Planetaria
Planetaria | |
|---|---|
 Planetaria in 1970; from left: Ozzy Osburn, Doug Carpenter, Freddy Palmer, Adrian Montgomery | |
| Background information | |
| Origin |
 Fresno, Central Valley, Sierra |
| Genres | |
| Years active | 1967–1984, 2010–2012 |
| Labels | |
| Past members |
Original lineup
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| Associated acts |
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Planetaria was a Sierran rock band formed in Fresno in 1967 by guitarist Doug Carpenter, drummer Adrian Montgomery, and vocalist Ozzy Osburn, being joined in 1968 by bassist Freddy Palmer, with the four comprising the primary line-up for the band. They are often cited as pioneers of various subgenres of rock music, including heavy metal, thrash metal, and hard rock while their later releases incorporated elements of art rock, acoustic rock, folk rock, and blues.
The band helped to popularize hard rock music, a style of alternative rock that developed in Central Western Sierra during the early-1970s, alongside such contemporaries as The Vagabonds, Nympho Guns, and Lone Soldier. They were the first of a number of alternative bands to sign to the San Francisco City-based record label Avocado Records, through which they released ten albums from 1970 to 1984. Their first four albums, Planetaria (1970), Empire of the Ants (1970), Die Young (1971), and Wicked World (1972), would pioneer the heavy metal and hard rock sound, leading the band to mainstream success despite receiving severely critical and negative reviews of their music by mainstream publications. Their fifth album, Death Valley Blues, would see the band depart from their hard sound in pursuit of acoustic melodies and folk music at the behest of record producer William Kane. Despite the lack of commercial success akin to the band's prior releases, the record would garner critical acclaim for the band's transition into balladry. After suffering from burnout and exhaustion, the band would release their sixth album, Under The Sun (1975), which faced mixed reviews from fans and critics alike, and is often credited to the departure of Montgomery as drummer. Following subsequent lineup changes during their seventh album, Black Sheep Parade (1976), the band took a hiatus from 1976 to 1978 to decide their future, with them ultimately deciding to reform the band. Their eighth album, The Night Stalker (1979), was billed as a concept album which followed a sonic narrative of a murderer and became cited as their "come-back" album for critics.
Planetaria achieved its biggest success with their 1980 album Rolling Suicide, which debuted at number one on the Sunset 100 and yielded the Perci Award-winning single "Mr. Mowley" and the Perci Award-nominated "Oppressor". The album has been called the "godfather record of thrash metal" due to the hectic drum performance by Andrew Parker of Goat Milk fame. Following Osburn's departure due to creative differences, Carpenter would perform vocals as the band experimented with new sonic textures on their follow-up album Metempsychosis, which debuted at number 4 on the Sunset 100 in 1981 and spawned several hit singles of its own, including "Before I Realize" and "Going Down!". Despite the departure of Palmer in 1983, the band would enlist the aid of bassist and vocalist Randall Spitz for work on their final album. Planetaria's eleventh and final album, Lucretia, was released on 25 May, 1984. A formal letter to fans by the remaining members of the band cited their break up to internal strife over its creative direction and exhaustion from touring. After more than two decades of working on projects and other bands, the original lineup of the band reunited in 2010 for a two-year reunion tour during the release of their fourth compilation album. During the tour, Osburn would reiterate that "Planetaria lives on in the hearts and souls of our fans, not in new music".
As of 2019, Planetaria had sold more than 23 million records in the Kingdom of Sierra, and an estimated 60 million worldwide. The Porciúncula Times ranked Planetaria at number 4 in a special edition which covered the 100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock.
History
1967–1969: Formation and signing to Avocado
Lead guitarist Doug Carpenter, drummer Adrian Montgomery, and vocalist Ozzy Osburn started playing together as teenagers while attending Fresno Unified School District, and formed an informal band in 1967. Following the break-up of the band Kosmology in 1968, bassist Freddy Palmer would join the band. During this period, the band performed under numerous names, such as Sabbat, Black Star, and Mother Earth. At the suggestion of Carpenter's mother, Elaine, the band dropped the "mother" terminology in their name. They would often play and record music in Carpenter or Montgomery's garages on Fridays or Saturdays, with Osburn later stating that "Sundays were for hangovers cause we'd get wasted while playing and we would play very, very badly". Among these early recordings, between May and July 1968, would including demo versions for the band's later hits such as "What I Hide", "Rat Salad", and "When I Came Down/Sleeping Village". The band would often perform at local at local clubs and venues, though they would gain a reputation for being so-called 'deliquents'. After a performance at Hayworth's Blueshouse that apparently saw "people hanging off the chandeliers as if a riot were to explode", the owner Lincoln Hayworth would agree to the manage the band.
