasn't working out and stomped out of the room. They spotted Don and asked him to sit in and to finish rehearsing. He stepped up to the plate that night. When they stopped for a break we went back in the small space we were practising in to finish. During that time they asked him to join the band. One of the reasons was that he played so well that they were that impressed. The other was that Doni and I had gone to Junior College with the keyboard player and main writer "Bayeté" at the newly opened "Skyline College".
After the band impressed Chris Blackwell, the president of Island Records, he signed them to a two-record deal.
Debut album Rather than continue to build on their following in the San Francisco Bay Area, Automatic Man based themselves on King's Road in Chelsea, London, and recorded at Basing Street Studios, now Sarm West Studios, in Notting Hill and Olympic Studios with renowned recording engineer Keith Harwood. The self-titled debut album, Automatic Man, featured hard guitars and layered synthesizers. Most of the album's tracks contain allusions to space travel, Atlantis, astral projection, karma, angels, aliens, belly dancers, and other subjects. Cochran wrote the tracks "Atlantis Rising-Fanfare", "Coming Through", "One and One", "Newspapers", "Geni-Geni" and "Turning of the Axis [Theme from Atlantis Rising]". He shares co-writing credits with band manager Lou CasaBianca on "Automatic Man", "Interstellar Tracking Devices" and "Right Back Down." The entire band and CasaBianca share writing credits on "There's A Way."
In the United Kingdom, the album was promoted on BBC Radio 1 by Alan Freeman, who did the voiceover for the album ads that aired on the UK’s commercial radio stations.
Track listing All songs written and composed by Todd Cochran (as "Bayeté"), except as noted. Side one "Atlantis Rising-Fanfare" – 1:37 "Comin' Through" – 3:35 "My Pearl" – 3:34 (Automatic Man) "One and One" – 5:57 "Newspapers" – 3:57 "Geni Geni" – 5:32 Side two
"Right Back Down" – 5:55 (Bayeté/CasaBianca) "There's a Way" - 5:14 (Automatic Man/CasaBianca) "I.T.D. (Interstellar Tracking Devices)" – 5:14 (Bayeté/CasaBianca) "Automatic Man" – 3:55 (Bayeté/CasaBianca) "Atlantis Rising Theme (Turning of the Axis)" – 3:16
(My Pearl was released with a B-side entitled "Wallflower")
Personnel on Automatic Man Pat Thrall - Guitar, vocals; lead vocals on "Geni-Geni", "There's a Way" and "Automatic Man." Todd Cochran - Keyboards, vocals; lead vocals on "Comin' Through", "My Pearl", "One and One", "Newspapers", "Right Back Down", "There's a Way", "I.T.D. Interstellar Tracking Devices." Doni Harvey - Bass guitar, vocals; lead vocals on "There's a Way" and "Automatic Man." Michael Shrieve - Drums Produced by Automatic Man and Lou CasaBianca Mixed by Keith Harwood and Chris Kimsey
Album art Painted by Bay Area artist Dwain Zerio (1950–1995), the covers of both Automatic Man albums feature a luminously painted blue alienlike face staring out from space. The alienlike face was meant to be representative of a human without a body, with the spiritual energy providing the visual shape. The debut album is blue on blue, while the follow-up features the blue face on a shocking pink and magenta background. The inside liner art of the first album includes the blue face with Egyptian wings, floating above a pyramid, and Atlantis rising out of a raging ocean with a maelstrom in the background. The artwork for the "My Pearl" single featured a woman's face suspended over a misty crevice crowned with wings and a self-consuming serpentine rainbow.
The artwork for both Automatic Man LP covers was entirely original, and an early example of an alien face being depicted in a mass-market medium.
Original lineup dissolves After their album debut, Automatic Man promoted the disc with appearances at a number of European music festivals, including the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland. According to a later interview with Thrall, the band had trouble pulling off their material live. Part of the problem was that the technology of the era was too difficult to use for a live audience. Shrieve also alleged that the band had not had enough chances to play live.
The band was also feted by fellow artists and luminaries of the day including the Rolling Stones and Hunter S. Thompson, who wrote a concert review. Though they would make a few more live appearances in the Bay Area, infighting, clashes over music, and disagreements over the band's finances led to Automatic Man's first lineup dissolving after returning to the United States in 1976.
