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mollybangtheband · 7 months

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RIP Keith Kozel

(I’m very late in writing this but just couldn’t type up something short, so it took me some time to gather my thoughts. This is very very long, but I have a lot to say - these are stories I’ve told to many others over the years when speaking about music, but never compiled into one place until now - my apologies for the verbosity, but this is for Keith.)

I only spoke with Keith a few times in person, just small talk, and via social media off and on over the years, but his impact on me was much bigger than all of that, as all these stories will prove.

I’ve seen Bowie, Iggy, the Rolling Stones, REM, Flaming Lips, Frank Black and the Catholics and a lot of other legends, etc. etc. - and I’ve never really been into buying most “stuff” in general, but I’ve spent a good amount on seeing shows, all across the country. I’ve seen hundreds and hundreds of bands… but to this day… seeing Keith’s band Superhorse was one of my all-time favorite live performances. Not an exaggeration, not a sympathy vote. I’ve been saying this long before Kieth died.

I’ll admit, I’m not really qualified to do much, but I feel qualified enough to tell you Keith was a rock star. I’m telling you, as far as front men went, besides maybe James Brown or Michael Jackson, or one of those greats that are amazing dancers, Keith could compete with the best of them.

I love the small, old, dirty, intimate venues, where it’s packed and smelly, but magical because of some band and or performer. Those are usually the best in my opinion, and Superhorse playing at the Velvet Elvis is the perfect example of that for me.

Though influenced by hundreds of bands, when I started playing in a band myself I took the most influence from bands like The Dirtbombs, The Velvet Underground, Pavement, The Kinks, The Pixies… and also Superhorse.

Superhorse was chosen for these reasons: Great live show and great instantly catchy relatable tunes.

Maybe other fans won’t agree with me, but seeing Keith in Superhorse felt like seeing Iggy Pop covering Lynyrd Skynyrd songs. The live shows were less southern rock sounding, but the recordings to me, as I could hear Keith’s voice more clearly, sounded a lot like Skynyrd.

(I grew up in small towns in Georgia and I’ve always loved Skynyrd, but by the time I graduated high school I needed a break from them. They were often the soundtrack for obnoxious rednecks in the 80’s and 90’s but by the time I was finishing college and hearing Keith making these southern rock inspired songs I was ready to start listening to Skynyrd again.)

I regret not going to more Superhorse shows, recording more of their shows and taking more pictures etc. I can envision an alternate timeline where I just stayed in Savannah and was a roadie/super fan for band, and I could see myself being quite happy doing that. I always assumed they would go on to have a large discography, numerous music videos etc. It felt like I was watching a band on the brink of making it big.

But to back up a little before I was blown away by seeing Keith perform the first time: Keith worked at a pizza place I used to hangout at called Vinnie Van Go-Go’s. I must’ve seen him there but just didn’t know who he was yet… Being a poor college student Vinnie’s was the cheapest place to go to get decent tasting food (pizza!). I was usually too poor to even purchase anything, but I’d go with friends and eat their crust (always bummed when the friend wanted to eat their crust / my dinner).

But my favorite part was the music they played at Vinnie’s. They had a tape player with dozens (if not many more) cassettes that they’d play. I would frequently check out the collection and mixes and ask what album was playing. I was always making lists of songs and bands and albums to check out. I found out much later that a lot of these were Keith’s cassettes. Even before knowing the man he was already inspiring and influencing me.

Towards my last year or two at school, I finally was able to see this band Superhorse that I’d heard about so often (I kept really busy at school so I had to plan events like this weeks in advance). The show blew me away. Keith even looked like rock star, he looked like he could fit in easily in a British Invasion band or some other group from the 60’s. I had just recently seen The Rolling Stones before this and although they are probably a top five band for me and great live, there was more magic in this show at a small venue in Savannah.

In art schools you’ll always see a bunch of talented artists (Keith had long been out of school by that point btw) but there are a couple of dozen that really truly impressed me. He was one of those people. So he was always on my mind, like how do I become friends with this guy and learn from him?

Also at this time I was in a band called Cho Young and the Davenports. It was a very art -school band that was interesting and creative and weird and fun, but lacking in talent. As musicians we were not great at all. We could fake it and play simple songs but that’s it. We had three super fans and we did open mics and got a lot of compliments and slowly other performers started asking us to play with them, but we were mainly just notorious if anything.

