Written by:	AndMetalForAll
Published:	03.02.2012

This series of articles will present a number of bands that throughout the history of rock and heavy metal disappeared after a promising start, giving great importance to the main albums that helped these bands in having their "fifteen minutes of fame". The first band is Captain Beyond who, after releasing three albums in the 70s, disbanded several times with different band formations.

The beginning of Captain Beyond was actually quite promising and some of the band members were already known to the public. It formed in Los Angeles in 1972 by former members of other prominent groups, the band was composed by singer Rod Evans that had been with Deep Purple; drummer Bobby Caldwell had worked with Johnny Winter; and guitarists Larry Rheinhart and Lee Dorman had been in Iron Butterfly. This was the first formation of this progressive, heavy and hard rock group. The first album of this very promising band is entitled Captain Beyond and was released via Southern Rock label Capricorn in 1972. Captain Beyond was, in my opinion, the best album of the band.



The main feature of this group was the top-notch voice of Rod Evans who was the lead vocalist in Deep Purple's first three albums. Technically excellent and exquisite, Rod Evans made his mark in rock history in late 60's and most of the 70's. After Captain Beyond, Rod tried to return to the spotlight with the formation of the fake Deep Purple, touring with unknown session musicians. Actually, this event provoked several riots by the Deep Purple fans that expected to see the real Deep Purple. This event lead to the disappearance of Rod Evans from the world of music, the last known fact of this great singer is that he entered in the medical profession and was practicing in the US city of San Francisco from the early 1980s onwards. Most of the rest of the members that were in the band in the different formations continued in the world of music, connected or not to the rock style. Instrumentally, this band was very good; their guitar player Larry Rheinhart was technically very solid and actually quite a look-alike with the master Ritchie Blackmore, founder of Rainbow and Deep Purple. Larry unfortunately didn't have the same technique but was still a very solid guitar player. The drummer was very progressive, in my opinion he was very innovative and that can be seen in the band's first album. Lee Dorman, the bass player, had a solid style and most of the first album's success is due to his technical remarks.


To provide a better perception about the band's work, Captain Beyond is very progressive. Filled with several progressive and psychedelic rock features, although it has thirteen tracks in the track list, in reality it only has five tracks with tracks 1-3, 6-8 and 9-13 segueing together. All songs are written by Rod Evans and Bobby Caldwell. Technically very good, with great riffs and solos, good lyrics and great performance by the band members. Like I said above, most songs are pretty crazy and psychedelic? transmitting the vibes and spirit typical from the 70s decade with the "peace and love" motto. The accompanying with rock inspiration brought by Rod Evans, Larry Rheinhart and Lee Dorman put this on another level, more hard-rock, psychedelic and in my opinion very progressive? sometimes in the style of Pink Floyd. Captain Beyond is my favorite album, although the following two weren't bad at all, the 1972 release is definitely of the chart.

Captain Beyond track list:

Side one
1. "Dancing Madly Backwards (On a Sea of Air)" - 4:01
2. "Armworth" - 1:48
3. "Myopic Void" - 3:30
4. "Mesmerization Eclipse" - 3:48
5. "Raging River of Fear" - 3:47

Side two
6. "Thousand Days of Yesterdays (Intro)" - 1:19
7. "Frozen Over" - 3:46
8. "Thousand Days of Yesterdays (Time Since Come and Gone)" - 3:56
9. "I Can't Feel Nothin' (Part 1)" - 3:06
10. "As the Moon Speaks (To the Waves of the Sea)" - 2:25
11. "Astral Lady" - 0:16
12. "As the Moon Speaks (Return) - 2:13
13. "I Can't Feel Nothin' (Part 2)" - 1:13

In 1973 and 1977, Sufficiently Breathless and Dawn Explosion respectively, were released. The 1973 record was quite different with more jazz oriented style, mixing rock and jazz. Bobby Caldwell was replaced by Marty Rodriguez. In Dawn Explosion, Captain Beyond returned to their roots with a more progressive, psychedelic and hard-rock oriented album, this one being more accepted by most of the fans. Rod Evans was no longer present in this 1977 release being replaced by Willy Daffern.

Reinhardt and Caldwell reformed Captain Beyond in 1998 with Jimi Interval on vocals, Dan Frye on keyboards, and Jeff Artabasy on bass. Since then they have been performing at shows and have released a four track EP, but disbanded in 2003.

Captain Beyond is in my opinion a great band. It is unfortunate that they weren't able to pick the right opportunities in order to stay in the spotlight a bit longer than they were.










Hope this article can help the readers to extend their taste to some of the good rarities the music world has to offer.