Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels play The Coach House Jul 3; photo Jason Engstrom
Mention the name Mitch Ryder you might be met with a blank stare. But many know Mitch Ryder is a heavyweight of blue-eyed soul, an architect of the oft-referenced Detroit sound (Bob Seger, The Stooges, MC5), and one of the few people actually worthy of the moniker “rock and roll survivor.”
In the 1960’s Ryder and his backup band, The Detroit Wheels, shot to fame with hit singles like “Devil With A Blue Dress,” “Little Latin Lupe Lu,” “Jenny Take A Ride,” and “Sock It To Me, Baby!”. These rousing rebel-rocker songs, still electrifying, highlight Ryder’s fiery, soul vocals. His voice knows no bounds, going from sweet to gruff, threatening to come unhinged with every coming downbeat. These records serve as a crystallized example of a time when rock-n-roll was still sexy, wild, and dangerous. A student of the school of Little Richard and James Brown, Ryder found his voice early on.
“I was in high school when I sang for a student assembly and I got a load of applause, and it was like a drug, it was like, phew,” Ryder recalled. “These were guys I was getting into fights with, and putting glue on people’s lockers and shit, messing around in the classroom and they were applauding. And I’m going, ‘Alright, screw you guys.’ Then when I got on the road and started getting the same thing I realized how important it was.”
As the tides began to change in the late 60’s, Ryder would continue to chase that applause even after The Detroit Wheels fell off and Ryder went solo. His 1967 collaboration with super-producer Bob Crewe entitled “What Now My Love” became the low-point, with Crewe pushing Ryder in a schmaltzy, theatrical direction that was not right for the times and certainly not right for Ryder, knocking him off the charts and effectively, and legally, ending the already tense relationship between him and Crewe. In 1969, Ryder made a winning attempt to bounce back with “The Detroit Memphis Experiment”, a collaboration with Booker T. & the M.G.’s and The Memphis Horns, but the damage was done.
Just like any other Detroit native, Ryder refused to give in. After minor successes (a cover of Lou Reed’s “Rock and Roll” and the John Mellencamp produced album Never Kick A Sleeping Dog), and a whole lot of drugs, Ryder has found success on the U.S. nostalgia circuit, and enjoys a flourishing career in Europe, where he has released dozens of albums exploring every corner of his creative impulses.
“There are some beautiful ones like Rite of Passage, You Deserve My Art, The Acquitted Idiot, A Dark Caucasian Blue,” Ryder said. “These are all fucking cool albums but they were never released here, because, as far as the industry is concerned, I don’t exist. It’s a young man’s game.”
Clearly embittered after years of mistreatment, bad deals, and plain old bad luck, Ryder is wise to the game the industry plays, and remains staunchly anti-establishment.
“I couldn’t tell you who the first rock ’n roller was, I just know it’s an attitude, and that’s what pisses me off about these hall of fames and everything,” Ryder said. “Rock and roll was a music of rebellion, the way I remember it. It was something that our parents hated and couldn’t listen to. Being an act of rebellion, it was never supposed to be defined. And then you get some jerks out in Cleveland who tried to define it. Look at the roster. Does it even resemble something that looks like rock and roll to you?”
One thing that hasn’t soured is Ryder’s powerhouse voice, which remains miraculously intact. “Every time I light up a cigarette, my voice gets better,” he says gleefully.
Indeed, it’s his voice that gives him confidence his string of shows in SoCal will be knockouts, even though he’ll be playing with a band he hasn’t sung two notes with.
“We are using different musicians out in California,” Ryder explained. “We do a really eclectic show, and when we do hard, driving songs they nail you to the wall. When we do soft, tender ballads, you may as well be in bed with your man or your woman, you know? I’m hoping that they’re able to pull that off for me, because I’m able to do it vocally. I’ll be rehearsing from the time I get off the plane. We may be late [laughs].”
Fans coming out to The Coach House in San Juan Capistrano Jul 3 can expect an entertaining show, with Ryder originals, inspired covers, and plenty of jokes and stories from one of rock’s most authentic characters.
Want more? Ryder’s autobiography, “Devils & Blue Dresses: My Life as a Rock and Roll Legend”, is filled with backstage tales and sharp insights that lay the music industry so bare, lawyers removed 50+ pages from the book, a fact Ryder delights in.
“One critic said, ‘You will never read a more honest account of the music industry than this book.’ I don’t know if he was high at the time or what, but I’ll take it.”