The Rising Sun

The Rising Sun was a studio name used for a single album. Born to Be Wild came out on Birchmount (BM 515) in 1969 as part of Quality's Canadian Artists' Collection, with Mary Saxton and Barry Allen sharing the vocals and two Edmonton bands, Southbound Freeway and The Lords, backing them on different tracks. The Lords had renamed themselves Privilege in 1968 to avoid being confused with an English band of the same name.

The players all came out of the circle around producer Ray Schwartz. Saxton had recorded for Pace with him since 1966 and had just made her Sad Eyes LP with him at Park Lane Music. Allen had sung with Southbound Freeway after leaving The Rebels, and on this record he engineered as well as sang. Mavis McCauley, who had worked alongside Saxton in Daisy Hill Puppy Farm and then joined Southbound Freeway, wrote the arrangements. The sleeve thanked the Harmony Kids, the Edmonton music store whose studio Norman Petty had helped set up in 1967, for the loan of their equipment.

All twelve songs are covers, most of them recent rock and soul hits: Jimi Hendrix's 'Fire', Arthur Conley's 'Funky Street', Sly Stone's 'I'm an Animal', and two songs by Oshawa-born Mars Bonfire, 'Faster Than the Speed of Light' and the title track, a hit for Steppenwolf the year before. The record also takes in Cole Porter's 'Do Something to Me' and Bacharach and David's 'Wishin' and Hopin''.

No second album followed. Saxton went on to the Mustard label and the disco trio Touche, Allen moved into producing and engineering, and McCauley left Southbound Freeway for a solo career. In the mid-2000s the UK label Radioactive issued Born to Be Wild on CD (RR 092CD).

-Robert Williston