Including--Biography, Discography, & Song Catalog
Only a handful of "chart breaking" rock songs from the '60's or '70's begin with a solo keyboard introduction.
The iconic intro to "D.O.A." was performed (and the song co-written) by Stevie Hill.
Hill began studying piano in Ft. Worth at age 9, with emphasis on technique and memorization. He gave his first pubic solo performance that year, followed by several recitals per year until reaching age 12.
From ages 12 though 18 he continued private studies in classical and jazz piano.
At age 15 he joined his first rock group, "The Trax", a garage band consisting of players from his high school.
(to be continued...)
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Songwriting Catalog
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TITLE/U.S. LABEL
1."American Burn"---E.M.I./Capitol
2."Big D's For Danger"---Shimera Recorded Music
3."Breach of Lease"---E.M.I./Capitol
4."Cable Cut Boogie"---S.R.M.
5."Cheater"---E.M.I./Capitol
6."Days and Nights"---E.M.I./Capitol
7."The Dodge"---S.R.M.
8."Dier Not A Lover"---E.M.I./Capitol
9."D.O.A."---E.M.I./Capitol
10."Fallin'"---E.M.I./Capitol
11."Fantastic Piece of Architecture"---E.M.I./Capitol
12."Fantasy"---E.M.I./Capitol
13."Follow"---E.M.I./One Way
14."Gotta Find A Way"---E.M.I./Capitol
15."Guess What I Am"---E.M.I./Capitol
16."Help Is On The Way"---E.M.I./Capitol
17."It's Too Late (For Those Days)"---S.R.M.
18."Juice"---E.M.I./Capitol
19."Jungle"---E.M.I./One Way
20."Lady of Love"---E.M.I./Capitol
21."Life Blood"---E.M.I./Capitol
22."Lost Fame"---E.M.I./Capitol
23."Magic Man"---E.M.I./Capitol
24."Millions"---S.W.M.
25."Morning"---S.W.M.
26."Parallax"---E.M.I./Capitol
27."Pogo Stick"---E.M.I/Capitol
28."Scottsman"---E.M.I./Capitol
29."Shimera"---S.W.M.
30."Song For A Brother"---E.M.I./Capitol
31."Thank You Daniel Ellsberg"----E.M.I./Capitol
32."Vignette"---S.W.M.
33."Voices"---E.M.I./Capitol
34."We've All Heard That Before"---S.W.M.
35."Whiskey Vengence"---E.M.I./Capitol
36."You Gotta Roll"---E.M.I./Capitol
The above songs are B.M.I. and co-written or written by stevie hill.
Awards
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Gold Album for performance and writing (Bloodrock 2)
"Texas Tornado" (keyboard player Hall of Fame) "Buddy Magazine"---the world's longest running Texas music publication
Discography
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SOLO PROJECTS:
"Avalanche In Reverse" C.D. featuring Jeff Berlin, Warren Ham, Ed Grundy, & Bill Ham.
"Rough Cuts" (3 song E.P.)
"Vignette" (3 song E.P.)
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WITH BLOODROCK (albums):
Bloodrock (EMI-Capitol)
Bloodrock 2 (EMI-Capitol)
Bloodrock 3 (EMI-Capitol)
Bloodrock USA (EMI-Capitol)
Bloodrock Live (EMI-Capitol)
Bloodrock 'n' Roll (EMI-Capitol)
Passage (EMI-Capitol)
Whirlwind Tongues (EMI-Capitol)
D.O.A. (EMI-Special Markets)
Triptych (EMI-Capitol/One Way)
Live At The Ridglea DVD
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COMPILATIONS:
1. "FM ROCK Album Classics of the '60's and '70's". Includes Bloodrock, Cream, Traffic, Jethro Tull, The Zombies, and The Velvet Underground, and Free.
2. Godfathers of Grunge
3. "'70's Heavy Hitters: Arena Rockers". Includes Bloodrock, Deep Purple, Mountain, and Free.
[Editors note: More will be added to this list.]
THE INTERVIEW
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A NOTE FROM THE WEBMASTER CONCERNING HILL'S HEALTH ISSUES:
Sometimes it is better to use as few words as possible.....
Stevie has leukemia. It is considered to be fatal and incurrable.
He was given one full series of chemotherapy,
which reduced his white cell count to an acceptable level.
Shortly afterward, he was offered an experimental program of chemotherapy by injection. It became necessary to discontinue during the final week. Because the treatment was so agressive, he was hospitalized again for the 4th time in two years.
