Lord Douglas and the Serfs were students at Hiram College, about 40 miles Southeast of Cleveland. Producer Howard Russell brought them to Cleveland radio station WSLR to record two originals for their only single on HR Records 606.
Gerald Johnson and Robert Kopp wrote “Your Turn to Cry” which features harmony vocals and a great bass line in the break. Kopp, Alexander and Smith wrote the flip side, “The Way of a Man” which has a catchy chorus and a brief subdued solo that reminds me of something on the Velvet Underground’s third LP.
The band registered “Your Turn to Cry” with the Library of Congress on August 29, 1966 but the single’s release date is approximately February 1967.
WSLR radio was in Akron, Ohio. Howard Russel was the program director there and let the band use the studio after the station went off the air at midnight. This band evolved from the “Raiders” to the “Herd” to “Lord Douglas and the Serfs” to the “Establishment”. Notably, Hiram College student Michael Stanley Gee joined the “Establishment” upon Jerry Johnson’s graduation from Hiram College. The Michael Stanley Band went on to set attendance records at several large (20,000 capacity) north east Ohio venues in the 70’s and 80’s.
Jerry Johnson gives me an unwarranted promotion. I was a commercial producer at WSLR after dropping out of Hiram College in 1965. The station ran 24 hours, but originated from its palatial downtown studios only between 6AM and 6PM. After 6PM, the DJ was at the transmitter on Route 8. I used to bring bands in to record in the evenings. Among them was Michael Stanley Gee’s “Tree Stumps”, of which I have what may be the only existing acetate LP.