Ravenstone (band)
Encyclopedia
Ravenstone is an American
rock
band formed in Athens
, Georgia
in 1971 by Butch Blasingame (lead guitar
, vocals), Dwight Brown, (bass
, acoustic guitar
, vocals), Michael A. Simpson, (vocals, harmonica
, percussion
, air raid siren), Ralph Towler (guitar
, mandolin
, keyboards
, vocals) and Bill Wilson (drums
, saxophone
, clarinet
, vocals). A popular group in the southeastern United States during the early 70s, the band is considered one of the godfathers of the internationally acclaimed Athens rock scene.
Blasingame, Simpson, and Wilson (the only Athens native) created the group after meeting in a University of Georgia
(UGA) drama class. The band’s name is a literary reference to a field where witches are executed in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust
, a play the three were studying at the time. Blasingame recruited Brown and Towler, two university students from his hometown of Monroe, Georgia
, with whom he had previously performed with in the group Edifice Wrecks.
From the beginning, the band’s original music was credited to all five members, listing them in alphabetic order. Although Simpson is the group's lyricist, all members provide input in songwriting. The band’s early music was muscular and lyrically intense, combining prototype punk elements with roots rock, British invasion and soul influences. Their sound was characterized by Blasingame’s blistering guitar style, the tight rhythm section of Brown and Towler anchored on the jazz inflections of Wilson’s drumming, and Simpson’s distinctive baritone, falsetto flourishes and topical lyrics. Simpson used a World War II-era air raid siren as an instrument during concerts.
During the band’s early period, Ravenstone's concerts and club performances were notable for the band’s wit, stage antics and political activism as much as their music. Known to their fans as the Ravesters, the group’s mix of humor and politics was illustrated in an early band photograph that featured Brown in a bow tie and a gas mask, Wilson dressed in a military uniform hanging on a granite cross, and Simpson wearing a tee shirt printed with the logo of a well-known comic book superhero.
The group is noted for its support of social issues, which predated and foreshadowed the activism of later Athens music groups such as R.E.M. In March 1972 Ravenstone played at a gay rights dance, reportedly the first ever openly held in the southeast United States, in the Memorial Ballroom on the UGA campus. A court injunction was required for the campus concert to occur after the university refused to allow it on grounds that it would be “aiding and abetting” sodomy – a felony under Georgia law at the time that carried a penalty of up to 20 years imprisonment. The Ku Klux Klan
reportedly harassed the band after their performance.
Simpson was questioned by administration officials after he made controversial political statements during on-campus shows. He also made provocative stage wardrobe choices, including shirts with the number 666 displayed over an upside-down cross and one with a four-letter scatological American slang term that he stated was the initials for the Sam Houston Institute of Technology. Despite objections from administration officials, a full-page photograph of Simpson wearing the tee, angled as to not fully reveal the last initial, was subsequently printed in the university’s 1973 student yearbook. An article written about the group in an Atlanta counterculture underground newspaper noted the band’s blend of politics and original music.
At an outdoor voter registration rally near the UGA administration building in May 1972, they were threatened with arrest after the band performed "Off A Pig", which advocated veganism
, not violence against the police. (Police were widely known as "pigs" in American slang at the time.) The band responded to the police threat by playing louder. Plainclothes policemen were stationed outside of the university president's office, reportedly out of concern that the band’s confrontational attitude and politically charged music would incite the several hundred students attending the show to riot.
In the spring of 1972, Ravenstone began recording More Love, their first album, at Atlanta's Web IV Studios. After several tracks were completed the band broke up. A version of the album's title track was subsequently included as a bonus feature for the DVD release of the cult horror film Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers, which Simpson directed in 1987. The track was also on the band's EP release in 2003. Other songs from the Web IV recording sessions have not been released to date.
