EDITOR'S NOTE:
Pop Culture Press is proud to present for the first time anywhere the full-length, uncut story of the great lost Tulsa/Memphis band Cargoe, whose lone album was released on Memphis' Ardent records in 1972. The band scored a major radio song with "Feel All Right" (later retitled and referred to herein as "Feel Alright," but were caught up in the same distribution/bankruptcy label problems at Stax/Volt, who distributed the album and owned the masters, which meant that listeners who heard the hit couldn't actually buy the record. The same label troubles caused both Cargoe and Big Star to disband within a short time. Big Star went on to become one of the most beloved and influential bands of the entire decade, while Cargoe pretty much disappeared out of the popular memory.

Here's a few facts to give you a reason to read this lengthy tome: Cargoe were from Tulsa, Oklahoma, first-rate musicians who epitomied that funky Tulsa sound every bit as well as Leon Russell or The Dwight Twilley Band, to name two acts with whom they share musical heritage. Their peers in Tulsa went on to back artists like Eric Clapton, Delaney & Bonnie and Friends, Bob Seger, and Moon Martin. When Ardent Records was launched in Memphis in 1972, it was Cargoe who label owners/producers/engineers John Fry and Terry Manning thought were going to put Ardent Records on the map, NOT Big Star. It was Cargoe who were known as the hottest live band in the Memphis area in 1971-'74, NOT Big Star. It was Cargoe who scored a big radio hit, NOT Big Star. Some 18 months ago, when Terry Manning belatedly released a live radio performance recorded in 1972 at Ardent (Live in Memphis, Lucky Seven Records), Big Star's Jody Stephens told me -- not kidding at all -- that he almost hated for people to hear this album, and realize that Big Star weren't such a good live band after all. This is a band of talented multi-instrumentalists that could perform on a stage with a band as tight as The Allman Brothers (with Duane) and not be outclassed. Their lone album, simply titled Cargoe (released in 1972 on Ardent Records but available now only via a pricey Japanese 2003 import), has been unavailable for fans to hear for decades.

And therein lies another reason for Cargoe's obscurity in the double noughts: Ardent Records' contracts for distribution with Stax/Volt gave Stax ownership of the master tapes. When Stax went bankrupt in the mid-'70s, ownership of the masters eventually wound up in the hands of Fantasy Records Saul Zaentz (and I'd point you no further than John Fogerty's "Zaentz Can't Dance (But He'll Steal Your Money)" to give you an idea of what that meant to Cargoe in years to come -- no one's been able to get the tapes for domestic release). The good news is that Terry Manning badly wants to release Cargoe's album, and there's a real possibility of that happening soon. And it's certainly worth noting that after nearly 40 years of producing and engineering countless hit records, Manning to this day regards Cargoe as the great record he helped make that no one ever discovered.

It should be noted, and I want to make a personal point here: Cargoe nowadays tend to get classed as a Memphis power pop band, an also-ran footnote to the Big Star story. But that's really not fair nor is it accurate. Cargoe's musical feet are planted rather firmly in Tulsa, not Memphis, and while the group featured four talented members, each of whom wrote and sang songs, the reality is that the type of music they played had far more to do with The Allmans, Southern Rock, heavy rock (lead guitarist Tommy Richard, who wrote "Feel Alright" was just a MONSTER player), Delaney and Bonnie, and Leon Russell than they ever did with Big Star, in spite of being in the same studio and on the same label at the same time as Big Star. Maybe more nearly Lynyrd Skynyrd, then, with 4-part harmonies and a more funky underpinning. But the original Big Star fans in the Memphis area -- a very small group, of which I was one -- were almost to a man NOT Cargoe fans (although the actual guys in Big Star might have been). My reaction to hearing Live in Memphis over three decades later was more or less 'holy crap, how come I didn't like these guys back then?!!' But I didn’t, although I did buy the "Feel Alright" single and heard the album at the time, once, at least. And I'm thinking that the one Poco show I saw (DeLIVErin' was one of my favorite albums at the time) might've been the Overton Park Shell show with Cargoe opening, which turned out to be Cargoe's final gig. I simply can't remember after all this time.

If you dig this story, go to www.luckysevenrecords.com which is Terry Manning's website, and you can watch the video to "Feel Alright" (in fact, why don't you pop over and do that right now before you start), and you can order their live album after you've read it, if this story intrigues you. And don't miss Rockin' Memphis Vol. 1, a terrific collection of obscure Memphis pop, rock, funk, and comedy records from the late '60s-mid-'70s, and also don't miss Van Duren: Idiot Optimism, which sounds like the great lost Big Star album. As for me, I'm thinking seriously I need to order that Japanese mega-expensive CD because after editing this and playing the live album several times back to back, I REALLY need to hear that album again.

Special thanks to writer Frank Gutch, Jr., for contributing this piece. Manning says that Gutch is the ideal man for the job, as he's been following the Cargoe story for 30 years now. -- Kent Benjamin, Aug. 2005

CAST OF CHARACTERS (for handy reference whilst reading this):
BILL PHILLIPS - Cargoe rhythm guitarist/keyboardist/vocalist/writer
MAX WISLEY - Cargoe bassist/vocalist/writer
TIM BENTON - Cargoe drummer/vocalist/writer
TOMMY RICHARD - Cargoe lead guitarist/vocalist/writer
JIM PETERS - Tulsa KAKC DJ, later Cargoe manager/writer
ROBERT (ROB) WALKER - Tulsa /Memphis DJ, later Cargoe producer/manager
TERRY MANNING - Ardent Studio engineer/producer, Ardent Records co-owner
JOHN FRY - Ardent Studio owner/producer/engineer, Ardent Records co-owner
DAN PENN - songwriter extraordinaire, Box Tops svengali/producer

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