A side of Seals & Crofts few people know -- THUNDERFOOT

If you only know Seals & Crofts from their hits, or the radio, you don’t really know Seals & Crofts. They also played music would would make a soft-rock-radio-producer’s head explode.

As teenagers they were already touring as professional musicians with the Champs, Jimmy Seals on saxophone, Dash on drums, with Glen Campbell on guitar.

As a child age nine Jimmy Seals was Texas State fiddle champ. Although he wasn’t known for high energy guitar solos, he was indeed an accomplished guitarist, and he had monster chops on the saxophone.

Dash also played multiple instruments -- a very solid drummer, passable on keyboards, and of course he had his own very unique approach to the mandolin which was a trademark component of the Seals and Crofts sound. In addition to touring and recording, in their early years they both did session work in Los Angeles.

The song, “Thunderfoot” is actually named after their infamous airplane which they used for touring. It was a 1952 Convair propeller machine about which I learned from guitarist Marty Walsh website. He actually has photos from the inside of the plane, and a shot of the huge oil puddle on the tarmac underneath the engines.

The plane, called “Thunderfoot,” was plagued by mechanical issues and was so frightening that Marty was warned about it by fellow musician Mike Porcaro after he signed on to back S&C on tour. You can read all about it (and much more) here.

https://www.martywalsh.com/the-life-and-times-of-a-second-call-studio-musician-part-3/

The song "Thunderfoot" appears to have resulted from a jazz fusion jam session. The writing credits are: Jim Seals, Dash Crofts, Louie Shelton, Hampton Hawes (a gifted jazz pianist who recorded with Charles Mingus and sadly passed away at age 48 in 1977,) David Hungate, and Jeff Porcaro (both famous from the band Toto.)

This happens to be Marty Walsh’s first appearance on a recording, and man did he knock it out of the park on his first time to bat – what a great solo! (He would go on to record with many big names including Supertramp.) Check out the innovative harmonics just before he lets loose.

Marty was part of a band (Bonaroo) which included Seals & Crofts longtime touring bassist Bobby Lichtig. They were recording in a studio owned by Seals & Crofts and caught their attention, and S&C recruited them to back their tour. The keyboardist Bill Cuomo (excellent) was also a member of the Bonaroo. Last but not least was the drummer Ralph Humphrey who is a well known drummer in L.A., but was not a member of Bonarro.

Finally, the recording was produced by Louie Shelton and as you would expect, the live recording is top of the line.

This is part of my playlist project: Songs That Deserve a Music Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkpfMrTTt5M&list=PLS6w6JXvVrV45TJt4ZFMjXAh-44792diu&pp=gAQB

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