'Resurrection' by The Aerovons

GUEST POST: Jordan Oakes (Yellow Pills Magazine)

Despite the obvious influence of the Fab Four, The Aerovons didn’t run on Beatle juice.

On the new vinyl reissue of Resurrection, discerning listeners will discover a delicate, almost frangible Baroque rock combo. You’ve heard of sunshine pop; the Aerovons’ brand is decidedly autumnal.

Songwriter Tom Hartman composes on piano, not guitar. The music is polite, more carrot than stick. It doesn’t hit you over the head; it massages your temples. And that’s where The Aerovons and The Beatles go their separate ways. 

The former doesn’t toy with the raving, adrenalized fervor of rock and roll, leaning instead toward the ornate delicacies of soft rock.

Resurrection was recorded in 1969, but rejected by EMI after the band fell apart.

It finally saw the light of day, on CD, over 20 years ago. That went out of print, but Euclid Records of St. Louis—the city from which The Aerovons hailed—recently reissued it just in time for Record Store Day.

While the Mississippi River was across the pond from the River Mersey, The Aerovons’ influences were very much Liverpudlian. When Hartman was in his late teens, he traveled to London, equipped with only his mother’s encouragement, a music connection, and a guitar case full of dreams.

On Resurrection you can play a round of spot-The-Beatles-influence and at the same time be blown away by the record’s gentle balance of beauty and sadness. It walks a tightrope—but The Aerovons take the right trope and build on it with a surefooted sensibility.

“World of You,” the sweeping leadoff track and first single, establishes the band’s personality right out of the gate.

Next in line is the title song, which begins with a verse that, for the first several notes, sounds like a parallel “Across the Universe.” It’s followed by “Say Georgia,” which can’t help but scream “Oh! Darling,” a Beatles song that it unabashedly resembles.

But that’s perfectly understandable, really, because The Aerovons were recording in 1969 at EMI (later Abbey Road) Studios, and the greatest band on the planet was only a stone’s throw away, working on new material of their own. It was literally music to Hartman’s ears. Symbiosis (perhaps commensalism) was in the air, and, for Hartman, it was breathless excitement.

As for the similarities of those tracks to The Beatles’ songs, he humbly confesses that it was “my fault.” What’s that adage? A good writer borrows—a great writer steals. But there was no theft in progress; at the most, it was a cat burglary. (For the record, no other songs on Resurrection melodically mimic The Beatles, despite the strong influence.)

The Aerovons were living their dream, recording what was probably the first album in history to echo The Beatles so cleverly; not stealing their soul—at most, absorbing a smidge of their legend.

It was like an unofficial apprenticeship, a pilgrimage with purpose. The album should appeal not only to Fab Four aficionados, but devotees of The Bee Gees, The Merry Go-Round, The Left Banke, The Byrds, and all the other “pretty bands” of the ‘60s.

Tom Hartman is probably the closest Missouri will ever come to having its own Paul McCartney, Roy Wood or Todd Rundgren.

Resurrection is a near-religious experience.

Jordan Oakes founded, published, and edited the Yellow Pills power pop magazine beginning in 1991, and compiled five Yellow Pills CD compilations beginning in 1993. His journalism has also appeared in Sound Choice, Speak, The Riverfront Times, The Christian Science Monitor, Rolling Stone’s ‘Alt-Rock-a-Rama’ book, and elsewhere. He’s a published poet and occasional standup comedian. He loves dogs and dog-eared magazines.

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