The Third Power: Believe

 by Max Conroy

I first heard about the Third Power on this site a long time ago when the Cousins did a write up about their bass player Jem Targal in response to finding a signed copy of his rare solo album Luckey Guy.  I downloaded Believe, the only album released by the Third Power and didn’t feel too bad about it because of the album’s obscurity; I believe that it isn’t too hard to track down on CD though.  The download that I got was ripped from a record and the guy recorded the second side first, which I didn’t realize till finding the vinyl a few weeks ago.  It doesn’t get much better than this if you’re looking for an aggressive, Grande-era Detroit power trio.  I’ve scoped this record every now and then for the past few years on EBay and it seems like every copy that I’ve seen was in Europe, which is odd since it only sold about 16,000 copies, mostly in the Detroit area.

Like the record itself, information regarding the band is pretty rare.  For the most part everything out there is very basic and states that the band formed in Detroit in the late 60s, were very loud, had a cult following, released one record, it flopped, they went their separate ways, the guitarist Drew Abbott went to play lead for Seger’s Silver Bullet Band, and Jem recorded Luckey Guy in the late 70s.  I did find an early biography of Jem Targal, their lead singer and bassist, on someone’s personal website.  The biography reads a bit strange, almost like it’s Targal speaking in the third person (pardon the pun).  According to the site, Targal was born in Ann Arbor, his father studied and taught at the University of Michigan, and when he was young his father accepted a position at the American University of Istanbul and moved his entire family there: ”There were seven families, all related, living in the house together.  Targal’s grandfather, a retired general, was there.  So, too, was Targal’s uncles.  One had been the head of NATO forces for seveal years; the other uncle was a professional wrestler.”  Sounds like a trip, man.  His family moved back to the Detroit area in 1951 and eventually many years later he met Abbott at Oakland Community College in a speed reading class.  Abbott taught Targal the bass and they formed several groups, met their drummer Jim Craig, a solid powerful drummer, and came up with the name the Third Power in the van on the way to their first show together at a club called the Fifth Dimension (a popular venue that had featured Hendrix and the Yardbirds).  Power trio…trio…third…third…power…like to the third power, man…get it?  The band moved into a farmhouse on Haggarty road, between 12 and 13 mile roads.  They were known for having massive parties at their place where rock icons like Rod Stewart and Badfinger would hang out.  The band kept playing around and became very popular in the Detroit area, playing shows with local acts like the Rationals, Seger, and the MC 5.  They signed with Vanguard, who also featured another Detroit act of the era the Frost, in 1969.  The album was produced by poet and blues scholar Sam Charters and came out in 1970.

I almost shit my pants when I saw it in the stack at Encore.  They pile up their new arrivals on the floor against the bins, in front of the register.  I was in there a few days prior to finding it and noticed that they had a massive pile of new arrivals and quickly paid for whatever I had gone in there to find, so as not to be tempted by whatever was in the new stacks.  A few days later I was walking in the neighborhood and decided to go back to see what was left in that pile, and there it was, perfect, in the shrink, bronze Vanguard label.  I bought that and Grant Green’s Alive! for $30 and the dude working there said bye to me using my name off of my credit card.  Respect, mon.  Irie!  I got it for $20; the price guide says $30 mint, but Popsike lists anywhere from $50 to $250 previously on EBay. 

As mentioned previously, the record only sold 16,000 copies and the group split up after its release.  The group sounds very much in the same vein as other notable mid to late 60s power trios, Cream and the Jimi Hendrix Experience: heavy jazz drums, thudding bass, extended jams, virtuoso guitar, wailing, crunching, yet focused.  Apparently they were dropped by Vanguard, a label that was shocked by the record and would have never supported it in a million years, virtually immediately after recording it.  The record sounds like if it were released in 1968 on Elektra it would have been a hit, or at least as big as Kick Out the Jams or certainly the Stooges, which weren’t hits but have sizable cult followings.  By 1970 Hendrix himself, Cream, and the psychedelic power trio were dead.  I don’t mean to pigeonhole them as they do have a unique sound.  Targal has a haunting falsetto and the band is quite competent, exploring a lot of sonic ground on the record.  There are several monolithic, heavens shattering numbers here, two of which I’m posting: Comin’ Home and Gettin’ Together.  There are also a couple of down tempo numbers that round the album out.  Lost in a Daydream is a brilliant, flowery bit of psyche that starts like the Who’s A Quick One While He’s Away and rapidly spirals around Jem’s vocals to become completely unique.  The whole record is great, and it’s an obscure record that truly is worth the hype…if there is any. 

Coda:  There was an interesting story about The Third Power playing a show with the Rationals in the Targal biography.  Apparently, there was a sense of unity amongst most of the Detroit bands at the time, but the Rationals were a bit snotty:  “Generally, the Third Power played their version of Respect during their set, but, out of concern for the Rationals, who had a local hit with the song, the Power planned to remove “Respect” from their set list.  When the Rationals showed up for their sound check, they were so “arrogant, stuffy, and piggy” that the Power went ahead and played their high energy version as a statement to the A2 recording artists.”  That’s why you gotta love Detroit rock and roll.  There is a sense of competition and unity that drives it, and it still exists.  I’d probably be pretty snotty too if I were sixteen and had recorded Respect, but I’d also try my best to cram it down the other guys throat as well.