Devils & Blue Dresses: My Wild Ride as a Rock and Roll Legend

unveiling of the musical intensity and interpretations that permeated the entire album, infected all the players, and challenged them to rise ever higher in their individual contributions. Wayne had a reputation to protect, having been a player and studio musician for John Lennon, and he didn’t want to see it shattered by Mitch Ryder.
    Lyrically, I was able to tell my abbreviated story with unusual clarity and my vocals accomplished everything I had reached for. A few of the tunes were written on the spot, but most of them were from the “vacation” in Colorado. Some of the impromptu lyrical performances continue to fascinate me even to this day.
    As far as the writing credits were concerned I listed on most of the copyrights Kimberly’s name as well as mine, because I reasoned that even though I might be stupid enough to get ripped off again, she would never allow that to happen to her, even though she hadn’t written a word or a note. That is how deep the New York musical machine had worked its way up my ass.
    Reviews of the album were more positive than I ever imagined possible because, even though the album was an extraordinary effort, it was not written or produced with a commercial market in mind. I suddenly found myself doing interviews with
Rolling Stone
magazine and even the
New York Times
, where the writer constantly referred to me as “Mister” Ryder.
    I got an invitation to sit with Seymour Stein, who had now become a major player in the music industry. I sent a representative, Peter Derby, who is very important with the S.E.C. By the way, Peter married a genuine Russian princess and now has a wonderful family. He began his music industry work with me as a road manager, and we used to marvel at how he managed to herd our wild collection of personalities through some of the dirtiest gigs and cheapest motels, and still manage to bring along his smoking jacket with the velvet and silk lapels.
    Nothing came of the meeting with Seymour, because I refused to meet directly with him. And nothing came from the album, other than fine reviews. It’s an old story. If you can’t get it to the marketplace, you can’t sell it. There was still some of the old bitterness and hate from the list of my still-active enemies. But, I took the unexpected attention to be an acknowledgement of me as a true artist and came to another important decision. Up until the album had been released we were working and performingexclusively in Canada. We were in Vancouver and Tom tried to talk me into jumping across the border for one brief performance in San Francisco and then returning to the Canadian tour.
    San Francisco represented many things to me. In the sixties it was one of the first cities in the United States to go top ten with my first hit. It was also the place that I came to another realization a few years later. My music at that time was about to run its course in terms of popular taste and was falling out of fashion. In much the same way I realized that truth back in New York City when I headlined the show over Cream and The Who. So for me, this date in San Francisco was a test of my new music and a chance to see if I was able to come back as a legitimate artist, as opposed to a rock ‘n’ roll star from the sixties. In addition, San Francisco loved art for art’s sake.
    I can’t recall another time where my anxiety held so much fear and love at the same time. We walked into The Old Waldorf and performed a set that included my early hits, but was easily dominated by my new material. I now view the concession of including the old hits as a major mistake, but the reviews were tremendous and the audience was gracious and thankful. Tom had brought me back to my native country. The next gig we did in America was strange, as I watched from the stage while an audience member doused my jacket that I had set on the edge of the stage with lighter fluid and then set it ablaze as we played.
    The Vacation album and its subsequent reviews afforded me the confidence to begin a stronger working relationship with the band, and I began putting together the second Mitch Ryder album for Seeds and Stems Records. This album was called
Naked But Not Dead
. The cover was the second of my oil paintings to find a way onto my albums, the first being the Vacation album. This painting had actually been exhibited in an art gallery in Detroit, and featured in the Detroit newspapers. The photograph on the back of the album cover now included