In September 1968, the band would release their first 9-track demo tape, Bad Acid, and through their manager Hayworth, would begin distributing the album around to record labels. In November, the band would sign to Egg Records, a record label based in Fresno established in 1967 by folk duo The Valley Brothers Blue. The band would release their 2-track EP Wasp on 6 December, which would feature the afformentioned "What I Hide" and "Rat Salad". During an interview on Glen Beck's Real Rock radio show in 1969, Carpenter later reflected on working with the Valley Brothers Blue duo, "They used to run a label which the band used to sort of be on back when we were Earth. We did a 12" [vinyl] with them, one side had two songs and the other side was us performing songs we had [worked on] with the duo and that was really cool."
After dropping out of highschool in February 1969, Carpenter would later be kicked out his parent's house the following month, where he would move in Palmer. Carpenter said "there really wasn't anywhere for me to go. Ozzy's parents were arses and Adrian lived with his elderly grandparents who'se cats pissed everywhere". Though Carpenter was homeless and would later drop out of highschool, the band would continue to promote their EP and demo following the school year, and would begin touring in Sierra in the summer. While playing shows in Sierra in 1969, the band discovered they were being mistaken for group from the United Commonwealth named Earth, leaving the band to once again search for a new name. A movie theater across the street from the band's rehearsal room was showing the 1967 sci-fi horror film Planetaria starring Louis Goldman and directed by Robert Hortage. While watching people line up to see the film, Palmer noted that it was "strange that people spend so much money to see grotesque movies". Making use of the musical tritone, also known as "the Devil's Interval", Carpenter would write a song inspired by the film using the same name.
The song's ominous sound and dark lyrics pushed the band in a darker direction, which at the time was a stark contrast to the popular music of the late 1960s, which was dominated by hippie culture. The key to the band's new sound on the album was Carpenter's distinctive playing style that he developed after an accident at a sheet metal factory where he was working at the age of 16 in which the tips of the middle fingers of his fretting hand were severed. Carpenter created a pair of false fingertips using plastic from a dish detergent bottle and detuned the strings on his guitar to make it easier for him to bend the strings, creating a massive, heavy sound. "I'd play a load of chords and I'd have to play fifths because I couldn't play fourths because of my fingers."
After a performance in Bernheim, San Joaquin on 28 June, Hayworth would secure the band a meeting with executives from Avocado Records. During this reported meeting, it is said that the band was initially reluctant, with Osburn acting harsh and bitter about the experience, as Carpenter and Osburn did not wish to sign to the label but nonetheless Hayworth assured them it was the right decision. The band would ultimately sign a recording contract with an advance of five-figures under the name "Planetaria" on 29 June, which was able to afford the band their first house and proper studio equipment. Osburn would later reflect positively on their signing, stating "It was truly amazing at the time for us... we had just graduated from highschool and now we were basically certified rockstars."
1969–1971: Planetaria and Empire of the Ants
The band's first show as Planetaria took place on August 1969, in their hometown of Fresno, Sierra. The band would gain first major exposure when the band appeared on Beck's Real Rock radio show in January 1970, performing "Planetaria", "What I Hide/Rat Salad", and a full version of "Sleeping Village" to a national audience in Sierra shortly before recording of their first album commenced. The performance marked the release of the band's first single, "Poisonous Girl", which failed to chart. Due to their highly publicized performance, however, the band were afforded three days of studio time in December to record their debut album with producer Patrick Warner. Carpenter recalls recording live: "We thought 'We have two days to do it and the other day is mixing.' So we played live. Ozzy was singing at the same time, we just put him in a separate booth and off we went. We never had a second run of most of the stuff."
Planetaria was released on Friday the 13th, February 1970, and reached number 18 in the Sunset Billboard 200, where it remained for over a year. Despite being certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the album was given harsh and negative reviews by many critics. Writing for The Fresno Times, Ken Dixon dismissed the record as "discordant jams with bass and guitar reeling like velocitised speedfreaks all over each other's musical perimeters, yet never quite finding synch". In retrospect, Planetaria has been lauded as perhaps the first true heavy metal album. It has also been credited as the first record in the stoner rock and goth genres. MusicBound Rock's Martin Dover feels that Planetaria marks "the birth of heavy metal as we now know it". In his opinion, the album "transcends its clear roots in blues-rock and psychedelia to become something more". According to Rolling Stone magazine, "the album that arguably invented heavy metal was built on thunderous blues-rock". Writing for Sierra Media, Denk Stagnot notes that the record's combined elements of rock, jazz and blues, with heavy distortion created one of the most influential albums in the history of heavy metal. Upon it's release, the band would tour from 1 March through 27 May in support of the album.
