Craig Smith fell down a musical rabbit hole....and came back as Maitreya Kali

There can have been no more saccharine TV in the 1960's USA than 'The Andy Williams Show'. It was wholesome family fare with Andy crooning and guest stars warbling. Yet for a certain Craig Smith it was his first sight of the rabbit hole.

Craig, born in L.A. in 1945 was a folk singer and busker and was recruited to join the show as part of the house band for Williams and there followed a string of similar gigs with Craig rubbing shoulders with the Monkees and the Mothers of Invention. Craig's songs were recorded by the Monkees, Andy Williams and Glen Campbell to name but three. He joined the band 'Penny Arkade' which had some success but it was always 'almost' for Craig.

And so, after reputedly hanging out with the Manson crew he set off on the hippy trail and now the rabbit hole was open.

He returned a different man, with a different name, he was now Maitreya Kali and had a spider tattooed on his forehead. His old friends and family barely recognised him.

  He tried to ressurrect his music career with self-financed  albums which he sold or often just gave away, such as 'Apache'

 The liner notes made clear that Craig's  mind was fractured, the notes were rambling to say the least. By now he was claiming to be a reincarnation of Jesus, Buddha and Hitler and said he would be King of the World by the year 2000. The world saw it differently.

Then he fell off the radar, after assaulting his mother in 1973 he spent three years in prison

  and lived the last 30 years of his life homeless and forgotten until his death in 2012. His family were notified but declined to claim his remains.

Mike Stax, however, quietly researched Craig's life for fifteen long years and the result is a fascinating book full of insights into the 1960's and the effect it had on one man.The always excellent Feral House  are the publishers (photos all courtesy Feral House) so for the full story take the ISBN 9781934170656 to your local bookshop, mine has it in stock;)

To hear his music you can listen to Apache on Youtube

Another rabbit hole soon...