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\nContinued from Part Nine<\/a>…<\/em><\/p>\n
After Brotherhood, Drake went on to do a good bit of studio work, including sessions with Emitt Rhodes, Lee Michaels and (reuniting briefly with Joe) Ananda Shankar; for many years he ran a guitar store (Drake\u2019s Guitars) in Los Angeles. Lynnette Stevens \u2014 who was divorced from Drake in the early 1970s \u2013 notes that \u201che was wonderful, and I\u2019m sorry that he never got the kind of recognition that he should have.\u201d At home in San Francisco, Drake lost his battle with cancer on July 4, 2009.<\/p>\n
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Sandra Levin says that \u201cDrake felt that Brotherhood was his biggest hurt, his biggest failure. He never played any of those albums at home; I never heard them. He never talked about the band; it was very painful for him. But,\u201d she continues, \u201ctwo weeks before Drake died, Phil came to visit, and brought [a CDR of] the first album.\u201d Hearing it for the first time, she discovered that a song that Drake often sang to her was on the album. Drake sang it to her again, and she realized that \u201cForever,\u201d with its lyrics about \u201cmeet[ing] you on the other side of forever\u201d was now her husband\u2019s way of saying goodbye to her. The printed program at Drake\u2019s memorial service would feature the full lyrics of the song.<\/p>\n
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Drake\u2019s remains were cremated; Phil playfully reminds Sandra of a lyric that his best friend Drake wrote back in 1967: \u201cYou can shovel up my ashes and bury me in a box guitar.\u201d<\/p>\n
All three records \u2013 the two Brotherhood albums and Friend Sound\u2019s Joyride<\/em> LP \u2014 went out of print in the very early 1970s, and none has ever been issued on CD or digitally. In recent years there has been some talk about a potential re-release. Sundazed Records\u2019 Tim Livingston was one of the principals involved in those informal discussions. Tim is a fan of the band\u2019s music but explains that \u201cthe major labels ask for a sales guarantee. Labels [like Sundazed] have to be extremely careful and selective these days about which titles they feel can sell enough to meet that guarantee.\u201d Phil mentions that \u201cRCA\u2019s up-front fees were too high\u201d as well. As of this writing, there are no formal plans to reissue any of the Brotherhood material, though a few clips circulate on YouTube, and some collectors have ripped clean vinyl copies to mp3 and made these unofficial (pirated) copies available online.<\/p>\n \n Though conceived with great promise, Brotherhood\u2019s momentum was stunted by lawsuits and less-than-clear direction. In their brief time together the group created a relatively small but impressive body of work; sadly, their music went all but unnoticed. Combining experimentation with a positive Aquarian-age ethos, they took artistic chances and got little in reward. And, on Brotherhood Brotherhood<\/em>, when the group finally found its style, it was a case of too early for the marketplace and too late for the band.<\/p>\n \n \u201cEven though it wasn\u2019t commercially successful,\u201d observes Phil, \u201cI know that what we put out there in the universe for people to listen to has value. It has a good message of peace and love. And that was really the mission statement for Brotherhood.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/musoscribe.com\/images\/phil-and-drake-onstage2.jpg\")
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