1971: Jo Jo Gunne – Music AmneZia1971: Jo Jo Gunne

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Jo Jo Gunne is a rock band, formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1971 by Jay Ferguson (keyboards, vocals and guitar) and Mark Andes (bass guitar and vocals) after they had left Spirit. The group’s name is derived from “Joe Joe Gun”, a Chuck Berry song that peaked at #83 as a single in November 1958.

With the addition of Andes’ brother, Matt Andes (born Feb 6, 1949, California) (guitar, vocals) and William “Curly” Smith (born 31 January 1952, Wolf Point, Montana) (drums, vocals and harp), they were signed to Asylum Records.

Cover of Jumpin’ the Gunne

Jo Jo Gunne had a Top 10 hit in the UK Singles Chart with the song, “Run Run Run”, taken from their first album, Jo Jo Gunne (1972), which peaked at 27 in U.S. charts, and received airplay on U.S. album-oriented rock FM radio stations. The group did not maintain the commercial momentum of their first release. With Jumpin’ the Gunne‘s tasteless album cover being blamed for drastically falling sales, they broke up in 1975. However they made several notable tracks, especially “Take It Easy”, “Broken Down Man”, “Neon City” and “Falling Angel”.

Personnel changes

Following the first album, Mark Andes left the band and was replaced by Jimmie Randall. Randall introduced a brighter bass sound and helped increase the band’s overall volume.

Matt Andes left after Jumpin’ the Gunne, and he was briefly replaced by Star Donaldson. A more permanent replacement was found in John Staehely (born 25 January 1952, Austin, Texas), who had played on Feedback, the Spirit album that followed Ferguson and Ande’s departure. Staehely’s overdriven guitar was a complete change from Matt Andes’s Ry Cooder style slide guitar.

After the band broke up, Ferguson recorded several solo albums, including the hit singles “Thunder Island” and “Shakedown Cruise”, and scored TV shows and mostly non-notable movies. Andes joined Firefall and, later, Heart. Smith went on to have a successful career as a session drummer, and also played with Spirit in the 1980s and Boston from 1994 to 2000.
Reunion

The original line-up reformed in 2005, and began recording again, with the help of devoted friend Steve Lukather. Although the group ultimately failed to return to the stage, their bootlegged recordings from this period are cherished by fans for the wicked slide of guitarist Matt Andes, and the off-beat writing of the group, contributed mainly by Jay Ferguson.