THE GRUNT THAT WASN'T

Richmond Talbott( aka Steve Talbot) has the distinct status having made an album for Grunt records in 1973 and never having it released by the label. Richmond Talbott was a friend of Jorma's. According to info written in the Jeff Tamarkin's Airplane Bio book ..."Got A Revolution" It is Richmond who had given Jorma the moniker of Blind Thomas Jefferson Airplane. Steve(at that time ) had been in Jorma's inner circle for around the previous ten years. Richmond was basically a guitar blues musician. He makes an appearance on the Hot Tuna "Burgers" LP playing some slide guitar and some backing vocals.Jorma decides to sign his musician friend to the label and Richmond starts to make his LP. His Lp is done in 1973 and is then given artwork and even a catalog # FTR 1010 .One problem does arise though. The album is deemed so Bad by Maurice and Jorma himself they decide to kill the project and it never sees the light of day cutting expenses for the label. By this time it may be noted that it seems that the only substantial commercial success for Grunt is being generated by Airplane based releases. The musicians(other than Papa John) that the Airplane signed on have failed to produce any results regardless of their quality. By 1974 RCA decides to release all artists except the Airplane -Tuna -Starship commodity.