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The Robert E. Lee Brigade
Merry-Go-Round / Certain Tears - 7"
Columbia - 1970
Michael Panontin
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Toronto's Robert E. Lee Brigade released one middling LP, Far Enough, in the latter part of 1970 and then pretty well disappeared from the pages of CanRock history. The group was fronted by the handsome, charismatic Frank Lee, whose stylish dress and golden-throated voice landed him a spot fronting the Mid-Knights a mere four years after he had arrived in Canada from Italy.
Much of the Brigade's repertoire, a mix of organ-drenched covers of Dylan, Beatles and Stones tunes speckled with some tastefully written originals, seems almost hand-picked to showcase Lee's soulful singing, which admittedly must have thrilled a few crowds in the clubs back then.
But after the album's first single, a serviceable rendition of 'You Can't Always Get What You Want', failed to tickle any charts, Columbia changed tack, issuing the bubblegummy, but catchy-as-all-get-out, 'Merry-Go-Round' in its wake. That track, penned by the group's bassist Jim Ledgerwood, garnered its first mention in the Nov. 21st issue of RPM, and by mid-March the following year it had found its way onto the mag's Regional Action chart.
That was about as good as it got for these guys, though not for lack of trying. Sam Sniderman took a liking to the group, inviting them to perform a free concert at one of his Sam the Record Man locations up in the city's northern suburbs. Other singles followed, as the shortened Robert E. Lee, and there was even a tour of Europe in 1972. But by '73, Lee was singing for his fellow italiani at the annual CHIN Picnic, a noble gesture to be sure but in hindsight hardly a clever career choice.
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