In Return From The Grave (Rough Diamonds: The History of Garage Band Music Volume Four)

Liner Notes

If there's one thing about Montreal, it gets damn cold sometimes, and about the only way to keep warm is to grow your hair long and jump up and down—possibly the two most basic requirements for being in a rock band; which makes it easy to explain the sheer over-congestion of musicians in Montreal and the province of Quebec as a whole. It's no easy task getting any sort of attention, so you can bet whoever makes it out of there has had to do a hell of a lot of jumping, yelling, screaming, shovin' and pushin' to get through the snowbanks.

Montreal in the 60s was like any other major North American metropolis; everyone was into the new music (Stones, Beatles, Kinks, etc.) with local clubs, local groups (J.B. & The Playboys, the Muddy Waters, Bartholomew Plus Three, the Beat Boys, the Rabble, etc) and local TV shows ("Like Young" on CFCF-TV and "Six On Six" on the CBC—in fact, I remember there used to be a Ringo Starr clone who'd alternate appearances between the two shows) plus the local "Fifth Beatle" (in this case, Dave Boxer at CFCF).

Then, as now, Montreal was a town with two separate pop scenes—one French, one English. They rarely crossed paths (except maybe on the highway, with the Rabble van on its way to a west-end high school gig and Les Classels on their way to the east-end.

A lot of the Montreal groups came and went, leaving behind a scattered legacy of singles and LPs on local and national labels that are just about impossible to find, especially in Montreal (it was bad enough trying to find the things when they originally came out).

The only band that ever managed to make any noise both nationally and internationally were the Haunted, the dirty and scruffy bad boys of Montreal rock (especially when compared to the cutesy-poo J.B. & The Playboys).

Bob Burgess, songwriter, lead singer, and co-founder of the Haunted (he is currently a music director at CFCF Radio in Montreal) took time out recently to reminisce about the group.

"Jurgen Peter (lead guitar) and myself (rhythm guitar, harmonica) got together towards the end of 1963 in an instrumental group called the Blue Jays. We changed over to being a vocal group probably in late '64. We were on our way to a gig and didn't have a new name for ourselves, so Jurgen came up with the Haunted just out of the blue. So everybody, of course, said 'No way', but that was it—and it stuck!"

"We got our big break in 1966 when Quality Records (at the time, a very powerful label) staged a "Battle Of The Bands" at the Montreal Forum—the grand prize was a recording contract with Quality. The competition was amazing! We were up against people like David Clayton Thomas and the Shays, but in the end we got 5,000 out of 8,000 votes!"

The group's debut single was the classic "1-2-5", penned by Bob and Jurgen. It shot up to no. 23 on the RPM Magazine national chart. The single was subsequently released in the U.S., Australia, and some European countries. The first pressings had a spelling error, listing the group as the Hunted.

"We recorded it in 3 hours, and it was out in the stores two weeks later!"

The Haunted line-up was as follows: Bob Burgess (vocals), Jurgen Peter (guitar), Al Birmingham (lead guitar), Dave Wynne (drums) and Mason Shea (bass). "Mason's name was really Bob, but we didn't want two Bobs in the group, so he changed it."

To record the follow-up, the group booked time at Bell Studios in New York where they cut four tracks, "I Can Only Give You Everything", "No More Lovin'", "Mona", and "I'm Just Gonna Blow My Little Mind To Bits."

"I Can Only Give You Everything" was released in September, 1966 (backed with "No More Lovin'") and made no. 62 on the national charts.

"Mona" and "I'm Just Gonna Blow My Little Mind To Bits" were not to be released till almost two years later to coincide with a CBC-TV documentary on the group, filmed while Burgess was still in the band. A much sought-after single, the label lists the group as "The original Haunted, featuring Bob Burgess, as seen on CBC's 'Restless Years'."

Burgess recalls the story behind the single's now classic B-side. "I wrote it in 10 minutes while the other guys were recording the A-side. I just wanted to take a common expression and make a song out of it. That single came out after the LP and after I'd left the group."

"You want to know about the band? We played the Toronto and Montreal circuits mostly; we never played the States. I guess we were happy making the money we could command on a local level. Why weren't we bigger? There was no real management behind us and Quality put no promotion, no budget, no nothing behind our records."

"Our influences were mostly Stones, Kinks; I was listening to a lot of Bob Dylan and blues. We used to have an inferiority complex when it came to Toronto groups...'cause they had horns. Locally, yeah, there were rivalries...Jurgen always used to argue with the Rabble about who would close the show. Other groups imitated us, but they had limited success, and if any of them had a particularly good member, we'd go steal him. That's how we got Al Birmingham, he was in the Muddy Waters and we met him after a gig and made him an offer he couldn't refuse."

Shortly after the release of their second single, Bob and Jurgen ran into the proverbial ego clash ("We're OK now") and Bob left the group.

The Haunted left Quality for a deal with TransWorld Records out of Montreal (run by producer/managers Don Wayne and Art Young). "Searching For My Baby" was the group's third release (Backed by Arthur Lee's "Message To Pretty") and featured new vocalist John Monk, in addition to new bass player Bob Bozac and drummer Nick Farlowe.

Despite leaving the group, Burgess was called in to play harmonica and keyboards on the Haunted LP (issued in '67)—a hodge-podge affair that sports quite possibly the worst cover art ever designed for an LP. Tracks included a re-make of "1-2-5", some Stones ("Out Of Time"), psycho-punk ("Horror Show") in addition to blues and other ephemera.

"Come On Home" (b/w "Out Of Time") was the fourth single. Shortly thereafter, guitarist Al Birmingham quit as well, and the group drifted into an acid-blues sound, culminating with the last Haunted single, the ultra-Hendrix influenced "Land Of Make Believe"/"An Act Of Leisure" in 1968. The only original member left at this point was producer/guitarist Jurgen Peter, who carried the band on till the early 70s before the Haunted finally faded away, a poor memory of better times and better years.

After the Haunted, Burgess (on bass/vocals) joined Our Generation (led by guitarist Louis McKelvey) resulting in one single—"Out To Get Light"/"Cool Summer" (this song's original title was to have been "Cool September Conqueror"). The group fell apart a year later, and Burgess went to England (late '67) for some sessions with producer Steve Rowlands. He returned to form the flower-powered Llilac ('68) and the Monks (one single) followed by touring/recording with Japanese singer I George (various LPs on King Records/Japan), and finally Aeon, a group he led from '74-'78 that featured Rick Metcalfe (the Rabble) and Haunted guitarist Al Birmingham (Bob has unreleased tapes of this group). The above, plus April Wine guitarist Brian Greenaway and others, got together in 1975 for a one-off live outdoor concert at N.D.G. Park under the name Chocolate Speedway, performing old faves from their previous groups. I was there and it was great!

Burgess himself was been out of performing since 1978. Would he consider a Haunted re-union? "I would, sure. I don't know about the other guys. You could call us FOG—the Fat Old Guys."

His fave tracks? "No More Lovin'" and "Eight O'Clock This Morning."

If there's one thing about the Haunted, they were a great band plagued by the all too-familiar curse of bad career moves, poor promotion, and under-financed record labels. However, that's the past—what matters today is the fact that while you're reading this, you're listening to all the tracks that matter, finally, on an LP that does the Haunted justice. Turn up the volume, comb your hair down over your eyes, shake it around some, and just blow your little mind to bits!

Research by Ralph Alfonso and Bill Munson
Liner Notes by Ralph Alfonso
Photos courtesy of Bob Burgess
Special thanks to Greg Prevost