Less than a week following the tour, the band would commence work on their second album. Inspired by H. G. Wells short story of the same name, the band would begin recording on 3 June in San Francisco City after Carpenter rented a house there to "get away from all the noise". Empire of the Ants, much like the band's debut, was produced by Warner. The recording however was plagued with problems, many due to substance abuse. In the studio, the band regularly had speaker boxes full of cocaine delivered. In his autobiography I Am Ozzy, Osburn speaks at length about the sessions: "In spite of all the arsing around, musically those few weeks in San Francisco were the strongest we'd ever been." But he admits, "Eventually we started to wonder 'where the hell all the coke was coming from?' That coke was the purest, most genuine stuff you could ever imagine. One sniff, and you were god of the universe." In 2011, Palmer admitted that heroin, too, had entered the picture: "We sniffed it, we never shot up... I didn't realize how bad things had gotten until I went home and the girl I was with didn't recognize me." The first song recorded for the album, "I'm Going (Through Changes)", would later be the album's lead single, debuting at number 3. The song's piano melody was originally a composition Carpenter would occassionally play for house guests and sometimes on stage. The lyrics, written by Montgomery following his divorce from his first wife, were referred by Osburn as "heartbreaking". Quite different from the band's previous work, the song was described as a "forlornly pretty" ballad by critic Lester Roberts of Music Box Magazine.
On 18 September, 1970, Empire of the Ants would be released, and while most critics of the era were dismissive of the album, it achieved gold status in less than a month, becoming certified platinum by 1971, and peaking at number 3 in the Sunset Billboard 200. The band would tour in support of the album from 21 September to 25 December.
1971–1972: Die Young and Wicked World
In January 1971, after their first internatonal performance in London, Planetaria returned to the studio to begin work on their third album. Unlike their prior releases, Warner was not hired to help produce this album, with the band recruiting producer Simon Wright, whom had previously worked on albums with acts such as The Landing. However, Wright would soon quit, citing the band's excessive drug use as reasoning. In spite of this, the band would return to San Francisco City to begin writing and recording music. They would later recruit producer William Kain, who would continue to produce much of the band's future releases. The band has often stated how terrible the recording process for Die Young was, with Carpenter saying in a 1981 interview, "Ideas weren't coming out the way they were on Planetaria or Empire [of the Ants] and we really got discontent. Everybody was sitting there waiting for me to come up with something, and I just couldn't think of anything." In 2014, bassist Palmer told Music Box Magazine that after the tour in support of Empire of the Ants the band was "absolutely, completely exhausted."
The primary recording process for Die Young was done over a period of four months, with the band producing an album's worth of material each month until they felt like the material was the best they could do. "Die Young was the third of four albums we made" said Osburn, "Songs like 'War Dogs', 'Stone Man', 'Die Young' kept being reworked and revised, and we ended up with six different versions of just those three songs". The album's opening track "War Pigs" was originally intended to be called "Walpurgis". It was then changed to "War Dogs", which the band intended to name the album until it was changed to Die Young after the record company became convinced that the song of the same name had potential as a single. Osburn explained his intentions behind the original name, stating "I wanted to name the album 'Walpurgis' – you know, the Satanic version of Christmas – write it about that Satan isn't a spiritual thing, it's warmongers. That's who the real Satanists are, all these people who are running the banks and the world and trying to get the working class to fight the wars for them. We sent it off to the record company and they said, 'No, we're not going to call it that. Too Satanic!' So I changed it [to 'Die Young']." During this time period, mandatory army service was still active, and with the Colombia War raging, many young men feared they'd be conscripted to fight in it. "That's what started this whole rebellion thing about not going to war for anybody", said Carpenter. "I was dreading being called up".
