The “Golden Hits Of The 70s”
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PACIFIC GAS & ELECTRIC
“ARE YOU READY?”
(Charlie Allen, John Hill)
Columbia 451 58
No. 14 August 7, 1970
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Not well known, they were a long-haired experiment in tolerance and love. That’s how Frank Cook, the
band’s drummer, has described Pacific Gas & Electric. “We think of PG & E as not just a music group, but
a brotherhood,” Cook explained in the liner notes on the group’s first album. “We’ve found that if there is
a bad karma going down between any members of the group, the music does not fall together,” Eventually,
the inevitable “bad karma” was the band’s downfall.
Formed early in 1968, at the peak of the San Francisco peace + love phenomenon, the band consisted of
Charlie Allen (lead vocals), Tom Marshall (guitar), Glenn Schwartz (guitar), Canned Heat alumnus Frank
Cook (drums), and Brent Block (bass); soon replaced by Frankie Petricca. “A Jew, a Christian, a black, a
greaser, and a WASP” was Cook’s description. “Five more different and divergent personalities could not
be conceived of.”
In 1969, Bright Orange Records issued an album of their blues–and gospel–influenced rock sounds, Get It
On. Months later, Columbia Records took great notice of the thunderous applause the act received for
their four performances at the optimistically titled First Annual Miami Pop Festival. The event was a
success in generating revenues, good vibes, and a Columbia contract for PG & E. It would, however, be the
last of such a three-day affair (December 28-30, 1968) in the state.
A truncated-for-radio version of “Are You Ready?” (featuring the vocal assistance of famed session singers,
the Blackberries–Vanette Fields, Clyde King, Shirley Matthews, Lorna Willard) from the brotherhood’s
second Columbia LP (Are You Ready?) proved to be a winner. While a few other 45s–“Father Come on
Home” (#93, 1970), “Thank God for You Baby” (#97, 1972) gathered some interest, and a fourth LP (PG &
E, 1971) sold fairly well, all was not well within the fold. Guns were drawn and shots fired after a gig at the
Cat’s Eye, a reported redneck room in Raleigh, North Carolina. The band’s lead guitarist swore off drugs,
found God, and unwittingly had the group barred from Canada when at the border en route to Toronto’s
Electric Circus, he confessed to his former drug habit. Various personnel changes resulted and “bad
karma” was now pervasive. After their final effort, The Best of PG & E, Pacific Gas & Electric, in the words
of one record-company rep, “went the way of all rock’n’roll flesh.”
Glenn Schwartz, the born-again who could not lie to the Canadian border guards, went on to work with the
James Gang. Petricca hung up his ax for commodity trading at Chicago’s Mercantile Exchange.
Explained Petricca, to Chicago Sun Times writer Leslie Baldacci, of his radical career change: “The hours
are different, the situation is different, but the excitement is the same.” When Luke, his son then eight of
age, was shown a video of the band in action. His reaction: “You know Dad, that was awesome:’