Brotherhood – ”Doin’ The Right Thing (The Way)” (RCA Victor LSP 4092) December 1968

Brotherhood: Exploring 1968’s Psychedelic Sound | I’m finding the odd Brotherhood article in various teen music magazines from 1968 and it’s sparked my interest in playing their albums for the first time in years.

This one has plenty of variety with a couple of stand-outs including the sitar drenched ”Doin’ The Right Thing (The Way)”

This number is a very introspective psychedelic recording with a hippie sentiment, now is that indeed a sitar or a Vox guitar making the sound of a sitar? Either way, the Eastern motive adds to the hypnotic feel and narrative of the song.

Musicians involved:
Michael Smith (drums)
Ron Collins (Hammond organ)
Phil Volk (bass)
Drake Levin (guitar)

Brotherhood – ”California Dreamin” (RCA LSP-4228) 1969

Brotherhood were formed during mid-1967 by three members of Paul Revere and the Raiders. (Phil ”Fang” Volk, Michael Smith and Drake Levin).

Their debut album ”Brotherhood” took over a year after recording to see a release due to lawsuits with Columbia Records and Paul Revere.

This album under my spotlight was released in 1969 and the songs cover several genres including blues, folk, pop and heavy psychedelia. There is also their rendition of ”California Dreamin’ which has been posted here today.

Recorded at RCA’s Music Centre of the World, Hollywood, California.

Brotherhood: Exploring 1968’s Psychedelic Sound

Going to visit the Brotherhood should be like getting reacquainted with old friends, but in many ways, it’s like stepping into a fast moving stream and getting pulled along with it.

You think maybe you know the guys —Smitty, Fang, and Drake with a new friend, Ron. But Smitty is gone—he’s Michael Smith now. And Fang has long since disappeared — to be replaced by Phil Volk. Even Drake has changed and grown, ’til you wonder if he’s the same Drake you remember from former Raider days a long time ago.

So it’s not just a guy named Ron Collins you have to get to know—it’s the complete Brotherhood—more than just a new group, the Brotherhood is a new and groovy idea.

The guys didn’t just get back together after leaving Paul Revere and the Raiders to form another group and continue doing the same things they had been doing.

Brotherhood: Exploring 1968’s Psychedelic Sound

They were drawn together by a mutual idea—the idea of brWhen Drake got together with Michael and Phil and Brotherhood began to come about, he brought Ron in as the groups organist.

The general idea behind the group, they decided, is that there is a lot of hate and violence in the world today, but there is also a lot of love and good, and rather than point up the ugly things, they want to point out the good things. Music, they feel, is the grooviest form of communication, and they intend to use it to communicate some pretty things with it.

Brotherhood: Exploring 1968’s Psychedelic Sound

Botherhood and all it means today. The name wasn’t just selected out of thin air—it’s the entire idea and feeling behind what they are trying to do and say.

Brotherhood more or less began a little over a year ago when Smitty and Fang made their final appearance with the Raiders—on the Ed Sullivan Show—and then split for a ghost town in Denver to think things out.

Since that time mountains have had a lot to do with Brotherhood. All four of the guys have spent a lot of time retreating to various mountains to think and talk things out.

And it’s all beginning to fall into place now. Ron Collins came into the picture while Drake was in the Army. Ron was living near where Drake was stationed and Drake used to spend every weekend leave jamming with Ron. When Drake was discharged from the Army he formed a group called the Golden Hine which included Ron, but when Drake was asked to fill in for a short while with the Raider when Harpo decided to leave the Golden Hine died.

When Drake got together with Michael and Phil and Brotherhood began to come about, he brought Ron in as the groups organist.

The general idea behind the group, they decided, is that there is a lot of hate and violence in the world today, but there is also a lot of love and good, and rather than point up the ugly things, they want to point out the good things. Music, they feel, is the grooviest form of communication, and they intend to use it to communicate some pretty things with it.

Brotherhood: Exploring 1968’s Psychedelic Sound

All four of them have just spent eight very exhausting weeks in a recording studio working on their first album and single. The stress and tension has been great, but it’s about over now. They know they have to prove that they are an entity in themselves and not just a collection of former Raiders. They know, by the mail received from all over the country, that they still have a lot of loyal fans waiting eagerly to see what they’re going to do. And more than anything else in the world they do not want to disappoint those fans.

And so they’ve spent many hours rapping and thinking and talking and trying to decide who they are and what they are and who they want to be and what they want to be.

This is the situation you walk into when you try to interview the Brotherhood nowadays. You can’t ask them what their favourite colour is, or where they’re living now or even how their lives have changed since leaving the Raiders, for these things are not important to them.

They’ve gone through some changes in their heads and are still going through more changes. They’ll tell you about trying to be congenial, about seeing everything that has ever been in history in the faces of people living today, or about an album they’ve cut called “Friendsong” which may never be heard by anyone other than a small circle of friends.

They’ll bring you into the Brotherhood and leave you with a feeling that there is good in the world—but you still may not know anything about the guys individually. But then, when you’ve learned about Brotherhood—is anything else necessary?