Automatic Man

1. "Right Back Down" – 5:55 (Bayeté/CasaBianca)
2. "There's a Way" - 5:14 (Automatic Man/CasaBianca)
3. "I.T.D. (Interstellar Tracking Devices)" – 5:14 (Bayeté/CasaBianca)
4. "Automatic Man" – 3:55 (Bayeté/CasaBianca)
5. "Atlantis Rising Theme (Turning of the Axis)" – 3:16

• Pat Thrall - Guitar, vocals; lead vocals on "Geni-Geni", "There's a Way" and "Automatic Man."
• Todd Cochran - Keyboards, vocals; lead vocals on "Comin' Through", "My Pearl", "One and One", "Newspapers", "Right Back Down", "There's a Way", "I.T.D. Interstellar Tracking Devices."
• Doni Harvey - Bass guitar, vocals; lead vocals on "There's a Way" and "Automatic Man."
• Michael Shrieve - Drums

Produced by Automatic Man and Lou CasaBianca
Mixed by Keith Harwood and Chris Kimsey

Painted by Bay Area artist Dwain Zerio (1950–1995), both front covers of each Automatic Man album feature a simple luminously painted blue alienlike face staring out from space. The alienlike face was meant to be representative of a human without a body, with the spiritual energy providing the visual shape. The debut album is blue on blue, while the follow-up features the blue face on a shocking pink and magenta background. The inside liner art of the first album includes the blue face with Egyptian wings, floating above a pyramid, and Atlantis rising out of a raging ocean with a maelstrom in the background. The artwork for the "My Pearl" single featured a woman's face suspended over a misty crevasse crowned with wings and a self-consuming serpentine rainbow.

The art work for both Automatic Man LP covers was entirely original, and an early example of an alien face being depicted in a mass market medium.

After their album debut, Automatic Man promoted the disc with appearances at a number of European music festivals, including the prestigious Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland. According to a later interview with Thrall, the band had trouble pulling off their material live. Part of the problem was that the technology of the era was too difficult to use for a live audeince.^[6] Shrieve also recalled that the band had not had enough chances to play live.

The band was also feted by fellow artists and luminaries of the day including the Rolling Stones and Hunter S. Thompson, who wrote a concert review. Though they would make a few more live appearances in the Bay Area, infighting, clashes over music, and disagreements over how the band’s finances led to Automatic Man's first line-up dissolving after returning to the United States in 1976.

The second Automatic Man album was entitled Visitors and released in 1977 with a more accessible sound than their debut.^[1] Bayeté solely wrote each track. Guitarist Pat Thrall was still a member, but Shrieve and Harvey were now replaced by bassist Jerome Rimson (also from the "Go" project) and drummer Glenn Symmonds. Originally from Detroit, Rimson played bass on the track "Man from Manhattan" by Eddie Howell with Freddie Mercury on piano and vocals, and Brian May on Guitar. From 1974 he had been musical director for Van Morrison, playing on several tours and in 1976, he played on the Al Jarreau's Grammy winning jazz album Glow. Glenn Symmonds had been Eddie Money's drummer since 1974, departing to record and tour with ex-Santana percussionist Coke Escovedo.

• Pat Thrall - Guitar, vocals
• Todd Cochrane - Keyboards, vocals
• Glenn Symmonds - Drums
• Jerome Rimson - Bass

Produced by Michael Lloyd
Lionel Conway - executive producer
Bruce Robb - engineer
Lou CasaBianca/Glyphics - art direction & album design

All songs written and composed by Todd Cochran as "Bayeté".

Side one

1. "Give it to me" - 3:49
2. "Live Wire" - 4:45
3. "So You Wanna Be Me" – 4:00
4. "Y-2-Me" – 4:18

Side two

2. "Visitors" – 3:50
3. "Here I Am Now" – 5:14
4. "There's a Way" -4:26
5. "Daughter of Neptune" – 4:13
6. "What's Done" – 6:22

Fans of the band did not receive the second album as warmly. Music reviewer Doug Watson's description is that Visitors is "just a mediocre shot at mesh funk-rock, although arguably ahead of its time in predicting the ghastly and overblown rock guitar productions of the 80s." However, the record collector's website Progrography declared:

... Visitors isn't a concept album. It's also not the commercial sellout that some have mistakenly branded it. Like the music of Santana, Automatic Man was on a quasi-mystical quest that relied on the conventional language of funk/rock but also rode beyond those borders in pursuit of a grander statement. It's probably on that last point that prog fans have hung their hat, but Visitors is not a progressive rock album. Bayeté's bid to be a rock star ended with the Automatic Man albums, leaving behind two impressive albums that bespeak the transitional phase between jazz, disco and ambitious (if not progressive) rock as well as any records from the period.^[7]

Partially due to no longer having the name recognition of Shrieve, the album failed to make waves in the music press and Automatic Man permanently disbanded in 1977.

