Okay. Now, tell the truth. The TRUTH. Would this album cover have caught your attention in 1974?

All right then. Why DIDN'T IT?

How come, even with this extra added incentive, this album slipped BY you.....you and nearly everybody else?? Wait, I got more.....this was her FOLLOW-UP to an album that topped polls in Downbeat and several other magazines.....AND, in her earlier incarnation as "Sandy Hurvitz" she was a protege of Frank Zappa....with an album which was released as the FIRST NON-ZAPPA PROJECT on his own label? BEFORE Captain Beefheart?

Playing this album for a neophyte--(and, to an even greater extent, its predecessor, Primordial Lovers) is kind of like taking them to a performance by Gallagher--they're gonna either hate it or think it's the most wonderful thing they've ever experienced. No one is indifferent to Essra Mohawk. No one says "Oh, that's nice. Who is it?" or "I don't really care for that music, do you have any Streisand?" Essra Mohawk's music grabs you by the neck and demands a reaction. It is positively breathtaking.

The "blue" album, more correctly titled Essra Mohawk, was slung out into an unsuspecting world in 1974--a year which was perhaps the Artistic Low Point of the entire decade. Don't get me wrong, there was some great music that year--running the gamut from Seals and Crofts to the New York Dolls and beyond--but there wasn't much really DIFFERENT going on--not on vinyl, at least--the whole CBGBs thing was just about to happen, but weaselly suburban know-it-alls like myself had no ken of any of that just yet. Even something as radical and unusual as Kiss, whose debut came that year, were not so very revolutionary IN SOUND.

Enter, with no fanfare, this Naked Pocahontas, if you will.....I'm not so sure she'd appreciate that appellation but hey; I call 'em like I see 'em, and I sure saw this. I already owned the Sandy Hurvitz album, but I had no idea this was the same person....and, if I HAD known, it would have been no help. In fact, even if I had heard Primordial Lovers, it wouldn't have been any help.

There are some songs--I'm sure you have your own list--which punched you clean in the face in the first split-second the first time you heard them. You KNEW, before the song was fully one second old, that it was going to be wonderful. So wonderful, that you had time to articulate to yourself, "Nothing that this band/singer/producer/Naked Indian Girl does in the next three minutes could POSSIBLY ruin this tune for me--it's THAT GOOD."

New Skins For Old is one of those songs. There's no describing it, but like all semi-literate hacks, I'll attempt to help ya out.....the intro is a scant two bars long, and look at what you get for your entertainment dollar: Essra herself pounding out two octaves worth of parallel fifths on the piano--(a really GOOD piano, by the way, a rarity in those juice-loose post-Woodstock Groovy Haze Days)--in a pattern reminiscent of nothing so much as the music you hear in Bugs Bunny cartoons when the Indian Chief enters the picture. Got it? Now staple to that sound the absolutely SNARLING effect of a bongo-like roll played on what I think is an African Talking Drum--it's positively unearthly.

Now, try THIS on for size:

Can we doubt, when we don an old animal skin
That it's really a previous state we were in
After all, if a TV can change its station
Why not a soul its next incarnay-EEEEEE-tion, ooooo well?

Well, if those words don't blow you over on paper, that's okay. Just a little bit too post-hippie for your taste, perhaps? Well, you'll find out very quickly that this young lady (younger than you think, by the way--still in her mid-20s at the time) posesses a quality that very few songwriters have. Stevie Wonder comes immediately to mind. Lyrics that would sound arch, or even sappy, in less capable hands, are just peachy when they spill out of the Expert Pen of writers like these. Again, tell the truth--if anyone but Stevie tried to sell you "I never thought through love we'd BEEE making one as lovely as SHEEE," you'd kick him in the groin and steal his wallet, wouldn't you? C'mon, WOULDN'T YOU? Wouldn't you say "Get back to Songwriter Camp, you little dope" and walk away laughing? Sure you would. So how come when Stevie Wonder hands you that lyric, you LOVE IT? I love it too. WHY??? Answer: because he's Stevie Wonder. He has some indefinable quality about himself which MAKES IT WORK. And it's not like he's Getting Away With Something because he's a famous guy and we WANT to like it. No. It's GOOD. We hear it, we accept it, we love it. It WORKS.

