COMMANDER CODY AND HIS LOST PLANET AIRMEN

'Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen' was a country rock band formed in 1967 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The band’s name was inspired by 1950s film serials featuring the character Commando Cody and from a feature version of an earlier serial, ''King of the Rocket Men'', released under the title ''Lost Planet Airmen''. The band’s founder and leader, George Frayne, took the stage name Commander Cody.
The band’s style was basically a mixture of country music, rockabilly, and blues with a foundation of boogie-woogie piano. It became legendary for marathon live shows, but many felt that the spirit of those performances was never fully captured in the band’s recordings. In addition, they were among the very first country-rock bands to take their cues less from folk-rock and bluegrass and more from hardcore barroom country of the Ernest Tubb, Ray Price style, and to incorporate Western Swing into their style along with rockabilly and rhythm and blues. Other bands, such as Asleep at the Wheel, would later follow a similar pattern.
After several years spent playing in local bars, core members of the group migrated to San Francisco and scored a recording contract with Paramount Records. The group’s first album release, titled ''Lost in the Ozone'', arrived in late 1971 and yielded the group’s best-known hit, a version of the country song ''Hot Rod Lincoln'', which reached the top ten on the ''Billboard'' singles chart in early 1972. The band's 1974 live recording, ''Live from Deep in the Heart of Texas'' features cover art of armadillos by Jim Franklin, and the band released several moderately-successful albums through the first half of the decade. After appearing in the Roger Corman movie Hollywood Boulevard, Frayne disbanded the group in 1976. The core members of this version of the band were Frayne, John Tichy, Billy C. Farlow, Bill Kirchen, Andy Stein, Paul "Buffalo" Bruce Barlow, Lance Dickerson, and Bobby Black on pedal steel. John Tichy, now Dr. John A. Tichy, is a Professor in the Department of Mechanical, Aerospace and Nuclear Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy, New York, having earned a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan.
The 1976 book ''Star-Making Machinery'' by Geoffrey Stokes was an analysis of music industry production and marketing using Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen as its primary case study.
Retaining his stage name of 'Commander Cody', Frayne had a solo career, touring and releasing albums from 1977 to the present day; some later albums were released under the Lost Planet Airmen name. Recent releases have been under the name 'The Commander Cody Band'; in addition to Frayne, current members of the band include Steve Barbuto on drums, Mark Emerick on guitar, and Rick Mullen on bass.

Contents

Discography

Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen

Commander Cody

External links

Discography

Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen

★ ''Lost in the Ozone'' (1971)

★ ''Hot Licks, Cold Steel & Truckers’ Favorites'' (1972)

★ ''Country Casanova'' (1973) Detailed Information: Country Casanova

★ ''Live from Deep in the Heart of Texas'' (1974)

★ ''Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen'' (1975)

★ ''Tales from the Ozone'' (1975)

★ ''We’ve Got A Live One Here!'' (1976)

★ ''Sleazy Roadside Stories'' (1988) (recorded live in 1973)

★ ''The Tour from Hell—1973'' (1996) (also recorded live in 1973)

Commander Cody

★ ''Rock ’n’ Roll Again'' (1977)

★ ''Flying Dreams'' (1978)

★ ''Lose It Tonight'' (1980)

★ ''Let’s Rock'' (1987)

★ ''Aces High'' (1990) (as Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen)

★ ''Worst Case Scenario'' (1994) (as Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen)

★ ''Live at Gilley’s'' (2000)

★ ''Command Performance'' (2002)

★ ''All the Way Live from Turkey Trot'' (2005) (as The Commander Cody Band)

External links

★ Official Site

★ Commander Cody at awpi.com