Pavlov's Dog - Barks of Progressive Rock

The story of Pavlov's Dog begins in the United States of the Seventies, a territory that seems miraculously immune to the European prog invasion, with the exception of Kansas, the Utopia of Todd Rundgren and Styx, who in any case embrace progressive rather later than their Italian counterparts. The band also looks to the Old Continent in choosing its name, which is in fact a clear allusion to the Russian physician Ivan Pavlov and his studies on conditioned reflexes carried out on dogs. More than the name, though, what arouses curiosity is the lineup, marked by an unusual number of no fewer than seven members.

Pavlov's Dog took shape in Saint Louis, Missouri, out of the ashes of High On A Small Hill, in which David Surkamp (vocals and guitar) and Rick Stockton (bass) played. At the time, Surkamp had no ambitious plans: he wrote songs on his acoustic guitar with the sole aim of impressing the lovely Sara, whom he would go on to win over and make his wife. Given the unexpected success, David Hamilton (keyboards), Doug Rayburn (mellotron and flute), Mike Safron (drums, percussion), Siegfried Carver (violin) and Steve Scorfina (lead guitar) soon joined the lineup as well.

In the space of just three days the band recorded a series of demos – later released posthumously under the name The Pekin Tapes (2014) – and a local radio station began insistently playing one of the tracks, "Theme From Subway Sue". Thanks to that very song, Pavlov's Dog were signed by major label Abc Records for the exorbitant sum of $500,000.

Pampered Menial was thus released in early 1975 on this label, but due to a series of legal technicalities the group parted ways with it, and a few months later the album was reissued by Cbs, with whom they signed a new contract. In both editions, the record came out with a memorable cover image, a reworking of the piece "Low Life" by the nineteenth-century artist Sir Edwin Henry Landseer, famous for having designed the four bronze lions at the foot of Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square.

Given the large number of members, this album is full of lush, grandiose melodies, a riot of mellotron and violins that help shape atmospheres suspended between blues and folk, with a few rare heavy-prog exceptions. Many of the tracks revisit material from The Pekin Tapes, which had obviously remained unreleased until then. As for the band, its best-known member was guitarist Steve Scorfina who, although he had not yet recorded anything, could already boast a collaboration with the very first incarnation of Reo Speedwagon.

We recorded in a very instinctive way, as if we were playing live, and in fact the final result ended up sounding a lot like how we played in concert. There were a lot of musicians in the band and everyone was trying to give their best: we were a very loud band, so I too sang using my voice as if it were a musical instrument, to stand out from the rest.

(David Surkamp)

First of all, it's worth highlighting the peculiarity of David Surkamp's voice, which is easily mistaken for a woman's. He's a genuine Farinelli of American rock, evoking by association the great era of the castrato singers, with very few equals in the music scene of his time. Surkamp's androgynous vibrato is indeed comparable only to that of Geddy Lee of Rush, although some journalist at the time of the album's release even dared to describe him as "the male version of Edith Piaf." Pavlov's Dog's own brand of progressive rock, meanwhile, is tinged with hard rock symphonics and folk vibrations, carefully avoiding the virtuoso excesses typical of the genre. Precisely because of the peculiarity of their sound, plenty of people in America turned up their noses at them: from producer Todd Rundgren ("this is the worst stuff I've ever heard") to Kiss and Aerosmith, who categorically refused to share the stage with the band.

Pampered Menial was recorded in the winter of 1974 in New York, and the cold atmosphere of the Big Apple seems to wrap around the opening diptych made up of "Julia," an emphatic love poem etched out by piano, acoustic guitar and flute, and above all "Late November," whose melancholic bipolarity sets the coordinates for the whole album. The driving "Song Dance," the only track written by Mike Safron, is instead kicked off by mellotron and guitar, completing a picture poised between prog and blues, though it's Surkamp's voice and Carver's violin interlude that lift the melody to another level. There's also room for more straightforwardly AOR tracks like the Wild West settings of "Fast Gun" and the sensual rock'n'roll of "Natchez Trace." The good impressions are confirmed by the passionate "Theme From Subway Sue," a visceral track with the full instrumentation on display, in which David's voice creates a very particular special effect when it collides with Scorfina's jagged guitar.

"Episode," thanks to the spectacular combination of piano, violin and voice, turns out to be a rather commanding power ballad, while in the short instrumental "Preludin" (named after an amphetamine derivative) we finally find the reasons why this album is often filed under symphonic progressive rock. The final track closes the album in style: "Once And Future Kings" opens with a guitar-and-voice section that suddenly veers into an unsettling piano-and-violin duet. By the end Surkamp reaches extremely high registers, even if the song's many distinct sections perhaps lack adequate transitions.

The album sells well in the UK, naturally more receptive to prog sounds. After a solid debut, however, the Americans' second album upends the winning formula of their bipolar music; it becomes, in fact, much less dependent on hard rock and instead finds more inspiration in jazz. The causes of this sudden shift are probably down to the change in lineup: decisive, in fact, is the departure of talented violinist Siegfried Carver, who is not directly replaced. In his place, the band is instead joined by a large cast of guest musicians, among whom stand out Thomas Nickeson (harmonica), Michael Brecker (sax), Andy Mckay (sax) and, above all, drummer Bill Bruford, fresh off the success of "Red" with the "new" King Crimson. 

At The Sound Of The Bell (1976) thus picks up where Pampered Menial left off, though it settles more into song form without sudden mood swings, almost completely severing any ties with British progressive rock. The album's title ("at the sound of the bell") is once again a clear reference to Pavlov's experiments with dogs, but the cover features model Michael Mantel hanging from the bells, dressed as the Hunchback of Notre Dame.