Visitors
The second Automatic Man album was entitled Visitors and released in 1977 with a more accessible sound than their debut. Bayeté solely wrote each track. Guitarist Pat Thrall was still a member, but Shrieve and Harvey were now replaced by bassist Jerome Rimson (also from the "Go" project) and drummer Glenn Symmonds. Originally from Detroit, Rimson played bass on the track "Man from Manhattan" by Eddie Howell with Freddie Mercury on piano and vocals, and Brian May on guitar. From 1974 he had been musical director for Van Morrison, playing on several tours and in 1976, he played on Al Jarreau's Grammy-winning jazz album Glow. Glenn Symmonds had been Eddie Money's drummer since 1974, departing to record and tour with ex-Santana percussionist Coke Escovedo.
Personnel on Visitors Pat Thrall - Guitar, vocals Todd Cochrane - Keyboards, vocals Glenn Symmonds - Drums Jerome Rimson - Bass Produced by Michael Lloyd Lionel Conway - executive producer Bruce Robb - engineer Lou CasaBianca/Glyphics - art direction & album design
Track listing All songs written and composed by Todd Cochran as "Bayeté". Side one "Give it to me" - 3:49 "Live Wire" - 4:45 "So You Wanna Be Me" – 4:00 "Y-2-Me" – 4:18 Side two "Visitors" – 3:50 "Here I Am Now" – 5:14 "There's a Way" -4:26 "Daughter of Neptune" – 4:13 "What's Done" – 6:22
Critical reception to Visitors Fans of the band did not receive the second album as warmly. Music reviewer Doug Watson's description is that Visitors is "just a mediocre shot at mesh funk-rock, although arguably ahead of its time in predicting the ghastly and overblown rock guitar productions of the 80s." However, the record collector's website Progrography declared:
... Visitors isn't a concept album. It's also not the commercial sellout that some have mistakenly branded it. Like the music of Santana, Automatic Man was on a quasi-mystical quest that relied on the conventional language of funk/rock but also rode beyond those borders in pursuit of a grander statement. It's probably on that last point that prog fans have hung their hat, but Visitors is not a progressive rock album. Bayeté's bid to be a rock star ended with the Automatic Man albums, leaving behind two impressive albums that bespeak the transitional phase between jazz, disco and ambitious (if not progressive) rock as well as any records from the period.
Band breakup Partially due to no longer having the name recognition of Shrieve, the album failed to make waves in the music press and Automatic Man permanently disbanded in 1977.
Afterward
All four members of the original Automatic Man lineup became prolific and well respected solo and session musicians, with Shrieve and Cochran emerging as sought-after composers and arrangers. Lou CasaBianca, the band's manager and co-producer for the first disc, moved into video production and media technology writing. Glenn Symmonds and Jerome Rimson, drummer and bassist on Visitors respectively, continued on in the music industry to steady work and success as well, with Rimson writing an autobiography. There has been no talk of a possible Automatic Man reunion.
Michael Shrieve After leaving Automatic Man, Shrieve continued to be one of the most sought after drummers in the music world. His credits number well into the hundreds and include work on Pete Townshend's 1981 disc, All the Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes and for artists Mick Jagger, The Rolling Stones, George Harrison, Steve Winwood, Police guitarist Andy Summers, film composer Mark Isham, Freddie Hubbard, Jaco Pastorius, Wayne Horvitz, Bill Frisell, Zakir Hussain, Airto Moreira and Amon Tobin. Michael Shrieve also composes music for film and television, working with Paul Mazursky on the film, Tempest and scored music for Curtis Hanson's The Bedroom Window. In the early 1980s, his power pop quartet, Novo Combo, scored minor hits with the songs "Up Periscope" and "City Bound." A few years later in 1983, Shrieve got involved with the power group HSAS, featuring Sammy Hagar, Neal Schon of Journey fame and former bass player from Derringer Kenny Aaronson. The group recorded the album "Through the Fire" and the single "A Whiter Shade of Pale", originally written and performed by Procol Harum, peaked at #94 in 1984.
Shrieve is also the past President of the Pacific Northwest Branch of the National Association of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS), and has been working on writing the memoirs of jazz drumming legend Elvin Jones. He serves as musical director for Seattle Theatre Group's "More Music at The Moore," a program that highlights gifted young musicians from Seattle's various cultural groups. In 1998, Shrieve was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with Santana. He also received the Guitar Center's first annual "Lifetime Achievement Award" in 2005.
Todd Cochran