June 2005 (original) (raw)

Chris Robison's career covered a lot of territory. This spanned from being in the touring band Steam, in the band Elephant's Memory, in the Velvert Turner Group, recording with Keith Richards, John Phillips, Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Link Wray, Robert Gordon and John Lennon; in his own band Stumblebunny, his solo albums and his children's album.

No, he wasn't on the recording of "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye," but then the guys pictured here weren't either. That song was produced in the studio by Paul Leka, who when it became a hit then found a band to go out on the road to tour with the song. Chris was in that touring band. That was his first taste of musical success, in 1969, and great experience for his work in bands later.

Chris released two solo albums. The first, in 1973 was "Chris Robison and his Many Hand Band," and it was among the first to contain openly gay songs. And the marketing was geared to shine a light on that. Below is an ad that ran in After Dark magazine. Gee, it only cost $4.95, including shipping! You won't find it for that today, as both it and his followup album, "Manchild" (1974) are very rare. On the first album Chris did it all, all the vocals, all the instruments.