Pure Food and Drug Act (band)

Pure Food and Drug Act was a band that was formed in the early 1970s based on the talent and charisma of Don "Sugarcane" Harris. The band began with Paul Lagos (sideman with Johnny Otis, John Mayall ) on drums, Larry Taylor (original member Canned Heat), sideman John Mayall, Tom Waits on bass and Randy Resnick on guitar. Resnick was at that time experimenting with one and two handed tapping technique which was later to become a standard guitarist's tool. The group played small rooms in the Los Angeles area for several months, among which the Troubador and the Ash Grove.

While the band began searching for a record deal, Larry Taylor began to tire of Don's constant lateness and irresponsibility and decided to continue his career with Mayall. At the same time, Harvey Mandel, also a Mayall alumni, was brought in to beef up the accompaniment and to stimulate record label interest, since he had a following from his Chicago blues days. To replace Taylor on bass, a relative newcomer, Victor Conte, was recruited from Comman Ground, a funk band in Fresno that Resnick had played in. Conte went on to play in Tower of Power and with Herbie Hancock in his "Monster Band". Ironically, he also was at the center of a steroids scandal years later. Articles about this story always mention the name of the least famous of Victor's bands, the Pure Food and Drug Act.

Choice Cuts was the band's only album, recorded live in Seattle in 1972. Because of Don's unreliable nature, the band rarely rehearsed, but they did boil over in live performance, with extended solos and improvised ensemble sections. Often one song would last 20 minutes or more. One of the most popular of these performances was the Beatles song Eleanor Rigby in which Don poured out a soulful vocal, then did a long duet with only violin and drums. This was such a crowd pleaser that one night, while a street riot raged outside the club, no one at listening to PFDA at "In Your Ear" in Palo Alto left or even knew half the street was on fire just outside. Eleanor Rigby usually ended with a long violin solo cadenza, often quoting classic passages from Beethoven or Bach but played with a searing, distorted, Hendrix-like tone. The crowds went crazy at these moments and didn't notice the band sometimes played only 4 songs in a whole set.

The band had little success with their album (which although recorded live did not reproduce the true live feeling) various changes took place until it broke up altogether a few years after it began. Still, it is worth noting that this group moved and impressed many people in its time and a Choice Cuts CD has been re-released.

External links

* [http://www.sugarcane-harris.com/pfda.htm PFDA on Sugarcane Harris site]
* [http://harveymandel.com Harvey Mandel]
* [http://blogs.nydailynews.com/iteam/archives/2006/06/victor_conte_and_the_ape_walk.php Victor Conte latest news]