STEPHEN'S TATTOO

 

Mint Tattoo was born as an offshoot of the legendary 60's proto punk acid band Blue Cheer. Bruce Stephens and Ralph (Burns) Kellogg had played together in Blue Cheer on band's self titled album in 1969, but after that one album, Stephens left the band to pursue other interests. Kellogg stayed on with Blue Cheer until the demise of the band in 1971, but during his tenure with Blue Cheer he reunited with Stephens along with drummer Gregg Thomas to form the band Mint Tattoo. Produced by James William Guercio (Chicago) and engineered by Phil Ramone in New York, the Mint Tattoo is a mixture of blues styled original songs, a cover of classic a blues numbers and some rather uninspired, typical for the era hard rock tunes. Not an overly exciting album, compared to the early Blue Cheer material, but none the less a period piece and better than most material that was being released in the early 70's. 

1 Sister Fleu (First Movement) (3:53)

2 Leper's Epitaph (Second Movement) (1:34)

3 Policeman's Ball (Third Movement) (2:24)

4 Littal Lieu Lieu's Revenge (Fourth Movement) (:15)

5 Faces of Roses (3:37)

6 I'm Talking About You (3:25)

7 Scorpio Woman (6:46)

8 Mark of the Beast (2:37)

9 Moanin' (4:21)

10 With Love (2:30)

11 I Hear the Spirits (3:22)

BRUCE AND FRIENDS

From humble beginnings that included growing up traveling around the horse racing track circuits and carnivals in Mexico and California, to working in the hot summer fields picking cotton at age seven in order to help his struggling family, to riding in chauffer driven limos with rock star royalty, Bruce was given a unique opportunity to gain the kind of perspective that brings to his singing and playing a sense of committed authenticity.

At sixteen Bruce was the youngest member in the history of the Musicians Union in Sacramento CA. He was the drummer/bandleader of a six-piece ensemble of teen musicians called THE EMERALDS who because of their music reading skills became the backup band of choice in Northern California for major R&B acts. Bruce, along with the Emeralds, toured with The Coasters, The Olympics, The Larks, Bob & Earl, Chuck Berry, Junior Walker, Ray Peterson, and also opened shows for The Kinks, The Beach Boys, The Animals, Chad & Jeremy, Paul Revere & the Raiders and other “British Invasion” groups.

Rejecting an offer for a scholarship for a pre-med career, he could not resist the lure of the emerging music scene in San Francisco in the pre Haight Ashbury days. Forming a writing team with Ralph Burns Kellogg (aka Ethan James) from The Emeralds, they soon created MINT TATTOO. While touring and opening shows for Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, Ten Years After, James Cotton and Janis Joplin they recorded with the legendary producer James William Guercio (Chicago/Blood Sweat and Tears). “Mint Tattoo” was engineered by Phil Ramone at his A&R Studios in New York; shortly thereafter, Bruce and Ralph were asked to join and write for BLUE CHEER who were enjoying international fame and commercial success.

After several Blue Cheer albums Bruce was asked to travel to London and work on an album with Producer Ken Scott for RCA records. The classic “Fillmore Shuffle” ensued on the PILOT album and was recorded by Sammy Hagar on his debut “Red Album”.

In 1982 Bruce recorded a solo album “Watch That First Step” produced and engineered by Jack Leahy and accompanied by a very talented crew of players including Greg Douglass & Lonnie Turner (Steve Miller) BJ Wilson (Joe Cocker /Procol Harum), Norton Buffalo and a host of other exceptional musicians.

Bruce Stephens - Watch That First Step 

1. Cold Cold Heart

2. Detroit Or Buffalo

3. Full Moon

4. The Best Of You

5. Crawl Out Your Window

6. Wrong Way Girl

7. 61 Clay

8. Ooh La La

9. Heart Of Saturday Night 

Credits

Acoustic Bass - Mario Feraci

Arranged By [Horn & Strings] - Denny Jaeger

Artwork By [Airbrush] - Vera Knudsen

Artwork By [Art Direction] - Dag Wærner

Backing Vocals - Annie Sampson , Billy Bop Boman , Jo Baker , Two Tons O'Fun*

Bass - Lonnie Turner

Drums - B.J. Wilson

Engineer - Neil Schwartz

Engineer [Aided & Abetted] - Eric Buck , Richard Greene

Guitar - Greg Douglas

Guitar [Slide Guitar] - Michael O'Neill

Harmonica - Norton Buffalo

Horn - Mel Martin & Friends*

Keyboards, Vocals - Bruce Stephens

Percussion - Babatunde

Percussion [Brushes] - Bud Spangler

Photography - Patricia Kay

Producer - Bob Simmons , Jack Leahy

Steel Guitar [Pedal] - Joe Goldmark

Vibraphone [Vibe] - Larry Blackshear

Violin - John Tenny , Nate Rubin

BI-PLANE

 The album Pilot had as the principal player  Bruce Stephens, often confused with Leigh Stephens. Leigh Stephens did make a guest appearance on the album. Pilot was the name of the album, not a group as is often stated. Eric Albronda co-produced the Pilot album with Bruce Stephens at Trident Studios in London. The recordings were done in 1971 and released on RCA Records. The song "Fillmore Shuffle" was covered by Sammy Hagar. A song about the perils of substance abuse.

Bruce Stephens     keyboards, acoustic & electric guitar, vocals

Leigh Stephens     electric guitar
Martin Quittenton     acoustic guitar
Neville Whitehead     bass
Mick Waller     drums
&   
Ray Cooper     percussion
Gordon Huntley     dobro, pedal steel guitar
David Hentschel     synthesizer
Chris Hughes     sax
Karen Friedman     vocals
Jacki Hardin     vocals
Dari Lalou     vocals
Casey Synge     vocals


Stop And Think     3:24     (Bruce Stephens)
Miss Sandy     3:43     (Bruce Stephens)
Rendevous     3:49     (Bruce Stephens)
Fillmore Shuffle     7:50     (Bruce Stephens)
Love Is That Way     4:02     (Bruce Stephens)
Penny Alone     4:05     (Bruce Stephens)
With Me Tonight     4:02     (Bruce Stephens)
Rider                       4:55                       (Bruce Stephens)

Recorded At:
    - AIR Studios, London
    - Morgan Studios, London
    - Trident Studios, London
Produced By Eric Albronda & Bruce Stephens
Album Design: Wilson McLean
Photography: Roger Perry

PILOT OF A BLUE TATTOO

My first thought was to post the solo Lp by Bruce Stephens entitled Watch That First Step but after thinking about it a little more I felt this guy deserved more than just a solo lp to do him justice. I decided to put together some of Bruce's collected works from the bands he participated with as well as some solo work.  Bruce was a founding member of Mint Tattoo as well as spending time as lead guitarist in Blue Cheer.  He made two solo LP's " Pilot" and the before mentioned"  Step" LP  The "Pilot" Lp is not to be confused with the English band of the same name , Bruce was an excellent song writer and had a great distinctive voice  Bruce passed away in 2012  I always enjoyed his music and like so many in his class He deserved more recognition for his work

Tracks  1-5    as performed with Blue Cheer

           6-7       From the KSAN demo tapes

              8-14      as performed with Mint tattoo

           15-20    as performed on the Pilot Lp

                              21-22    From the Solo Lp Watch That First Step

         23-24    as performed with Shotgun