When contemplating the pioneers of digital pop music, names equivalent to Kraftwerk and Giorgio Moroder spring to thoughts. However Gary Wright’s single Dream Weaver, which reached No 2 on the American chart in 1976, deserves its place in historical past for putting synthesiser music on the forefront of pop radio, and was one of many first tracks recorded nearly solely with synths (backed up by Jim Keltner’s drums).
Its floating, dream-like ambiance made the proper backdrop for the craving high quality of Wright’s vocals, and the lilting rhythm and blues really feel of the refrain slipped effortlessly into the listener’s consciousness. The haunting sound of the ARP Solina string synthesiser, additionally utilized by Pink Floyd on Welcome to the Machine (from Want You Had been Right here, 1975), helped give the observe its distinctive edge.
Wright, who has died aged 80, initially wrote the music on a guitar, however thought that its success “had so much to do with the digital sounds I placed on it. I believed it was a great single, a progressive single quite than only a easy business hit … the therapy I gave it made it a special sort of single.”
The music’s mother or father album, The Dream Weaver, reached No 7 on the US album chart, and produced one other No 2 single with Love Is Alive. Dream Weaver itself loved a protracted life because of being included on a number of film soundtracks. Wright recorded a brand new model of it for Wayne’s World (1992), “which was good as a result of I bought the next royalty charge”. The Wayne’s World soundtrack album topped the US chart. The music additionally featured in The Folks vs Larry Flynt, Toy Story 3 and Ice Age: Collision Course, effectively because the TV present Glee, and was sampled on hip-hop tracks.
Wright gave some credit score for the music to George Harrison, having grown near the previous Beatle when he performed keyboards on his triple album All Issues Should Move (1970). Wright recalled how Harrison, with whom he travelled to India, had given him a ebook of poems to introduce him to Indian philosophy, and one in all them included the road: “When at evening my thoughts weaves goals”. It was Harrison, too, who prompted Wright to learn Paramahansa Yogananda’s Autobiography of a Yogi, which Wright attributed with placing him on an enlightening non secular path. He would proceed to meditate every day all through his life. He additionally appeared on an additional six of Harrison’s albums.
Previous to his success with Dream Weaver, Wright had been a key member of Spooky Tooth, a British blues-rock band with progressive leanings who launched their debut album, It’s All About, on Island Information in 1968.
Wright was born in Cresskill, New Jersey, to Ann (nee Belvedere) and Louis Wright. His father was a development engineer, and his mom was a singer, as have been his two sisters. His older sister, Beverly, loved some success as a pop and people singer within the 60s, whereas his youthful sister, Lorna, launched the album Circle of Love (1978) and several other singles.
His mom inspired Gary to take an curiosity in music and performing. He appeared within the TV sci-fi sequence Captain Video and His Video Rangers, and when he was 12 he was employed as an understudy for a Broadway musical, Fanny. This resulted in him happening stage within the position of Cesario, son of the titular Fanny, performed by Florence Henderson, and in 1955, showing with Henderson on The Ed Sullivan Present.
His enthusiasms subsequently switched to music, and whereas at Tenafly highschool in New Jersey, he performed in a number of rock’n’roll teams. He would cite the R&B artists Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin and James Brown amongst his musical idols, together with Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and the Beatles.
Having attended William & Mary Faculty in Virginia after which targeted on medication at New York College, Wright was finding out psychology on the Free College of Germany in West Berlin when he deserted his educational plans and shaped a gaggle known as the New York Instances. They supported Site visitors at a gig in Oslo, the place he met the Island Information boss Chris Blackwell. Blackwell launched Wright to 4 of the 5 members of the now-defunct band Artwork, and Spooky Tooth was shaped. Site visitors’s producer Jimmy Miller labored on their first two albums, It’s All About and Spooky Two (1969).
Distinguished by the standout tracks Evil Girl and Higher By You, Higher Than Me, the latter was extensively thought to be the band’s most interesting hour. It cracked the American High 50, however this was the best Spooky Tooth ever climbed, although they made 4 subsequent visits to the underside finish of the US High 100. They pulled enthusiastic audiences, not least on sold-out US excursions with Jimi Hendrix and the Rolling Stones, delivered some highly effective and creative music, and garnered beneficiant accolades from the press, however one way or the other the celebs by no means aligned of their favour.
Wright recognized their third album, Ceremony (subtitled An Digital Mass and in addition launched in 1969), because the second the place all of it went flawed. It was a collaboration with the French digital composer Pierre Henry, and, as Wright described it, was imagined to be a Henry album quite than being billed as the newest Spooky Tooth providing. “We stated … ‘it is going to destroy our profession’, and that’s precisely what occurred.”
Wright left the band, however in 1972 bought along with one other authentic member, Mike Harrison, and rebuilt it with a brand new lineup. They recorded You Broke My Coronary heart So … I Busted Your Jaw (1973), Witness (1973) and The Mirror (1974), however lack of economic success prompted Wright to give up to pursue a solo profession.
He launched the albums Extraction and Footprint earlier than the turning level of Dream Weaver. The Mild of Smiles (1977) took him into the US High 30, and gave him a modest hit single with Phantom Author. The Proper Place (1981) reached 79 on the US album chart, and delivered his ultimate hit single, Actually Wanna Know You, which reached 16 within the US.
In 2004, he reunited with Spooky Tooth for 2 gigs in Germany, preserved on the album Nomad Poets. In 2008 the band undertook a European tour, and appeared on the Island Information fiftieth anniversary occasion on the Shepherd’s Bush Empire in west London. In the identical yr Wright toured north America with Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band. In 2014 he revealed Dream Weaver: Music, Meditation and My Friendship With George Harrison.
He’s survived by his third spouse, Rose (nee Anthony), two sons, Justin and Dorian, from his first marriage, to Christina (nee Uppstrom), which resulted in divorce, and by Lorna.
