Mike Reid’s Bengal Ballad

I remember as a young Cincinnati Bengals fan what a brain-tickling proposition it was to have an NCAA All-American and All-Pro NFL defensive lineman who, when out of uniform, would play the piano with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and how this activity amusingly defied expectations of manly behavior in a manly era (this was around the same time that Rosie Grier revealed himself to be a needlepoint enthusiast).  My brother, Dean, recalls attending this special musical event as a grade schooler at the renowned Music Hall in Cincinnati’s historic Over-the-Rhine, as reported in Billboard‘s January 21, 1972 edition:

Billboard news item

‘Music Capitals of the World:  Cincinnati‘

Mike Reid, linebacker with the Cincinnati Bengals football team, will play his own compositions, “Cries of Love and Hate” and “Swan’s Reverie for Piano Solo and Orchestra,” with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra at Music Hall Feb. 6 in a benefit performance by the Catholic Women of Cincinnati.

How fascinating to find out later that number 74, Mike Reid, would leave football to become a top songwriter in Nashville, penning “Stranger in My House” for Ronnie Milsap and co-writing “I Can’t Make You Love Me” for Bonnie Raitt, among many other hits.  [Mickey Foellger was an eyewitness to history when Reid switched careers from football to music – link to related Zero to 180 piece.]

As noted by Joe Richard, who posted “A Time for Peace” on YouTube —

Recorded in 1971, Mike Reid was still playing football for the Cincinnati Bengals.  The song was produced by long-time Cincinnati recording facility owner and music producer Shad O’Shea:

“A Time for Peace“

Mike Reid (1971)

Randy McNutt, author of The Cincinnati Sound and King Records of Cincinnati, confirms that the song was originally released on Counterpart and then, guess what?  “Laurie leased it and re-issued it,” says McNutt, “It wasn’t a hit, but it was a good record.  Shad had a small orchestra on it!”

Oddly, no images of this Mike Reid 45 (neither Counterpart nor Laurie) can be found online.  Clearly, “Time For Peace” is a forgotten song … but no longer.

“The Maestro of Mayhem“

The Gavin Report — Nov. 2, 1990

July 2020 Update

Discogs now has a minimal entry for the Laurie 45 (mis-classified as “bubblegum”), though without the 45 label image, while 45Cat contributors, fortunately, have since uploaded high-res images for both releases.

Joe Richard very helpfully adds —

As I recall, it was released in late November or early December of 1971.  The only radio station in Cincinnati to give it any airplay at the time was 700 WLW, and then I only heard it when Jim LaBarbara was on the air.  I think the 45 was a one-time thing at the time for Mike since he was still playing for the Bengals.  However, he did make a few appearances on Nick Clooney’s daily shows on Channel 9, and then on Nick’s Channel 12 show which was on 11:30-12:30 in the morning/afternoon.

When I was 11-12, Shad was a popular DJ on WCPO 1230 radio in Cincinnati.  Mike Reid also appeared as a musician on one or two of the WEBN album projects from the ’80s [e.g., plays clarinet for Danny Morgan on Album Project #4].  A few years ago Mike came to town for the Northern Kentucky Music Legends at Tower Park in Ft. Thomas, sat in with Danny Morgan’s group on a couple of songs.  I posted one of the songs to YouTube [“You Ain’t Going Nowhere“].

I befriended Shad O’Shea in 2002, visited him at his office in Cheviot, where he had mint copies of every 45 he had produced in a large file cabinet consisting of 6 large drawers full of 45s.

Note that the Counterpart label above gives engineering credit to Gene Lawson, inventor of the Lawson microphone.

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Bonus History!

Randy McNutt Remembers Shad O’Shea

Shad discovered some big-time talent, but he gets no credit for it.  He found Charlie Daniels when he played under a stage name.  Shad (a former DJ whose real name was Howard Lovdal) went all out on the Mike Reid single.  Shad had an investor to help with the big budget (by Cincinnati standards of the day).  Even then, Mike Reid could write.  Shad knew the brothers at Laurie, so he pitched the Counterpart master to them.  Everyone thought it would at least chart, but . . . you know how that goes.  Not enough promotion.  Reid left for Nashville, where he became a successful country songwriter and did some singing too.  Also, Bobby Borchers cut a country single for Counterpart called “Harlan.”  He wrote it.  I really liked that one, even more than the Reid single. 

YouTube streaming audio –

not yet available

Shad had the publishing rights to all the hit-men’s Counterpart songs, or at least a piece of them.  His Counterpart Music (BMI) was pretty active, but Shad always complained that BMI screwed the little guys out of money.  He wasn’t alone.  Shad assembled a good rhythm section then.  It included guitarist Cal Collins and Dumpy Rice on piano, etc. Borchers went to Nashville and became a hot country songwriter and later one of those “outlaw” vocalists.

Shad also released several records on my friend Wayne Perry, which Wayne and I produced.  Wayne went to Nashville and became the most successful writer of any of them.  He was so busy that he dropped his vocal career.  He wrote hits by everyone from The Backstreet Boys to Tim McGraw.  There were other Counterpart songwriters who wrote some good material, but I can’t recall their names at the moment.  Shad cut a lot of garage bands and leased their masters to RCA, Columbia, Monument — there were so many of them I lost count.  He found and recorded pop singer Rob Hegel (“New York City Girl“) for RCA.  Rob went on to write for Air Supply and other acts.  Great guy.

In the mid-1970s, not long after Shad bought the Fraternity label name from Harry Carlson, he released the “Space Funk” instrumental.  It got a lot of airplay but Shad lacked enough money to promote the thing nationally, and as a result the record didn’t do much.  Then in the 1990s, some European labels slapped it onto albums, and it received a lot of attention.  But Shad got zero $$. 

2004 reissue

DopeBrother Records

I ate lunch with him one day and Shad was all worked up.  According to Shad, the artist, Manzel, threatened to sue because he claimed Shad had leased the rights to the Europeans.  Manzel was hot.  He meant business.  But Shad didn’t lease it to any labels.  He told me that he finally got in touch with Manzel, who by then was a military officer in the Pentagon, and explained the situation, which apparently satisfied Manzel.  Shad got a Canadian lawyer who specialized in tracking down record and song pirates.  The guy was tough.  He tried to squeeze royalties out of the pirates but he couldn’t even find most of them.  They were underground dudes.  So underground that they operated at the earth’s core.  Through Shad, the guy started representing me for royalties that I never received in Europe and even Scandinavia, but the guy couldn’t squeeze anything out of those pirates either.  He also represented Rusty York.  Rusty got some money.  I stayed in touch with the guy because he was nice and he had some King stories.  So at least something good came out of it. 

Rusty York – debut solo album

Jewel Records – 1968

Later, the man from NY who bought the Counterpart and Fraternity labels [i.e., Victor Piagneri, owner of Undercover Brother Ent., Inc., who bought Fraternity in 2008 and renamed it Fraternity Music Group, per Discogs] issued a CD album of mine on Counterpart.  So possibly I had the last record ever released on Counterpart.  Not sure if the guy has done anything else on the label, but I doubt it.  He uses Fraternity mainly, mostly for his funk stuff.  Shad was a great guy.  He loved the record business—the old version of it.  He said if he were offered an additional ten years of life in exchange for his experiences in the record business in the late ’50s and the ’60s, he would have turned down the deal.  I slipped between the cracks of the old record business and the new, but I got something big out of it.  I got to know many of the old-timers.

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LINK to Shad O’Shea’s Counterpart Records

LINK to Mickey Foellger —

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