RIP: U-M Grad Commander Cody

Telephone poles going by like a picket fence 

Give some props to the guitarist in the lost planet airmen, Bill Kirchen: Ann Arbor Pioneer graduate and acknowledged master of the Telecaster.  His live rendition of Hot Rod Lincoln features a 7 or 8 minute run with Bill imitating every guitarist with gusto.  He has family in the area (I played softball with his younger brother for 20 years), and he generally plays once or twice a year in town.  Good show.

RIP, Commander, Beat ‘em 8 to the bar up there.

I'm lost in the Ozone again...

Saw the Commander and his Airmen at Hill in 1972 (I think). Just a terrific concert. I remember the warm up act was New Riders of the Purple Sage. Anyone out there on MgoLand who can confirm that?

One drink of wine, two drinks of gin, I'm lost in the ozone again.

Theme song for me and my crowd for many years.

I never knew about his academic chops. Thanks for that info.

Commander Cody with Jerry Garcia (and Elvis Costello, Sammy Hagar, and more…)

https://youtu.be/ZAJuRK9x4No

Commander Cody with Jerry Garcia (and Elvis Costello, Sammy Hagar, and more…)

https://youtu.be/ZAJuRK9x4No

Damn, Down to Stems and Seeds Again. RIP

With all due respect, the greatest song sung by UM graduates is sung by 1000s of them in unison on Saturday afternoons in Ann Arbor. 

Noooooo.  Hot Rod Lincoln was a song my father and I used to love listening at car shows or on those cheesy hot rod themed episodes of Solid Gold Saturday Night and such stuff. 

https://youtu.be/WZrpw4lXiSY

Given the occasion, I had to google Hot Rod Lincoln and was surprised to learn that Charlie Ryan, the song's writer, based the song on his own car (which is still in existence and has appeared at the Woodward Dream Cruise).

I loved that song when I was 8 years old. My Aunt bought me a record of the Greatest  hits of 1971, and hot rod Lincoln was on that record. I was too young to have known of the Charlie Ryan version. RIP Commander!

His most popular song, "Hot Rod Lincoln," is no doubt the greatest song ever sung by a U-M graduate.

Not to be a Debbie Downer, but Louis Elbel was a student here.

The Commander! RIP. 

Lol, thought this was in reference to the Star Wars / Clone Wars character… my kids would have been very upset.

RIP Commander Cody.  Thank you.

Thanks, Bursley.

Is it time to get a cheap CD player so I can listen to my Commander Cody and the Lost Planet Airmen CD again?

I love that song.  RIP. 

The first show I went to as a new arrival in A2 in 1972 was Commander Cody, in downtown A2. I've long tried to recall the name of the venue in the bar area of downtown. He entered via the balcony and descended via a rope to enter an onstage phone booth to begin the show. Good stuff. The other songs I remember that he became identified with were Smoke That Cigarette, and Down to Seeds and Stems Again, a title that resonated with us teenaged freaks. That was shortly after the Five Dollar Pot Fine was instituted, and I'm pretty sure John Sinclair and his White Panther pals were in control of city council at that stage. For a kid who had come from Royal Oak, Ann Arbor was a kind of paradise. 

RIP! I’ve never listened to his stuff, personally, but I remember my dad talking a lot about him when I was a kid. He’s on Spotify, so I’ll be listening to him shortly.

Ann Arbor really produced some incredible musicians. While I’m not counting their band as a product of Ann Arbor, I recently discovered that  the core of The Cars lived and played in Ann Arbor (and Columbus too) before making their way to Boston to form their iconic band.

Damn, I grew up listening to that song and just now found out the guy was a Michigan grad, never knew!

Technically -- or at least originally -- there was no Commander Cody. That was the name of the band, like Pink Floyd or Alice Cooper. Different musicians sang lead on different songs as well. Over time, and especially after they disbanded (hey!) and then he starting touring with some different musicians under the same name, Frayne started to make personal use of the name. No objection on my part.

Saw them twice, once in East Lansing in the early 80s, strangely enough (great show), and then at the Blind Pig several years later (less great show). Love the music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LInn_l146co

In memory of Commander Cody and all the lost planet airmen, I’ll be firing up the cd player tonight for “Mama Hated Diesels.”

I was a wide-eyed Michigan freshman from Grosse Pointe in the fall of 1971. I was barely settled into the routine of dorm and campus life in mid-September when I saw Commander Cody and the Lost Planet Airmen in a tiny venue called The Alley at 300 Maynard St., right across the street from Nickels Arcade. You had to walk down a short, narrow alley from Maynard to get to the entrance, and the accommodations could not have been more basic—a short wooden stage at one end of the room for the musicians and folding wooden seats on the main floor.

I got there early enough that I was able to grab a spot right next to the stage and just behind an old battered upright piano. I had no idea just who the band was or what kind of music they played, but for the next 90 minutes or so I was alternately transfixed with amazement at the music and their on-stage antics, and filled with anxiety.

The amazement was straightforward enough—I'd never heard anything like their energetic gumbo of honky-tonk country, Bob Willsian western swing, rockabilly, and basic rock & roll with an occasional touch of old-timey folk, and it was plain that they all were having a damn good time playing it. The lead singer was Billy C. Farlow, and he played the harmonica and played a rhythm guitar on many of the songs. It wasn't until halfway through the show that I noticed Farlow's guitar wasn't plugged into an amp—it apparently was sort of a prop that night—and that added to the aura of general craziness.

My anxiety concerned the Commander himself (yes, fans of the band typically referred to Frayne as the Commander back then). He was seated on a simple stool just three feet away from me, and as he pounded away at the piano the stool kept moving and hopping around on the stage. As they went from one song to the next I watched with growing alarm as the stool crept closer and closer to the edge of the stage behind Frayne—if the stool went over the edge, he would literally fall on top of me.

Finally I could stand it no longer, and amidst the musical din I shouted at him, "Commander, your stool!" He didn't give any indication he'd heard me, which increased my nervousness even further. A minute or two later I shouted my warning again, and again he seemed to not hear me. Finally in desperation I tried it a third time, and this time he partially turned his head in my direction and growled in irritation, "I know kid, I know." I was immediately flooded with embarrassment as I realized that Frayne knew exactly what he was doing where, and that I revealed myself in public to be the callow, naive kid I was.

One of my many regrets from my time as an undergrad was that I didn't see them when they played later dates at Hill Auditorium and the Michigan Union ballroom.

I can't be the only nerd who saw the name and went down a rabbit hole to find out if that is who the Star Wars character was named after can I?

(BTW, nothing definitive and likely not directly related, though both the band and the SW character are/are likely named after Commando Cody from old 1950's Sci-Fi serials.)

The old man will be sad tonight when I call him.  He loved playing Hot Rod Lincoln.

I’m surprised that no-one has mentioned “Two Triple Cheese” which is apparently about Krazy Jim’s Blimpy Burger. In the linked video, I think a couple of scenes are filmed at the old Division St. location. There’s one at the end which seems to be at the counter that ran along the front window.

“I can feel the grease dripping down my thighs

Two triple cheese, side order of fries”

https://youtu.be/V5XHLaaCErs

I saw Commander Cody in 1983 at Lupo’s Heartbreak Hotel in Providence. Late in the show, David Bromberg showed up after his own gig had ended and sat in. Memorable  show. 
 

Rest In Peace.