graphic by Greg Volpert

 B E N T      W I N D

How old were you when Bent Wind formed? Any details on what brought the band together would be great.

I was 20 when Bent Wind first got together. I was just in the process of going broke from a 'headshop' I had opened in the area when my bud Gerry pointed down the street to a few guys sitting on a porch jamming and smoking pot. "I jammed with them the other day," he mumbled casually while stuffing real pipe tobacco in his pipe, ".. one guy just started playing drums and the other guy plays bass. You should come by. We were jamming some of my original songs." Now, that was intriguing. Although I had never actually played with a 'real' band before, Gerry and myself had been writing and singing together for a couple of years and I jumped at the opportunity to hear what our music could sound like with a full band.

As it turned out, the bass player, Sebastian Pelaia was in my class in my last year at school, a couple of years earlier. Didn't know he even played. Eddy, the drummer, (only because of a flip of a coin, as I've been told), started playing drums only the week before I joined... His mother owned the house on 'Sussex' Avenue, of which she rented out rooms to all the hippies in the area.

Your 1969 album Sussex has been described as Canada's most collectible psych record -- How many copies were originally released?

You know, its really strange. Bent Wind had been defunct for about 14 years when I first started to hear about it's growing popularity in the collectibles market. To this day, I can honestly say, I don't understand how its become whatever it's become. As for how many were pressed, well, that's where the controversy comes in. Personally, I believe there were no more than 500 pressed... I actually saw at least 100 of them at the time, because I had taken 2 dozen of them to Sam The Record Man and another 2 dozen to A&A Records. Both stores said they would take them on consignment but wouldn't buy them from us.

They went on sale at $2.89 --- Lucky for me I had friends and family who purchased a couple of them. The rest of them eventually ended up in the "B" miscellaneous at the back of the store for about 10 or 12 years before someone discovered the 'treasure' and bought them for a buck each. (It wasn't me, damn it.)

Can you describe the recording sessions for Sussex - the album you recorded in 1969.

Well, Merv Buchanan, owner of Trend Records found us playing at a 12 hour pop festival in July of '69. Within the next couple of weeks we had signed a contract and recorded our first single, 'Sacred Cows/Castles Made Of Man. The studio was a small converted one room schoolhouse affair in West Hill, Ontario, another suburb of Toronto that I think got swallowed up somewhere, along with Merv's studio.

The LP, "Sussex" was recorded shortly thereafter taking another two whole days to record. (all the music one day and all the vocals the second day) I have to admit, five of the eight tracks were done in one take. None of them took more than three. After that, if mistakes were made, (and there were) they were left in.

Did you play on any other bills with bands like the Paupers, Sparrow, or the Ugly Ducklings?

Someone must have told you my favourite Toronto bands. I had a membership to a place called, Boris', a small club in the village, just to see the Paupers. Same as the Ugly Ducklings. real Toronto sound, IMO. I even went as far as going to a Yorkville reunion in the early 80's just to hear and see the Ducks in a parking lot on Yorkville Ave. It was like returning to the womb. I was actually born at 100 Yorkville Avenue at the Old Mount Sinai Hospital (now an old folks home) right next to that parking lot. Another good one would have been McKenna Mendelson Mainline Hmmmmm... Oh yeah, did I play with any bands of notoriety. The only one I can think of off hand is Mother Tuckers Yellow Duck. Did they have notoriety?. I can't remember... Oh, wait - wait - I DID DREAM of playing with the BEATLES...

Castles Made Of Man single -- was this released prior to Sussex? How did it go over in Toronto?

Castles Made Of Man was actually the flip side to Sacred Cows.... It was recorded in late August 1969 and the Sussex LP was recorded in the late fall of that year. It went over like a lead balloon. I remember when the 45 rpm records were delivered to 57 Sussex Avenue. We were all beaming. Our first record. Myself and Eddy immediately took a copy down to one of the main rock stations to see if they'd give it a spin on the radio. Live and learn !

"Well, I can't just put it on the radio without listening to it first," the DJ said, so judge-mentally and he placed the shimmering black vinyl on a small turntable off to the side. Me and Eddy were in heaven. "We're going to get our music on the radio," we could read each others minds and we grinned. ".....Whoa! I can't play that!" he blurted. We almost laughed out loud, thinking he was kidding. "Do you hear all that hiss?" he asked incredulously. "What hiss?" we asked in unison."This hiss..." and he turned up the volume. We never did get airplay. But we did end up with about 500 shimmering black frizbees.

Note: The Green Tree CD issue of the Sussex album has the track order
listed incorrectly. Here is the correct order:
Sacred Cows - album version (longer than single) : Riverside : Mystify :
Going To The City : Look At Love : Hate : Touch Of Red : The Lions :
Bonus tracks - Riverside (Live reheasal 1996) : Bent Wind (Live rehearsal
1996) : The Chant (Live rehearsal 1996) : Castles Made of Man (B-side
single 1969) : Sacred Cows (A-side single 1969)

Thanks to Marty for an enlightening interview!