Mitch Ryder
23 East Cabaret
Ardmore, PA ("Philadelphia")
WMMR-FM
August 22, 1984
01 Announcer - WMMR Intro
02 Mitch Ryder - Bow Wow Wow Wow
03 Mitch Ryder - B.I.G.T.I.M.E.
04 Mitch Ryder - A Thrill's A Thrill
05 Announcer - WMMR-FM Break
06 Mitch Ryder - Rock and Roll
07 Mitch Ryder - It Ain't Easy
08 Mitch Ryder - Jenny Take A Ride
09 Mitch Ryder - Liberty
10 Mitch Ryder - Little Latin Lupe Lu
11 Mitch Ryder - War
12 Announcer - WMMR-FM Break
13 Mitch Ryder - Band intros
14 Mitch Ryder - Tough Kid
15 Mitch Ryder - Devil With A Blue Dress
16 Mitch Ryder - Encore Break
17 Mitch Ryder - When You Were Mine
18 Mitch Ryder - Encore 2 Break
19 Mitch Ryder - True Love
20 Mitch Ryder - Long Neck Goose
Okay, gang, this one comes from the Sam Elliot's Mustache collection, and it's a great one. This forty-year-old cassette features a midnight broadcast on WMMR-FM with (as the newspapers put it) "Detroit rock legend Mitch Ryder."
Ryder's career in the U.S. got off to a good start, hitting #4 with Devil With A Blue Dress/Good Golly Miss Molly, Jenny Take A Ride! followed up at #4, Little Latin Lupe Lu #17, Sock It To Me Baby #6, Too Many Fish In The Sea #24, and What Now My Love at #30.
In the UK Jenny Take A Ride spent 3 weeks on the Top 40 charts, peaking at #33...so from the U.K. perspective Ryder was more of a one-hit wonder.
The charts don't always tell the entire story, though...he could have been a brighter star. Ryder was on New Voice Records, a very small label. Their next biggest hit was Norma Tanega's "Walkin' My Cat Named Dog." New Voice was a subsidiary of DynoVoice Records, run by Bob Crewe of Four Seasons songwriting fame. The parent label had a big hit with Crewe's easy listening "Music To Watch Girls By" and the Toys' "A Lover’s Concerto," but the label had nothing else on it like the red-hot R&B rock of Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels.
Crewe, unfortunately, pushed Ryder in the direction of becoming a Las Vegas lounge performer, leading to poor song choices like "You Are My Sunshine." It's not as bad as it sounds, Ryder rocks it up, but it went nowhere and led to a split with his band. You can find it on YouTube, if you want to hear it.
So it's the old story: third-rate record label, poor management, a bit of substance abuse, and Ryder was out of the Top 40 hit business by the end of the Sixties.
But he didn't give up. Reduced down to the band name "Detroit," he cut a credible 1971 LP with a solid cover of the Velvet Underground's "Rock 'n' Roll" featuring fretboard hotshot Steve Hunter. This hard rock version pointed the way to the extended track Lou Reed cut on his Rock and Roll Animal LP in 1974, with Reed recruiting Hunter to join his stage band.
A long hiatus followed, with Ryder recuperating in Denver as a day laborer.
While he might have been a dimly remembered 60s oldies act, Bruce Springsteen kept his music in the public eye through his "Detroit Medley" encore performances, running through "Devil With A Blue Dress" and "Jenny Take A Ride" as the concert closer on dozens of shows.
Ryder began issuing albums again in 1977, first on his own record label and then on Germany's Line Records. He found a new audience in Europe. He cut the fabulous track "Bow Wow Wow Wow" with Was (Not Was). This was covered live by John Mellancamp (see our archives).
UPDATED to reflect new information: A sharp-eyed reader pointed out that not only did Ryder continue to issue albums into the 2000s, he continued to so throughout the 2010s, and currently (2024) has a new LP out, "The Roof Is On Fire."
This show is from 1984. The sound is very good, albeit in mono. But mono is the way Ryder's original music was meant to be heard, so it's a benefit here. You get a couple of the big 60s hits, high points from the Detroit band, and selections from his solo career. It's really quite good; Đ®åⒻṬëŕṽøï says, " "Check it out!"
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