"Resurrection Shuffle," Ashton, Gardner & Dyke
Ashton, Gardner and Dyke were a quasi-supergroup, as their law-firm name suggests. Keyboardist and singer Tony Ashton and drummer Roy Dyke had met while with various bands based in Blackpool, England and they both eventually joined the Liverpool beat group The Remo Four After that quartet broke up in 1968, Ashton and Dyke then joined forces with bassist Kim Gardner, who had previously been in minor British groups such as the Creation and the Birds (not to be confused with the American group the Byrds, the English group with the correctly spelled title having included a pre-Faces/Rolling Stones Ron Wood). The trio simply chose to use their own names and got Mick Liber, formerly of Python Lee Jackson, played lead guitar for them as a sideman. Ashton sang lead.
AGD had a soulful R&B sound anchored in Ashton's jazz background, and after their self-titled debut album was released in 1969, they followed up in late 1970 with a single, "Resurrection Shuffle." The song, written by Ashton, is nowhere nearly as provocative as its title. It's just a fun blue-eyed soul song with a good R&B beat and a funky horn section.
This clip - my Music Video Of the Week - shows Ashton, Gardner and Dyke performing "Resurrection Shuffle" on Britain's "Top of the Pops" show in December 1971, eleven months after it entered the U.K. singles chart, where it ultimately peaked at number three. It also charted in the U.S., just barely becoming a Billboard Top Forty single - peaking at number forty. Ashton, who later joined Family, gained the distinction of being the only member of that band who had success on the American singles chart. Enjoy.
AGD broke up in 1972. While Ashton would work with Family as well as with Medicine Head and former members of Deep Purple in Paice-Ashton-Lord, Gardner would eventually become a session bassist in Los Angeles, where he raised a family. His daughter Eva Gardner is an esteemed studio bassist in her own right. Tragically, both Ashton and Gardner died of cancer in 2001, dying in their own billing order (like Keith Emerson and Greg Lake in 2016). Roy Dyke, who has played wit hnumerous British acts, is still alive.
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