Die Young would be released on 11 June, 1971, where, pushed by the success of the "Die Young" single, it debuted at number one on the Sunset 200. The album's success would lead to the release of the song "Stone Man" as a supporting single. The promotional clip for the single would later be released in August 1971. The album would go on to sell four million copies with virtually no radio airplay. For the first time in their career, the band began to receive favourable reviews in the mainstream press, with Rolling Stone calling the album "an extraordinarily gripping affair", and "nothing less than a complete success", though some critics remained harsh. In a retrospective review, The Porciúncula Times Jack Sutton cited Die Young as "one of the greatest and most influential heavy metal albums of all time", which "defined the sound and style of heavy metal more than any other record in rock history". Joseph Bush from Sierra Media said it was "the greatest metal album of all time". The chart success of Die Young allowed Planetaria to tour internationally for the first time, beginning the tour on 24 June after their performance at the Euphonia Music Festival through February 1972.
Following the Die Young tour, the band were exhausted and on the verge of breaking up. Osburn, whom had an accidental overdose while in France, had all but been fed up with the band's direction and focus. While Montgomery sufferred exhausted as well, Carpenter and Palmer were the only two that wished to continue recording music for their followup album, though at one point they decided that if it didn't work they would disband. Rather than returning to San Francisco City, Carpenter and Palmer would record much of what would later become Wicked World in Bernheim, San Joaquin while Osburn and Montgomery remained absent. Like Die Young, Kain would produce the album, though he himself was reluctant given that half of the band was missing. These early sessions lasted from April to June before Osburn and Montgomery agreed to continue working on the album, though by this point, Osburn was singing the lyrics written by Carpenter while Montgomery was freestyling much of his drum arrangements. In retrospect, Carpenter has said that his favorite album that he had worked on was Wicked World, saying in a 2017 interview, "At that point, Adrian and I just wanted to bring the sound back to the roots from where we had left off [with 'Die Young']... the other two weren't happy with it but it really was Adrian that convinced them to come back and record."
Though originally wanting to title the album Fuck Off according to Osburn, Wicked World would be released on 18 August, 1972, debuting at number 5 on the Sunset 200. Supported by the singles "Dear Liza", "Sweet Leaf", and "Into the Valley", it would remain on the charts for sixteen weeks, being certified gold by December and later being certified double-platinum. It would be the second record by the band to receive more favorable reviews upon release. Writing for The Fresno Times, Jarrod Maxwell described the album as "the sound of drug-taking, beer-guzzling hooligans from Sierra's oft-pilloried cultural armpit let loose in LA", applauding it as "an extraordinarily gripping affair", and "nothing less than a complete success". In a negative review, Music Box Magazine's Lester Roberts described it as "monotonous" and hardly an improvement over its predecessor, although he found the lyrics more revealing because they offer "some answers to the dark cul-de-sacs of Die Young." Unlike the Die Young tour, the Wicked World tour only had a North American leg, with a total of 30 shows compared to Die Young tour's 81. The tour lasted from 1 September through 31 October.
1972–1976: Death Valley Blues, Montgomery's departure, Barley joins and Under The Sun
After the end of the Wicked World tour, the band decided they would take a three month break from the studio before returning, as while Carpenter was satisfied with the direction of the band, Osburn and Montgomery weren't, with Osburn himself saying in a 2009 interview that he had gotten offered $10,000 for a solo recording contract with Avocado following the tour, though he didn't accept it. During their break, Osburn's marriage with Evelynn Thompson would end in widespread publicization, leading the vocalist to withdraw from the public eye; Montgomery would be re-married; Palmer and his wife Shannon would have their first child; and Carpenter continued to perform at local clubs in Fresno with local acts such as The Leftovers, Algorhythm, and Techno Eagle, whom would inspire him to pursue a more distinctive musical progression going forward.
In February 1973, the band would re-unite in Fresno at the newly-built Badwater Studios. Unlike their last album recordings, their return to Fresno with producer Willaim Kane marked a shift in the band's attitude, with the band operating at full capacity unlike the Die Young or Wicked World album sessions. Carpenter wanted the band to explore more elements of blues and folk on the band's fifth studio album, describing the album in 1974 as "music around a camp fire in the wild west". The band would make use of acoustic guitars and organic drums, with Osburn playing the harmonica and Carpenter playing the piano more frequently. The band would recruit Nathon Corona to play flute and trumpet on songs such as "My Line", "Down The Alleyway", and "Back (The Barn Song)", and would tour with the group during the album's subsequent tour as an official member. The album was recorded over a three-month period, with the band recording roughly seven hours of material. This would later be compressed down to 90-minutes, with the band announcing that they would be release a double-album due to the excessive material. The album also marks the band's transition away from the darkness that trademarked their earlier releases.