Essra Mohawk will do that for you. Take my word for it.

The lyrics on this LP truly do run the gamut--from the sweet love-ballad variety, to the we-are-one-with-the-universe-variety, to the female-empowerment variety, to--how about THIS in 1974--the "I-do-yearn-for-parenthood-but-I'm-going-to-wait-until-I'm-ready-to-devote-myself- to-the-concept" variety, and finally to--and I'll let this song title speak for itself--You Make Me Come To Pieces. Indeed.

The sound of this record is heavily centered on Essra's piano, though the band is truly ace, and it's very difficult to describe. The American Indian thing is really palpable throughout, even if there's no real "heritage" behind it--the FEELING is real. It's stupid, of course, to try and cite "influences" on a work that's so truly unique, but that's never stopped anyone BEFORE, has it? You'll hear echoes. You might catch a whiff--only a WHIFF--of Joni Mitchell wafting by sometimes; yet the criminally few words I've ever read about Essra Mohawk always cite Joni. I dunno. I hear Cannibal And The Headhunters more than I hear Joni in this music. I also hear more than a dollop of Miles Davis--the Blue Miles, the Sketches Miles. And I hear Muscle Shoals. And Nina Simone. And Dave Brubeck and Lowell George and Jeff Beck and Carole King. Is your head spinning yet? Mine hasn't stopped spinning since 1974.

I also hear, and I hope I'm not stirring up a hornet's nest here, a noticeable dose of Laura Nyro. I refer to the proverbial hornet's nest because of something I read years ago--in an otherwise forgettable book called When The Music Mattered--about how a very young, newly post-Sandy-Hurvitz Essra was taken underwing by Nyro and David Geffen, and then treated REMARKABLY BADLY--being a Laura fan as well, I'm going to A) hope that this isn't really true, and B) ignore it if it is.

Regarding the Joni connection--the same book cites a meeting between the 1969 Essra and the 1969 Joni, in which Joni plays Essra her brand new song Woodstock--you may, just MAY, have heard this tune once or twice--and said, "This song was influenced by your music." I can believe that. So that neatly turns the tables on that "Joni-Influence" thing, no? And what a mindblower THAT must have been, yes? I picture Wayne Kramer of the MC5 coming up to me and saying he wrote Kick Out The Jams after standing outside my bedroom window with a portable Wollensak.......well, never mind.

It suddenly occurs to me that we haven't even discussed her VOICE yet.....I believe I've already overused the word "unique" but it needs another airing. As Sandy Hurvitz, she was softer..... restrained, even. Occasionally, on that first LP, she slips into a smoky free-jazz sort of motif.....but, for the most part the album sounds like exactly what it is, a first effort by someone who's not quite found her voice yet but is quite sure that her producers have no idea what she's all about. Pretty cool for 19 (?) years old.

Primordial Lovers, the first album under the name Essra Mohawk, is a quantum leap. And surely not for everyone. There are precious little-girl-ballads, (I Am The Breeze) thundering stop-and-start Jazz Thunderstorm Epics (her masterpiece, I Have Been Here Before, will certainly clear the room of anyone Who Doesn't Know What's Good at your next party. Guaranteed. Try it! Halfway through the song, she seems to completely lose control of herself on the word "I", which morphs into a blood-curdling "Ah-ha-ha-ha-haaaa-HAAAAAAAAH-HA-ha-ha- ha-ha-ha-eee-YEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAA", and would I lie to you?) and, finally, the song which seems to me the virtual blueprint for the next album, Spiral.

When you are honest, friends are fewer
Those that remain are bound to be truer
Now friends are like a spiral, they come from opposite ends
In order to meet in the middle, each light bends.

