Progressive rock band that played covers as well as original music. Members included Collette Kelly (vocals ex-Status Quo, Exquisites), Bill Joy (vocals ex-Verdicts), Don Henritz (drums), Bob Funk (bass ex-Del-Vikings, Verdicts), and Dale German (guitar ex-X, Cherry Smash). Grok was a finalist in the 1972 Pepsi Cola New Sounds Competition, their Pepsi commercial airing on radio nationally.
Grok played at local concerts such as the June 4, 1972 Putty Hill free concert with Aux, Coyote, Expressway, Legend, and Felix. They performed at the Steelworkers Hall on October 8, 1972 with Joshua, Coyote, Turn Blue, Staggerwing, and Zed. Also seen at the UAW Hall, St. Matthews CYO on double bill with Joshua… Eastwind Rock Concerts…
In early 1973 Kelly and Joy left the band. Jay Graboski (ex-Quinn, Little Hans) joined as rhythm guitarist and vocalist.
Graboski later became a member of OHO. Funk went on to join Legend. Kelly later fronted Phoenix. Joy and Henritz were both with ‘90s band Spitfire…
Their 1973 song “We Never Wanted This (Medley)” was included on The Best of Baltimore’s Buried Vol II. A Grok retrospective CD was released in 2014 and distributed for free at various venues locally. Thank you, Jay!
Liner notes:
“It was a time” – by P. Daly German
“During the (Keith) Moonian finale of a 1972 concert by Grok on Korvette’s parking lot in Towson, MD., this audient witnessed the band’s locomotive drummer hurl his Roger’s drums into the 4′ of standing water of an above-ground display pool. Equally surprising was their immediate retrieval by loyal roadies Jim Fallows and Ginny Kaufman. Now THIS was rock and roll.”
“No one could then have predicted that the following February, this this same audient would ride a freight elevator as Grok’s singer and 2nd guitarist with his bandmates and a quintet of then unknown Bostonians, Aerosmith. We shared billing with them, Amazing Blondell and Bruce Springsteen for Happening ’73 at Baltimore’s Civic Center, a venue reverberating with performances by The Beatles, Stones, Byrds, DC5, Animals, The Who, Hendrix, et al.”
“Grok,” a verb coined by sci-fi author, Bon Heinlein, means “to understand completely/intuitively” and “to communicate sympathetically.” A “4-letter word,” its spelling includes an anagram of the word “rock,” and this band’s sympathies resonate with the “tough love” of their Brit/Yank hybrid of hard rawk, executed with such enthusiasm and conviction as to satisfy 2 of life’s implied directives: to “let it rawk” and “let it matter.”
Founded upon the steady melado-rhythmic deployment of Del Vikings/Verdicts bassist, Robert (Baz) Funk with drummer Don Henritz; and fronted by vocalist extraordinaire, Bill Joy, a chance 1971 encounter at Bill’s Music (Catonsville, MD) introduced the trio to multi-instrumentalist Dale German (Cherry Smash) who subsequently weaved his wrenching riffage through the tapestry of rhythms and rests his mates unfurled before him. The quartet honed their unique sound at local clubs like The Rhapsody where their “black magic woman” materialized, arising like an earthbound Aphrodite from its smoky din.
The Grok pentagram wanting its 5th panel, singer Colette Kelly (Status Quo) raised her hand. Ms. Kelly’s soulful warbling merged with Joy’s voice in close harmonies, octaves and in alternating solos, forming the composite, archetypal voice of Tiresias(s/he, the woman/man), heard when the tonic and its harmonic sound simultaneously in a balance of treble and bass; very much a musical menage a trois, its principals being Jethro Tull, Delaney and Bonnie.
Throughout 1972 Grok shared stages with Dave Mason and Long John Baldry (Painter’s Mill Music Fair), Buddy Miles (U.M.B.C.); they performed in the Pimlico infield at the 1972 Preakness Stakes and later (with future OHO and former Little Hans guitarist/vocalist, Jay Graboski, fronting the band) at historical yet soon-to-vanish venues like Baltimore’s Famous Ballroom and Gwynn Oak’s Dixie Ballroom (03.09.73 & 03.17.73 respectively). By then, Bill and Colette had resigned.
The undersigned tenure (01-06.73) teemed with performance and recording activity prior to our pausing for what turned out to be a 4-decade sabbatical. And so we arrive at this compendium of available Grok recordings from 1971-73, including “The Pepsi Generation,” 5 rare Joy-penned rehearsal tracks, a “live” 1973 concert segment (replete with dueling Gibsons and the then de riguer drum solo)… AND the A and B sides of Grok precursor, The Verdicts’ 7″ platter of “Turtle Neck Sweaters” b/w “Love In Vain” (1964, O’Dell Records, both also sung and composed or co-written by Bill Joy); the “A” side inspired by a Jackie Kennedy poem in The Ladies Home Journal, published not long after her husband’s tragic demise.”
“Fast forward to 2014 when the concept of this anthology surfaced from our collective unconscious, subsequently transmogrified into the artifact you now (be)hold. We celebrate and document our musical history by augmenting the aforementioned recordings with 4 re-mastered, 70s vintage studio mixes and with new music composed and performed by 4 out of 5 of the band’s survivors (Don passed away in 2000; Colette’s whereabouts are unknown). [Ed. note, Collette has since passed as well] This music was created in accordance with the band’s incorruptible aesthetics. Crown this with the bonus of Don’s son, Garrett, pounding his rhythm on the opening track in his father’s stead, and we bring Grok’s legacy into the realm of “now.” Crank up the volume for maximum impact and… enjoy!” –JPG(08.24.2014)
A great listen. Well worth searching out a copy of this CD –JV(04.03.15)
2014 (CD) – OM064 — the anthology 1964-2014
