Kamen Over To My Place Dept.

Michael Kamen couldn't break wind without it sounding like a bassoon cadenza. The guy had musicality out th' ass. He formed the New York Rock & Roll Ensemble at the Juilliard State Prodigy Penitentiary while serving five to ten for failing to resolve a lydian chord progression on the tonic.

Ahmet Ertegün told him "Youse guys play all the right notes on all the wrong instruments!" but signed the band anyway, and their first album, in '68, was a pioneering blend of classical instruments in the rock idiom. Yes, I know, it's hard to care these days, but that's more a reflection of how jaded and exhausted pop music has become as a form than a valid appreciation of the music, which is pretty swell.

Reflections, a more serious and baroque piece of work, was recorded next but released third, after Faithful Friends. Its more academic tone lost them a bunch of listeners unwilling to ditch the rock n' roll. So ...

... they made the smart move of dumbing down for Roll Over and their move to Columbia and th' Big Time. They still performed live with penguin-suited orkestries, but ...

... by '72's Freedomburger they no longer had anything to distinguish themselves from any number of straight-ahead bands with a propensity to rock out, so decided to go their separate ways while they still had bus fare.

Kamen got his solo album New York Rock together in '73, and went on to become a phenomenally successful movie soundtrack composer, as well as arranger for major rock acts. Look him up on wiki and wonder how normal schlemiels like youse and me manages to achieve bupkis in way more time.