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Coyote
Never Want To Leave You / Just Want Your Love - 7"
Capitol - 1976
Mike Milner
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Reaching that elusive brass ring of commercial success can be one of the most frustrating aspects of the music business for many talented artists. While it may seem to casual observers that having a recording deal with a label meant that a group had finally made it, the truth is that it was merely the first step. Radio had to be convinced to put the song into rotation (so that the listeners could hear it), artists and repertoire, or A&R, representatives had to promote the record and ensure that it was in stores (so the public could buy it), and crucially the label itself had to decide to release the record in the first place (before any of the aforementioned actions could take place).
So you would think that if a band had a record deal, and they actually went into a studio and laid down enough tracks for an album, then the label would release the music and offer it to the public for purchase. However, the truth is that in many cases, for reasons known only to the label, recordings never see the light of day. Coyote, a mid-seventies Canadian group, had this unfortunate experience.
Coyote was comprised of a number of veterans of the Eastern Ontario music scene. In the summer of 1974, Gary Comeau was in Kingston and had decided to renew acquaintances with two old friends, Richard Patterson and Colleen Peterson. Colleen P. arranged for Comeau to meet a friend of hers named Paul Lockyer and the two started work putting together a new group that would soon take the name Coyote.
Coyote - Comeau (guitar and steel guitar) along with Al Manning (guitar and vocals), Paul Lockyer (keyboards and vocals), Charles Bergeron (bass) and Glen LeCompte (drums) - quickly developed a following on the club circuit in Southern Ontario. "Four of the guys were singers, so we had good vocals," Comeau told CM. "Al and I did a lot of two-guitar harmony tracks when I wasn't playing pedal steel...it was a very musical band."
In late 1975, Capitol signed the group to a recording contract. The label brought in a couple of Angelinos, producer Spencer Proffer and engineer Larry Green, and tracks for a proposed album were taped in Toronto at Thunder Sound and at Le Studio in Quebec. By all accounts the sessions went well. "We had a lot of fun in the studios," Comeau remembers. "It was really pretty easy."
Capitol released two tracks from those sessions, 'Never Want to Leave You' and 'Just Want Your Love' as a single in 1976 (which Comeau tells us came from the first at Thunder Sound and actually had John Capek as producer). 'Never Want to Leave You' did receive some airplay, but it's unclear what chart position it reached. Plenty of copies seem to have been pressed, as used versions (including promotional ones) are readily available for sale online.
Although Coyote had recorded enough songs for an entire album, Capitol never did release one. "At the time the boss of Capitol L.A. was Rupert Perry," explained Comeau. "I found out years later that Rupert put us on the back shelf and really didn't care about us. Capitol Canada thought we would be big in the record world, but thanks to Perry we never got promoted. Capitol Canada was very upset to say the least. We released one single and that was it. One of the reasons Perry put us on the back burner was because we played country, rock and progressive pop. Back then they liked to slot bands in categories and they couldn't classify us."
Coyote continued to perform all across Ontario to support the single. The quintet were known as an exciting live act with four lead singers and solid instrumentation, but without support from their label (in the form of an album release) they found themselves treading water and decided to go their separate ways. Comeau has access to the recordings from those sessions and has generously made them available online.
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