The Gordian Knot (soft rock / harmony pop / USA)

The Gordian Knot came together in 1964 at the University of Mississippi. Graduating from school, singer/guitarist Pat Kincade, drummer Dulin Lancaster Jr., keyboardist J. D Lobue, bassist Leland Russell and guitarist James Dexter Weatherly relocated to Erie, New York. From New York they ended up in Los Angeles where they began playing local clubs and celebrity parties. A party thrown by Nancy Sinatra led to a USO tour of South Vietnam (big rock audience), followed by exposure at a number of LA clubs and eventually a contract with Verve.

According to their liner notes, they were "one of the few groups since the Beatles to possess genuine charm...not a phony show biz glucose charm, but the real thing." 


They released only one album, a terrific soft rock/harmony pop effort. Original pressings are considered highly collectible and valuable.



Produced by Clark Burroughs, 1968’s “The Gordian Knot” was a complete disappointment. Given Burroughs’ earlier work with The Association, it shouldn’t have come as a surprise that the group trafficked in lame, MOR pop. Largely written by Weatherly, tracks such as “We Must be Doing Somethin’ Right”, “One Way Street” and “Carnival Lights, Again” were at best forgettable; at worst outright nauseating – imagine 30 minutes of television commercial music… Okay, okay, ” If Only I Could Fly”, the pseudo-psych “The Year of the Sun” and the single “Broken Down Old Merry-Go-Round” were at least listenable.