After the departure of Wilson, Towler and Brown from the group, Blasingame and Simpson continued to perform and tour regionally as Ravenstone with other musicians including drummer Randy Delay, whose later work included the Georgia Satellites
' "Keep Your Hands To Yourself,” and bassist Greg Veale, who subsequently became a founding member of the Athens group Normaltown Flyers. Ravenstone disbanded entirely in 1974.
The original members of Ravenstone reunited in 2003. They released Back on the Rock in 2005 and returned to Athens for a performance at The Ritz, which was chronicled on the DVD One Night Only: Ravenstone Live At The Ritz.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
band formed in Athens
Athens, Georgia
Athens-Clarke County is a consolidated city–county in U.S. state of Georgia, in the northeastern part of the state, comprising the former City of Athens proper and Clarke County. The University of Georgia is located in this college town and is responsible for the initial growth of the city...
, Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
in 1971 by Butch Blasingame (lead guitar
Lead guitar
Lead guitar is a guitar part which plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs within a song structure...
, vocals), Dwight Brown, (bass
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
, acoustic guitar
Acoustic guitar
An acoustic guitar is a guitar that uses only an acoustic sound board. The air in this cavity resonates with the vibrational modes of the string and at low frequencies, which depend on the size of the box, the chamber acts like a Helmholtz resonator, increasing or decreasing the volume of the sound...
, vocals), Michael A. Simpson, (vocals, harmonica
Harmonica
The harmonica, also called harp, French harp, blues harp, and mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used primarily in blues and American folk music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. It is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes or multiple holes...
, percussion
Percussion instrument
A percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration...
, air raid siren), Ralph Towler (guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
, mandolin
Mandolin
A mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family . It descends from the mandore, a soprano member of the lute family. The mandolin soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. A mandolin may have f-holes, or a single...
, keyboards
Keyboard instrument
A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
, vocals) and Bill Wilson (drums
Drum kit
A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
, saxophone
Saxophone
The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...
, clarinet
Clarinet
The clarinet is a musical instrument of woodwind type. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet. The instrument has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed...
, vocals). A popular group in the southeastern United States during the early 70s, the band is considered one of the godfathers of the internationally acclaimed Athens rock scene.
Blasingame, Simpson, and Wilson (the only Athens native) created the group after meeting in a University of Georgia
University of Georgia
The University of Georgia is a public research university located in Athens, Georgia, United States. Founded in 1785, it is the oldest and largest of the state's institutions of higher learning and is one of multiple schools to claim the title of the oldest public university in the United States...
(UGA) drama class. The band’s name is a literary reference to a field where witches are executed in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust
Faust
Faust is the protagonist of a classic German legend; a highly successful scholar, but also dissatisfied with his life, and so makes a deal with the devil, exchanging his soul for unlimited knowledge and worldly pleasures. Faust's tale is the basis for many literary, artistic, cinematic, and musical...
, a play the three were studying at the time. Blasingame recruited Brown and Towler, two university students from his hometown of Monroe, Georgia
Monroe, Georgia
Monroe is a city in Walton County, Georgia, United States. The population was 13,381 at the 2008 census. The city is the county seat of Walton County, Georgia.-Geography:Monroe is located at ....
, with whom he had previously performed with in the group Edifice Wrecks.
From the beginning, the band’s original music was credited to all five members, listing them in alphabetic order. Although Simpson is the group's lyricist, all members provide input in songwriting. The band’s early music was muscular and lyrically intense, combining prototype punk elements with roots rock, British invasion and soul influences. Their sound was characterized by Blasingame’s blistering guitar style, the tight rhythm section of Brown and Towler anchored on the jazz inflections of Wilson’s drumming, and Simpson’s distinctive baritone, falsetto flourishes and topical lyrics. Simpson used a World War II-era air raid siren as an instrument during concerts.
