The Ravens: History

The Ravens History: 1973-75
by John Anthony

When my 4 years were up with Uncle Sam I went back to Danbury where we planned to start up The Ravens again. Jeff flew out to Denver to help. We loaded up a U-haul truck with my family's belongings and headed east.

It was the middle of February and quite cold as we crossed the plains. Somewhere near Jefferson City, MO the U-haul began to act up. It was the middle of the night and we somehow made our way to a U-haul rental place and froze --dead engine--until it opened in the morning.

By mid morning we'd transferred everything to another truck and were on our way again. After getting back, I settled in, found a job and we talked about starting up the band again.

Joe had settled in Wisconsin and Bruce was still up in Vermont. So Richie, Jeff and I along with a good lead guitar player from New Milford named Barry Roma, whom Jeff had found, began playing again as The Ravens.
Stewie Merritt joined the band in 1975 and expanded our sound with keyboards.

We played quite often at P.J.s on Park Avenue in Danbury and got along really well with Pete Volkarakus who owned the place. He was one of the easiest going club owners we would ever run into.

In 1974 we wrote and recorded four songs at Dynamic Recording Studios in New Haven:

Blood in Runnin' Thin (Richie O'Connor)
Don't let your love die away (John Anthony)
I Feel (Barry Roma)
Rock and Roll Man (John Anthony)

By the middle of 1975 Richie's prosthetic leg was giving him a lot of pain and it was difficult for him to be up and around. I was back in college, and between school, working, and the band, I needed a break as well. We disbanded and gave it a rest.

Go To: 1969 1977-78