Cosmic Songs Of the 70s

As a band, we all agreed that the songs we learned and performed were going to be as much like the original recording as possible. Of course, at our ages our individual musical prowess and faculties probably left more than a little to be desired. But we tried to play music well beyond our capabilities anyway.

During the mid 70s, the album oriented rock and free form radio programming of WLAV-FM was the musician’s choice. For the Top 40 songs we were tuned into WGRD or WLAV-AM. The musical influences of the revolving band members during this time created an eclectic list. The early days of Cosmic included songs by Lynyrd Skynyrd, ZZ Top, the Doobie Brothers, Neil Young, Foghat, the James Gang, Edgar Winter, Uriah Heep, Elton John, Bachman Turner Overdrive, David Bowie, Moody Blues, and Chicago.

After Dave Borgeson left the band in 1975, Tim Pfifer became our lead singer. Tim had been the singer in my first band, Hot Ice, while I was in Jr. High and he was also an African American. Cosmic now had soul! Well, we liked to think so. After all, we all liked the funk music that was coming on the musical scene at the time, and soon our set list included songs by the Ohio Players, Wild Cherry, Stevie Wonder, Kool and the Gang, and Earth, Wind and Fire.

Tim’s father was a dyed in the wool Baptist preacher who did not approve of his son’s desire to sing in a profane rock band. Tim also did not live in Grandville like the rest of us. He lived on the opposite side of Grand Rapids on the ground level of an apartment building. We had to drive across town to pick him up for rehearsals and gigs, and on more than one occasion, when he was in disputation with his father, we literally had to sneak him out of his bedroom window.

A partial list of Cosmic songs:

Sweet Home Alabama Lynyrd Skynyrd
Long Train Running, China Grove The Doobie Brothers
Funk 49, Walk Away The James Gang
Color My World Chicago
Rocket Man Elton John
Nights In White Satin Moody Blues
All the Young Dudes Mott the Hoople (David Bowie)
Taking Care Of Business Bachman Turner Overdrive
Harvest Neil Young
Autumn Edgar Winter Group
La Grange ZZ Top
Jim Dandy To the Rescue Black Oak Arkansas
Fire Ohio Players
Play That Funky Music White Boy Wild Cherry
Jungle Boogie Kool and the Gang
I Want To Take You Higher Sly and the Family Stone
Long Distance Runaround / The Fish Yes

Here are excerpts from live Cosmic performances. Richie Dekker, our sound engineer, placed two microphones near the front of the band and ran the cables back to a 1/4” reel to reel tape recorder that he had repaired; one of his father’s castoffs. I am thankful that Richie did this, otherwise these glorious strains of Cosmic vibrations might have been lost forever.

Funk 49 by the James Gang. Listen to these funky white boys closely and you can hear a guitar being tuned up during the intro. Dave Borgeson is singing, my brother Jeff is on the drums, Jim vineyard on lead guitar, and Doug Cline is on bass. On the right side you can hear my Farfisa Professional piano being run through a wah wah pedal.

Ukiah. A Doobie Brothers song about getting back to nature and living in a cabin in the woods. Same lineup of musicians as above

Home In My Hand. A rockin’ little number by Foghat. Before I joined Cosmic I had no idea who they were. They didn’t have any hit songs and had no keyboards in their music, either. But just listen to the blistering blues scale riffs by this teenage ensemble! Same members as before.

Honey Hush. This was another song by Foghat which often ended one of our sets. You can hear Dave Borgeson at the end,”You’re listening to Cosmic. Stay with us, alright?” Note the stellar parallel guitar work and the tight groove set up by the rhythm section of my brother Jeff and bassist, Doug Cline. I think I was 16 or 17 years old during these recordings.

Reelin’ In the Years. The following recordings of Cosmic feature Tim Phifer on vocals. This Steely Dan song showed how our vocal harmonies had improved, but our instrumental technique would not quite have been up to Becker and Fagen’s standards. Aw, fooey on them. We were just kids.

My Love Is Alive. This is Gary Wright’s second hit,
lovingly recreated by Cosmic. By now I had purchased my first synthesizer, the Roland SH-1000, and placed it atop the Farfisa keyboard. You can easily hear the Farfisa being played through the whirling rotors of the leslie speaker and the sound of the Roland going meow meow, meow, meow, meow meow. Tim’s voice sounds great and the band is pretty funky by now.

Already Gone. This is one of the Eagles earliest hits. I included the entire song here because it showcases the whole Cosmic band. One of my big arpeggiated synth solos is featured, along with electrifying guitar work and resounding vocals. Brother Jeff holds it all together with his rock-steady drumming.