Naming the album Death Valley Blues as a nod to Death Valley and their stylistic roots, the album would be released on 7 September, 1973 and become the band's most critically received album during their early career, peaking at number 4 on the Sunset 200 though under-selling compared to the band's prior releases. Giving the album four of the five stars, Stan Darsh of Barnhouse – Rock would state "Death Valley Blues is not only Planetaria's best record since Die Young, it might be their best ever." Supported by the singles "Sail Away" and "Burn", Death Valley Blues would stay on the charts for sixteen weeks, being certified gold later that year and platinum in 1975. Death Valley Blues is the longest album released by Planetaria, and has been described by Osburn as a "concept record".
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During the Death Valley tour (1973–1974), Montgomery's marriage with Louise Dove would fail, and after the band's performance in Sacramento, a heated argument would erupt between Carpenter and Montgomery. Rumored to have been over the direction of the band's sound, Montgomery would leave the tour, being replaced by Kevin Barley of Techno Eagle. Montgomery would formally leave the band in February 1974, though would later rejoin the band during their future reunion tours. Montgomery has since stated that at the time he was "fed up" with Carpenter, and given his failing marriage, wanted to start anew. Montgomery would later form the band Leviathan. Following Montgomery's departure, Barley would officially join the band following the end of the tour in May 1974.
Planetaria began work for their next album at Kritia Studios in Fort Travis, Kings, in July 1974. The addition of Barley allowed the band to expand their sound, as he played both drums and keyboards, and to a lesser extent, synthesizers. During the recording of Under the Sun, Osburn admits that he began losing interest in the band and began to consider the possibility of departing much like Montgomery, and had even begun searching for other musical acts. Recording of the album was difficult, with Osburn's substance abuse reaching a fever pitch where he would nearly died of an overdose while they were recording in the studio one afternoon; he would later recall how "miserable" he was during the recording process. Carpenter would remark that the album's sessions were "not noteworthy". Under the Sun was released on 21 March, 1975 to mixed reviews, with the album being the bands first release to also have less favourable retrospective reviews; two decades after its release, Sierra Media gave the album 5.56/10, and noted that the band was "unravelling at an alarming rate". Much like Death Valley Blues, the album featured less of the doomy sound of previous efforts, and incorporated more synthesisers and uptempo rock songs. Under the Sun failed to reach the top 10 in Sierra, and was the band's first release not to achieve platinum status, although it was later certified gold in 1989. The album included "Ghost Town", which remains a popular song among hardcore Planetaria fans, as well as Palmer's first vocal performance on the song "Run Away".
1976–1979: Barley's death, Black Sheep Parade and The Night Stalker
On 11 August, Barley would die from a fatal car crash in Fresno. His death, admist the tour, would lead to the band temporarily replacing him with The Vagabond's Earl Chapman during the remaining shows of their Sierra leg and cancelling their international tour. The band would later donate most of the money they had made on their tour to Barley's family. Barley's funeral would later be held on 1 September in Fresno, with all of the band member's present with a total attendance of 2,000. In the 2015 re-issue of Under The Sun, the album included 3 unreleased tracks from the album sessions that included Barley.
After the end of the tour a week following the funeral, the band had initially decided that they should break-up, with Carpenter later stating "We had no plans after [Barley's] death to continue making music, and ultimately it was our label that wanted us to keep making music. We were all doing a lot of drugs, a lot of coke, a lot of everything, and Ozzy was getting drunk so much at the time. We were supposed to be rehearsing and nothing was happening. It was like 'Rehearse today? No, we'll do it tomorrow.' It really got so bad that we didn't do anything. It just fizzled out." During this time, the band would recruit Steven Howards of Algorhythm fame to perform drums on new record. Under label pressure, the band would release their seventh album, Black Sheep Parade, though unlike standard releases by the band, the album has been referred to by Osburn as "a bunch of after thoughts." Released on 30 January, 1976, the album received mixed reviews, and has often been retroactively lauded by fans and critics alike as the band's worst record. The album debuted at number 17 on the Sunset 200.
Carpenter, Palmer, and Osburn would agree to take a break from music for a period of two years, deciding that if when they returned in May 1978 and weren't interested in continuing music, then they would formally breakup. From spring 1976 through spring 1978, the band members would work on separate projects. During this time, Palmer would join Sonic Demise, performing bass on their fourth album, Stonehenge, and subsequently touring with the band throughout much of Planetaria's break; Carpenter initially set out to form a solo project featuring former Techno Eagle members Emile Carey, Andrew Bernie, and Steven Howards, though after a few performances, the solo project was ended by the label. Osburn, however, had begun writing material for the following album after a strange LSD trip where he envisioned himself as a serial killer on the run. In a 1995 interview with The Porciúncula Times, Osburn would elaborate on this vivid dream, saying "I felt the rush, the tragedy, all of it... it was so surreal, and after I calmed down with coke, its almost like I had just lived an entirely different life for what felt like years in a few hours." Upon their return to Fresno in May 1978, the band had decided that they would continue to make music, with Osburn taking a more active leader role in the band which was a contrast to the previously Carpenter-led records.