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All four members of the original Automatic Man line up became prolific and well respected solo and session musicians, with Shrieve and Cochran emerging as sought after composers and arrangers. Lou CasaBianca, the band's manager and co-producer for the first disc, moved into video production and media technology writing. Glenn Symmonds and Jerome Rimson, drummer and bassist on Visitors respectively, continued on in the music industry to steady work and success as well, with Rimson writing an autobiography. There has been no talk of a possible Automatic Man reunion.

After leaving Automatic Man, Shrieve continued to be one of the most sought after drummers in the music world. His credits number well into the hundreds and include work on Pete Townshend's 1981 disc, All the Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes and for artists Mick Jagger, The Rolling Stones, George Harrison, Steve Winwood, Police guitarist Andy Summers, film composer Mark Isham, Freddie Hubbard, Jaco Pastorius, Wayne Horvitz, Bill Frisell, Zakir Hussain, Airto Moreira and Amon Tobin. Michael Shrieve also composes music for film and television, working with Paul Mazursky on the film, Tempest and scored music for Curtis Hanson's The Bedroom Window. In the early 1980s, his power pop quartet, Novo Combo, scored minor hits with the songs "Up Periscope" and "City Bound." A few years later in 1983, Shrieve got involved with the power group HSAS, featuring Sammy Hagar, Neal Schon of Journey fame and former bass player from Derringer Kenny Aaronson. The group recorded the album "Through the Fire" and the single "A Whiter Shade of Pale", originally written and performed by Procol Harum, peaked at #94 in 1984.

Shrieve is also the past President of the Pacific Northwest Branch of the National Association of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS), and has been working on writing the memoirs of jazz drumming legend Elvin Jones.^{[needs update]} He serves as musical director for Seattle Theatre Group's "More Music at The Moore," a program that highlights gifted young musicians from Seattle's various cultural groups. In 1998, Shrieve was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with Santana. He also received the Guitar Center's first annual "Lifetime Achievement Award" in 2005.

Todd Cochran's career continued to see many radical musical shifts in direction as he wrote, produced, performed keyboards, guitar and/or synthesizer programming for a widely diverse number of artists, including Aretha Franklin, Eminem, Maynard Ferguson, Juan Carlos Quintero, Stewart Copeland, Peter Gabriel and Grover Washington Jr in genres that included funk, new age, jazz, disco and combinations thereof. He was a member of Fuse One, a coalition of jazz musicians who released two albums on CTI Records in 1980 and 1981.^[8] Since 2000, Cochran has been primarily establishing himself as a film composer, as well as re-engaging with classical composition which he had explored at the start of his musical career. His first full soundtrack was for Doug McHenry's TV movie Keep the Faith, Baby from 2002, a portrait of the black senator Adam Clayton Powell. In 2004 he composed the music for the critically acclaimed Woman Thou Art Loosed, an adaptation of Bishop T.D. Jakes' self-help novel. It won the Best Film Award at the American Black Film Festival. In 2006, Robert L. Watt, Assistant Principal French horn with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, commissioned Todd Cochran to write a musical composition in memory of Miles Davis. This resulted in a piece called "Missing Miles" – a suite that uses horns and a piano. Film director Kim Bass made a thirteen-minute film, also called "Missing Miles", which chronicled the creation of the composition and a performance of the work. In the Feb 2007 issue of Film Music Magazine called "Ebony and Ivory: The Door Only Swings One Way", focused on how black composers often only get offered "black" films. In the article, Todd referenced the limitations placed on black composers by the entertainment world:

Two people can go through the same training – the same schools – and reach the same level of ability, and as soon as they step out of the schools, (and come to Hollywood) one is a black composer, and the other is just a composer ... unfortunately the need for African American film composers to deconstruct the existing stereotypes of musical aesthetic limitations persists.

Thrall went on to work in the fusion field with musicians including Narada Michael Walden and Alphonso Johnson. In 1978, Thrall was chosen from seventy auditioning guitarists for the co-lead spot with Pat Travers. He recorded on three LPs with Travers: Heat in the Street, Go For What You Know, and Crash and Burn. The latter LP featured the FM hit, "Snortin' Whiskey", which Thrall co-wrote with Travers.^[9] He won "Best New Guitar Player" in the 1980 Guitar Player Magazine readers poll. In 1987, he recorded and toured with Bruce Springsteen guitarist and producer Little Steven Van Zandt. Thrall toured with Jack Bruce of "Cream" fame in 1988.Thrall later joined Asia, and played lead guitar for a resurgent Meat Loaf during the 1990s. He has also recorded with Beyoncé, Elton John, Tina Turner and Dave Stewart, to name a few. Thrall has also lent his talent and support behind causes such as Nelson Mandela's foundation to fight AIDS in Africa.

