FM
History
The Devil's Anvil is one of those groups that could only have been signed to a label like Columbia Records in the late 1960s. At that point, the record company was desperately trying to make up for the ground and market share that it had lost during the years 1964-66, when -- with a few notable exceptions -- it had avoided rock & roll. Enter folkie-turned-rock musician/producer Felix Pappalardi, who brought The Devil's Anvil to Columbia and got them a contract to record one album.
Pappalardi was born in the Bronx in 1939, the son of a doctor. He studied classical music and graduated from the University of Michigan, and came back to New York seeking work as a conductor before being lured to the burgeoning folk music community in Greenwich Village. He later worked as a backup musician and arranger with Tim Hardin, the Youngbloods, Ian and Sylvia, the Mugwumps, and Tom Rush. It was in 1966, while hanging out in the Village that he chanced upon a group of Middle Eastern-born or -descended musicians, playing at a coffee house called Feejon. Pappalardi began playing with them, and eventually they became the unofficial house band at Feejon -- the core members of the group, which took the name The Devil's Anvil, were Steve Knight (rhythm guitar, bass, bouzouki), Jerry Satpir (lead guitar, vocals), Elierzer Adoram (accordion), and Kareem Issaq (oud, vocals). Knight and Pappalardi developed a good working relationship, trading the bass and guitar spots during the recording of the group's one album, Hard Rock from the Middle East, which set the stage for their subsequent team-up together in Mountain.
