As the “Summer of Love” drew to a close in 1967, rock music was becoming more enterprising. A year earlier the Beach Boys released “Pet Sounds” — a record that elevated personal expression and sonic experimentation over three-chord formula — and in June of 1967, the Beatles followed suit with “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.”
Almost immediately, high-volume rebellion was out and artistic ambition was in as one band after another began issuing records that unabashedly approached rock ‘n’ roll more as an art form than an outlet for teenage frustration. Those records encompassed the great (Love’s “Forever Changes” in November), and the not-so-great (Rolling Stones’ “Their Satanic Majesties Request” in December).
Lost in that L.A.-London exchange of arty pop was a noteworthy release by a talented Chicago band. In December, the Cryan’ Shames issued “A Scratch in the Sky,” a record of remarkable ambition, tunefulness and variety that still stands as a Chicago rock high-water mark. But instead of propelling the Cryan’ Shames into the national spotlight, the LP’s commercial failure contributed to the relatively sudden demise of one of the city’s first great rock bands.
Gone but not forgotten
Although the Cryan’ Shames were all but gone by 1970, they were hardly forgotten. In 1972, Lenny Kaye included the band’s first hit single, “Sugar and Spice,” on the original “Nuggets” compilation, and in the mid-’80s Columbia Records pulled “A Scratch in the Sky” out of its vaults for a vinyl reissue. Now, after receiving numerous requests, Sundazed Records has issued all three Cryan’ Shames albums on CD for the first time.
In the mid-’60’s, Chicago was a hotbed of young bands that included both rugged garage-rockers such as the Del-Vetts and the Shadows of Knight and more jangly, harmony-oriented outfits such as the Ides of March and the New Colony Six. The Cryan’ Shames personnel came together in 1965, when guitarist Gerry Stone, singer Tom Doody and bassist Dave Purple from the Hinsdale band the Prowlers merged with guitarist James Fairs and drummer Dennis Conroy of the Downers Grove group the Roosters.
Initially known as the Travelers, the band eventually picked up singer-percussionist Jim Pilster (who performed under the moniker J.C. Hooke), changed its name to the Cryan’ Shames and soon developed a following thanks to its well-honed British Invasion chops. In early 1966, after hearing a rival band perform a cover of the Searchers’ “Sugar and Spice,” the band quickly recorded its own breezy rendition of the song, released it on the independent Destination label and almost overnight saw it enter the Chicago top 5 and the national Billboard charts.
Fueled by that sudden success, the band began putting together a collection of covers and original tunes for a debut album. Columbia Records — impressed by the success of “Sugar and Spice” — signed the Cryan’ Shames and subsequently issued the “Sugar & Spice” LP nationwide. Following a whirlwind year of performing in support that record, the Cryan’ Shames were ready to record their second album.
Time to catch up
“I thought it was time to respond to the exciting experimentation that was happening,” recalls (songwriter) Fairs. “It seemed to me that the Byrds, the Beach Boys and the Beatles were artistically developed beyond their years, and we were simply not keeping pace.”
The band’s new record, “A Scratch in the Sky,” was conceived as a response to “Pet Sounds” and “Sgt. Pepper’s,” and so the group decided to write most of the songs and play every instrument, which would include not only bass, drum and guitar but bagpipes, harpsichord, cello, flute, autoharp, mandolin and tamboura. The Cryan’ Shames’ ability to do that was enhanced when multi-instrumentalists Isaac Guillory and Lenny Kerley joined the group following the departure of Dave Purple and Gerry Stone.
“That particular lineup of the band was very, very strong musically,” Doody says. “We could play a wide range of instruments. We went from doing two-part harmonies to five-part harmonies.”
Up to the test
The songs that Fairs and Kerley were writing would put that ability to the test. While tunes such as “A Carol for Lorelei,” “I Was Lonely When” and the classic “It Could Be We’re in Love” were beautiful examples of harmony-rich, Beach Boys-style pop, the LP would also include full-blown psychedelia (“The Sailing Ship”), acoustic folk (“Cobblestone Road”) and hard rock (“Mr. Unreliable”).
In addition, the band’s determination to create distinctive, varied arrangements pushed its collective musicianship to the limit. “I was nominated to play the French horn part on our cover of `Up on the Roof’ because I once played the trumpet,” says Pilster. “Ninety-two takes and a pair of bloody lips later, I think I nailed it.”
Filled with wonderfully colorful settings and consistently catchy songs, “A Scratch in the Sky” was arguably the first great, side-to-side album made by a Chicago rock band — and one of the better releases anywhere — in 1967.
Today, while band members express pride in the record, Fairs believes that a lack of studio time and inexperienced engineers actually kept the music from reaching its true potential.
Pilster has a slightly different view. “Our models for that record were `Pet Sounds’ and `Sgt. Pepper’s,’ and honestly we just couldn’t get to that level,” he admits. “Brian Wilson is a god to me, and while I think we were very good, we weren’t quite that good.”
Being `In Love’ not enough
Surprisingly, while the album’s first single, “It Could Be We’re in Love,” was a huge hit in the Midwest and remained on the national charts for six months, the album didn’t sell well. Pilster believes the record company was partly to blame.
“When we signed with Columbia they were a very prestigious label, but they were just beginning to put together their rock distribution and promotion system,” he says. “Instead of sending us out on a national tour to support `A Scratch in the Sky,’ they sent us around to radio stations and teen television programs in the Midwest where we would lip-synch our songs. After a while we told them that this was degrading and commercially useless. Eventually, they sent us on a short East Coast tour, but it might have been too little, too late.”
After putting so much effort into “A Scratch in the Sky,” it was difficult for the band to accept its commercial failure. “We were really disappointed when the album didn’t propel us to the top,” Doody says. “Naturally, that led to a lot of finger pointing, and the band started to fall apart a little bit after that.”
Group’s demise in 1970
Following the group’s breakup in 1970, the band members went their separate ways, yet many remain involved with music. Based in Downers Grove, Pilster leads a version of the Cryan’ Shames during the summer festival season and also works in real estate. Doody occasionally sings with that group when he gets time off from his job in California. Kerley runs a painting business in California and leads a blues band, while Conroy lives in Lansing, Mich.
Fairs continues to write songs for pop artists (Chaka Khan, Gregg Allman) and music for various media. Sadly, Isaac Guillory died in 2000 and Dave Purple passed away in 2001.
Although the Cryan’ Shames never topped the national charts in their heyday, their music has doggedly refused to remain out-of-print and left behind. “In its own way, I think our music was uncompromising, and I’m very proud of everything we ever released,” Pilster says. “I think some of what we did was as good as anything that’s ever come out of Chicago.”
