(left to right) Iron Knowledge’s John Warren, Milton Van Blalock (sitting), Larry Johnson, James Vass, and Gary Blalock.
Element of Surprise Iron Knowledge still leaves them guessing text Andy Walko photo courtesy of James Vass
lot of stuff and change it up into our way. See, me and my brother were a different breed, man. We’d play anything from James Brown to Jimi Hendrix. We were the type of dudes—we didn’t care. Back then, everybody called it R&B and soul music. We’d go do a show playing soul music and then turn right around and play in some of the hottest rock clubs around here. We could play all that stuff. We were just different; we didn’t believe that ‘Just because I’m Black, I’m supposed to play soul.’ No, it doesn’t work like that. I can play what I like. We liked rock, we liked funk, we liked blues, we liked every- thing, you know. That’s the way we were. And I’m not bragging, but that was a dangerous five-piece band.” One listen to “Show Stopper” leaves no doubt about that. Iron Knowledge released three other tunes on the Tammy label, “Who Put the Ram (In-Rama-Lama-Ding-Dong),” “Oh Love,” and “Give Me a Little Taste of Your Love.” The Blalock brothers were also involved with the Steel City Band’s “Shakin’ It Down” 45, also released on Tammy. Gary Blalock and James Vass still reside in the Youngstown area and are still involved in music. Milton Van Blalock passed away in 1997. The current whereabouts of John Warren and Larry Johnson are unknown. .
“I never met people that actually liked it,” bassist Gary Blalock says of Iron Knowledge’s obscure song, “Show Stopper.” Blalock’s aggres- sive, distorted opening bass line sets the tone of the track, and it nev- er relents over the course of its three-and-a-half-minute duration. One of the most vicious and heavy slices of psychedelic funk-rock unknown to man, “Show Stopper” was recorded in Cleveland in late 1972 and released on Tony March’s Tammy label in Youngstown, Ohio. But, according to Blalock, the song never caught on upon its release. “I was a radio DJ around here years ago,” he says, “and we never played it too much. Every now and then, we’d play it, and when we did, it was mostly after six o’clock in the evening, believe it or not, because of the way it sounded and the content.” The song would be later introduced to the worldwide record-collecting com- munity when it was featured on Dante Carfagna’s cult compilation Chains and Black Exhaust . In 1972, a sixteen-year-old Gary Blalock was joined by his older brother Milton Van Blalock on rhythm guitar, sixteen-year- old James Vass on lead guitar, John Warren on vocals, and Larry Johnson on drums. Iron Knowledge played locally in the Northeast Ohio area, performing a mixture of covers and original material. “We played a lot of cover music,” Blalock recalls, “and we’d take a
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