During the band’s early period, Ravenstone's concerts and club performances were notable for the band’s wit, stage antics and political activism as much as their music. Known to their fans as the Ravesters, the group’s mix of humor and politics was illustrated in an early band photograph that featured Brown in a bow tie and a gas mask, Wilson dressed in a military uniform hanging on a granite cross, and Simpson wearing a tee shirt printed with the logo of a well-known comic book superhero.
The group is noted for its support of social issues, which predated and foreshadowed the activism of later Athens music groups such as R.E.M. In March 1972 Ravenstone played at a gay rights dance, reportedly the first ever openly held in the southeast United States, in the Memorial Ballroom on the UGA campus. A court injunction was required for the campus concert to occur after the university refused to allow it on grounds that it would be “aiding and abetting” sodomy – a felony under Georgia law at the time that carried a penalty of up to 20 years imprisonment. The Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan, often abbreviated KKK and informally known as the Klan, is the name of three distinct past and present far-right organizations in the United States, which have advocated extremist reactionary currents such as white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-immigration, historically...
reportedly harassed the band after their performance.
Simpson was questioned by administration officials after he made controversial political statements during on-campus shows. He also made provocative stage wardrobe choices, including shirts with the number 666 displayed over an upside-down cross and one with a four-letter scatological American slang term that he stated was the initials for the Sam Houston Institute of Technology. Despite objections from administration officials, a full-page photograph of Simpson wearing the tee, angled as to not fully reveal the last initial, was subsequently printed in the university’s 1973 student yearbook. An article written about the group in an Atlanta counterculture underground newspaper noted the band’s blend of politics and original music.
At an outdoor voter registration rally near the UGA administration building in May 1972, they were threatened with arrest after the band performed "Off A Pig", which advocated veganism
Veganism
Veganism is the practice of eliminating the use of animal products. Ethical vegans reject the commodity status of animals and the use of animal products for any purpose, while dietary vegans or strict vegetarians eliminate them from their diet only...
, not violence against the police. (Police were widely known as "pigs" in American slang at the time.) The band responded to the police threat by playing louder. Plainclothes policemen were stationed outside of the university president's office, reportedly out of concern that the band’s confrontational attitude and politically charged music would incite the several hundred students attending the show to riot.
In the spring of 1972, Ravenstone began recording More Love, their first album, at Atlanta's Web IV Studios. After several tracks were completed the band broke up. A version of the album's title track was subsequently included as a bonus feature for the DVD release of the cult horror film Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers, which Simpson directed in 1987. The track was also on the band's EP release in 2003. Other songs from the Web IV recording sessions have not been released to date.
After the departure of Wilson, Towler and Brown from the group, Blasingame and Simpson continued to perform and tour regionally as Ravenstone with other musicians including drummer Randy Delay, whose later work included the Georgia Satellites
Georgia Satellites
The Georgia Satellites are a Southern rock band from Atlanta, Georgia, USA. They are best known for their 1986 top five hit single "Keep Your Hands to Yourself", and draw inspiration from Chuck Berry, Little Feat, and AC/DC, among others.- History :...
' "Keep Your Hands To Yourself,” and bassist Greg Veale, who subsequently became a founding member of the Athens group Normaltown Flyers. Ravenstone disbanded entirely in 1974.
The original members of Ravenstone reunited in 2003. They released Back on the Rock in 2005 and returned to Athens for a performance at The Ritz, which was chronicled on the DVD One Night Only: Ravenstone Live At The Ritz.
Discography
- More Love (EP single) 2003
- Back On The Rock (CD) 2005
- Dance of Life (EP single) 2007
- Shades in the Shadows (CD) forthcoming
- Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy CampersSleepaway Camp II: Unhappy CampersSleepaway Camp 2: Unhappy Campers is a 1988 sequel to the movie Sleepaway Camp, written by Fritz Gordon and directed by Michael A. Simpson. Unlike Sleepaway Camp, Sleepaway Camp II is more of a comedic spoof than a horror film...
(DVD) 2004 “More Love” bonus feature - One Night Only: Ravenstone Live at The Ritz (DVD) 2006