Wednesday August 1, 2007
Three decades later, Cactus is blooming again
Rock `n' roll fact: Cactus' first public performance - before the hard-rocking boogie blues band had even issued an album - was in May 1970 in front of 40,000 spectators at Philadelphia's Temple Stadium. The band appeared with the Grateful Dead, the Steve Miller Band and the evening's headliner, Jimi Hendrix.
Rock n' roll legend: Cactus blew Hendrix off the stage that night.
Of course, legend is a subjective thing. But legend and a handful of recordings were, until a few months ago, pretty much all that remained of Cactus and the explosive brand of blues that earned it such references as "the American Led Zeppelin" and "one of the greatest bands that never was."
Playing occasional shows, Cactus has returned to the stage more than three decades after its breakup and on the heels of Cactus V, the recently released CD of all-new originals.
"They took the boogie blues and set it on fire," says Bob Wayne, 53, of Rochester Hills, who saw Cactus "at least a half dozen times" at Detroit's Eastown Theater when he was a teenager living in Royal Oak. Wayne recalls the Eastown shows as "extremely high energy. The intensity of their performances just blew you away."
The original Cactus lineup featured bass player Tim Bogert and drummer Carmine Appice, who formed the rhythm section of late-60s psychedelic rock group Vanilla Fudge, along with Jim McCarty on guitar and Rusty Day on vocals.
McCarty, who has played with Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels, the Buddy Miles Express and the Rockets, is one of rock's most gifted - and most often overlooked - guitarists. Guitar god Jeff Beck was originally slated to join Cactus, but when he was injured in a motorcycle accident, Bogert and Appice asked McCarty to take his place.
Day, who was in the Amboy Dukes before Cactus, was murdered in a 1982 Florida drug deal. Taking his spot in the 2007 version of the band is Savoy Brown singer Jimmy Kunes.
"We were barely able to contain our energy back then," says McCarty, who left the band in 1971, "and we had a tendency to go over the top. That's why I left the band. There were too many nights when it felt more like heads banging against each other than locking in."
"Don't get me wrong. On the nights it clicked, it was - ` boom!' - incredible. But it was an experiment that ultimately didn't work."
The new album actually came together over the past 4 years. A wealthy Cactus fan from Long Island, N.Y., Randy Pratt, had been working with Bogert and Appice in Pratt's in-home studio and recording some Vanilla Fudge material. Pratt called McCarty in 2003 and asked him to come sit in just for fun.
"I told him I didn't play that stuff anymore," says McCarty, who lives in Sterling Heights, Michigan, and who is still a regular performer on the Detroit blues club scene. "But Randy kept asking me and eventually made an offer I couldn't refuse."
"We had no idea what to expect," McCarty says of the Long Island sessions. "We certainly weren't thinking about recording an album. So we were sitting there looking at each other, and I just played this little riff, just plucked something out of the air and played it, and we were off. I think we were all surprised at how well we played together."
The three got together several times over the next four years and eventually ended up with 14 original songs.
"We were all aware that we didn't want to be like some groups who reunite just to live off their past. We were really pleased, and Cactus fans will be, too, to see that even though we're in our 60s, we don't play like a bunch of old men."
The new CD is "much more controlled," says McCarty. "For me, it's some of the best playing I've ever recorded."
Since the band's 1973 breakup, Cactus has exerted a posthumous influence that far exceeds its less-than-impressive sales figures. Bands from Van Halen to Ted Nugent to Kid Rock have cited Cactus as a musical influence.
"The first time I heard Cactus, it was like a musical revelation," says Danny Methric, guitarist for Detroit-based band the Muggs. "It was the culmination of rock and blues, and they could rev it up and make it heavy."
"The cult following surprised the hell out of me," says McCarty. "I have no idea how or why it happened. I think it was more than just the energy and intensity. I think some people realized that what made Cactus what it was was the musicianship."
McCarty says Cactus would like to go on tour, though there are no solid plans yet in place.
As for the blowing-Hendrix-off-the-stage legend, McCarty laughs. "I don't know about that. Onstage, Jimi Hendrix didn't have to worry about nobody."
"But we did blow Ten Years After off the stage," says Carmine Appice. "They kicked us off their tour because by the time we finished playing, the fans didn't have anything left in them."
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