The country/rock band I was in many years ago covered Ride Captain Ride; we had a reputation for playing tunes that were a bit outside of our genre. I remember us being the middle act at a 5-band jamboree one Sunday afternoon. We hit the opening piano riff and the members of the other 4 bands collectively stood up, grabbed a chair, and sat down on the dance floor in front of us in rapt attention....
Donald Bartenstein
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Not only was Metamorphosis my favorite Iron Butterfly album, I’ve been saying for years that Mike’s guitar solo on “Butterfly Bleu” (which he wrote) is, in my opinion, one of the best recorded rock guitar solos of all time. He was a super nice guy, too. I met him at NAMM once.
- Mark Towns
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Hey Bob…another Manassas member, Paul Harris, played piano on Ride Captain Ride. He and Layla were session guys at Criteria. They both also appeared on the first Michael Stanley Band album, also recorded there.
David Spero
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I lived briefly in LA 1970 and then moved to Atlanta where it was in constant rotation everywhere.. I thought the drums and bass drive reminded me of Grand Funk RR. I never got tired of hearing it.
Jump to 1972 in London I'm doing an interview with Melody Maker alongside my bandmates Chris Spedding and Andy Fraser... and they ask me what my favorite record is and I blurt out "Ride Captain Ride-Blues Image"
Everyone looks around and NO ONE in UK had ever heard of the song ... and I'm in Melody Maker's offices and I'd stumped them!
I don't believe it was a hit anywhere but the US!
Love hearing it still on Sirius.
Thx for this memory, Bob!
Marty Simon
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Have not heard that name in a long time. I worked with Mike for a minute in Hollywood. We were planning a new project.
He confided in me that the making of RIDE CAPTAIN RIDE happened at a studio in SAN FRAN, Mike came in and they asked him to
sing a vocal..... He turned white, he needed a minute and headed to the bathroom.
While in there contemplating what to do about lyrics, he looked out a small window and saw a navy ship sailing into the harbor with sailors in their whites standing.
Hence 73 men sailed...
That is where the lyric came from
Sincerely,
Mark Wolfson
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Beautiful. You captured the elusive elements of the time perfectly. Almost tearful to look back.
Mike was a little older than all of us, but a great influence on us players in the south.
A true hero.
Ride on, Captain.
-Don Barnes
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Hi Bob - I bought the single of Ride Captain Ride when it came out because of the great singing and the hooks. I always thought it was about CDR Lloyd Bucher and the 83 men on the USS Pueblo that North Korea nabbed. Never saw or read anything that took that thought further. Thank you for your writing and the newsletter.
Boyd Allen
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And a True Vato…Carlos Michael…
He does have some Lost Royalties in Sacramento…
PLUS Two Million shares of Merrill Lynch stock!!!…
We need to research that…
Cheers, David Jensen
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I interviewed Mike Pinera about twenty years ago for Florida PBS. He was a nice guy and an absolute monster musician.
At the time he was touring with the Classic Rock All-Stars - a band that also included Jerry Corbetta, Dennis Noda and Peter Rivera. What a band.
His first name was Carlos - he told me he started going by “Mike” so people wouldn’t confuse him with Carlos Santana.
After Blues Image and Iron Butterfly (but prior to Ramatam) he worked with Black Oak Arkansas and told me that Tim Bogert and Carmine Appice offered him the lead guitar spot in Cactus, but Jeff Beck came along and Cactus was no more. Later on in the 70’s he had a solo hit (“Goodnight My Love”) and nearly joined Chicago before spending part of the early 80’s recording and touring with Alice Cooper.
He even cut a record with Roger Clinton - Bill Clinton’s younger brother.
Joe Lala and Steve Stills did not originally meet in Florida even though both attended high school in Tampa around the same time - Joe went to Jefferson, Stephen went to Plant - according to Joe, they met at the Whiskey sometime in the late 60’s.
Vince Welsh
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Nice mention, Bob.
