Dragonfly
The album Dragonfly is probably the best ’60s-era Colorado LP, yet there has been much confusion about this monstrously-heavy hard rock/psychedelic record. For one, there was a Dutch ’60s psychedelic band going by the same name, and two, Dragonfly never played under this name ever. So let me set the story straight…
Gerry Jimerfield, Barry Davis, Jack Duncan, Ernie McElwaine and Randy Russ formed The Lords of London in Durango and in early 1967 played under this name in Ft. Collins, Boulder and in Denver at The Family Dog, often playing with Tommy Bolin’s early band American Standard. (There was also a Canadian ’60s beat band called The Lords of London, so don’t get lost searching YouTube just yet.)
(This poster can be seen on Steve McQueen’s wall at about the 7:30 mark in the 1968 film Bullitt!)
The Lords of London went to Los Angeles to record and while there changed their name to The Jimerfield Legend. A poor management decision led them to record an album of mostly-mediocre cover versions of pop hits of the day, under the shortened name The Legend. Studio musicians from the infamous L.A. Wrecking Crew were used to fill out the sound.
The Jimerfield Legend returned to Colorado in 1969 and were then finally seen by one of their L.A. managers on their home turf at The Family Dog, now with full psychedelic light show, an enthusiastic local audience and playing their own killer original material. The manager sent them back to L.A. to record an album that was released under the name Dragonfly in 1970 on Megaphone Records. But despite the evident excellence of this LP, it did not sell well, and the band broke up shortly after that.
Today, an original copy of the Dragonfly album sells for about $250!
(Photo of Dragonfly borrowed from the CD reissue of this album in 2004 on Gear Fab Records.
The liner notes are by former Dragonfly and current Denver-ite Jack Duncan!)
This entry was posted on Sunday, July 8th, 2012 at 5:44 pm and is filed under Music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
