Beyond The Guess Who: Brutus- "Ooh Mama Mama" and Zwol- "Call Out My Name"
Welcome to Beyond The Guess Who I cover a lesser-known Canadian musical artist. This week: Brutus
This week’s band, Brutus, was nearly included as a third act in my June 19th post about Vehicle and Lynx but I ultimately decided there was enough material for a full post.
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The first time I heard this week’s song was while going through my parents’ old K-Tel albums as a teenager. I used to make mix tapes with them regularly. Block Buster from 1976 wasn’t as strong as the same year’s Mind Bender but it did have some classics. It’s where I first heard 10cc (“I’m Not In Love”), gained an appreciation for R&B (Earth Wind And Fire’s seminal classic “That’s The Way Of The World”) and, given K-Tel’s penchant for creating regional editions of their compilation albums, a whole lot of music that will provide me with material for future Beyond The Guess Who entries for years to come. Amongst this latter category is Brutus with “Ooh Mama Mama”.
Catchy, right? So, who were Brutus?
The band, formed in 1969, consisted of Walter Zwolinski on vocals, bassist Tom Wilson, trumpet player Michael Magann, drummer Lance Wright, guitarist Eldon "Sonny" Wingay, and sax/trombone player Bill Robb.
Brutus served as an opening act for various popular bands including (you guessed it!) The Guess Who and Chicago. They released a few singles, including their debut, 1970’s “Funky Roller Skates”. And then they disbanded.
You might be wondering, “Wait a second. You said they had a song on a K-Tel compilation in 1976!”. And you are right because Brutus got back together in 1973. This time as a shock rock/glam-influenced act.
I can’t find footage of Brutus anywhere to back this up. Zwol’s own image changed around this time though. His hair began falling out. Rather than wearing hairpieces he simply started shaving his head.
In addition to this, they are said to have worn makeup and were influenced by the UK glam scene. Normally, I would have recorded output to go by, but the reformed Brutus didn’t record anything else until “Ooh Mama Mama”. The song is a pretty far cry from glam rock. It sounds a lot more like something Redbone would have recorded. (Beyond The Guess Who likes Redbone so this is not a diss, btw)
Whatever their live shows by this point were like*, they seemed to have been a popular band. “Ooh Mama Mama” didn’t trouble the RPM charts but the single did well via airplay in several markets and also made it on the aforementioned K-Tel album. By this point, Brutus had been signed to the successful (at least in Canada) GRT label.1
The follow-up “(Let Me Down) Slow And Easy” isn’t my favourite, but it did have a catchy enough chorus that would have blended in with the popular rock sounds of the day.
Brutus finally scored a minor RPM hit in October 1976 (per 45cat) when they hit #65 with the catchy “Who Wants To Buy A Song”.
Personally, this one should have been a bigger hit. I liked it even better than “Ooh Mama Mama”.
Brutus didn’t do much after this. They followed up with one more single “Sailing”, opened for Peter Gabriel at Maple Leaf Gardens, and then broke up. For good this time.
Zwol re-emerged as a solo artist, becoming the first Canadian artist to sign to EMI America.
Towards the end of 1978, Zwol’s first solo single, “New York City” was released. According to 45cat, the single was released across the border first. Either way, “New York City” provided Zwol with his first-ever Billboard Hot 100 entry when it peaked at #76. I’m not sure of an exact Canadian RPM chart position, but it did chart as high as #57 the week of 12/23/1978.
Zwol also appeared on German television to promote it. Keep an eye out for the legendary Jayne County at the end.
It’s an energetic track driven by a synth loop and pounding pianos. I’ve seen Zwol’s solo material described as New Wave. I wouldn’t classify this track or his second hit as such, but it is frenetic rock music with a pulsing beat. It deserved to have been an even bigger hit than it was.
When writing this, I wasn’t sure whether to go with “New York City” or Zwol’s other hit, the follow-up “Call Out My Name” as the song to focus on. Ultimately, I chose the latter.
Around 2015, I was watching these YouTube videos that were essentially just compilations of songs from the late 1960s to early 1990s that should have been bigger hits. I checked out both of Zwol’s solo hits after they were mentioned and while I played both, it’s “Call Out Your Name” I remembered playing more.
