Benefit Street & The American Dream - Benefit Street - The American Dream (2010)

The story of the Brown University-based band Benefit Street is a case study in the machinations of the music business during the “underground music” phase of Rock ‘n’ Roll in the late 1960s/early 1970s. It is the story of a great, local act that “should have made it big”, but circumstances just seemed to conspire against them. Their legacy, however, lives on as they released a record which is now a highly collectible garage single and they provided the jumping off point for several successful show business careers, most notably singer-songwriter Rob Carlson and voice-over artist Paul Payton.

The group, formed around lead guitarist Al Silverman and lead singer Rob Carlson, began in 1967 as The Slithy Toves (after the slimy badgers in Lewis Carroll’s “Jabberwocky”). Quickly realizing the name would lead to much mispronunciation and misinterpretation, they soon changed their name to the more consumer-friendly The American Dream.

The Dream quickly became fixtures on the Rhode Island college campus and teen scenes and were noticed by Bob Bovi, the owner of an independent record shop in downtown Providence, Rhode Island, Bovi’s records. Bovi invested in the group and produced an independent single on his own label: Bovi Records RM-45027. Bob and the group chose the two cover songs for the release wisely: the A-side was The Young Rascals’ extremely popular “Love Is A Beautiful Thing” (which the Rascals had missed out on charting with by relegating it to the B-side of “You Better Run”) and the B-side was an energetic cover of The Lovin’ Spoonful’s “Jug Band Music” which played up to the Country-Rock/Folk-Rock strengths of the band. The record shot to the top of the Rhode Island charts, peaking at #8 on WICE-AM chart, and put the group firmly on the map. (The record has since become a highly sought-after garage rock collectible fetching upwards of $100.00 on the worldwide market.)...