1960s Minneapolis Prog Rock Band: Jokers Wild

Not to be confused with the British rock band of the same name that featured guitarist David Gilmour!

Jokers Wild is a personal local favorite of mine, especially with Lonnie Knight as a writer and lead vocalist. I originally discovered the band last winter by picking up Lonnie Knight’s 1974 album Family in the Wind at a record store in St. Louis Park while looking through some cheap ‘70s folk LPs. The Minneapolis address on the bottom back of the record sleeve for Symposium Records at 315 East Franklin, which is about a block away from Electric Fetus and from which another album I own by Leo Kottke (Circle 'Round the Sun (1970)) was also manufactured and distributed, piqued my interest.

Family in the Wind

The band consisted of an excellent lineup of Twin Cities musicians, featuring members from other well known local groups such as The Litter and Crow and originally formed by the bassist and guitarist of The He-Too’s/The Aardvarks. Starting originally as a five piece group in the fall of ‘65 (just a year after the Jokers Wild in Britain formed) it eventually became a trio in ‘68 ‘til ‘69, later becoming Flash Tuesday in 1970 and then had a few short revivals in ‘71.

The original lineup via Minniepaulmusic.com

In late ‘66/early ‘67 two original members of the band, lead vocalist Dave Wagner and keyboardist Dave Middlemist, departed to join South 40 (which later became Crow) and shortly after Lonnie Knight joined as lead vocalist. Greg Springer also joined after a year as a keyboardist with Illusions. A few months later, they released a 45 through Metrobeat with the songs “All I See Is You” (written by Lonnie Knight (this song also appears on two compilation albums: The Best of Metrobeat (1990) and Garage Beat ‘66 (2007)) and “I Just Can’t Explain It” (written by Bill Jordan, the lead guitarist). Throughout ‘68 there were more changes to the lineup as it vacillated between being a four piece and three piece group before solidifying as a trio in the fall and gaining wider popularity.

There were multiple attempts at getting a record deal and producing an album, but many of these attempts ended up falling through. In May of ‘69 the band opened for Creedence Clearwater Revival at a show in Minneapolis and were later invited to join CCR’s Southern US Tour, but that unfortunately ended up coinciding with Tom Fogerty’s departure from the band and the tour was canceled–another opportunity hitting a dead end.

After Jokers Wild, Lonnie Knight went on to pursue a solo career, releasing his first album Family in the Wind in 1974 and playing as a studio musician at Sound 80 Recording Studio throughout the '70s.

Lonnie Knight sometime in the early/mid '70s, promotional photo by David Anthony for Symposium Records

The band name “Jokers Wild” was apparently suggested by Doni Larson of the Underbeats (a connection to the previous post). It’s reasonable that Larson wouldn’t’ve been familiar with the other band across the pond. According to Minniepaulmusic.com, the name came up as an idea during a card game, relating it to a wild card, a joker card.

While Minneapolis had quite the music scene in the 1960s, Jokers Wild sticks out from the other garage, rock, and psychedelic groups of the time with their progressive sound and spread of original songs. They apparently had quite the stage show too, with a lot of equipment and accompanying psychedelic lights. Photographs of them from the late '60s also pop up now and then in relation to ‘60s psychedelic mens’ fashions. I was particularly drawn to the photographs taken in the summer of ‘68 with Lonnie Knight, Pete Huber, and Denny Johnson wearing brightly colored nehru shirts and flared pants, of course.

Late '60s psychedelic fashions via psychedelicbabymag.com

Like many great bands of this era, their music isn’t the easiest to find all in one place or convenient for listening, although Liquid Giraffe is available on CD and vinyl after a release in 2013 if you can get your hands on it. Here’s a selection of Jokers Wild tunes in one place for ease of listening:

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