Myself and 3 other guys from my old Beatlemania show days did some touring on the 30th Anniversary of Rock and Roll tours in the late '80s early '90s.
Jewel Akins, Bobby Day, Chuck Negron, Bobby Kimball, Pat Upton, Al Wilson and lots more. We intro'd the show doing some Beatles songs, and then reverted to background singers for most of the other acts. The core of Cannibal and the Headhunters was the backup band.
Mike was on that tour. He did a scaled down version of IAGDV. But when he did Ride Captain Ride, the audiences would go crazy!
He was a great guy to be on tour with, showed us lots of hospitality in Florida when we made our way there. A wonderful barbecue and party at his house. Stories about his friend Jaco Pastorius. We stayed in touch for a while and I'm sorry I didn't catch up again. We were Facebook friends but I should have called more.
Rest in peace Mike.
Mitch Weissman
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i bought ride captain ride and i'm your vehicle both 45's at leonard's dept. store corner of palms and sepulveda. i was in 10th grade. loved both of those songs so much
Denise Mello
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It is always so, so sad when the legends, and even the lesser-knowns, that have been touched, participated or orbited the magic are passing on, at such an alarming rate.
I always loved the Special Forces-era Alice Cooper band, of which Mike Pinera was a part of. I discovered Alice around this time and worked my way back, forward and around this period.
Their performance on the Tom Snyder show, featuring a truly scary-looking, freebase-ravaged Alice being interviewed and performing live, is something I’ve always been thankful to have found on YouTube.
Compared to Alice’s previous bands, these guys, in army fatigues, berets, etc. seemed a bit faceless, but they were rough-and-tumble and Pinera’s crunchy guitar was front and center, stirring the pot, and moving things along.
Looking at Alice then, with him still alive today, with so many of his contemporaries and former bandmates gone, makes it very clear rocking-n-rolling through those wild 60s/70s/80s and beyond was rough business!
Some live to tell, thankfully!
Warmest Regards, Brian Friel
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"Ride Captain Ride" was one of the biggest songs of my 11th year on this stinkin' rock. I loved it, too! I always cue it up on my inner jukebox with "Closer To Home" right behind it.
And I have looked those lyrics up and down and sideways trying to figure it out, but at least part of it got solved. And now I don't remember the source of this story, but the legend goes that the keyboard player just made it all up. Nonsense lyrics for the most part ("As a storm was blowin' out on the peaceful sea..."), with a grain or two of truth: The "73 men" were the 73 keys on his Fender Rhodes, upon which he was noodling those intro notes.
And I figure it may also have a bit of truth in the "Raindrops" reference. What song was damned-well unescapable on AM in 1969? BJ Thomas's "Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head".
One of the hardest things to being an original band has to be the endless paying of dues, like CCR opined on "Lodi": "Every time I had to play while people sat there drunk." Maybe it's a touch of sour grapes that nobody had time to pay attention to a nobody-band because they were too busy listening to that damned BJ Thomas song!
Take care,
Byron Beyer
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"And there's a kind of simple, almost weak, guitar solo..." Are you kidding?
I put the two guitar solos in that song up with Amos Garrett's solo in "Midnight At The Oasis" and Jesse Ed Davis's solo on "Doctor My Eyes" as prime examples of taste, brevity and chops on a hit record by great players whose names may not be of the household variety.
The sweet middle solo is not played by Mike Pinera but by Kent Henry who joined Blues Image when Pinera left to join Iron Butterfly but Mike played the Les Paul-drenched fade out solo (reminiscent of Luke's wicked fade on "Rosanna"). Regardless, guitar work by both.
Back in the day before people were falling all over themselves trying to categorize popular music, great guitar solos were the differentiator for me.
?William Nollman
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Are you aware that "Ride Captain Ride" was written about the capture of the US Navy ship "Pueblo" by North Korea in 1968? It was captaineed by Captain Lloyd M. Bucher, USN.
The song was co-written, I believe, by Skip Conte, keyboard player in Blues Image.
