Pacific Gas & Electric’s High-Voltage ‘Are You Ready?’ Brought Gospel to Rock

'200 Greatest 70s Rock Songs' Book Excerpt

Frank Mastropolo

Columbia

Pacific Gas & Electric formed in Los Angeles in 1967 and was named after the West Coast power company, which forced the band to change its name to PG&E in 1971. The New York Times at the time called them “among the best and most underexposed talent in the country.”

PG&E’s acclaimed performance at the 1968 Miami Pop Festival earned them a contract with Columbia Records. The liner notes of their second self-titled album read, “The desire to play music together has brought each member of our group as close as brothers. We think of Pacific Gas & Electric not as just a music group, but as a brotherhood.

“We’ve found that if there is a bad karma going down between any members of the group, the music does not fall together. We have to live with one another to play music with one another. PG&E is not a band, but an experiment in brotherhood. Out of musical necessity, we had to learn tolerance and patience with one another off the stage, before we could boogie on stage.

“Five more different and divergent personalities could not be conceived of — a Jew, a Christian, a Black, a Greaser, and a WASP. What we have learned about one another in the year and a half we’ve been together as PG&E is: No matter how different we are in philosophies and lifestyles, the common denominator is the music.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6znXTbfJKI

Guitarist Glenn Schwartz, a born-again Christian, was highly regarded by stars like Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, and Jeff Beck. Jimi Hendrix invited Schwartz to play at his birthday party. But after PG&E’s “Are You Ready?” reached №14 on the Billboard chart, cracks began to form in the group.

“Changes in the band started to occur with the recording of ’Are You Ready?’” wrote bassist Brent Block. “We were playing at a club called the Golden Bear in Huntington Beach, CA when Glenn announced that he could no longer live the sinful life of a rock musician and left the band.”

Schwartz was replaced by guitarist Kenny Utterback. Despite more lineup changes, PG&E remained successful. “We played this huge gig called the Soul Bowl in 1970 with James Brown, Ike & Tina Turner, Isaac Hayes, Junior Walker,” Utterback told Classic Rock.

“I think the only white act was Rare Earth. We got mobbed for autographs, and I mean mobbed — thousands of screaming schoolgirls, and we had to escape in a limo. It was a crazy Beatles sort of moment.”

But PG&E was plagued by drugs and alcohol and the band released its final album in 1973. Most of the original members had quit the band or had been fired by then. “Are You Ready?” was their only hit.

Frank Mastropolo is the author of 200 Greatest 70s Rock Songs, part of the Greatest Performances series. For more on our latest projects, visit Edgar Street Books.