It was during this period that it was unsure whether he would survive.
Stevie'is happy with his oncology team.
His health is now being closely monitored by a team of oncologist and other specialist.
We are grateful for all the prayers and good thoughts from all of you. Keep those coming our way!!!
Q: What was it like to work with Terry Knight as producer?
A: In retrospect, I didn't realize how much help he was giving us outside the studio. As manager of Grand Funk Railroad, he was in the position to do various things that helped launch the band.
If you look at things for the producer's perspective, we were a group with varying degrees of studio experience, so that must have been a challenge. I think I had done one recording session before signing with Capitol.
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Q: What was the connection between your group and Freddie King?
A: We were both managed by Jack Calmes. Normally, Freddie would open for us, which was always odd, because we knew he was a lot bigger deal than we were.
On a couple of the shows, I was asked to back him during his set, which was great fun.
I also remember that Lee was tuned in to what an original Freddie was, and they had that guitar-player rapport going between them.
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Q: Are you aware of cover versions of D.O.A.?
A: I'm told that R.E.M. played it for a Halloween show when they already had lots of hits themselves.
On the bootleg they allegedly announce it as "the worst song in history", or something to that effect.
You can also hear a fun version on the Halloween album by the Fuzztones.
There is a feature in one of British slicks in which the leader of the Flaming Lips talks about D.O.A. being his favorite bloody song.
I'm trying to limit the trivia stories, but keep in mind people have won great sums of money by remembering this kind of minutiae....
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Q: How did you end up in a group with Carmine Appice?
s.h.: I met him back in the touring days. We played quite a few dates with Cactus, and Carmine had a great sense of humor, in addition to being an amazing drummer.
After Beck, Bogart, and Appice split, Carmine called me to join his new group. The band was going to based out of New York, and I was living in L.A. at the time.
Our guitarist was Ray Gomez, a great player who later worked with Stanley Clarke and many others.
On bass was Jeff Berlin. After our band Jeff went on to record some truly awesome solo albums, in addition to working with Bill Bruford, John McLaughlin, and Yes, to name a few.
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Q. Where did the band play?
A: The group wasn't in a big of a hurry to start performing . We played a couple of shows in New York, opening once for John Entwisle's Ox, and once for Ginger Baker's group.
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Q. How about recording?
A: We recorded some things at The Record Plant, engineered by Jimmy Iovine. I didn't know much about his previous work, but he certainly went on to do some killer projects.
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Q: Did Bloodrock have much contact with the jazz world during the touring years?
A: We played a few festivals, such as the Celebration of Life with Miles Davis and Roland Kirk fronting their own groups.
There was also the Mar Y Sol, with Dave Brubeck and The Mahavishnu Orchestra.
That was the legendary gig where the promoter paid us not to play, so we took three days off and tried to learn from watching the other bands.
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Q: The group opened for Jimi Hendrix a few times. Where were those dates?
A: Fort Worth and Norman, on the O.U. campus.
We also played the second Atlanta Pop Festival, which Hendrix headlined.
Q: Was Atlanta the largest audience you've played for?
A: Yes. The crowd was estimated at 350,000 during our set. Of course it's difficult to verify audience numbers at festivals.
The book "Jimi Hendrix---Musician" does mention that the 2nd Atlanta was his biggest live audience ever, meaning up to that date.
Q: Tell us about the sessions at Electric Lady Studios.
A: We were invited to record there by Mitch Mitchell. Bloodrock was playing at the Whiskey and Mitch was in the audience.
The following week, we found ourselves at Electric Lady, with Mitch producing and Eddie Kramer engineering.
Q: And how did it feel to be working with those two?
A: It was a gas. Mitch was easy-going. I always say if any drummer had a reason to have a big ego, it would be him, but he just like one of the guys.
Eddie's reputation as an engineer and producer is well-deserved. He was amazing.
It helps to remember that up to that time, nearly all the recording we had done as Bloodrock had been either at Capitol in L.A., or in Cleveland, so it was good to hear how we sounded at Electric Lady.
Q: Did Mitch play anything on the sessions?
A: No. According to him, we sounded good enough and we "didn't need [his] help."
We tried to trick him into at least jamming with us, but I think he wanted to stick with the producer role, and not upstage the group.
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Q. Why did you go back to the diminutive form of your name?
A: I started noticing lots of other "Steve Hill"s in the music business and didn't want to get lost in the shuffle.
Quite a few of my friends never made the switch to my "grown-up" name, so it makes them happy.
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