Commander Cody & His Lost Planet Airmen: Three Years Running
Honky-tonk and boogie live from the Record Plant, with Bill Kirchen's Telecaster leading the charge.
By Tom Proctor
On June 10, 1973, Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen played live on KSAN. The broadcast came straight from the Record Plant in Sausalito. The band arrived as one of the most kinetic live acts in America. They tore through country, rockabilly, western swing, and boogie without regard for genre. The broadcast caught the band at its commercial peak that summer.
George Frayne led the eight-piece band as Commander Cody himself. Bill Kirchen played lead guitar and earned the nickname Titan of the Telecaster. His Hot Rod Lincoln picking made him a guitarist's guitarist. Billy C. Farlow sang lead and blew harmonica out front. Bobby Black played pedal steel, and Andy Stein covered fiddle and saxophone. Bruce Barlow held down bass, with Lance Dickerson on drums and John Tichy on guitar.
The band formed in Ann Arbor in 1967 and moved west in 1969. Their debut LP Lost in the Ozone went gold on the back of Hot Rod Lincoln. Paramount released it in 1971, and the hit single carried it. They followed with Hot Licks, Cold Steel & Truckers Favorites in 1972. Country Casanova arrived in 1973 on Warner Brothers, just before this broadcast. Through it all they kept up a relentless national touring schedule.
The KSAN broadcasts from the Record Plant became a recurring engagement for the band. A Feb 7, 1974 reel calls their appearance the third annual live show. That label places the first broadcast in 1972, a year before this one. A separate Feb 18, 1975 broadcast survives on the Internet Archive. Together they document at least three KSAN Record Plant appearances in consecutive years. A 1972 broadcast likely exists somewhere, still waiting to surface.
Country rock was not yet safe radio fare in 1973. Cody's band played honky-tonk and boogie for a psychedelic San Francisco audience. They made the old forms feel loud, fast, and a little dangerous. Kirchen's Telecaster led the charge through nearly every uptempo number. The Record Plant room gave the broadcast a clean, close sound.
The band dissolved in 1976 after a hard decade on the road. Bill Kirchen built a long solo career and kept the Telecaster legend alive. Billy C. Farlow and Bruce Barlow stayed active for decades more. George Frayne, the Commander himself, died on September 21, 2021. This broadcast holds the band near its peak, three years running at the Plant.