{"id":7192,"date":"2015-02-11T05:30:10","date_gmt":"2015-02-11T10:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=7192"},"modified":"2026-08-31T08:47:32","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T12:47:32","slug":"the-bobby-lance-story-part-three","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2015\/02\/11\/the-bobby-lance-story-part-three\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bobby Lance Story, Part Three"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Continued from <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=7190\">Part Two<\/a>&#8230;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Listening now, \u201cMore Than Enough Rain\u201d isn&#8217;t even the best track on <em>First Peace<\/em>. Lance&#8217;s soulful vocal work, supported by <strong>The Sweet Inspirations<\/strong>, is a highlight of the album. There&#8217;s not a trace of Lance&#8217;s Brooklyn roots in his singing; he sounds like an authentic son of the South, and he insists that it came naturally when he sang. Because most of the songs were Lance\/Robins compositions originally intended for various other acts on Atlantic, the record is a showcase of varying styles. The gospel strains of Lance&#8217;s Southern-flavored blue-eyed soul come to the fore on \u201cBrother&#8217;s Keeper,\u201d and it&#8217;s easy to imagine Aretha Franklin covering \u201cOne Turn You&#8217;re In One Turn You&#8217;re Out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/o3a3Bhm4CdE?rel=0\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Overall, the <em>First Peace<\/em> sessions cost a good bit of money. But because Motown was poised to share in any profits <em>First Peace<\/em> made, the decision was made at the highest levels within Atlantic not to promote the record. So despite the strong songs and performances, <em>First Peace<\/em> didn&#8217;t make a ripple on the album charts; the LP would quickly go out of print. The label gave the record only a perfunctory push, releasing a pair of singles to radio stations: &#8220;Brother&#8217;s Keeper&#8221; and &#8220;Shake Down Blues&#8221; were both promo-only 45rpm discs, featuring monaural mixes (for AM radio play) on the A-side, and stereo (for FM stations) on the B side.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/UXXBugsgSfs?rel=0\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>In late summer 1971, Lance got a pair of rare, if brief, mentions in <em>Billboard<\/em> Magazine&#8217;s \u201cSignings\u201d column, noting that he had recently signed a new management contract with SAS, Inc., the artist management firm run by <strong>Sidney Seidenberg<\/strong>, <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=6562\"><strong>B.B. King<\/strong><\/a>&#8216;s longtime manager. While his musical career was bearing creative fruit, behind the scenes, his career was a mess, with SAS, Motown and Atlantic all involved to varying (and confusing) degrees.<\/p>\n<p>Still, by 1972, Lance was once again in the studio, there to cut his follow-up LP. And in line with his goals as an artist, he sought to make an album that reflected his individual creative persona. Now billing himself only as B. Lance, he was recording for release on the higher-profile Atlantic label. <em>Rollin&#8217; Man<\/em> would bear the credit, \u201cArranged and Produced by Bob Lance,\u201d though engineer <strong>Geoff Haslam<\/strong> \u2013 in demand thanks to his production work on a successful string of albums by Atlantic label mates <strong>Cactus<\/strong> \u2013 played a significant role. Recording in the company&#8217;s New York City studios, Lance had chosen not to use the Muscle Shoals session players for the album. Instead he auditioned and assembled a proper band, and the members \u2013 coming from Alabama, Chicago and New York City \u2013 had convened in New York for several weeks of pre-recording rehearsals.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright\" src=\"http:\/\/musoscribe.com\/images\/bobbylance_rollinman.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"280\" height=\"280\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Gone, too, were King Curtis and his horns, The Sweet Inspirations, and Edwards&#8217; string arrangements. Nor was Lance&#8217;s sister Fran Robins involved: all nine tunes of <em>Rollin&#8217; Man<\/em> are Lance solo compositions.