Commander Cody

Country-rock bandleader BORN 1944

“We’d like to do for country music what [Paul] Butterfield did for blues,” said the leader of Commander Cody And His Lost Planet Airmen in 1970. Born George Frayne, his band released their debut Lost In The Ozone in ’71, the first hippies to blend honky-tonk country, Western Swing and rockabilly, anchored by the animated Frayne’s pumping boogie-woogie piano. He talked his way through their one major hit, 1972’s Hot Rod Lincoln, and they became roots-rock kings. 1974’s Live From Deep In The Heart Of Texas is a raucous classic, recorded at the Armadillo World Headquarters in the headneck capital of Austin. The original group broke up in 1976, but Frayne continued working as Commander Cody and as an esteemed artist and beloved character. Said LPA guitarist and Americana hero Bill Kirchen, “He had a heart as big as his bluster.”