Kid Dynamite

1976 Southern-style/Bluesish Rock that could be better

Ken Kelly:  https://medium.com/heavy-metal-philosopher/remembering-ken-kellys-metal-album-artwork-8e4540bb63e7

The Joker Video: https://youtu.be/dV3AziKTBUo?si=6e5iVX4MFHUuqUiR

Cream 1977: https://www.creem.com/archive/issue/19770401

Steve Miller Joker Story: https://www.stevemillerband.com/j50-the-evolution-of-the-joker/#/

“Uphill State of Mind”: https://youtu.be/dV8jGorGmI8?si=yVay3DwiznFR567f

“Music Man” (terrible volume): https://youtu.be/zwQ-rjLteBE?si=PJfRLdOCxxYeCbPS

I cannot hyper link Val Garcia’s Obit, but it is on the Legacy.com website if you search for his name. He died in 2022

YouTube Video Link:

Kid Dynamite

I’m a sucker for a good cover. The more over-the-top, the better. And one of the better over-the-top album cover artists is Ken Kelly.{pic}  So when I saw this Kid Dynamite record[pic, leave up], I thought, “This is going to either be really, really good or really, really bad.”  I wasn’t wrong.

Kid Dynamite didn’t just climb over a mountain of the naked and conquered in a monogrammed t-shirt to not rock!  Or boogie, as the case may be, I don’t know. I wouldn’t call it a rock record. But I digress.  I’ll tell you what I do know, kinda [close pic]

Dick Thompson and John King were once in The Steve Miller Band [pic]. Dicky Thompson played keyboards on “The Joker.” and John King played drums, but they don’t really talk about it.  When Thompson died in 2018, if it is the correct obit because his information is vague, there was no mention of Steve Miller or Kid Dynamite. Just that, “His abilities allowed him to collaborate with many great artists and travel the world.”  If you pull up a list of present and former Steve Miller Band members, Dicky’s name isn’t on it.  But when Steve Miller put out the 2023 Joker reissue[pic] with all the stuff that makes it a reissue, he mentions Thompson and King, but not really.  Just that they were there.  His Evolution of The Joker essay spends more time talking about how great Gerald Johnson was on bass and how well they jelled. You get the feeling somebody didn’t like somebody but you don’t know who’s fault it was.

Of the two, I think John King was the only one who had an active music career after Kid Dynamite.  He played drums with Santana, The Beach Boys, and Steve Miller Band alum, Bos Scaggs. He also had a company called “India Street Percussion” but it must have dissolved sometime after his death in 2010. His time with Steve Miller is noted in music histories and his obit, but not Kid Dynamite. Which brings us to the petty-weird part of this record.

On the back, under the photo giving “Bohemian Rhapsody” vibes [pic], are quotes from the 4 Kid Dynamite members about how Kid Dynamite came to be.

 King says, “We learned a lot from Steve but had our own road to travel and haven’t sacrificed any ideals in putting Kid Dynamite together.” 

[pic]

Thompson says, “We didn’t leave the Steve Miller Band on a whim, but had definite plans for the direction of Kid Dynamite.” 

But if you believe Cream’s April 1977 record review, these guys were fired. [pic] And that is about the only thing you can garner from that paragraph. I’m not even sure if Cream liked it.  I went to some really good schools, and I am still perplexed by Cream reviews.  

We can guess….I mean,  this record isn’t easy to listen to.

First, I must express how contradictory the expectations being set here are. [same cover pic] It certainly isn’t the kind of record you would expect to hear with this art. More boogie than heavy, more funk than southern rock, more blues than radio-friendly-future-yacht-rock, when listening to it objectively; Kid Dynamite has its pluses, but there are ample minuses. 

Dick Thompson and John King are talented musicians. The last minute or so of “Music Man” truly showcases how well these guys played together. Guitarist Michael Mallen transitions easily between a funky song like, “Uphill State of Mind” to a more Zappa-ish “Everything’s Gonna Be Alright.” There is professionalism in the musical execution of this record. If we stopped right there, we would be at a solid 75. [pic]

The weak link of the foursome is the singer, Val Garcia, and part of me feels bad because he is really enthusiastic.  But enthusiastic like Bill Murray fronting Murph and the Magic Tones,[pic] at the bar-slash-bowling alley, on a Saturday night in 1976 Calumet City.  He hypes and yowls with the confidence of a man who loves what he’s doing, even if he isn’t good at it.

The record begins with a cover of “Shotgun,” [pic]  and this is also where Kid Dynamite peaks in lyrical output.

We’re gonna dig potatoes

We’re gonna pick tomatoes

That’s it.  It is all downhill from here.

The words to “Mysterious Ways” makes me want to slap someone.  This is literally a song about a guy who is an asshole to the woman who loves him. He knows he’s a jagoff, and lists reasons why he’s a jagoff, but he’s not going to change because she’s a woman.[pic] They’re mysterious with their love.

To their credit, Kid Dynamite didn’t write that song. They did write the singy-talky-vocal-dry hump of a song, “Music Man,” not guitarist Michael Mallen, but the other three did. All of the band members were responsible for one or two songs on this record, but there were a half-dozen other names attached to bad choices.  

The band disappeared quickly. There was another record in ‘76, on a different nothing-label with a couple of these songs, and forgettable cover art. It was probably stuff that didn’t make it on to this, but still no one cared so Kid Dynamite was done. 

[pic]

Michael Mallen had some animation soundtrack credits in the early 2000’s, and one blog believed he was teaching guitar in California but then nothing after 2008. John King appears to have had a successful career and a full life.

 I am not sure if Dicky Thompson had the same.

Val Garcia died in 2022, possibly the last member of Kid Dynamite. Unlike his bandmates, Garcia’s obit full-on embraces the band, and takes credit for “recruiting two of his college musician friends” to form Kid Dynamite. It goes on like a PR sheet in a record promo; how they toured Texas, and enjoyed two records coming out the same year. But just as that was happening, Val felt the pull of service and joined Celebrity Centre International[pic] where he “worked to help other artists find spiritual freedom and success.”

Sometimes History is written by the[pic] last one standing.