Creation began as the blues band Blues Creation, which made a self-titled album of American blues covers for Polydor in October 1969. In August 1971 they released
Demon & Eleven Children, with guitarist Kazuo Takeda being the only constant member, and the songwriter for all eight songs on the album. Released on the very same day was
Carmen Maki/Blues Creation, which coupled the young female vocalist Carmen Maki with the blues based hard rock sound of Blues Creation. Most of the songs on this album were also written by Kazuo Takeda. Later in 1971 Blues Creation released a live album, which featured a photo of guitarist Kazuo Takeda in a big floppy hat on the cover, further giving the impression that the band was his vehicle. The group did not appear again on record until 1975 when they re-emerged as Creation, with a self-titled album featuring a cover photo of a dozen young boys entirely nude except for slippers or sandals, some of them shown full-frontal peeing. This became Blues Creation/Creation’s best known album. The line-up for this album was Shigeru Matsumoto on bass, Yoshiaki Iijima on rhythm guitar, Masayuki Higuchi on drums, and Kazuo Takeda on lead guitar/harp and keyboards, with the latter two being the only holdovers from the previous band. Takeda was widely hailed as a guitar hero, and the band was a popular live act. In 1973 the band toured Japan with the New York-based hard rock band Mountain, which consisted of Leslie West on guitar, Felix Pa...
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Creation began as the blues band Blues Creation, which made a self-titled album of American blues covers for Polydor in October 1969. In August 1971 they released
Demon & Eleven Children, with guitarist Kazuo Takeda being the only constant member, and the songwriter for all eight songs on the album. Released on the very same day was
Carmen Maki/Blues Creation, which coupled the young female vocalist Carmen Maki with the blues based hard rock sound of Blues Creation. Most of the songs on this album were also written by Kazuo Takeda. Later in 1971 Blues Creation released a live album, which featured a photo of guitarist Kazuo Takeda in a big floppy hat on the cover, further giving the impression that the band was his vehicle. The group did not appear again on record until 1975 when they re-emerged as Creation, with a self-titled album featuring a cover photo of a dozen young boys entirely nude except for slippers or sandals, some of them shown full-frontal peeing. This became Blues Creation/Creation’s best known album. The line-up for this album was Shigeru Matsumoto on bass, Yoshiaki Iijima on rhythm guitar, Masayuki Higuchi on drums, and Kazuo Takeda on lead guitar/harp and keyboards, with the latter two being the only holdovers from the previous band. Takeda was widely hailed as a guitar hero, and the band was a popular live act. In 1973 the band toured Japan with the New York-based hard rock band Mountain, which consisted of Leslie West on guitar, Felix Pappalardi on bass and Corky Laing on drums. Takeda and Pappalardi became friends during the tour and kept in touch afterward. Pappalardi had been working as a producer, mostly with folk acts, before joining Mountain, and had written a number of hits with his wife Gail Collins, including Cream’s “Strange Brew”, which they co-wrote with Eric Clapton. Mountain broke up soon after their Japanese tour, briefly reunited, and then broke up for good in 1975. Pappalardi decided to concentrate more on producing, in part because he was experiencing hearing loss due to the extreme volume at which Mountain played. Pappalardi and Creation recorded an album together, with songs being written mostly by Pappalardi and Collins, or with the couple plus Takeda. The band rehearsed for about two months at Pappalardi’s home in Nantucket, Massachusetts before recording at New York’s Bearsville Studio. The album was released in April 1976, in Japan as
Creation with Felix Pappalardi, and in the States with a different cover on A&M as
Felix Pappalardi Creation. Sadly, Pappalardi was killed by Gail Collins on April 17, 1983 in their bedroom by a single shot to the neck. Pappalardi had been having a long term relationship with a younger woman, which his wife found out about. Collins however convinced the jury that the shooting had been accidental, and as a result received only a four year sentence, being convicted of criminally negligent homicide. Creation released the live album
Pure Electric Soul in 1977, their last release. It also had a cover of young boys posed nude, this time in the front window of a bus. Kazuo Takeda has made a number of solo albums and continues working as a musician today, mostly as a session guitarist in Los Angeles, but occasionally playing in Asia, sometimes with former Creation drummer Masayuki Higuchi.
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