Stories (band)

Band history

Lloyd (b. Lloyd Buonconsiglio, 1947, Seattle) and Brown (b. Michael Lookofsky, April 25, 1949, Brooklyn) were introduced by their fathers, Peter Buonconsiglio and Harry Lookofsky, two old friends who had worked together for years as session violinists. Lloyd had been singing for years and had attracted local notice recording as Lloyd London. Brown had led, wrote and played with his group The Left Banke, which had made the U.S. charts with "Walk Away Renee" (#5, 1966) and "Pretty Ballerina" (#15, 1967).

The two set about becoming a Beatlesque band. They recruited New Yorkers Love and Madey and located an interested record label in Kama Sutra. A self-titled album and a single – "I'm Coming Home" (#42, 1972) – followed.

Afterward, the band started work on their second LP with producer Eddie Kramer, About Us (1973). After the album's release, Brown left the band to pursue another project.

About Us did relatively well, but it did not initially include the group's new single, "Brother Louie." The song about a black girl and her white boyfriend had been a UK hit for Hot Chocolate earlier that year. (The group's new bassist, Kenny Aaronson, was responsible for the Motown-like bass line that helped give the song its funky character.) Once issued as the Stories' fifth single, it became a big hit, reaching No. 1 in the United States. It spent two weeks at No. 1 and remained in the Billboard chart for 18 weeks, with an R.I.A.A. gold disc awarded on 22 August 1973.

"All of a sudden," Lloyd explained to Triad's Russel Wiener, "we had a big hit with a song that did not represent our music and the direction we were trying to go in. I didn't think it would affect me that much, but it did. Consequently, I decided that I had to remove myself from that, so that I could come back and show what I really can do."

A new version of the LP was issued which did include the hit single, and the album proceeded to sell well. In some cases old copies of the LP which did not include the single were shipped inside album covers that did list the single.

Lloyd did remain with Stories for one more album – Traveling Underground (1973). Bassist Kenny Aaronson (b. April 14, 1952, Brooklyn) (formerly of Dust) and keyboardist Ken Bichel (b. 1945, Detroit) stepped in to fill the void. The new group made the Billboard Hot 100 with "Mammy Blue" (#50, 1973) and "If It Feels Good, Do It" which was a cover of a song by the band Climax (#88, 1974). Before the group's break-up, Love left and was replaced by Richie Ranno.

Lloyd has since recorded several solo albums and done studio work for Foreigner, Fotomaker, and Peter Frampton. Lloyd was also one of the first artists to cover songs by Bryan Adams, which led to the 1984 formation of Fast Forward, involving several persons directly or indirectly associated with Adams. The resulting album, Living in Fiction, featured several of Adams' songs. Brown went on to form The Beckies, another Beatlesque band. Love reappeared in the early 1980s as Landscape. Madey, after a two album stay with the Earl Slick Band, provided accompaniment for Peggy Lee. Aaronson has remained busy. He was co-founder (with Carmine Appice's brother Vinnie) of Axis, and he did sessions for Hall & Oates, Billy Squier, ex-Mountain Leslie West, Foghat, Bob Dylan, Tom Guerra, and Rick Derringer. Bichel has done session work, and so has Love. Ranno found later success as a member of Starz.

Raven Records released Stories and About Us on a single CD, including the bonus track "Another Love" (for its time a fairly suggestive song about bisexuality), being the last single by the group, released in 1974.

Their cover of Brother Louie is used as the theme song for Louie.

Albums

(all albums have been reissued on CD)

Singles