And pardon me for beating a dead horse, but you haven't lived till you've heard what she does with the word "bends." I can only compare the effect to what Sinatra did with the word "rounnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnddddddddddddddd" in You Go To My Head. If you don't get it, you WON'T get it. Sorry.

This album, as the legend has it, was "sat on" by Geffen or Reprise or someone, for well over a year--by which time Laura Nyro was firmly entrenched in a position which might instead have been Essra's. That's a real brash statement for me to make but if you have the good fortune to hear this record, and can align it in its proper time frame, you may well agree.

The "blue" album followed, on Elektra/Asylum (!!--David Geffen? Take your pick: either 1)It's nice that some people can be so trusting, or 2) What a shame some people never learn.) The album, to say so politely, "missed its audience." It was. however, and remains to this day, one of the most stunning works of musical expression you will ever be fortunate to hear. I will still wave the All-Time-Top-Twenty flag over this here picture of this here Nekkid Woman. And, more specifically, the music inside.

Essra dropped off the map after that. It was difficult to find out any news of any kind about her whereabouts. Then suddenly....in the last couple of weeks of 1976, or the first couple of weeks of '77....I am serving my routine as Music Director of lowly College Radio Station WFUV-FM at Fordham University (a station which, then, Certainly-Was-Not-What-It-Is-Today, and I mean that in both a good and a bad way) and I ho-hummedly open a package of new 45s (oh.....ask yer dad......) and what falls into my lap but something called I Wanna Feel Ya by...gasp!...Essra Mohawk.

Now, I had some trepidation, mind you. Private Stock Records, although a fledgling company, already had a bad reputation. Frankie Valli put out some horrible pap under their auspices. Worse, they HAD BLONDIE AND LET 'EM GO.....after one single, X Offender. Early '77, remember. Disco Is Evil. Punk Is Good. It was the Era Of Opposing Dogmas. So I pop this record on the turntable, and within seconds I am groaning "Oh noooooooo....."

But.....I was wrong. It wasn't the record. It was the TIMES. The song is a cute, funky, playful little roll-in-the-innuendo, which--although a tad over-arranged--was an obvious Hit Record for 1977. And why not? Shouldn't the lady make a little $$??? I like the song just fine nowadays, but it was a bit of a shock at the time. Shouldn't have been. The girl is, after all, from PHILADELPHIA--and the tune, and the album that followed it ("Essra") was a true chunk of sugar-coated chili pepper, as only Essra could deliver it. Imagine somebody plops Etta James down in a room with Gamble and Huff, and you'll just about have it. There are some great songs on here, and the whole aura of the thing is much more MATURE than her earlier work--take that however you want to. Even the picture on the cover was befuddling to a longtime fan. The very worldly, extremely Expensive-Looking woman on the cover...... you've come a long way from "Naked Pocahontas", to be sure. Suffice to say: on each of four LPs so far, if you had any expectations, she's confounded them. Let's face it--Keith Richards is always gonna be Keith, and thank goodness. But thank goodness also for artists who keep hanging a louie while blindfolded--it's the truly fearless that define their age. Here I'm is, no more, no less, and if you don't like it then GET OFF THE BUS.

Now comes my own personal entre into the fabric of this story--just indulge me for a minute. It is March of 1977, and I have just been cruelly and unceremoniously DUMPED by my College Girlfriend of long standing. She, also, had been a big Essra fan. (She would've been worth being with just for THAT.) Anyway. We had played the "blue album" to death the summer before, and she had now dumped me right before the "new album" came out. Why is this important? Because of an ad I spied for a show at NYC's Bottom Line (still my favorite place) on March 23rd--David LaFlamme, and opening the show, Essra Mohawk. EEK!

Like an idiot, I attempt to get the ex to go with me. (Well, not really so much like an IDIOT....more like a "guy." Some will say there's not much of a difference.) She, sensibly, refuses. So I procure ONE ticket, for the late show.

