Bringing The Rock From Ohio

I’m going to try to start a little series inspired somewhat by BigSteve’s awesome Pub Rock articles, but just as much as an idea I’ve had forever to come up with a way to share all the bands from Ohio, or that were Big in Cleveland but never seemed to make it anywhere else. I know a lot of people think supporting local music is just going out to clubs, but these bands are releasing albums and singles (or did) and I think it’s a shame that they were (or are) largely ignored, often right here in their home state. There probably won’t be any rhyme or reason for why I pick someone, other than I like them.

I’m going to start with The Damnation of Adam Blessing. This was a band from the West Side of Cleveland, firmly rooted in the hard, psych-blues rock of the late ’60’s, early ’70’s. Some of the lyrics are uncomfortably corny these days, but there’s no denying the big riffs, slamming drums, and heavy bass that’s kind of stayed on as a driving factor in rock music from the Midwest. It may be dated, but I think it’s part of our DNA. As much as I like Punk or Americana or whatever it is that I like, I always fall back on bands with big riffs and loud guitar solo’s. It’s like my baseline, and I think it’s like that for a lot of bands from Ohio no matter what genre they wind up being a part of.

At some point their name was shortened to just Damnation, but everyone I’ve ever known has used their full name whenever they talked about them. While they truly belonged to the generation just before mine, I knew a few kids that listened to them besides me, but we were way too young to go see them. Finding their records used to be easy. They were on United Artists, so there was always a copy at the store if you wrecked yours or gave it away to a friend visiting from out of town. I remember going to replace my copy of the first album one day and finding out that they were just gone, out of print and unavailable. Back then Record Conventions were pretty new (I think), and the out of town dealers would mark up some of our beloved old Cleveland bands to ridiculous prices, so I didn’t replace my Damnation music for years. I had a crappy cassette of some beat as all hell LP’s, and that just had to be good enough.

Damnation released three albums, and a fourth that was called Glory was actually Damnation but due to disagreements with United Artists, the band was forced to change their name (or so I’ve heard). I don’t have Glory, but I remember hearing it and being incredibly underwhelmed. Even the band members kind of shirk off that album, like bass player Ray Benisch:

In January of 1982 I was involved in a domestic shooting, at which no one was permanently injured. Inspite of having no prior criminal record, (except for that Glory album), I was sentenced to 27 years in prison.

An Italian label called Akarma released all the albums, and even released a boxed set of the first three albums. The boxed set is beautiful, with gatefold LP sleeve style jackets and the full artwork from the albums with a poster and a great booklet included. The booklet has a history of the band along with some quotes from interviews of the band. There’s really very little reference material on the band, outside of an article Ugly Things did and the boxed set booklet. Damnation were contemporaries of The James Gang and shared bills with them. They also opened for The Faces, Grand Funk Railroad, and Eric Clapton. They tell a story about Iggy and The Stooges that makes it sound like they really didn’t quite get what The Stooges were all about. I have to say, they really did get a shot with UA and their distribution network and management that could get them on stage with some pretty big crowds to see them. I’m not really sure why they’re so unknown.

Their fans have generally pointed out that what separates them from the hard rock bands of their era is their sense of melody and their harmony vocals. I don’t necessarily agree with that, because the songs I like best are probably their least melodic, but the vocals do add a lot of depth that a lot of the Power Trio’s of the time could never come close to. Unfortunately I also think it’s those vocals that lend themselves easily to orchestration, and orchestration tends to be overkill. The addition of strings on their third album, Which Is the Justice, Which Is the Thief? don’t add much to the music. In fact, they tend to overwhelm the band, and leave them struggling to be heard over the orchestra. Which Is the Justice… may not have been much better without the strings, but the label just added them after Damnation turned over their tapes for the album. The band was really unhappy with the end results, and I can’t blame them. Damnation could pull off a ballad like “Everyone,” and they didn’t need a string section and grand piano to write new outros to tack on to the end of their songs.

Damnation of Adam Blessing – “Morning Dew”

Damnation of Adam Blessing – “Back to the River”

Damnation of Adam Blessing – “Last Train to Clarksville”

Damnation of Adam Blessing – “Cookbook”

Nonetheless, their first two albums, Damnation and The Second Damnation are excellent examples of Midwestern hard rock. “Cookbook” is an original song that shows off all the band’s strengths in one nice, tight little song. I can remember seeing high school bands still playing that song when I was a kid, almost 10 years after the album had come out. I’m pretty sure they patterned their version of “Morning Dew” after The Jeff Beck Group’s version, but I grew up hearing Damnation’s version on the portable record players and car stereos of my youth. I can remember the first time I heard their version of “Last Train to Clarksville” and kind of freaking out because they were playing a Monkees song! How could a band with a name I wasn’t supposed to even say in front of my mom be playing a Monkees song? It was kind of cool, though. It was certainly better to my teenage ears than anything the Monkees had ever done. I like the rest of the album because it’s a little druggy and just a great late night record.

The Second Damnation was even better. It started off with drums again, but then Ray Benich’s bass just zooms in and “No Way” is off and rocking. I think the first side of this album is great and all the songs are originals. The two songs I heard on the radio the most are on the first side of their second album, “Back to the River” got a lot of airplay around here, and I can remember requesting it on the local college station during the show that played local bands only in about 1983. I told the DJ it was old, but assured him the band was local. It sounded pretty dated and out of place on that show, which really was pushing local Cleveland area bands that sounded more like Spandau Ballet than Damnation, but right about then, it sure was a breath of fresh air. Maybe outdated, but it still sounded more interesting than that era of Cleveland rockers. I may have really requested it just to piss people off. I really don’t think there’s a dud on the whole album, and even the softer songs keep my interest.

Damnation of Adam Blessing – “No Way”

Damnation of Adam Blessing – “Everyone”

Damnation of Adam Blessing – “Back to the River”

Sadly, their record label mucked up their third album, Which Is the Justice, Which Is the Thief by pressing the band to break through and deliver the big hit. A few years earlier, the band had a shot at signing with Stax instead of UA, and about this time they were probably wishing they’d gone the other way. It’s not so much that Which Is the Justice… is awful, it’s just that it’s just too much. I mentioned lyrics earlier, and I’m going to include the song that immediately came to my mind. Just check out the first line of “Fingers on a Windmill” and I think you’ll agree. Then a song like “Running Away” shows up and it’s really pretty good until someone decided it needed an extra 40 seconds on it that really aren’t necessary.

Damnation of Adam Blessing – “Fingers On a Windmill”

Damnation of Adam Blessing – “Running Away”

I never thought I’d get a chance to see them, but they got together for a very small show at The Rock Hall in 2003 or so, and unfortunately I found out about it around 3 weeks after it happened. Then in the summer of 2007 they came back to Cleveland (only one member still lives here), and I was able to catch one of those shows. Yes, as the kids say, “Dudes are old,” but it was kind of nice for once being the young people in the audience at The Beachland. The fans were funny. Before the show the conversations were all about after-show parties. After the show it was all about “Maybe next time, I gotta busy day tomorrow.” But to their credit, the crowd really got into the opening act and I’ll bet none of them had ever heard of them (they’ll be a future subject). I was pleasantly surprised at how good the show was, but I’ll be damned if they didn’t allow a DRUM SOLO! I guess not everyone knows it’s the 21st Century. I got to talk to some of the guys in the band for a few minutes (it was hard, it was like a family reunion for them) and they seemed genuinely thrilled that so many people still liked their music. I think that thanks to the Internet, the boxed set I bought when it came out for around $25 is now being listed at almost 10 times that by some sellers. I hope they don’t get it because I’d rather see more people hear the music.