'I have just closed my eyes again/
Climbed aboard the Dream Weaver train .'
A worldwide smash hit in the wee hours of 1976, Gary Wright's Dream Weaver marked several breakthoughs in Top 40 radio. Not only did it talk proudly of a spiritual quest and the search for enlightenment — heady stuff in the era of the Captain and Tennille and Barry Manilow — it was the first hit record performed almost entirely on synthesizers.
The polydextrous Wright, along with David Foster on electric piano and Jim Keltner on drums, fashioned a magical mystery tour of cosmic, universe–tripping sounds and a breathtaking arrangement that delivered the song like a love letter to God, an other–wordly declaration of blind faith.
Dream Weaver struck a chord, and it stayed at #2 on the Billboard chart for three weeks, behind decidedly less profound singles by Diana Ross, the Ohio Players and Paul Simon.
Wright was back at #2 in May with Love is Alive, a harder–rocking slice of synth–key pie, with Andy Newmark in the drummer's chair.
Two huge singles, both still in regular rotation today on classic rock radio, and not a guitar in sight.
Gary Wright proudly tested the boundaries of rock 'n' roll. A founding member of the late '60s British band Spooky Tooth, he first came to attention as a skilled keyboardist and blue–eyed soul singer (on many of his early recordings, Wright sounds uncannily like the young Steve Winwood).
Wright had arrived in Europe in 1965 to complete post–graduate psychology courses at Berlin's Frei University (he was already fluent in German). In Germany, he supported himself by playing rock 'n' roll and soul music in clubs, and also began writing songs.
By '67 he was pursuing music full–time. A friendship with Island Records founder Chris Blackwell led to Wright's induction into the ranks of the band Art. Renamed Spooky Tooth, the quintet released several albums — well–received in Great Britain but woefully undervalued Stateside — and toured in support of such heavies as Jimi Hendrix and the Rolling Stones.
As a keyboard player, he was one of the only Americans on the sessions for George Harrison's landmark All Things Must Pass album, and his friendship with the ex–Beatle blossomed and continued until Harrison's death in 2001.
Wright's first solo albums straddled a fascinating line between rock 'n' roll, R&B and singer–songwriterly lyricism. He also fancied the theatrical and the grandiose, having been a child actor in his native New Jersey (he'd appeared on TV's Captain Video and His Video Rangers at age 7, and subsequently co–starred with Florence Henderson in Fanny on Broadway).
It all came together on the Dream Weaver album, Wright's first for Warner Brothers. Most significantly, he had traveled to India with Harrison in 1972, and come under the spell of Paramahansa Yogananda, who'd written the ultimate spiritual self–help book, Autobiography of a Yogi.
It was Yogananda's musings that led Wright to compose Dream Weaver, on acoustic guitar, within the space of an hour.
In the wake of his Top 40 triumphs, Wright took to the American arenas in early summer 1976 with a band that included no guitarists whatsoever — another first for rock 'n' roll. It was a stadium barnstormer, with Wright — playing a portable keyboard worn around his neck and looking like a blonde disco deity — sharing bills with Yes and Peter Frampton.
Back in the studio, Wright recorded The Light of Smiles, as strong an album as Dream Weaver. The hit–that–never–was, Time Machine, was a natural progression, with the same cosmic atmospherics and spiritual imagery that imbued Dream Weaver.
The big followup, however, was not to be, and The Light of Smiles didn't crack the Top 20. Two more albums, Touch and Gone and Headin' Home, appeared and vanished.
Perhaps the public was waiting for 'Dream Weaver II: Still Weaving'; as an artist Wright was simply not interested in repeating himself. Both Touch and Gone and Headin' Home contained some of the singer/songwriter's most brilliantly realized music — from the all–synth funk workout Touch and Gone to the uplifting Love's Awake Inside, with shimmering harmony vocals from David Crosby and Graham Nash.
Wright's final Warners outing, 1981's The Right Place, included the catchy dance track Heartbeat (check out Wright's gritty vocals and then ask Bryan Adams what he was listening to in 1981) and the spectrally beautiful Really Want to Know You, which went all the way to #16 on the singles chart in early August.
The artist spent the early to mid '80s contributing music to film soundtracks; his work was featured in the films Stayin' Alive (the sequel to Saturday Night Fever), Endangered Species and Fire and Ice. Wright played virtually all the keyboards on George Harrison's chart–topping comeback album Cloud Nine in 1987.
He returned to solo work with the album Who I Am the following year. Released on Cypress Records, the album was introspective and continued with many of the spiritual themes Wright had been exploring since his early days at Warner Brothers.
Wright wrote the power ballad Voices with lyricist John Lang, who'd penned the poignant Mr. Mister hit 'Broken Wings.' This sublime recording featured a sinewy electric guitar solo by Michael Thompsen and an otherwordly sampling of Indian background voice by noted classicist Lakshmi Shankar (Wright had been close to the Shankar family since that early '70s trip eastward with Harrison).
Essentials comes to a close with Gary Wright's '90s music. Someone Like You, a stirring ballad, features stately piano work by Bobby Lyle, while If You Believe in Heaven, a track from the 1999 release Human Love (High Wave), was co–authored by Wright, Graham Gouldman (10cc) and Adrian Lee (Mike + the Mechanics).
The latter blends Wright's textured syntheizers with a driving drumbeat and flourishes of Flamenco guitar, courtesy of the album's co–producer Bernhart Locker. Wright had begun to explore the intricacies of world music in the late '70s, and in 1994 had produced an entire album that combined Brazilian percussion with African choral voices.
Many singer/songwriters have traveled the rock 'n' roll highway over the years, few with the vision and integrity of Gary Wright, who insisted on doing things his way. As if the gossamer gem Dream Weaver wasn't enough, there are 11 other tracks on this CD that prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Wright idea was the right idea all along.