Believe it or not, it used to actually SNOW in New York....and this was one of those nights. LaFlamme was not exactly a Monster Draw in 1977, and Essra WHO? So I did not expect a crowd.

Yipes. There were, counting me, NINE paying customers. I assume the early show had been a little better-attended, but this turnout was death to any performer. I dreaded the moment when she'd hit the stage, see the crowd, and perform a perfunctory, polite, or downright annoyed set.

I will never doubt her again, nor should you. She hit that stage, in front of eight pissed-off people who wanted to see LaFlamme and go home, and....me. And she had won them over totally by the second song. And, as you'll see in the accompanying pictures, the Expensive Lady did not show up.....this was Essra The Queen Of Funk, and all nine of us were going to go home knowing that.

They played mainly stuff from the new album, but stripped bare of all its Gamble-And-Huff aspirations, it took on a whole new form. How many times have you heard someone say, "Oh, yeah, the albums okay, man...but you shoulda seen 'em liiiiiiiive.........." and wanted to smack 'em in the chops? Well, sorry. Hit me right HERE....'cause this was one of those nights.

Highlights: (and only some of 'em involve ME) after the SECOND SONG, a guy sitting behind me, who had been grousing about having to watch "some chick" instead of David, was totally converted. He was doing metaphorical backflips. Then, he realizes that he doesn't know who he's listening to, and between songs he bellows--quite directly, I thought--"Who ARE you?????" Unflapped by this, she turns sweetly to him, raises her eyebrows, grins, and says, "Essra Mohawk," with a quick little nod like people give when they KNOW THEY GOT THE RIGHT ANSWER.....and, just in case, she spells it for him. E..S...S...R...A. Yeah!

It's not too long after that that she sees me....remember, there's only nine of us...sitting dead in front of her, furiously snapping pictures, with eyes swollen shut by my recent tribulations (Go ahead...."Awwwwwwww.") So she flashes another big grin, right at me, as I snap snap snap....and I'm thinking, "How can you be having FUN?? There's ONLY NINE OF US!! YOUR BAND ALMOST OUTNUMBERS US!!!!"

Well, a few more songs go by.....and she looks down at me again, and just as I'm about to click the shutter, may God strike me down, she whips open her top and FLASHES ME.....AND I MISSED IT!!!!!! I heard the shutter "click" just as the Gates Closed again...and the guy behind me roars "DID YOU SEE THAT??????"

Now I've done some really uncool things in my day, but it was beyond even ME to say "Um, excuse me ma'am, but could we please have another gander at.....um.....'those'?" So I did not.

I did, however, bludgeon the saintly Alan Pepper into letting me poke my stupid head backstage....I had brought my "Blue Album" inner sleeve with me in hopes of getting it signed, and wanted to see it through. So I, of course, in my demented mental state, mumbled the STUPIDEST thing I could possibly have said....."Hi! I think I might be your only fan in this whole town!"

(Well, no. In retrospect, hurray for me. The STUPIDEST thing to say would probably have been "Nice boobs.")

And, after being so gracious to this audience of nine, she kept it right up.....she somehow tapped into everything I was going through at the time, told me it was gonna be okay, and wrote a nice little note on my LP sleeve. And I shot my last frame of film as she was signing it. We chatted for a few minutes, and I wandered out into the snow. Sorry, David.....you only got to play to EIGHT people.

I'm gonna just touch on "Essra Post-70's" for you, because there's a good resource for her modern-day activities....more on that in a sec. She went away again after that album.....but re-appeared twice in the 80s, once on an album called Burnin' Shinin', and once again on E-Turn. More significantly perhaps, she landed a song with Cyndi Lauper, Change Of Heart. This has been mistakenly reported elsewhere as a co-authorship; the song is all Mohawk, and it must've been pretty neat to finally see her efforts go green.

She also contributed to, if you missed this, Schoolhouse Rock. There are plently of other impressive credentials of a recent nature, and you can read 'em all at her official website....which I'm pleased to say I just located after several previous searches turned up nothing.