White Wing
Found this pink scratchy piece of proto-metal in the back of a wasp filled school bus in Hot Springs South Dakota. For me, the songs are indescribable, so it’s fortunate that I found the original author, Mike Coates, in Moorhead Minnesota to do the describing. See below for Mike’s take. Also, make sure you listen to the final 20 seconds of each song. Lukie’s Tune culminates with a furious drum solo and Melancholy slowly builds to a mini-bohemian-rhapsody. I. Am. Not. Kidding…
Well, I could write a book on this. First of all, there were two singles: Lukie’s Tune/Melancholy (Men of War) and The Nation’s at War/April’s Music Box. They were recorded by WhiteWing Mk I in 1970, I believe. I was a sophomore in high school. In those days we tried to record once a year until we were signed by ASI (Minneapolis) in 1975. Rod Schroeder did the bulk of the writing pre-label. April’s Music Box was co-written by an outside partner who eventually sued us for a percentage of the profits (there were none). Insane, stupid stuff.
Side A: Lukie’s Tune
Artist: White Wing
Catalog: Power Page Recordings
Date: 1970
Style: Psychedelic Rock
Side B: Melancholy
Artist: White Wing
Catalog: Power Page Recordings
Date: 1970
Style: Psychedelic Rock
The Power Page label was derived from the radio names of two of our good friends at KKLS radio (might have had different call-name in those days). They were Cliff Powers and “Big Daddy” Nathan Page. I know Cliff is still involved in satellite radio. Page just kinda disappeared. We got a lot of airplay in those days because of those guys and I remember all four tunes appeared in the top 100 list for KKLS that year. The Nation’s at War was our primary single. We were very proud. The band moved to Blaine, Minn. in late ’71 after I graduated. We returned to Rapid City in 1973. FYI, I played clarinet on Melancholy as well as all the guitar parts on both tunes.
Mike English, of Hot Springs, joined WW Mk III in 1974 and we were signed in 1975. Mike and I formed Asia in 1977. We played literally dozens of gigs in Hot Springs over the years. In Asia we played primarily at The Pizza Pub. The WhiteWing LPs and Asia LPs are worth a lot of money. There’s a copy of WW going for over $200 in Rapid City. The Asia recordings were re-released on CD in 1995 by Michael Piper/The Gates of Dawn. He died a couple of years ago. That double CD is being re-released next month on Blood and Iron Records out of England (near London). Asia is quite big with the prog set internationally. I got feelers last summer (which I’m going to follow up on this month) from a company out of Texas. Curiously, I was contacted in June about re-releasing at least some of the WW material by a label out of Ohio.
There were also recordings done in the early days done in Omaha, Minneapolis (Sound 80 Studios), and a long one recorded in Denver. I do not have access to those–which really pisses me off–because much of my early song writing was on those recordings: The Cossack’s Epitaph, The Exorcist, The Return of the Gunfighter, and Man on the Run. I imagine they will emerge someday when I’m long gone. I didn’t include any of this on the website because I didn’t have any of the recordings and it was all before we were signed. There were also home demos we did for the singles you asked about and even the LP.
Bill Harden was our flower child manager at the time and very anti-war. He, like all of us, was answerable to the draft. And they got him. Last I searched he was a lifer and preacher in the army. Unbelievable (he had tried everything to get out). You may notice that the Viet Nam war was a major influence on those early tunes. Rod’s brother was a captain in ‘Nam and later died of exposure to Agent Orange. Rod had to leave the band in 1972 when he was drafted. We were in Canada at the time and got him home before the notice arrived in Quebec and he joined the National Guard back in South Dakota (–got you out of the army back then. Mike Drew’s dad was an officer in the guard and arranged things). Not great feelings left from those times. I was angry at Rod for not following through on his extensive efforts to avoid being drafted–and we haven’t spoken since. But that’s when I became the principal composer. I left WhiteWing in 1977 to create Asia (at our record company’s prodding) which left even more tough feelings.
And it’s all curious because we have recently been contacted about being nominated for the South Dakota Music Hall of Fame. I have no problem with Asia, but have very ambivalent feelings about WhiteWing. Mike English contacted me this spring about all of this. First communication in 30 years.
Hope that fills in some gaps. Thanks for caring.
Mike