Greg Astle
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My friends and I all heard it and sang it as:
"Seventy three men sailed her"
Bob Davis
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Blues Image self-titled 1st album rocked with”Leaving MyTroubles Behind “, which convinced me to book them into the Cellar in Arlington Heights Illinois in early 1970. Later my own band used that song to close our set, slowly exiting stage left singing the title and fading away. I loved the screaming Hammond organ on that vinyl album and it remains an all time favorite. - Jeff Walz
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Ride Captain Ride is a classic music production culminating in one of the best exit solos ever. The fade out was executed perfectly wanting you to hear more!!!!
Br,
Will Eggleston
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I was 14 and it was my first major concert. The Allman Brothers Band in Tampa. A National Guard Armory. Wet Willie opened. 1971. What do I remember? Mike Pinera sitting in.
John Kauchick
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I was a 15 year old kid, when “Ride Captain Ride” by Blues Image hit the airwaves on my local AM radio station and I could not hear it enough. I rushed out and bought their album, “Open” and although there were a couple of other cool tracks, like “Pay My Dues” and “Parchman Farm,” it was “Ride Captain Ride” that was the song I would play over and over. The album version was slightly longer than the single with one of the greatest guitar outros ever recorded. I always wished that ending solo would go on forever.
I soon found a copy of the first self titled album and while it did not hold up as well as “Open,” it did feature a real gem in “(Do You Have) Somethin’ to Say.” Mike Pinera may not have had the career he had hoped for, but he did leave us with a timeless classic for which I will always be grateful for.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9BeV5xVNIg
Rich Ulloa
Y&T Music
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Couple of other tidbits for you, Bob -
* Pinera co-wrote “Ride” with Skip Konte, who later played second keys for Three Dog Night from 1973-1976.
* Blood, Sweat and Tears did a cool cover of “Ride” in 1975 on their New City album.
Here’s a great live performance of it with David Clayton-Thomas -
youtu.be/Q52A_M1At1A
Best,
NELSON DUFFLE
Washington, D.C.
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Interesting fact about "Ride Captain Ride" - if it's actually true. Mike Pinera was starting to write the song, looking for his opening line, while sitting at his Fender Rhodes. It was the 73 key model, with the "Seventy-Three" logo on the casing. He looked at that, wrote down the word, and that was the start of a classic.
Supposedly a similar thing happened with Robbie Robertson when he was writing "The Weight." He was looking for the name of a town and glanced at the inner label of his guitar, which of course read "Martin Guitars, Nazareth, PA." Simple inspiration can be great!
Rich Madow
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Nothing to do with Criteria. Steven recruited him to play in Manasas in either ‘70 or ‘71.
Joe was from Tampa, Criteria’s on my side of the state, Miami.
Even though it’s a mere 250 miles from Criteria in N. Miami to St. Pete Beach (280 to Tampa), the two music scenes are like worlds away. Similar to San Francisco to L.A.
Side note, after selling my interest in Vesper Alley Records to Sony 550 (and Fox) who wanted the management and our share of the publishing rights to our only monetized asset; Vonda Shepard, for her role in the eponymous T.V. Series Ally McBeal, I bought a 1/4 interest in Miami Label Y&T Records. (Y&T for Yesterday and Today”) (Our biggest hit, discovering, signing and selling the rights to Raul Malo and The Mavericks). Raul is now fighting his own battle with the big C.
It was 4 of us. Rich Ulloa who owned the largest used record store in Miami who handled A&R, Joel Greenberg a respected FL attorney, Joel Levy, whose father Hap Levy was somewhat of a Miami R.E. Magnate. Hap bought Criteria during troubled times and to give his “Hap”less son Joel a title with something to do and myself.
Richie handled A&R for his 1/4
Joel Levy all legal work for his 1/4
Joel Greenberg for unfettered access to Criteria, gratis. Mostly from 11:00 P.M. to early A.M. when it got quiet, and myself for financing and my biz contacts. We only released 3-4 Albums prior to being called by Joel Levy who told us; “the company has to break up,my dad sold Criteria to The Hit Factory.
