Rick Springfield reflects on early years with Zoot as band reunites for first tour of Australia in 50 years
As Zoot announced they were reuniting for their first Australian shows in almost five decades, the LA-based Rick Springfield cast his mind back to the band’s early years.
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When Rick Springfield joined rock quartet Zoot in 1969, they were the top of the teen pop parade.
The guitarist and vocalist had cut his chops in bands as a teenager and before being tapped for Zoot, was in Wickedy Wak who released the single Billie’s Bikie Boys produced by then Go Set journalist Molly Meldrum and written by Johnny Young and Russell Morris.
From shredding on a slice of early Australian psychedelia, Springfield found himself alongside rising pop stars Darryl Cotton, Beeb Birtles and Rick Brewer wearing pink from head to toe.
And while the girls went wild, the “street toughs” as news reports of the day referred to gangs of men looking for a fight, would storm Zoot’s gigs shouting homophobic slurs and throwing punches.
As Zoot announced they were reuniting later this year for their first Australian shows in almost five decades, the LA-based Springfield cast his mind back to the band’s early years.
“Yeah, it was a tough time for guys to be wearing pink in Australia, we were a pretty easy target,” he said, laughing at the recollection.
“We got into fights backstage because there was no real security back then. These guys would come into the dressing room and start swinging. It was just the way of things, I guess; we defended ourselves fairly well.
“I think if you go to the heart of any country you will find some scary, ingrained stuff.”
“Think Pink – Think Zoot” was a marketing strategy concocted by their managers in 1968 to launch their debut single You’d Better Get Goin’ Now.
The band members would dress in pink, travel in frontman Cotton’s spray-painted pink car – even his dog’s fur was given a pink rinse – and meet the media at the pink-themed Bertie’s Discotheque.
Zoot’s second single 1 × 2 × 3 × 4 got them on radio and the music television shows of the era and landed on the Go Set top 40.
The Think Pink theme continued for their third single Monty and Me, also produced by Meldrum and their popularity saw fans vote them Top Australian Group in the Go Set pop poll.
But Springfield and his bandmates, like all rock bands, craved credibility rather than the affections of teen girls whose fickle fandom would soon move onto the next big thing.
“Oh yeah, as soon as I joined them I said the pink thing’s gotta go; Darryl and Beeb were already sick of it and knew it didn’t have a good future, so they were all on board. They wanted to ditch it but didn’t quite know how to do it,” he said.
While the band had started out playing a lot of covers or recording songs written by established hitmakers, Springfield took on the challenge to compose songs for the band.
His first offering was the cheeky, rockin’ Hey Pinky which mocked their image, the managers who had fashioned it and their detractors.
And he had an equally cheeky plan for its launch campaign to mark the end of their “Think Pink” era.
“I then came up with the Hey Pinky song and had the unfortunate idea of us being naked and looking over our shoulders. My idea was this is our original pink suit,” he said, laughing.
“I told them I wanted it printed in high contrast, a burnt black and white look, but the bastards printed it normal, full-on.
“My mum was pretty shocked. ‘Oh Richard!’ Yeah I did warn her, I said mum ‘You’re not going to like this’.”
When they shed their pink satin skins, Zoot also pivoted to hard rock, amping up their guitars on a heavy version of The Beatles’ Eleanor Rigby which was released in late 1970.
It finally peaked at No. 4 on the charts in March 1971.
Rumour has it John Lennon preferred the Zoot version.
“A lot of Americans here have seen it on YouTube and reckon it sounds like Black Sabbath,” Springfield said.
“I hadn’t heard Black Sabbath when I started the arrangement. Led Zeppelin was on the horizon and music was getting heavier and we all wanted to be a part of it.
“But it was extra hard for us, coming out of the whole pink thing and trying to say we’re not that anymore. Listening to it now, it’s very authentic and I think has got kinder attention over the years once the weirdness of the pink thing kind of faded.
“I have a friend, a press guy who knew John Lennon on and off, and he told me that Lennon had heard that version and said to him he liked it better than the Beatles version. I have no physical proof of that but it is what I was told.”
Its success brought the interest of American labels but visa issues and ongoing frustrations with the perception of the band provoked their split in May 1971.
With America calling, Springfield relocated to the US to pursue a solo career, enjoying success with the debut single Speak to the Sky landing in the top 20 of the Billboard charts in 1972.
Of course his big breakthrough came with the 1981 smash Jessie’s Girl, which remains his signature song and his fame grew when he landed the role of Dr Noah Drake on the long-running soap General Hospital the same year.
Zoot would prove to be a supergroup in reverse. Birtles would go on to form the Little River Band and drummer Brewer joined The Ferrets.
Cotton also went to America, writing and singing with a plethora of artists including Olivia Newton-John, the Osmonds and Cliff Richard.
When he returned to Australia, he became a popular television personality and hit the top 10 in 1980 with Same Old Girl.
He linked with good mates, Masters and Apprentices’ Jim Keays and Russell Morris to form the super trio Cotton, Keays & Morris in 2000.
It was his idea to get Zoot back together in 2011 to perform one gig on Springfield’s annual fan cruise around the Bahamas.
He was planning a reunion tour of Australia when he was diagnosed with liver cancer and passed away in 2012.
Zoot have enlisted his good friend Morris to take on lead vocals when the band tour in November.
The 70-year-old Springfield is grateful for the goodwill which has greeted the announcement of their return to Australia, both from fans and critics who now appreciate their cultural contribution.
“I think we were very underrated and slagged by a lot of people because we came out of the teen thing,” he said.
“We were all very competent musicians, writers and pretty damn good singers so it’s always good for that to be acknowledged, no matter how late and before we’re all dead.”
Zoot will kick off the tour on November 12 at the Fortitude, Brisbane, then head to Thebarton Theatre, Adelaide, on November 13, Enmore Theatre, Sydney on November 20 and Palais Theatre, Melbourne on November 21
Tickets now on sale.