The rock side of Motown: Rappers revive Berry Gordy's lesser-known psychedelic acts

Motown gave the world the Supremes, the Four Tops, Smokey, Stevie and Marvin Gaye , all being celebrated in this Motown 50th anniversary year, but there's another side to the Detroit-born record company.

A hard-rocking, psychedelic, day-glo side, redolent of incense and peppermints, played by long-haired hippies who were a stark contrast to Motown's elegant girl groups and suave male singers.

Power of Zeus. Stoney and Meat Loaf. Sunday Funnies. The Mynah Birds (featuring Neil Young and Rick James ). Hippies playing heavy, psychedelic rock and roll in Studio A.Apart from Rare Earth, much of it sunk like a stone, but hip-hop artists craving fresh riffs and beats have revived interest in some of Motown's more obscure rock bands, like Power of Zeus.

In the late '60s, hard rock was dominating the music charts, and Berry Gordy Jr. wanted a piece of that action. He put Harry Balk in charge of Rare Earth Records (named after the band) in order to distinguish its rock output from Motown's R&B offerings. The company had hits with the band Rare Earth's soulful rock ("Get Ready," etc.), but its other rock acts struggled.

The Mynah Birds were signed and recorded for Motown, but nothing was released. Neil Young and Rick James went on to mega fame elsewhere.

Stoney and Meat Loaf's album sputtered, but Meat became a star elsewhere with "Bat Out of Hell."

Detroit's own Power of Zeus recorded exactly one album for Motown/Rare Earth in 1970, "The Gospel According to Zeus," with spaced-out electric guitar, growling Deep Purple-esque organ and a heavy beat. Then they disappeared, leaving only a lingering whiff of patchouli. Forty years later, riffs from their songs started showing up in songs by Eminem, Common and Smif-N-Wessun. Probably the most-heard sampling was on Obie Trice's "Wanna Know." That's how London-based journalist Angus Batey first encountered them, hearing the Trice track on the HBO series

"Entourage."

The Trice track features Power of Zeus' trippy, screaming guitar and vocal line: "All I want is mine I don't care who I hurt." Trice raps: "Peep what O's selling when I hit 'em with Van Halen."

Batey, 42, often seeks out an R&B, jazz or rock song after hearing it on hip-hop tracks.

"When I heard it, I said 'Gotta get that straight away!' " Batey says. It took some doing. Power of Zeus has been out of print for decades.

"It's not part of the accepted or understood Motown history for one reason or another," Batey says.

The Briton created a Web site, powerofzeus.co.uk, using the album's spacey cover art. Shot with an infrared lens, the band looks like they're standing on the moon, but it's really a mound of gravel at a quarry in Waterford Township.

Critic Chuck Klosterman stumbled upon the band two years ago, calling "The Gospel According to Zeus" "a mixed bag of obtuse awesomeness" in Esquire.

"It has become irrationally exciting to find a band that isn't supposed to exist," Klosterman wrote. "The record sounds like what would have happened if Jack White had liked Deep Purple and (the Stones') 'Their Satanic Majesties Request' more than Led Zeppelin and (Dylan's) 'Nashville Skyline,' which isn't necessarily a positive thing."

Guitarist keeps it quiet

Joe Peraino was the long-haired, scary-looking biker guy/guitarist for Power of Zeus, but you'd never know it to see him today.

Crisp and all-business in a white shirt and tie, Peraino is co-owner of Lorio-Ross Sterling Entertainment in Royal Oak. He gave up his full-time music career in 1973.

"I don't ever tell anyone I was signed to Motown," he says with a sigh. "It's not something that comes up in conversation."

Peraino was surprised when he went home one day to find his son Mike and five excited friends blasting Power of Zeus on his sound system.

"One kid wanted to buy it. I said, 'Just give it to him!' "

As time went on, fans started finding bootlegs of the album.

Then Angus Batey called from England, having tracked Peraino down.

"Angus said, 'I hope you're making a lot of money from the Obie Trice thing, because it's really big over here,' " says Peraino.

Cha-ching, you might think, but you'd be wrong. Although hip-hop artists almost always pay publishers for material they sample, the money doesn't automatically flow to the artists.

Catching Motown's eye

The story begins in 1968, when Peraino formed a band while working on the line at Chrysler. He found bass player Bill Jones, who had a gig at the Wooden Nickel, at Jefferson and Mount Elliott in Detroit. The only catch: They'd be joining a country band.

The audience was diverse. "Dock workers with peg legs, Chrysler line workers, doctors, lawyers, hillbillies."

But the country fans liked the hard rock. "One guy would say, 'Do that there song that sounds like a train's coming through the building!'" says Peraino. After a few months, Peraino and Jones evicted the country players and installed black lights. They brought in drummer Bob Michalski and organ player Dennie Webber.

They were loud. "If you stood in front of the bass drum it would ruffle your T-shirt," Peraino says.

The band called itself Gangrene -- "Music to infect your mind and body."

They caught Motown's notice. Motown engineer Russ Terrana brought his brother, Motown producer Ralph, to see the band.

"Music to infect your mind and body," Terrana says with a laugh. "We changed that. Harry Balk wasn't going to let that fly at Motown."

Terrana had a vision. "I wanted to see Motown become more like Atlantic Records. Atlantic had a strong R&B thing, but they also had Led Zeppelin. But Berry's head wasn't into it, therefore we didn't get a whole lot of monetary support."

The producer also got a Native American band, Xit, signed.

"As alien as rock and roll was to Berry, now I'm bringing in a (expletive) Indian group with drums," Terrana laughs. "He probably thought we were losing our minds."

Power of Zeus didn't like their album, which was produced by Terrana. The heavy bass drum sound that was de rigeur for rock bands in 1970 wasn't there.

"I don't blame Ralph," says Peraino. "At the time we argued about it ... he wanted it to get airplay."

Terrana agrees, mostly. "We should have recorded all the tracks at Golden World (Motown Studio B)," Terrana says. "That was more acclimated to rock."

And yet what Peraino sees as a flaw is what has intrigued hip-hop producers and fans.

As Batey wrote in a Mojo article, "It stands out...because Motown's reluctance to reproduce deep bass frequencies gives Michalski's drumming a taut crispness, while Peraino's guitar is agreeably scratchy."

Band meets its end

Disappointed by their album's failure and plagued by drug problems, Power of Zeus was over almost as quickly as it had begun. Peraino and Jones were sent out to back up David Ruffin on a wild 1971 tour punctuated by gunfire at a show Ruffin couldn't make.

The band learned the hard way that Motown's expertise was in breaking R&B and pop acts. Rare Earth, the band, was the exception to the rule.

Forty years later, Peraino is bemused at Power of Zeus' rediscovery. He's still in touch with bassist Jones and manager Jim Wilson; drummer Michalski and keyboard player Webber died some years ago.

Both he and Terrana believe Universal Motown should re-release Power of Zeus and some of the other Rare Earth gems. (Harry Weinger, a Universal VP who oversees the Motown catalog, said there are no current plans to re-release Power of Zeus, but he's "intrigued.")

"We were starting to gain credibility when it all fell apart," Terrana laments. "Had they left us alone in Detroit, I'm sure we could have built it up. There was so much talent in Detroit, it was crazy."