One time one of our band leaders received a mysterious message (which I feel included a gift with it, but I could be wrong, I feel like there was a knock on the door and then someone left the letter and ran off, I don’t recall exactly though). The message had enough clues that after a while we thought we had an idea of some people that could’ve written it. The main part of the letter though was a request for us to write a song about Acorn Squash (maybe that was the gift - and we did write a song and recorded it for our next album, we also performed it as well - The Biggest Baddest Acorn Squash…)… It was a pretty bad song but fun.

At some point we learned that Keith wrote the mysterious letter. By this point I had seen his band Superhorse and knew of him but didn’t know his name. I did know that he was an amazing performer that blew my mind and was as cool as they come (at least on stage, I can’t speak for him otherwise). I remember I asked someone in the band what the guys name was that wrote the letter. The person responded “Keith Kozel” as if I should know the name. The person that said the name wasn’t a fan or hadn’t seen Keith perform but he knew Keith was a local celebrity.

I said “Who is that?” I then found out he was from Superhorse. Kozel - he even had a cool last name. When I found out that one of my idols was not just a fan, but a big fan of my band, I got chills. I was shocked.

Soon afterwards I was chatting with a group of other art students about music and I said “Have y’all seen Keith Kozel’s band? They’re amazing.” Then another guy says “Which one?” I said “Superhorse of course, wait he’s in another band?” The guy responded, “yeah, he’s in GAM. They’re one of my favorite bands.” Other folks chimed in agreeing with the statement.

Of course he would be in two awesome bands (never saw GAM but have seen pictures and videos and listened to the music, the live shows were supposed to be amazing and I’m very sad I missed it).

After this I was able to see Superhorse again and I brought my video camera and recorded it. It’s a great live show that I need to put online sometime. I put it on VHS and frequently would give people a copy. This was early 2000’s and most already were playing DVD’s instead of VHS. As time passed almost no one had VHS, so I had no one to give it to anymore. I would watch the video a lot like it was a famous live show, like it was the Allman Brothers at Fillmore East or something.

Soon after that I had a buddy put the audio from the video camera on CD. I’m pretty sure it was about 80 minutes (or close to that I think). About 20ish songs I would guess. 16 originals and four covers I also made copies of this CD and passed them out for a few years until almost no one listened to CD’s anymore). I didn’t know the song titles, I just guessed, and maybe half the time I got them right (found out once they recorded an album a few years later). I only knew there were four cover songs because he said it at the show. I knew Good Loving was one but I had no idea who wrote it. This live CD one of my favorite albums (and I recorded it!?)…

After this my band (CYaTD) was recording an overly ambitious limited edition (20 copies probably haha) box set before we all left college. We had a surprisingly large amount of recordings. I remember one of the times I went to record one of my parts one of my bandmates was playing some new recordings I hadn’t heard yet. Some folks that weren’t in the band were even recording their own versions of some of our songs. Remember this is before the popularity of streaming music and Spotify so for people to know our songs they had to have a copy of the CD. We made a hundred copies or less and people were actually covering our songs.

My bandmate played a recording of a song and then the vocals came in. Now I can’t describe the feeling, I felt but I’ve never felt this way in my entire life and it kind of short circuited my brain. I was hearing a song, that I helped write, but by a vocalist that to me was a celebrity. It was Keith. Now remember I had been listening to that live Superhorse album so Keith’s voice was very familiar to me. I got chills. It was so flattering to me. It was the best compliment I could ever ask for.

I soon left Savanah and spent almost all of my free time listening to music. I wanted to be an audiophile at the same level as someone like Keith (it took a while but I eventually got there). On the their live album that I recorded there were the four cover songs as mentioned before. During that first year after my last time seeing them I was always curious what the covers were. The internet was around of course but there was no Shazam and most songs (unless really popular) didn’t always have lyrics online.

I think he announces one or two of the covers in the recording but not all four. And the way I found out what they were was interesting to me. I was already a huge Velvet Underground fan and I knew Lou Reed’s album Transformer, but little else of his solo work. I was also a huge fan of the Stones. I knew their hits and their albums before Exile but for some reason only heard Exile once many years prior and couldn’t understand why people loved it so much. I also loved punk but only knew the Ramones and the Sex Pistols and a few other songs. I also love James Brown but only knew the hits. My goal then was to explore these bands (and others) to learn their entire discography.

