Folks here on the East Coast were saddened to hear of the passing last week of Mark Smith, lead singer of Bethlehem P.A's best garage band The Creatures of the Golden Dawn. Mark was very much a character of rock n' roll mythology here on the East Coast from his antics both onstage and off. Regardless of any issues some folks may have had with him at times when he was dealing with his demons (myself included) one cannot deny that he was a one man crusade for garage music, soldiering on through numerous line up changes for the past 27 years with the band he founded and fronted "The Creatures" (as they were known to us locals). To me Mark will always be remembered for the distinct vocal style he had that at times involved throwing an extended "a" syllable on the end of words whilst singing, for instance "we" became "we-ah". This is no better exemplified by their brilliant "Clown With A Broken Crown" that was cut for their 45/EP with the Dionysus label in 1991. Below is a live clip of the track (ignore the title on the video the person posting it screwed it up).
To all of Mark's family, friends, fans and band mates post past and present we here at Anorak Thing offer our sincerest condolences. R.I.P.
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Michael Vallone, the late Mike Smitreski, Mark Smith and unknown mod
Bethlehem, PA May 1994 photo courtesy of EastCoastModSceneArchive. |
8 comments:
Geez, that's quite a shock. Does anyone know how he died? Helluva nice guy....
No details as of yet. We only just learned on Friday morning.
Sad to hear of Mark's passing... May he rest in peace.
Mark was a true original and the
lehigh valley and in fact the whole world is just a little bit less interesting now that he's gone ...R.I.P Smitty i'll sure miss ya!
This is Mike Chaffier, Creatures drummer from the late 80's. Mark's passing came as a huge shock to me when I learned about it early Friday morning. He has left a void here in the Lehigh Valley that I don't think will ever be filled. He single handedly kept 60's garage music alive here since the mid 80's. I video taped many of their shows after I left the band and they can be seen on my YouTube channel named mikechaffier.
The Creatures were the last band playing from the hey day of Bethlehems music scene. No more Crack Babies, no more Original Sins, no more Psyclone Rangers, and I'm gonna guess, no more Creatures.
Mark just was. No real way to explain him. He will be missed round these parts.
Flowers growing on a hill,
dragonflies and daffodils
Learn from us very much, look
at us but do not touch
Phaedra is my name.
Mark - the angels are saying oh hell, look who's back! Ready to rumble.
Love on ya, Monica
I was a student in Moravian College during 1997. Some people in the funhouse might remember me as "Thanos", friend of Blythe Evans and Yanni Kakoulas. Mark Smith was a great musician and character. He will be missed but his spirit will live forever through his music!
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