At The Sound Of The Bell opens with the ethereal "She Came Shining," a sophisticated keyboard-driven love song that makes it clear right away just how far we are from the dizzying landscapes of the first album. Confirming the stylistic break with the past, we then find "Standing Here With You (Megan's Song)" and "Mersey," both almost in the style of Elton John, while the last progressive-rock bark is that of "Valkerie", thanks above all to the sublime mellotron introduction.

Afterwards, rockabilly meets jazz on "Try To Hang On," which then gives way to another fine ballad, "Gold Nuggets." What's missing, however, is the sudden mood shift found on Pampered Menial, replaced instead by a more stately, compact rock sound stemming from a certain taste for jazz, as in the catchy "She Breaks Like A Morning Sky." Closing things out are "Early Morning On" and "Did You See Him Cry," the latter one of the most significant tracks of the period, with Bill Bruford's sharp rhythmic transitions effectively guiding the listener through the song's different sections.

The band was falling apart and there was a lot of tension among us. Everyone in the band wanted to write music, but none of us actually knew how!

(David Surkamp)

By the end of the Seventies, after just two albums, the band split up due to the difficult coexistence of its members. During a break, Surkamp recorded the song "Ancient Ones," included on Michael Quatro's "Dancers, Romancers, Dreamers & Schermers" (1976). By the time they came to record the third album, the situation was already untenable: their manager even improvised a recording studio in a hotel room, where he dragged along a listless, uninspired band. Frustrated, David Surkamp and Douglas Rayburn took the tapes to New York and finished the work with contributions from Elliot Randall and Jeff Baxter of Steely Dan. The label, however, dropped the group and refused to release that album, which would only legally see the light of day in 2007 under the ironic title Has Anyone Seen Sigfried?, a reference to violinist Siegfried Carver; even so, it would take until 2013 to achieve a decent sound quality for this release, drawn from the original tapes rediscovered that year. 

Known under various names across just as many bootlegs – including as Third on CD and as St. Louis Hounds on vinyl – the third album was recorded in 1977, when Pavlov's Dog recruited drummer Kirk Sarkisian but remained without keyboardist David Hamilton, who was not replaced. Because of one particular track on it ("Suicide"), rumors at the time had Surkamp dead, even though the singer was in fact at work with ex-Fairport Convention member Ian Matthews on a project called Hi-Fi, poised between progressive rock, electronics and folk. Surkamp then changed his life and moved to Seattle, even opening for the Beach Boys with his new group. Poor commercial and critical reception, however, led to this outfit's collapse too, after just one EP (Demonstration Record, 1981) and one full-length (Mood For Mallards, 1982).

Before reuniting with Surkamp, drummer Mike Safron tried an alternative path with the unlikely Pavlov's Dog 2000, who released a single, extremely rare mini-CD in 1995 (End Of The World) comparable to the Kansas sound. Shortly after, the singer instead launched his solo career in 2001 with Roaring With Light (recorded in Italy), which was followed in 2007 by Dancing On The Edge Of A Teacup. During those years his ties to Italy grew strong, to the point that he even recorded an unexpected duet with Andrea Mirò (partner of Enrico Ruggeri) on a cover of Nico's "The Fairest Of The Seasons," included on "Lucidamente" (2001).

In the midst of these new ventures, during 1990, Pavlov's Dog came back to life, albeit briefly. Their fourth album, Lost In America, duly appeared, featuring – alongside veterans Surkamp and Rayburn – Scorfina too, present on two tracks ("Lost In America," "As Lovers Do"). The violin is replaced by Michele Isam's sax, which however adds nothing to the structure of the songs, closer to standard AOR than to progressive rock.

It would be exactly twenty years before the band, riding a wave of enthusiasm after a series of benefit concerts, managed to come close to the astonishing sound of their early days with Echo & Boo (2010), albeit with a completely overhauled lineup, aside from the return of Safron. Still active today, the new Pavlov's Dog are made up of young musicians such as Bill Franco (electric guitar), Nick Schlueter (piano), Abbie Hainz (violin), Rick Steiling (bass) and daughter Saylor Surkamp (backing vocals), led by David Surkamp and his wife Sara. A choice forced in some respects – Carver died in 2009 and Rayburn followed him in 2012 – but one that turns out to be quite a happy one nonetheless. The album in fact contains tracks of undeniable substance like "I Don't Need Magic Anymore," and doesn't shy away from a few mild forays into drone music ("We Walk Alone Forever"). The opener "Angeline" already seems to bring fans back to the former glories of "Julia," while there's also room for a gripping suite ("The Death Of North American Industry Suite") that shows how Pavlov's dogs' conditioned reflex still responds well to the stimuli of prog.

In 2018 David Surkamp and co. returned with Prodigal Dreamer, an album that, starting from its cover art, ideally ties back to Pampered Menial. Joining the Surkamp couple is a new line-up: David Malachowski (electric guitar), Abbie Steiling (violin), Rick Steiling (bass), Mark Maher (keyboards), Paul Hennerich (trumpet) and Robert Marstiller (drums, percussion). The result is thirteen tracks in which, as on the first album, the violin once again takes center stage. David's voice holds up well against the ravages of time, betraying his age only when he reaches for the highest notes. Recorded live in the studio, Pavlov's Dog's new album sets aside energetic prog in favor of ethereal, delicate atmospheres, at times more ethnic-tinged ("Easter Day"), at others even bordering on reggae-rock ("Thrill Of It All"), all delivered with an old-fashioned refinement.

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