Thrall was nominated for a Grammy on Beyoncé's "Crazy in Love". He was also nominated for two Grammys on Frank Ocean's album Channel Orange.

Thrall's most acclaimed work, post-Travers, is undoubtedly the Hughes/Thrall album from 1982, featuring Glenn Hughes on vocals and bass. A fusion of rock/synth/metal/pop, it is now considered a "musician's favorite", going virtually unnoticed by the public at the time.^{[citation needed]} Hughes and Thrall worked together on and off for the next 15 years, and planned on releasing 'Hughes/Thrall 2' in 2004, but Thrall's full-time work as a producer for other artists, and Hughes touring and recording schedule proved to be to much for them to complete the album.

Harvey went on to do session and live gigs in many different arenas both in Northern California and internationally, including playing on the film soundtrack of The Spy Who Loved Me and in his own power trio, HARVEY. His credits include backing Clarence Clemons and replacing Allan Holdsworth as the guitarist in Gong for a spell. In 1988, he joined the San Francisco-based World Music band, The Caribbean Allstars, as guitarist and backing vocalist. Harvey played with the Caribbean Allstars for over two decades. He was also the frontman of Doni Harvey and Deeper Shade of Blue and, together with fellow musicians Isis and Andy Jonson, formed The Unemployed Blues Band. Additionally, he became a permanent member of his brother's band Regi Harvey's Example, the latter of whom died on April, 25th, 2010. Doni himself died on June 6, 2011.^[10]

Rimson continued working steadily with Van Morrison until 1984 and still works with him intermittently. He played bass on The Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band soundtrack for the notorious Bee Gees movie. He also collaborated extensively with Thin Lizzy's Phil Lynott and together they produced the first independent single ever released by a Dublin based band called Blue Russia. It was released on Vixen Records in Ireland in 1983. Rimson has played or sung on albums for Steve Winwood, Donovan, Topper Headon formerly of The Clash, Ron Roesing the drummer of the Smashing Pumpkins and many others. He now lives in Cork, Ireland, teaching master classes on music production and theory. He has finished his autobiography, Renegade, which he describes as his life experiences in "the biz" and the countless people he has met on his journey, including "...  Phil Lynott's last years, from rock n roll on the road to his life now in Ireland."

From his base in L.A., Symmonds continued to tour and record with many diverse musical groups including Steve Perry, John Klemmer, Elvin Bishop, Dave Mason, Duncan Sheik and Etta James. It was in 1986 while touring with The Untouchables he once again joined forces with Eddie Money and has been drumming for him for over two decades. Now, based out of Nashville, Glenn Symmonds describe himself as a "...  Drummer, guitarist, singer, songwriter, teacher, father".

In 2004, Cherry Red released a remastered version of Automatic Man to receptive music collectors under their UK-based Lemon subsidiary. There has been controversy on the internet as to whether the original master tapes were used or not used by Lemon UK in the remastering process. Tom Karr of Progressive World gave the disc a five star rating in his review, writing:

People have a strong desire, an urge, to categorize things, to put them in boxes. To place this with that and make order out of disorder. Music is one of those things we have to make sense of, to understand. How can some obscure band be so important? They are very, very good at what they do. This isn't a progressive rock band is it? Yes, they are, absolutely. If a visionary assemblage of influences and the power of moving music forward, are progressive, and for the purposes of this review, I will say it is, then this is fine progressive rock, indeed. And no, in the sense of Automatic Man fitting into a preconceived subgenre of progressive rock as understood now is concerned, then no, they are not a prog band, but they are much, much more than any label given them could describe. This San Francisco band had strong elements of spacey synthesizer driven progressive. Definitely. They could just as well be described as a hard rocking funk band as well. Both are true. Neither is accurate. No group I can think of so defies categorization as does Automatic Man.^[3]

Due to the overwhelming success of Automatic Man's re-release on CD, Lemon also re-released Visitors in 2005.^{[citation needed]}

• Automatic Man (1976, Island Records US Chart Position No. 75)
• Visitors (1977, Island Records, US Chart Position No. 109)

• "My Pearl" (1977, No. 97)

• Automatic Man at AllMusic
• Automatic Man My Space page created by Doni Harvey's brother Regi Harvey
• "The Lives of Todd Cochran", an 11 chapter biography on Bayeté aka Todd Cochran with a section on Automatic Man
• Interview with Michael Shrieve discussing Automatic Man
• Automatic Man discography at Discogs