You might remember them from their instrumental single "Apricot Brandy". This tune is from the initial Rhinoceros album released on Elektra (Doors, Love, Paul Butterfield Blue Band) in November 1968. This "Supergroup" concept was conceived by Paul Rothchild and Barry Friedman (Frazier Mohawk) and Rhinoceros (the band) predates even the legendary Super Session (Mike Bloomfield, Al Kooper, Steven Stills, Harvey Brooks) and Blind Faith (Clapton, Winwood, Baker) supergroup concepts. John Haeny (the engineer that recorded the first Rhinoceros recording sessions) clarifies the concept:

"From my point of view, none of Rhinoceros were 'super' in that none of them were big time established rock musicians. The concept of Rhinoceros was not to go out and steal front line players from great established bands. It was more a matter of scouring the planet for lesser known players that had exceptional talent and put them together with funding by a record company so they could be given an opportunity to succeed."

The group's sound consists of rock, rhythm 'n blues, funk and gospel influences. A pretty heady mix for a '60s rock group. They also featured a dual-guitar, dual vocalist lineup.



The members that appear on this record are:
JOHN FINLEY – Vocals (Jon And Lee And The Checkmates, currently SOULBOP)
ALAN GERBER – Vocals.Piano (songwriter)
DANNY WEIS – Guitar, Piano (Iron Butterfly)
DOUG HASTINGS – guitar (Buffalo Springfield)
MICHAEL FONFARA – Organ, Piano (Electric Flag)
JERRY PENROD – Bass (Iron Butterfly)
BILLY MUNDI – Drums, Percussion (Los Angeles Philharmonic, The Mothers of Invention)

The group's 2nd album "Satin Chickens" continues along the same musical vein with the same personnel.
However, by the time the 3rd album "Better Times Are Coming" was released, half of the band's personnel had changed (most noticeably the rhythm section of Mundi and Penrod) and was not at all the same group.

IMO, Rhinoceros is one of those interesting off ramps on the '60s rock&roll main highway.

A very well organized website on this band can be found here:
http://www.rhinoceros-gro...index.html

Tribal Disorder
[This message was edited Sun Apr 4 16:45:45 2004 by theAudience]

Ive never heard of them but it sounds like something I might wanna check out.

Thanx for the tip.

MrTation said:

My pleasure.

There are sound samples on the site that will let you get a feel for what they were about.
Oddly enough, Apricot Brandy, (their most circulated tune) isn't.
Let me correct that. I should have said the original version isn't.
There's a remake of the piece on the Danny Weis section of the site.
It's not bad, but it's not the original

Tribal Disorder