{"id":707,"date":"2016-08-16T18:48:55","date_gmt":"2016-08-16T18:48:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/?p=707"},"modified":"2016-08-16T18:51:43","modified_gmt":"2016-08-16T18:51:43","slug":"ftv-are-you-ready","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/?p=707","title":{"rendered":"FTV: Are you ready?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Quick: \u00a0Who was the first guitar player in The James Gang? \u00a0If you said Joe Walsh, join me at the back of the class because we were both wrong. \u00a0In fact, The James Gang wasn\u2019t even Joe Walsh\u2019s band – it was formed in 1966 by drummer Jim Fox. \u00a0The band predated Walsh by a few years and survives today long after Walsh departed for solo stardom and to later join The Eagles. \u00a0The answer to the question is Glenn Schwartz, a guitar player of such talent that Cleveland dubbed him \u2018the white Hendrix\u2019. \u00a0This was all news to me so naturally, I had to dig a little deeper into the story of this enigmatic guitarist.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When I was playing in The Twig in high school, one of the events we looked forward to with a great deal of anticipation was the spring school wide talent assembly when the most popular band comprised of Marquette Senior HIgh students got to close the show. \u00a0Before you think that is just me bragging again, that is exactly how it was put to us by one of our classmates who \u00a0headed the talent show committee that year. \u00a0Mike, Gene, and I haggled a bit over what to play in our allotted ten minute closing slot and quickly settled on a big Top Forty tune of the moment (<\/span>Are you ready?<\/span><\/i> by Pacific Gas & Electric) and one of our favorite Grand Funk Railroad songs (<\/span>Into the Sun<\/span><\/i>)<\/span>.<\/span><\/i> \u00a0Even though the name Glenn Schwartz was a total mystery to me when I read about him in a recent Classic Rock magazine article, it turns out I had played his music: \u00a0<\/span>Are you ready?<\/span><\/i> was one of the last things PG&E recorded before Schwartz departed the band and headed back to his native Ohio where the his whole musical story began in the first place.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Glenn Schwartz was somewhat of a child prodigy. \u00a0He picked up guitar at age 11 and won an international guitar playing prize by the age of 14. \u00a0He and his wife Marlene married when he was only 21, divorced, remarried, and then split for good in 1972. \u00a0All the while he was playing music to support his wife and two sons. \u00a0Youngest son Bob says, \u201cGrowing up, he was a great dad. \u00a0He was real friendly and kind of goofy . . . he acted like a big kid himself.\u201d \u00a0When Glenn took up with The James Gang, their fortunes began to rise and they became the band to see whenever they hit the stage. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Schwartz eventually left The James Gang and caught a ride to Los Angeles with a friend. \u00a0He arrived with a suitcase and his guitar. \u00a0It didn\u2019t take long for him to find a band and he cycled through a couple before landing the gig with Pacific Gas & Electric. \u00a0He wasn\u2019t immune to the excesses of the rock and roll life, but at the same time, he was searching for something deeper. \u00a0He bounced around several spiritual genres before he happened to stop and listen to street corner preacher Arthur Blissitt on the Sunset Strip . \u00a0Something in the preacher\u2019s words triggered a \u2018born again\u2019 moment in Schwartz that would affect his life and career profoundly from that point on. \u00a0His bandmates in PG&E began to dread the moments when he would step forward, grab the mike and begin to do a bit of evangelizing during concerts. \u00a0He wasn\u2019t preaching crazy Biblical doom and gloom, mind you, but it didn\u2019t exactly fit in the confines of what the band was doing. \u00a0This brief entry from Wikipedia encapsulates what happened next:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTired of the rock and roll life, he left PG&E to join a pioneering <\/span>Gospel rock<\/span>\u00a0group The All Saved Freak Band<\/span>,<\/span> which was the musical evangelistic arm of an Ohio religious group-turned-cult, the Church of the Risen Christ, headed by Larry Hill. The book FORTNEY ROAD: Life, Death, and Deception in a Christian Cult (2015, Freethought House Publishers) examines the life of Glenn before, during and after he was in Rev. Larry Hill’s cult.