UNDER APPRECIATED ROCK BAND OF THE MONTH FOR JULY 2015: THE HUMAN ZOO
This month’s Under Appreciated Rock Band of the month is THE HUMAN ZOO, a band having numerous connections to a truly legendary band called the Human Expression, one of the garage rock and psychedelic rock bands where I wrote up the Wikipedia article many years back.
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The Human Zoo came from the same Orange County community (Westminster) as some of the bandmembers in the Human Expression. The band was a sextet that was originally called the Circus. Bandmembers were Jim Cunningham (lead vocals), Roy Young (lead vocals), John Luzadder (guitar), Larry Hanson (guitar, horn and keyboards), Bob Dalrymple (bass guitar), and Kim Vydaremy (drums).
Jim Foster of the Human Expression discovered the group and also became the manager for the band, following in his father’s footsteps (he had managed the Human Expression); and he is the one who suggested that they change their name to the Human Zoo in 1969.
The Human Zoo wrote all of their own material for the most part, with everyone except the drummer writing or cowriting at least one song. Unlike the usual situation, where one bandmember does most of the songwriting, no one is shown as a songwriter on more than three of their eleven songs. There are two other songwriters listed in the credits, Al Morettini and D. Leonards; they might be friends of the bandmembers or something, but they aren’t otherwise listed on the Internet.
The band name could mean a lot of things, but there is a Wikipedia entry on “human zoo”, about zoos or other exhibitions that feature humans rather than other types of animals. One variety is the freak show, which persists in carnivals and similar venues to this day. P. T. Barnum had exhibited some humans in his circus shows in the 19th Century, most famously the conjoined twins Chang and Eng Bunker. They were born in the Kingdom of Siam (now Thailand), leading to the common term for the condition, Siamese twins. There was also a Twilight Zone episode featuring a human zoo on another planet.
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A review of the Human Zoo album by It’s Psychedelic Baby has this glowing tribute: “Parked in a musical zone owing a nudge and a wink to Vanilla Fudge, Jimi Hendrix, and Iron Butterfly, the Human Zoo perused and embodied the acid rock sounds of the day with insight and intent. Bold and booming guitars interact with crunchy keyboards and potent drum fills, while the soul-informed vocals and harmonies occasionally echo those of the heavier side of Crazy Elephant or Pacific, Gas and Electric.”
The promotional material by Bomp! Mailorder notes: “The musical diversity [by the Human Zoo], once the cause of some people’s griping, is the record’s greatest asset in this age of one song downloadable wonderment. The band had chops, could put together a really good song, and did so repeatedly on this sole album. This replica LP edition is limited to 500 copies, which will last about as long is it is taking you to read this description . . . so please order quickly to avoid disappointment.”
The Allmusic review by Mark Deming has this to say: “While the Human Zoo could add a trippy edge to their songs (such as ‘I Don’t Care No More’), they (at least as captured on this album) were at their best when they rocked out, and it’s on numbers like ‘Na-Na’ and ‘Funny’ that the Human Zoo really connect, while ‘Gonna Take Me a Ride’ and ‘Help Me’ reveal they weren’t bad with blue-eyed soul stuff, either. The production is simple, but also captures the performances in a clean and natural fashion and is thankfully short on the studio trickery often inflicted on lesser-known psych acts. The recording seems to favor the band’s live sound, and if the Human Zoo sounded this tight on-stage, it’s hard to say why they didn’t attract greater notice at the time.”
Their sole album, The Human Zoo came out in 1970 on Accent Records, the same label as the Human Expression. Only a small number of copies were produced, with limited sales. Accent might have anticipated that a major record company would pick up the album, but that didn’t happen. Over the years, the album began to attract attention from psych fans, with the website popsike.com reporting that the original 1970 album sold several times in the early 2000’s for more than $300; one sealed copy of the album brought $900.
Cicadelic Records released an exact reproduction of the album in 2010, using the original master tapes.
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More recently, a heavy metal band from Germany took the name The Human Zoo (also a sextet as seen above), and there have been several albums with that name over the years. None have any relation to the 1960’s garage rock band.
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According to Allmusic, Larry Hanson, one of the bandmembers in the Human Zoo, later became part of the touring band with superstar country music band Alabama for 18 years and also performed on a few of their albums. Larry Hanson is also listed as part of the backing band on several albums by the Texas Tenors.
(July 2015)
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Items: The Human Zoo