While listening to a lot of punk I found Sonic Reducer by the Dead Boys, realizing this was one of the four Superhorse covers I heard. One of my all-time favorite songs to this day.

While listening to more obscure soul I found Good Loving by James Brown, another Superhorse cover and one of my favorite songs.

While listening to more Lou Reed I heard Straw Man. I recognized it from Keith singing it and although it’s one of my favorite songs I know that I would’ve never gotten into without hearing Keith’s version. I’m still not a fan of that Lou Reed album and probably would’ve never listened to it again after the first couple of times otherwise. I think a successful cover helps you learn to fully appreciate a song that you otherwise couldn’t, and Superhorse did that with this song…

Then I went out and got Exile on Main Street by The Rolling Stones. I had over the years listened to a few songs from it but it just didn’t click with me yet for some reason. But I was a huge Stones fan and regardless this was near the top of countless lists of essential albums, so I was determined to put in the time to figure it out. My CD player at the time was a small alarm clock with shitty speakers. I put in the CD.

Then Mick sings the opening verse:

“I hear you talking

When I'm on the street

Your mouth don't move

But I can hear you speak”

I’m embarrassed to say that I was 25 years old before I learned this was a Stones song and not a Superhorse song. I know it sounds like I’m obsessing over these covers but I’m talking about them because thanks to Keith and Superhorse, I fell in love with these songs and have derived a lot of joy from listening to them over and over throughout the years. In fact I’ve listened to them very recently.

When I mentioned why I love Superhorse there was one other reason: the songs they covered. A James Brown tune, a Lou Reed tune, a Dead Boys tune and a Rolling Stones tune.

Soul, Punk and more…? I was once again impressed, and long after having seen them live…

(There are very few bands that are great about covers in my opinion, and about choosing mostly obscure ones even by popular performers, which I love (that’s always huge bonus points for me). On my list of bands best at this, I’d probably choose the Dirtbombs, the second being The Detroit Cobras, (and others like Frank Black Francis in his various forms, maybe REM if you listen to the Fan Club Singles, and a few others bands I like) but Superhorse is on that list for me, even with a much smaller output than the other bands.)

Another note I’d like to add is once I was talking about Superhorse - all the way out here in Portland on the opposite end of the country of Savannah Georgia, and a bandmate of mine had seen and met Superhorse near New York. They concurred. “Oh yeah, they’re amazing…”

Something else that is funny to me is during the live recording of theirs that I have he mentions the band members and I remember especially how he said “uh Mister Kevin Rose” and “Bob HOLmen” ( Jim Reed” as well). During COVID times their FB profiles came up in my feed since we both have Keith as a mutual friend (this is two decades after seeing them live). Maybe these rock stars will be my Facebook friend I thought (no response from Holmen, and apologies to the other bandmates, the way Keith said your name was less memorable I guess, ha, and I don’t remember them…). So Jim and Kevin, if you read this far, that is why I requested to be your friend. I have no idea if you’re awesome or awful. We shall see…

Before I finish I want to say that that live Superhorse album, although maybe not sonically up to snuff for some or all remaining Superhorse members, is in my opinion the defining recording of this amazing band. It’s a noisy lofi recording but to me it captures much more than the official albums of Superhorse. There is a rawness to the band and a special something that isn’t on the albums. I think they are good but not the same.

I don’t mean to disparage the album because I do like it and listen to it but I think a sad and yet great thing about Superhorse is that you had to be there to truly experience it. The video and recordings are all great but without being there and someone just sending you a link to a recording, you won’t get it. For those that saw it and know, you know. And as a fan that makes shows exciting and magical! “We must go!” That all being said, I think my recording is the closest I’ve found to getting back to that magic of standing in a packed bar elated as hell having the time of my life.

My dying wish is an official release of this live album (which I hope I can find my copy in storage :/)…

Over the years I tried to always not just support but listen to all Keith’s music, at least of what I could find. When Keith passed I revisited some of his songs. I had heard his song Darkened Highways before, but it sounded like a cover to me and always thought it was.

But apparently it’s not?

That’s how great Keith is. Not just a great performer but a great songwriter as well. I fully believe that in the right time and place and knowing the right people, Keith could’ve been a household name…

“Let the seasons change, let the world rearrange…” - Keith Kozel

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