Since 2004 Plastic Crimewave (aka Steve Krakow) has used the Secret History of Chicago Music to shine a light on worthy artists with Chicago ties who’ve been forgotten, underrated, or never noticed in the first place.
The duo gigged around the midwest, frequently visiting Michigan, and after their split in the mid-60s I can find little further evidence of Len’s career—in 1969 he did make an interesting solo LP for Atco, which mixes up weird country-rock and straightforward crooner pop.
By then Crewe had already recruited Riale, Slawson, and Siomos to form the rhythm section of a horn-heavy ten-piece band backing bluesy rocker Mitch Ryder of “Devil With a Blue Dress On” fame—in February 1967 they’d first hit the road as the Mitch Ryder Show. Riale is credited as producer and arranger for a 1975 single, “She’s a Stone Freak,” by a funky band called Frog, and both he and Novy are credited as producers or sound technicians on a rare 12-inch released by folky, psychedelic “world music” group Annapurna in 1976. Bloomfield and Goldberg went on to have high-profile musical careers, of course, but I can’t track any other veterans of the Chicago Loop past the late 70s—the rest of their story remains a delicious mystery. v