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I found this Wiki entry interesting for what it did not say about Schwartz\u2019s time with Larry Hill\u2019s cult (Schwartz only refers to him now as \u2018the preacher man\u2019 or \u2018the one legged preacher\u2019). \u00a0The article I read was based on the same book (FORTNEY ROAD) mentioned above, but it dug a little deeper into Schwartz\u2019s life during his time at Fortney Road. \u00a0Yes, they did have a band and Glenn Schwartz was their drawing card. \u00a0The book also mentions that the Freak Band stuck religious stickers all over their clothes and had done the same to Janis Joplin whom they were opening for. \u00a0She wasn\u2019t happy, ripped them off, and was kind of rude about the whole affair. \u00a0The Hell\u2019s Angels, on the other hand. liked his frenetic playing, so they were somewhat open to his proselytizing. \u00a0Had it been just about the music, perhaps Schwartz would be a better known quantity to this day.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Like all cult leaders, Hill used his status \u00a0to intimidate and terrorize his flock. \u00a0He derisively called Schwartz \u2018Star\u2019 and chided him for putting his talents ahead of his duties. \u00a0Chores beginning at 4 a.m. and beatings were the norm at Fortney Road. \u00a0\u00a0Schwartz\u2019s family could not spend time alone with him and on one occasion when they were allowed to take him off site for a dinner, kidnapped him and paid a cult deprogrammer to bring him back. \u00a0It didn\u2019t work and Schwartz returned to Fortney Road. \u00a0He eventually walked away on his own and moved back to his family home. \u00a0He and his brother began playing music again as the Schwartz Brothers but his family remained on guard for any sign of Larry Hill. \u00a0They weren\u2019t being too cautious because Hill did surface at a couple of places they played and Schwartz claims he could \u201cfeel the doom coming over me when I saw him.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Schwartz continues to play music on occasion. \u00a0Though he is still a religious and kind man, he remains guarded about his time with the preacher man who damaged his past.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When The Twig performed <\/span>Are you Ready?<\/span><\/i> we didn\u2019t know anything about Glenn Schwartz. \u00a0We would play Sunday evening youth services at Messiah Lutheran Church from time to time and in return, the church would let us hold occasional free jam sessions in the basement parish hall for anyone who wanted to wander in. \u00a0Lyrically, the chorus of <\/span>Are you Ready? <\/span><\/i>fit right in with what we were involved with helping out Messiah\u2019s youth minister (The chorus goes: \u00a0Are you ready to sit by His throne? \u00a0Are you ready not to be alone? \u00a0Someone’s coming to take you home, \u00a0And if you’re ready, then He’ll carry you home) and it was a Top Forty hit of the day. \u00a0It certainly fit in with Glenn Schwartz\u2019s Christian awakening while he was in California. \u00a0Unfortunately, it was his last hurrah with PG&E before he returned to Ohio and was slowly pulled into the Fortney Road mess. \u00a0His \u00a0path generates many \u201cwhat if?\u201d questions about Glenn Schwartz\u2019s life and career as a guitarist. \u00a0Freak Band bassist Joe Markko said, \u201cIf Glenn had never met Larry Hill, he would have influenced his entire generation.\u201d \u00a0David Byrne of the Talking Heads went to see Schwartz play after he had left the cult and perhaps his take on it says it all: \u00a0\u201cGlenn Schwartz may have lost his mind but his fingers are firing on all cylinders .\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The Twig played an energetic version of <\/span>Are you Ready?<\/span><\/i> at the All School Talent Assembly \u00a0that consumed about four of our ten allotted minutes. \u00a0Our second selection (GFR\u2019s <\/span>Into the Sun<\/span><\/i>) started with a solo guitar riff that added bass and drums while growing in intensity for at least 3 minutes before the vocals even start. \u00a0Our version usually clocked in just under ten minutes so half way through the middle eight, the program committee girl yelled from behind the stage,\u201dThe hour is over, you have to stop!\u201d \u00a0I smiled back at her and mouthed, \u201cWe can\u2019t\u201d while Gene and Mike forged on at the front of the stage. \u00a0Eventually, they principal rang the bell and started waving those seated near the door back to class. \u00a0It takes a few minutes to get 2,000 bodies out of a gym so we wrapped up with half the gym still filing out. \u00a0We fully expected to get a royal chewing out for going over time but we soon found ourselves in an empty gym breaking down our stuff. \u00a0The program committee girl simply said, \u201coh that was great!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I don\u2019t know how other bands handle the adrenalin rush of performing when they don\u2019t do a full show. \u00a0After a two hour dance or four hour gig, I am pretty well drained. \u00a0After two energetic songs, we were much too pumped to pack up our stuff and go back to class for the rest of the afternoon so we did the next best thing: \u00a0gig post mortem over lunch at the Big Boy. \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Top Piece Video – Joe Walsh and Glenn Schwartz making music in Nashville in 2016.