Photo via Pavlov's Dog - Facebook
Pavlov's Dog (2024)
Pavlov's Dog (2024)
Like Sparks, Pavlov’s Dog could have been one of those quirky ‘70s bands that swam against commercial tides, to be embraced eventually as fellow outliers by new wave, postpunk listeners. Alas, their career was cut short before they could find their audience. Guitarist and lead vocalist David Surkamp implies that the band cut itself short over artistic differences.
I doubt I’m their only listener from the ‘70s surprised to learn that Surkamp reconstituted Pavlov’s Dog with new members in 1990, quietly releasing a half dozen studio albums, and embarking on several tours since then. Pavlov’s Dog makes its long belated Milwaukee debut this month at Shank Hall. “I don’t like to perform much, but I love it when I do,” Surkamp says.
Pavlov’s Dog’s album debut, Pampered Menial (1975), was an outstanding oddity. Their timbres were autumnal, their sound somewhere between Blue Oyster Cult and an eccentric prog band. Where were they from? The UK? Who thought Pavlov’s Dog issued from America’s heartland, St. Louis, a city that hadn’t been musically cutting edge since the ‘50s?
“St. Louis is a sports town, so I didn’t fit in,” Surkamp recalls. “I mostly listened to King Crimson and Fairport Convention as major influences. The one advantage to being in my hometown was I saw a lot of guitarists—Albert King, Duane Allman, Ike Turner, Chuck Berry, you name it. Pavlov’s Dog was an anomaly. After all, it was mostly blues and jazz bands back home. We didn’t sound like REO Speedwagon, Head East or Danny Fogelberg, kind of our own private island.”
Unusual History
Pampered Menial was dogged, an almost unavoidable pun, by a peculiar history with the music industry. “I guess we got signed to recording contracts because I composed great songs,” is all Surkamp says. When ABC Records dropped Pavlov’s Dog just after releasing Pampered Menial, Columbia picked up their contract and reissued the album, leaving Pampered Menial on two labels in the LP racks, doubtlessly confusing record wholesalers and retailers.
And their case wasn’t helped by being hard to categorize at a time when categories mattered. Rock was starting toward its AOR nadir in 1975, and Pavlov’s Dog was just a bit weird for mainstream audiences. Surkamp’s high-pitched, sometimes English-sounding and occasionally Yoko-like vocals might have found hearers if the band had survived into the punk era. Here in Milwaukee, Pampered Menial received a bit of airplay on late-night FM—Paul Greenwald’s inimitable “Space Headquarters” show on WQFM—and a positive review in the Milwaukee Journal by Paul Rene Noth. Otherwise, silence and incomprehension.
As achingly melodramatic as it was memorably melodic, “Julia,” Pampered’s opener, was the lone track that sounded tailored to be a hit and it came close, entering the Top-100 in … Australia. The chill Melotron might have put ‘70s AM listeners in mind of The Moody Blues.
Columbia had enough confidence to send Pavlov’s Dog to make a follow-up, At the Sound of the Bell (1976), at New York’s famed Record Plant. However, the band was splintering even as the session collected some prominent guest stars. Yes-King Crimson drummer Bill Bruford filled the vacant drummer’s stool, and Roxy Music saxophonist Andy Mackay made for odd company along with Michael Brecker. “I left before we recorded the third album, the entire band decided to be songwriters overnight,” Surkamp complains. “None had composed anything of merit to this date. Left for Seattle and another life. “
That other life included a band called Hi-Fi with Iain Matthews, an original member of Fairport Convention and occasional hitmaker in his UK homeland, before restarting Pavlov’s Dog, which Surkamp calls “my life’s work. Iain Matthews and I just finished two recordings with Pavlov’s Dog a couple weeks ago. Great stuff,” he says.
What does he have planned for his first Milwaukee show? “We have a half century of music to choose from. And we will,” Surkamp concludes.
Pavlov’s Dog performs on April 24 at Shank Hall. For tickets, visit shankhall.com