To fulfill the vision Osburn had, the band would hire musician Candice Ford to help in the album's production, with her most notably performing keyboards and synthesizers across much the record as well as performing backing vocals. The recording session of The Night Stalker was described by Carpenter as "eclectic", with the band incorperating elements of progressive rock, folk, blues, garage rock, and elements of early punk in stark contrast to their previous albums. In a 1997 interview, Osburn stated that it was his intention to make a movie when he was recording the album and didn't think of it as a "normal rock record". Unlike prior releases, Osburn wrote much of the material on the record. The album's first single, "Slow Death", would be the band's highest charting song since 1972's "Die Young", peaking at number 1 on the Hot 100 and spending over twenty weeks on the chart. The Night Stalker was released on Friday the 13th, April 1979, debuting at 6 on the Sunset 200 and becoming the band's first Top-10 hit since 1973's Death Valley Blues. Upon release, critics were split between those who thought the album was a masterpiece, the beginnings of a new genre, or were simply dismissive of the record. In his review for Music Box Magazine, Charles Savant said that, despite its slight flaws, the album has "many excellent songs" permeated with "a suitably powerful grace", while Osburn's ability to devise a lengthy narrative introduced "new possibilities to rock music."
1979–1981: Rolling Suicide, Osburn's departure and Metempsychosis
The band returned to the studio in early 1980 with producer Patrick Warner, who produced their debut album, to aid in the recording of their ninth record. Warner's goal throughout the record was for Planetaria to return to the "pounding speed of Die Young and Wicked World while retaining their newfound melodic sense." The band sign on Goat Milk's drummer Andrew Parker for a four-year drumming contract, with his inclusion leading to the creation "intense and spiraling" drum patterns. The album's first two singles, "The Antichrist" and "Mr. Mowley", would be smash-hits across Sierra, leading the band to receive numerous Rock song of the summer award nominations. Rolling Suicide was released on 31 October, 1980, to widespread acclaim from numerous publications and fans alike, with some calling it the band's "return to form" and is often cited as a pioneer record for trash metal. The album debuted at number 1 on the Sunset 100, becoming the band's second number-one album on the charts and their sixth top-10 record. The album would spawn additional singles for release, including "Sadist", "Raining Blood", and "Oppressor". Less than two months after release, it was certified gold. By 1999, the record would be certified 5× Platinum in Sierra alone, becoming Planetaria's highest-selling album. The music video for the album's single, "The Antichrist", was released exclusively on VOD in December 1980, which featured news footage from Prime Minister Walter Zhou's "War on Drugs" along with cutaways to the band wearing tattered clothing and performing live on the streets of Fresno with broken guitars and trash-barrel drums while the original song plays in succinct.
1982–1984: Spitz joins, Lucretia and disbandment
1984–Present: post-Planetaria activities
Personnel
Original lineup
- Doug Carpenter – guitars, vocals (1967–1984, 2010–2012)
- Adrian Montgomery – drums (1967–1974, 2010–2012)
- Ozzy Osburn – vocals, guitars, harmonica (1967–1981, 2010–2012)
- Freddy Palmer – bass (1968–1982, 2010–2012)
Other members
- Nathon Corona – flute, trumpet (1973–1974)
- Kevin Barley – drums, keyboards (1974–1975)
- Earl Chapman – drums (1975)
- Steven Howards – drums (1975–1979)
- Candice Ford – keyboards, synthesizers (1979)
- Andrew Parker – drums (1980–1984, 2010–2012)
- Randall Spitz – bass, vocals (1982–1984)
Artistry
Lyrical themes
Music
Legacy
Influence and innovation
Controversy
Awards and nominations
Discography
Studio albums
- Planetaria (1970)
- Empire of the Ants (1970)
- Die Young (1971)
- Wicked World (1972)
- Death Valley Blues (1973)
- Under The Sun (1975)
- Black Sheep Parade (1976)
- The Night Stalker (1979)
- Rolling Suicide (1980)
- Metempsychosis (1981)
- Lucretia (1984)
See also
| Music acts | |
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| Subsidiaries | |
| Related articles | |
