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Black Merda aka "The First Black Rock Band" is an
American rock band from Detroit, Michigan, active
from the mid-1960s to the early 1970sand reuniting
in 2005. The core band members are
guitarist/vocalist Anthony Hawkins,
bassist/guitarist/vocalist VC L. Veasey (aka Veesee
LVeasey, the Mighty V!), and guitarist/vocalist
Charles Hawkins, plus original drummer/vocalist
Tyrone Hite. Hite was a native of Detroit;
theHawkins brothers and Veasey were all born in
Mississippi and came of age in Detroit.
Anthony Hawkins and VC Lamont Veasey (aka VC L
Veasey, Veesee L Veasey, T ...read more
Black Merda aka "The First Black Rock Band" is an
American rock band from Detroit, Michigan, active
from the mid-1960s to the early 1970sand reuniting
in 2005. The core band members are
guitarist/vocalist Anthony Hawkins,
bassist/guitarist/vocalist VC L. Veasey (aka Veesee
LVeasey, the Mighty V!), and guitarist/vocalist
Charles Hawkins, plus original drummer/vocalist
Tyrone Hite. Hite was a native of Detroit;
theHawkins brothers and Veasey were all born in
Mississippi and came of age in Detroit.
Anthony Hawkins and VC Lamont Veasey (aka VC L
Veasey, Veesee L Veasey, The Mighty V!) met in
elementary school. Hawkins and TyroneHite met in
high school in Detroit in the early 1960s, and all
worked as session and backup musicians in the
Detroit scene in the followingyears. Hawkins and
Veasey worked frequently as session musicians for
companies such as Fortune Records, Golden World
Studios, andproducer Don Davis, while Hite worked
in sessions originally as a singer before taking up
the drums.
Hawkins, Veasey, and Hite originally performed
together as the Impacts, then as the Soul Agents
backing up Edwin Starr, Gene Chandler,Wilson
Pickett, The Spinners, The Artistics, Billy Butler, The
Chi-Lites,Joe tex, Jackie Wilson, Temptations, and
other soul/R&B acts affiliatedwith Motown and
Brunswick Records. The Impacts were hired as the
backing band for the 1965 single "Agent Double-O
Soul" by Edwin Starr.Starr took them on as his
permanent backing unit and dubbed them the Soul
Agents. A horn section consisting of Victor
Stubblefield and GusHawkins worked with the
group periodically during this period. By 1967 the
Soul Agents had appeared on the subsequent Starr
singles"Twenty Five Miles" and the seminal "War".
Hawkins and Veasey (who had been writing songs
together since they were 14 years old) alsoscored
as songwriters in 1967 with "I Will Fear No Evil" by
Robert Ward (produced by Don Davis), the B-side of
his hit "My Love Is StrictlyReserved For You."
Hawkins, Veasey, and Hite (while working with
Starr) began to move away from the standard R&B
sounds of the period and became heavilyinfluenced
by the hard rock sounds of Cream, The Who, and
especially Jimi Hendrix. Veasey had first learned of
Hendrix from a Seattlenewspaper story in 1966
while stationed with the military in Washington
State. Veasey introduced Hawkins and Hite to the
album Are YouExperienced, and the three were
inspired to refashion themselves as a rock power
trio in the mold of The Jimi Hendrix Experience.
Stillknown as the Soul Agents, in 1967 the trio cut
what is believed to be the first cover of a Hendrix
song on record, a rendition of "Foxy Lady"that has
become a rare collector's item.
During this period, Charles Hawkins (younger
brother of Anthony) was added on second guitar to
broaden the group’s sound. Anotherinfluence on
the group’s new musical interests was the general
shift in the R&B scene toward harder-edged soul
and funk with sociallyconscious lyrics.
Now a quartet with the addition of Charles
Hawkins, the band continued working with Edwin
Starr as the Soul Agents, with Starr approving ofthe
change in sound to guitar-based psychedelic rock
and funk. But in 1968 they decided to craft a new
identity as a self-contained rock band.After
considering the name Murder Incorporated after a
notorious criminal organization, the band settled on
Black Murder (suggested byVeasey) as a comment
on the rampant inner-city violence experienced by
many African Americans during that period.