Rob
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In 1969, after Mario kicked me out of my Whisky office, (for having too much traffic) I relocated my new Musicians Contact business to a small office next to the Hotel Marmont, (which is now PART of the Marmont). Around 1970 or 71 Joe Lala walked in and said his band, Blues Image, was looking for a frontman. They seemed real together with a lot of stuff happening. I told him that I was a lead singer and memtioned that I was nearly signed to Crescendo, the Seeds label, a couple years earlier. He said I seemed perfect for what they needed and I should come over to audition. But I told him I had no one else to run my business and couldn't travel at that time. Within a year Ride Captain Ride was a huge hit, sung by Pinera, since they couldn't find another singer. Oh well......
Sterling Howard, founder/owner
www.MusiciansContact.com
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I was in school in SoCal that year. We all thought the song was about the Pueblo incident. I remember Rosenberg doing a presser on my Dad’s ship and saying the investigation on the matter would vindicate the crew. Yeah, right. Scattered to the winds and forgotten. They even tried to say they weren’t POW’s because we weren’t at war with North Korea, so no POW benefits.
Milo
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Bob, I don't know where to start with you sometimes.. You get it right about 95 percent of the time but sometimes you get it so wrong....Mike Pinera was one of the finest guitarists from the seventies. You call his solo in Ride Captain Ride "weak"? You obviously never played guitar...That solo was one the most well crafted guitar tracks ever. I was thirteen in '69..which qualifies me as a self described Post Hippie..And yes I was an Iron Butterfly fan, and saw them at the El Mocambo in Toronto in the mid seventies.. Met the guitar player on a break.. Nice guy..very nice of him to take the time with a country kid who was underage to even be there...But he wasn't Mike Pinera. you say Butterfly's Metamorphosis was a monumental stiff..How can you call an album that reaches Top Twenty on Billboard a stiff?..Come down off your high horse. Yes, it was an obvious departure from In-A-Gadda-Davida. You say their audience moved on? No, THE BAND MOVED ON! That's the problem with you armchair critics..The quickest way to get a laugh out of me is to ask "why do bands break up?" Have you ever been on the road? Have ya ever lived out of a suitcase that you're too tired to open until Wednesday 'cause yer so worn out and blurred that you can hardly function while travelling 50 weeks a year on six nighters in clubs in the seventies when you could actually make a living? Jet lag my ass. That's over. :You're right about one thing. There aren't many Singer/Guitarists left. These clowns coming up don't know what it took to actually tour endlessly with no end in sight. Lose yourself, your wife and kids and ultimately your livelihood because the searching artist within you just can't stand the bullsh*t from record companies, bad managers, bad agents. etc. You should come up to the great white north for a year and we'll see how ya do here. And yes I've played, drank and rubbed shoulders with more famous Canadian musicians who have contributed so much to your American pop fabric than you will ever know about..Who cares right?.. Well, us musicians in our big little community care,, RESPECT and love for each other at the worst of times...Be careful what you say about us. As an international community we DO know everybody. Mike Pinera? He was one of my little known Heroes.
Randy Dawson
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Sorry to hear about Mike's passing. I worked with him a few times at Criteria in the mid-seventies. I also engineered a couple of "taxi shelter" albums that he produced for other artists in the late-seventies. He was always a gentleman, and fun to work with.
I was in a meeting with Mike and attorney in Ft. Lauderdale regarding an upcoming record when the law firm's receptionist told me there was a call for me. It was the receptionist at Triiad Recording, who told me Neil Young was in the lobby asking to start an album (Comes a Time), and I should hurry back to the studio.
When I told Mike that I needed to leave to go meet with Neil, Mike cracked a smile and said, "Well, I'm a better singer than Neil, but he makes timeless records... go on, get out of here!"
RIP, Mike.
best,
Michael Laskow
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