This one is closer to Zwol’s recordings with Brutus only rougher around the edges. Again, he landed a second Billboard Hot 100 entry when it peaked at #75 in early 1979. Because Canadian chart information isn’t the easiest to come by unless you scour through tons of scans, I can’t seem to find out if it charted at all on RPM.
Zwol quickly put out a second album, 1979’s Effective Immediately. “Shaka Shaka” was released as the first single. It’s radio-friendly late 70s-early 80’s pop music that surprisingly didn’t land Zwol a third Hot 100 entry. It seems to have been his final single across the border.
To promote the album, Zwol toured around Canada. He did promotional interviews, including one with the Calgary Herald, who seemed more interested in the fact that Zwol sported a shaved head than in his music. As mentioned previously, his hair fell out sometime around Brutus’ first breakup and he decided to shave his head years before it was common. Zwol politely answered the questions, but it was obvious that he was sick of being asked about it rather than the fact he had just scored two minor Billboard chart hits. Or was previously in a band that had opened for Peter Gabriel.
One last EMI America single, “Cheerleader” surfaced in Canada before Zwol disappeared once again, resurfacing on Canadian A&M two years later with a trio of singles and an album titled Thrillz credited to Walter Zwol And The Rage. The first, “Darlin’ I’ll Be True” appears to be the only track currently on YouTube. It’s a pleasant enough piece of early 1980s power pop.
After this, Zwol took an office job with the popular Canadian label Attic Records. Sometime in the early 90’s, he formed another band called Naked Brunch which recorded a song called “Lorraine”. I can’t seem to find the track online anywhere.
In recent years, Zwol has continued to perform and has popped up on the occasional podcast episode as an interview subject. There is also mention of him having sung with the Cameo Blues Band, a group associated with 70’s act The Downchild Blues Band.
I’ll close this week’s edition of Beyond The Guess Who off with Zwol’s 1978 album track “Every Man For Himself”:
Next Week: Beyond The Guess Who takes a break for one week while I present a pilot article of sorts called Bubbling Under. My first article? You guessed it- The Guess Who!
Beyond The Guess Who will return 7/17/2024 with One To One.
*If you happened to see Brutus live, please comment! I’m curious to know what it was like.
This will likely be touched on in future posts. GRT was an American label but they were a lot more successful in Canada to the point where they distributed some American labels such as ABC and Sire (Pre-Warners) at one point.
I can't believe I hadn't heard of the guy, the band(s?), and hadn't registered *ANY* of those songs! Wild.
Nicely done, Mark.....I was completely unaware of Brutus (I'm stateside, for your readers!), while I DO remember those 2 late-'70s Zwol albums on EMI America. I was at a Houston record store at the time, and remember stocking them both, with a decided, "What's this?!" We, obviously, weren't provided with much, if any, local or regional promo from domestic EMI/Capitol.
So, in front of the lonely ole "Miscellaneous Z" bin-divider it went (and hid)! Needle never touched vinyl on either, at least, for me! Real time/boots on the ground proof of the how and why a record never sells! If local Capitol reps were ignoring retail, how much were they personally pushing Zwol to either AM or FM?
I did enjoy the "Call Out My Name" song, and "Darlin' I"ll Be True." I found it odd that, on the '78 Zwol solo, he had Roger Cook singing background vocals. Usually a songwriter, Cook WAS in a duo with his frequent songwriting partner, Roger Greenaway, in the mid-'60s, called David and Jonathan.
Here's a list of Cook/Greenaway songs (several are longtime faves, and I'm sure, yours, as well!): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_songs_written_by_Roger_Cook_and_Roger_Greenaway
I appreciate the vid that features a rare Jayne County sighting! In that similar lane, a lot of Zwol solo sounds to me quite similar to the attack and approach of Jobriath. Just kind of fairly non-distinct rock punctuated by exaggerated and effete mannerisms which do nothing to advance the performance. I wrote about Jobriath several months ago. If you're interested, you can search him on my site!