Considering that manyyoung black people were at
that time being killed by the police and the Ku Klux
Klan in Detroit and in the south, Veasey wanted to
choose aname that would be a shocking reminder
to the public of how bad the situation was. The
spelling was later changed to Black Merda as
anAfrican American slang spelling (suggested by
Anthony) of the word "murder" while retaining the
original theme.
Black Merda continued with Starr for a brief period,
as well as backing The Temptations in 1969, but
began to view the R&B scene as passécompared to
the experimental rock and funk music of Hendrix
and other young artists. Regardless, Eddie
Kendricks of the Temptationsexpressed interest in
producing Black Merda, and introduced them to
like-minded singer Ellington "Fugi" Jordan. They
collaborated with Fugion his psychedelic funk song
"Mary Don't Take Me on No Bad Trip," released by
the Chess Records subsidiary Cadet in 1968, which
became apopular single in Detroit (though Black
Merda did not receive credit on the record). A full
album of songs by Fugi in collaboration with
BlackMerda was recorded but was not released
until 2005, under the title Mary Don't Take Me on No
Bad Trip from the TuffCity/Funky Delicaciesrecord
label. Fugi also introduced the band to Marshall
Chess of Chess Records, who was interested in
broadening the label's well-knowndedication to
blues, soul, and jazz with more rock and
experimental acts. Marshall Chess, familiar with
the band's work on Fugi's Cadetrelease, signed
Black Merda to the label on Fugi's recommendation
alone.
Chess released Black Merda’s debut album in 1970,
and the band briefly became known as leaders
among the burgeoning black rock andheavy funk
scene that also included up-and-comers Funkadelic
and The Bar-Kays. The album suffered from a lack
of promotion due tomanagement changes at Chess
Records. Disillusioned, the band moved to
California to back Fugi once more, as well as Eric
Burdon and War.The band later returned to Detroit,
but without Tyrone Hite, who decided to stay in
California.
Black Merda began work on their second album
without an official drummer, with session drummer
Bob Crowder being hired just beforerecording. The
album Long Burn the Fire was released in 1972 by
Chess subsidiary Janus Records, with only Veasey
and the Hawkins brotherspictured on the sleeve.
The band's name was changed to Mer-Da on the
front cover of the album in an attempt at greater
accessibility. Thesecond album also suffered from
poor promotion, and the band members later broke
up and returned to more orthodox session work in
souland R&B.
In 2005, the Funky Delicacies label released the
compilation disc The Folks From Mother's Mixer,
collecting all the songs from the two
originalalbums, Black Merda and Long Burn the
Fire. Thanks to the new attention brought by this
compilation and a cult following that showed
agrowing interest in the obscure black rock of the
early 1970s, the Hawkins brothers and Veasey
reunited in 2005. (Hite had died in 2004).
Thereformed Black Merda has played at several
festivals in Detroit and the surrounding region as
well as New York's Central Park
SummerStageconcerts series and The Ottawa
Blues Festival in 2006.
A compilation of rarities titled The Psych-funk of
Black Merda was released in 2006. The band has
since released the albums Renaissance(2006) and
Force of Nature (2009).
The long-delayed appreciation for Black Merda's
influence was further reflected in 2005 when rapper
Ja Rule sampled their 1972 track "Lying"as the
backing track for "Exodus Intro" on his Exodus
album. In 2007 The Detroit MetroTimes named the
1970 track "Cynthy-Ruth" as one ofThe 100
Greatest Detroit Songs Ever! Further recognition
was garnered when "Cynthy-Ruth" was featured in
the HBO documentary The NineLives Of Marion
Barry that aired in August 2009. Kanye West
sampled "Cynthy-Ruth" for use in the track "Teriya
King" on the 2009 albumSerious Japanese that he
produced for Japanese rappers the Teriyaki Boyz.
The band was featured in the Spinner.com article
"In Living Color:20 Important Black Rockers Past
and Present" in 2010. "Take A Little Time," the
single from the 2009 album Force Of Nature, was
featured onthe Mojo Magazine compilation Heavy
Soul in 2010. Their self-titled 1970 debut album
was chosen as one of "Detroit's greatest hits
thatshould have been" by The Detroit MetroTimes
(November 10, 2010, Music Issue).
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