<\/p>\n<p>Alabama-born guitarist <span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Kenny Mims<\/strong><\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"> handled all lead guitar duties on the album; it was his first professional gig ever, but his lean and assured lines \u2013 like the double-tracked leads on \u201cBar Room Sally\u201d \u2013 sound like the work of a seasoned pro. And though his background was in jazz, keyboardist <\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Mitch Kerper<\/strong><\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"> played in a rollicking, R&amp;B style; the instrumental dialogue between Kerper and Mims throughout the album \u2013 most notably on the eight-minute-plus \u201cHot Wood and Coal\u201d \u2013 is one <\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em>Rollin&#8217; Man<\/em><\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\">&#8216;s most enduring features. \u201cShe Made Me a Man\u201d is a soulful ballad in a style similar to Lance&#8217;s fellow New Yorker, <\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Laura Nyro<\/strong><\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\">. The call-and-response vocals of \u201cJohn the Rollin&#8217; Man\u201d \u2013 all overdubbed by Lance \u2013 capture the rhythm and blues vibe. The rhythm section of <\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Dick Bunn<\/strong><\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"> (bass) and drummer <\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Jimmy Evans<\/strong><\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"> cooks on \u201cYou&#8217;ve Got to Rock Your Own.\u201d And with its mix of Mississippi delta acoustic blues guitar and gospel-inflected piano, \u201cHe Played the Reals\u201d features a lyric that explores Lance&#8217;s deep feeling for the music he loves. And the brief \u201cTribute to a Woman\u201d closes the album with a message to the woman Lance loved.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The <em>Rollin&#8217; Man<\/em> LP came housed in a gatefold sleeve that featured Lance&#8217;s lyrics alongside a photo collage. Like its predecessor, and again without marketing support from Atlantic, <em>Rollin&#8217; Man<\/em> did not chart; most copies of the semi-rare LP found today are cut-outs (remaindered, non-returnable stock). No one seems to know how many copies Atlantic pressed. The label did release a legitimate (as in, not simply a promotional disc) single, &#8220;Rock Your Own&#8221; b\/w an edit of \u201cHot Wood and Coal&#8221; from <em>Rollin&#8217; Man<\/em>, but it, too, failed to chart.<\/p>\n<p>In the meantime, as part of his contract, Lance continued with other duties for the label. He handled vocal arrangement duties for King Curtis&#8217; &#8220;Ridin&#8217; Thumb&#8221; on Curtis&#8217; 1971 Atco LP <em>Everybody&#8217;s Talkin&#8217;<\/em>, and penned \u201cIf a Dream Goes By,\u201d a non-charting 1972 <strong>Garland Green<\/strong> soul side on Cotillion.<\/p>\n<p>Lance&#8217;s sister Fran continued her songwriting career on her own, penning a number of songs for a wide variety of acts including <strong>Tony Orlando<\/strong>. She also began doing public readings of her poetry, mostly in the town of New Bern NC, were she and husband Norm lived. In her later years she was reportedly working on a musical. Fran Robins passed away in May 2014.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/musoscribe.com\/images\/bobbylance_cd.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"280\" height=\"280\" hspace=\"20\" vspace=\"20\" \/><\/p>\n<p>By the end of 1972, with the terms of his Atlantic contract fulfilled, Lance found himself without a record deal. Since neither <em>First Peace<\/em> nor <em>Rollin&#8217; Man<\/em> had scored any chart activity, there was little demand for a follow-up record. The <em>Rollin&#8217; Man<\/em> lineup landed a few live dates in and around New York City, but nothing high profile came of their efforts.<\/p>\n<p>Lance soon left the business and settled in Tarrytown, New York, just up the Hudson River from New York City. He eventually enrolled in college, earning a pair of Bachelor&#8217;s Degrees: one in Biology and one in Music. He also earned a Master\u2019s Degree in Education. Lance developed an interest in literacy through music, eventually combining his musical background with teaching. For nearly twenty years now he has been teaching students in a school environment. He still writes songs and plays music.<\/p>\n<p><em>Thanks to Norm Robins, Kenny Mims, and Bob Lance for their help in researching this story. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Continued from Part Two&#8230; Listening now, \u201cMore Than Enough Rain\u201d isn&#8217;t even the best track on First Peace. Lance&#8217;s soulful vocal work, supported by The Sweet Inspirations, is a highlight [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[60,62,64,69],"tags":[367,726,1796],"class_list":["post-7192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rb","category-rawk","category-reissue","category-soul","tag-bobby-lance","tag-duane-allman","tag-real-gone-music","cat-60-id","cat-62-id","cat-64-id","cat-69-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7192"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7192\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32327,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7192\/revisions\/32327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}