Legendary musician remembered in new boxed set

SANDUSKY — Legendary Cleveland rock musician Peter Laughner was just 24 when he died in 1977. More than 40 years later, music fans haven't forgotten how Laughner helped launch Cleveland's underground music scene, including serving as an early member of the legendary band Pere Ubu.Pere Ubu began with the 1975 single, "30 Seconds Over Tokyo," that featured Laughner on guitar. The "avante-garage" band exists to this day and tours all over the world. Robert Wheeler of Milan has been the band's synthesizer player for many years.And now Laughner's music is coming out of the vault, being revived. Smog Veil, a record label specializing in Cleveland music, just issued a "Peter Laughner," a boxed set, available in vinyl and as five audio CDs, preserving his brief music career.The deluxe package also includes a 100-page book with a biography of Laughner from Nick Blakey, a writer and researcher and expert on Cleveland's 1970s rock scene, and Laughner's writings for rock music publications such as Creem.The set underscores the important role Sandusky played in Cleveland's 1970s new wave. A number of tracks were recorded live in a Sandusky club. Sandusky musicians Robert Bensick and Albert Dennis play on many of the tracks, as does Scott Krauss, a native of Clyde.Krauss went on to become the first drummer for Pere Ubu, playing on many tracks considered classics by the band's fans. He still performs and records in Cleveland.The new boxed set reveals Laughner as a versatile singer and guitar player who played acoustic folk and blues and electric rock music, performing covers of songs by musicians such as Bob Dylan and Lou Reed but also singing his own tunes."He was just so talented," said Dennis, a 1965 Sandusky High School graduate and Cleveland resident who performs on many of the tracks and who contributed some of the recordings from his own audio archive."Pete was brilliant," said Bensick, a Florida resident and 1968 Sandusky High graduate, whose lost album from 1975, "French Pictures in London," was finally released by Smog Veil in 2016 to critical acclaim. Smog Veil also put out Bensick's Hy Maya album, another almost-forgotten 1970s album. Some of the highlights of the new Laughner set are performances by Cinderella Backstreet, a rock band with guitarists Laughner and Rick Kalister, keyboard player Cynthia Black, and a stellar rhythm section of Dennis on bass and Krauss on drums.Four of the Cinderella Backstreet numbers were recorded live June 23, 1973, at The Cellar, located in the basement of the old winery building at 224 E. Water Street in downtown Cleveland. One of the songs is a standout performance of Bob Dylan's "All Along The Watchtower," in an arrangement much different from Dylan's original version and Jimi Hendrix's famous cover."He could play any kind of music," Dennis said. "He was very avant-garde and he picked up stuff. He would make everybody else excited to play it. He didn't have that big ego where he was the star."But Laughner never stayed in a band for long, often being booted out when his drug and alcohol abuse left him unable to work with the other musicians. He played on key early Pere Ubu tracks but was soon asked to leave.Laughner's pursuit of what he perceived as a rock and roll lifestyle killed him, Bensick said."He was such a drunk and he abused drugs so badly," Bensick said. "Peter died because he was trying to be Lou Reed."Dennis recalled one performance when an out-of-it Laughner finished while laying on the floor.Such incidents led to Laughner being fired from The Wolves, which Dennis remembers as an "incredible band.""I got elected to tell him he wasn't in the band anymore," Dennis said.Laughner died of acute pancreatitis blamed on his drug and alcohol consumption.The album allows listeners to set aside Laughner's sad biography and celebrate and enjoy his music."I think Peter deserved to have his stuff out," Dennis said. "He did so much in his lifetime."Dennis said he has heard another Cleveland musician sing "Baudelaire," a Laughner tune recorded with Dennis that appears on the album.Dennis said when he went to Texas for his son's wedding, two cousins of his son's wife figured out Dennis knew Laughner and Pere Ubu."They were asking me all these questions. They had all of their albums," Dennis said. "I think people have been waiting for this."Peter Laughner in Cleveland in spring 1976. Albert Dennis in 2016. Robert Bensick, a Sandusky native and Class of 1968 Sandusky High graduate, as he looked in the 1970s. Drummer Scott Krauss, a Clyde native, in 1973.The Underground, a now-closed club in a basement on East Water Street, originally was known as The Cellar.