Back from MU
Most of you are already familiar with Merrell Fankhauser from his various bands H.M.S. Bounty, Fapardokly, and of course MU. One of the great Aquarian-age musicians, Fankhauser’s name deserves mention in the same weighted breaths as fellow Golden State tunesmiths like Neil Young and Lowell George. Alas, the field is not always level and we have to dig a little to get the real dirt on this pillar of music. A good place to start is Merrell’s own website.
From his early days in Lancaster with the Exiles (featuring a pre-Beefheart Antenna Jimmy Semens/neé Jeff Cotton) to Pismo Beach folk rockers Fapardokly, Fankhauser covered California both geographically and musically. When H.M.S. Bounty’s 1968 near-hit “Things” failed to get the band noticed outside of Los Angeles, half the group split leaving Fankhauser to record the final Bounty material (a pre-Nillson version of “Everybody’s Talkin’) with bass-great Carol Kaye and Duane Eddy(!).
By 1969 Fankhauser and what was left of his band were living in the mountains near Topanga. It was here that MU was born. “One day we found this very old book under some old papers in the log bin next to the fireplace, The Lost Continent Of MU by James Churchward. We were entranced as we had been into mystical and ancient Indian history for years,” Fankhauser told Muzikman in a 1999 interview. “At the time Jeff Cotton had just left Beefheart and we were looking for a name for the band. After reading the book we decided MU was perfect as we felt a kinship with the ideals of the ancient MU. Around this same time a musician friend from our days in the desert, Jeff Parker, wrote us from Maui that he had moved there and an old Hawaiian man had showed him some ruins near the ocean in the jungle and that they were rumored to be remnants of The Lost Continent of MU !”
In 1973 MU officially moved to Maui where they were “greeted by a wonderful group of peace loving brothers & sisters who we immediately formed a bond with.” The band was invited to perform at a two-day festival featuring David Carradine, Bonnie Bramlett, and Ramblin Jack Elliot. Remembers Fankhauser, “We arrived on Saturday morning shortly after David Carradine and his wife (actress) 
Barbara Hershey* arrived. David agreed to go on first with Barbara on flute, Dewey Martin (from the Buffalo Springfield) on drums and an unknown bass player.” All sorts of adventures follow—including UFOs, Randy California, and ancient pyramids—but it’s best to let Merrell tell you about them.
*According to Jim Wegryn, "Many of America's own 'love generation' of the 1960's and 1970's took blissful last names like Friendship and Sunshine. For example, the actress Barbara Hershey for a short time was known as Barbara Seagull."