{"id":133,"date":"2007-07-04T23:02:32","date_gmt":"2007-07-05T07:02:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.brutesforce.com\/?p=133"},"modified":"2007-07-04T23:02:32","modified_gmt":"2007-07-05T07:02:32","slug":"new-york-press-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.brutesforce.com\/confections\/new-york-press-review\/","title":{"rendered":"New York Press Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

from New York Press<\/a> Review:<\/em><\/p>\n

Brute Force is Back<\/strong>
\nA rock legend (that never quite made it) returns<\/p>\n

When one thinks of rock \u2019n\u2019 roll legends, Stephen Friedland isn\u2019t a name that comes to mind. But under the pseudonym of Brute Force, he\u2019s been an underground musical icon since the late 1960s. A singer and songwriter, his biggest claim to fame was having his 1969 song, \u201cKing of Fuh,\u201d released by the Beatles\u2019 record company, Apple\u2014only later to be censored. Frustrated with the industry and the lack of success, Friedland dropped out of the music scene for almost two decades.<\/p>\n

But the 66-year-old Friedland is now on the comeback trail. With a band of younger players, he\u2019s performing his music once again to live audiences. The group, also named Brute Force, consists of Friedland, his daughter (and backing vocalist) Lilah Friedland, drummer Christy Edwards, guitarist Peter Pierce and bassist Steve DeSeve.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s fun to play with a band,\u201d says Friedland, \u201cand to play my music, and for people to know about my musical track record and what I\u2019ve done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brute Force\u2019s story is as eccentric as some of his songs. It began in Jersey City where Friedland learned to play piano at age six. Influenced by the Danish pianist Victor Borge, Friedland wrote melodic and humorous songs that carry a deeper, satirical meaning, hence the term \u201cheavy funny.\u201d \u201cI guess I saw absurdity in life,\u201d he explains. \u201cI was very interested in the juxtaposition of things, why things happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 1964, while in NYC as a young adult, he met the producers Hugo and Luigi, who co-wrote the Elvis Presley hit \u201cCan\u2019t Help Falling in Love.\u201d They introduced Friedland to The Tokens, known for their hit, \u201cThe Lion Sleeps Tonight.\u201d Not only was Friedland hired as a songwriter for The Tokens\u2019 music publishing company, he also became the group\u2019s keyboardist.<\/p>\n

In 1967, Friedland recorded as Brute Force with the album, I, Brute Force, Confections of Love, which was produced by John Simon, later renowned for his work with The Band. In late 1968, Brute Force recorded his song, \u201cKing of Fuh,\u201d which is about a furry king in a magical land. The music and lyrics begin innocuously until they get to these lines: \u201cI said the Fuh King\u2014he went to wherever he wanted to go\/Mighty mighty Fuh King\/All hail the Fuh King.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the song was recorded, a musical friend of Friedland, Tommy Dawes of The Cyrkle, forwarded it to his manager, Nat Weiss, who knew Beatles manager Brian Epstein. According to Friedland, George Harrison was very receptive to the song and said so in a phone call. But according to Friedland, Capitol\/EMI, which was Apple\u2019s distributor, refused to release \u201cKing of Fuh.\u201d Eventually, Apple privately issued the single for U.K. release. \u201cThey decided it was just too much for their small minds,\u201d Friedland says of Capitol\/EMI. \u201cThey had no compassion for a young 28-year-old artist. I was on the brink of international recognition. They decided that it would not happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Friedland and his wife, Cynthia, then moved to California in the early 1970s to further his music career. He founded his own record company whose first project was releasing \u201cKing of Fuh\u201d domestically. As he drove to radio stations in California to convince programmers to play the single, Friedland was met with rejections.<\/p>\n

Brute Force\u2019s career went downhill throughout the \u201970s and so did his personal life\u2014his marriage broke up soon after returning to the East Coast. Trying to make a living, Friedland worked as a paralegal at his father\u2019s law firm in Edison, NJ. He also sought counseling. \u201cI became very confused,\u201d he said. \u201cI needed help from people who could hear me speak, describe my thinking and give me some suggestions.\u201d<\/p>\n

After straightening himself out and wanting to get back into showbiz, Friedland performed under his real name on the comedy club circuit during the \u201980s and \u201990s. He had also done background work in movies such as Ghostbusters. By that time, he had already moved to NYC where he currently resides.<\/p>\n

Around 2001, Friedland received an email from Gareth Jones, the leader of the U.K.-based rock band Misty\u2019s Big Adventure. Jones came across the old Brute Force song \u201cTapeworm of Love\u201d online and got hooked. \u201cI was surprised to learn that he\u2019d never had a band to play his songs,\u201d Jones said. \u201cAnd we had started covering \u201cTapeworm of Love\u201d in the Misty\u2019s live set. I guess we figured how hard would it be to just have Brute singing it instead of me!\u201d Upon Jones\u2019 invitation, Brute Force emerged out of retirement and joined Misty\u2019s on stage in England. \u201cIt just put another spark of vitality that I really needed to get my music going again for sure,\u201d he says. \u201cThose people over there were like a godsend. A whole group of people all of a sudden playing my music, and me singing it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now with his own band, Friedland is once again playing Brute Force\u2019s songs at rock clubs. On the Web, Friedland promotes Brute Force by selling CDs and other items. \u201cWhat I am looking forward to in music and song\u201d he says, \u201cis to communicate ideas, to transmit ideas of a valuable nature, so people will come away refreshed and more aware of their world.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

from New York Press Review: Brute Force is Back A rock legend (that never quite made it) returns When one thinks of rock \u2019n\u2019 roll legends, Stephen Friedland isn\u2019t a name that comes to mind. But under the pseudonym of Brute Force, he\u2019s been an underground musical icon since the late 1960s. A singer and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[42,44,46,65,67,83,122,126],"class_list":["post-133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press","tag-confections-of-love","tag-cyrkle","tag-daughter-of-force","tag-george-harrison","tag-ghostbusters","tag-king-of-fuh","tag-tapeworm-of-love","tag-tokens"],"yoast_head":"\nNew York Press Review - Brutes Force<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/www.brutesforce.com\/confections\/new-york-press-review\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"New York Press Review - Brutes Force\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"from New York Press Review: Brute Force is Back A rock legend (that never quite made it) returns When one thinks of rock \u2019n\u2019 roll legends, Stephen Friedland isn\u2019t a name that comes to mind. 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