Craig Smith (musician)

In August 1963 Smith was recruited by Michael Storm and Tom Drake (who had performed together as the Other Singers) to join the Good Time Singers, a band formed to replace the New Christy Minstrels on The Andy Williams Show.[9] From December 1963 to January 1964 Smith and Storm also performed shows with Gordon and Sheila MacRae, supported by their daughters Heather and Meredith.[10] The Good Time Singers released their debut self-titled album in January 1964,[11] and their second album One Step More in October 1964.[12] In between the albums they had embarked on a 17-city tour.[13] Around this time Smith began songwriting, and he wrote a song called "Christmas Holiday", which was recorded by Andy Williams for his 1965 album Merry Christmas.[14] As the Good Times Singers' was ending, Smith and fellow bandmember Lee Montgomery intended to form a new duo called Craig & Lee, but Smith had to pull out after successfully auditioning for a new ABC television show,[15] called The Happeners.[16] Smith had previously unsuccessfully auditioned for The Monkees.[17] The pilot for The Happeners was filmed in November 1965.[18] The Good Times Singers' contract for The Andy Williams Show was not renewed past 1966.[19]

After a successful audition process, Smith won the role of Alan Howard on The Happeners.[18] The show was to be directed by David Greene,[20] and was a mix of acting and singing, set in New York and based on the fictional eponymous folk trio.[21] However, ABC declined to pick up the show following the pilot episode.[22] Smith and his The Happeners co-star Chris Ducey decided to form a musical duo called Chris & Craig.[23] They moved into an apartment together and began writing songs.[24] They signed to Capitol Records, recording a number of demos throughout the summer of 1966.[25] Their first single, "Isha", was written by Ducey b/w "I Need You" written by Smith, and was produced by Steve Douglas utilizing session musicians Hal Blaine and Carol Kaye of The Wrecking Crew. It was released in July 1966.[25] Another single, "I Cant't Go On" (written by Ducey), was produced with the same line up. Originally an acoustic duo [24] utitilizing session musicians, during their later 1966 sessions they began experimenting with a full band,[26] and in November 1966 they played a show supporting the Mothers of Invention with such a full band, with Smith and Ducey playing electric guitars.[27] Throughout late 1966 and early 1967 the duo continued to write and record more songs, but they were never released by the label.[27] In 1967 Smith befriended Gábor Szabó and the Beach Boys, unsuccessfully offering to write songs for the latter.[28] In early 1967 Chris & Craig began playing with a permanent backing band.[29] Through their friendship with Michael Nesmith of the Monkees, they hired Jerry Perenchio as their manager.[30] They changed their name to the Penny Arcade, shortly becoming the Penny Arkade for trademark reasons.[30]

Nesmith began producing Smith and Ducey, initially pairing them with John London (bass) and Johnny Raines (drums).[31] They were eventually replaced by Donald F. Glut on bass (who had appeared in an earlier incarnation of the band) and Bobby Donaho on drums.[32] While the band worked on their own material, Smith continued to write songs, including "Salesman" for the Monkees,[33] and "Hands of the Clock" and "Lazy Sunny Day" for Heather MacRae.[34] Smith was also credited as co-producer for the songs, alongside Bob Thiele.[35] He also wrote "Holly" for Williams.[36] Nesmith took the band into a studio to record their album.[37] One of the songs written at this time by Smith was "Country Girl", which was later recorded and released by Glen Campbell for his Try a Little Kindness album.[38] The album never materialised, but some of the songs were collected and released as Not the Freeze in 2004.[39] After a bad review of one of their live shows, the band decided to concentrate on writing and recording songs.[40] In early 1968 they unsuccessfully auditioned for the role of house band on the TV show Peyton Place.[41] In February 1968 Smith and his father went into business together, running a bar called the Buckeye Inn.[42] In late 1968 Smith was associating with the Manson Family, and exploring an interest in Eastern philosophy, particularly Transcendental Meditation.[43] Smith eventually left the Penny Arkade and decided to go travelling.[44] The band continued without Smith until 1969, renamed as the Armadillo and with Bob Arthur as a replacement guitarist.[45]

After previously smoking small amounts of marijuana with friends,[46] Smith began experimenting with LSD in 1968.[36] During his travels Smith took LSD on a "regular" basis,[47] and he smoked "copious amounts of hashish" while in Afghanistan.[48] Smith decided to travel to India alone, with just a guitar and a backpack.[49] He set off to join the hippie trail, arriving in Turkey in October 1968, possibly via Austria and Greece.[50] Smith met fellow Western travellers (an Irishman and two American women) in Istanbul, and they set off together in a VW van, intending to drive to Delhi.[51] After the van broke down, they hitched a ride in a lorry transporting olive oil,[52] before taking a bus to Iran.[53] They passed through Afghanistan,[47] with Smith deciding to leave his companions for a few days in Kandahar while they travelled on to Kabul.[48] Smith never joined them in Kabul; when his companions returned to Kandahar a few months later, they heard rumours that he had "gone crazy", running through the market with a knife threatening people, and then disappeared.[54] It later became apparent that after threatening a market vendor, Smith had been beaten close to death and robbed, and possibly kidnapped and raped.[55] Smith possibly spent some time in an Afghan insane asylum,[56] where he is thought to have developed acute schizophrenia.[57] It is not known if Smith ever reached India, although he and his travelogue claims he did visit India and reconnected with the Maharishi and went to Nepal.[56][57]

Smith returned to the United States in late 1968 or early 1969,[58] initially living back with his parents.[59] He was possibly institutionalized and medicated for a short period.[60] By this stage he was using the name "Maitreya Kali",[61] which he intended to become his legal name,[62] although this didn't happen until 1971.[57] He continued to receive royalty checks from his historical songwriting for Williams and Campbell, amongst others.[63] After his girlfriend left him, Smith decided to travel to South America, spending time in Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Argentina, and the Galapagos Islands of Chile.[64] Returning from South America, Smith reunited with his girlfriend, and they became engaged.[65] When the engagement ended, Smith ripped up the wedding dress his fiancée had chosen.[66] Following another brief re-connection, the relationship ended for good when Smith violently threatened one of her male friends.[67]

Smith claimed to have mystical powers,[68] and thought he was a messiah.[62] He prophesied that he would be "King of the World" by 2000.[69] He claimed to be a reincarnation of Jesus, Buddha, and Hitler.[70] As his erratic and bizarre behavior became more pronounced, such as claiming voices were telling him to kill people, his friends started to ignore him.[71] One friend eventually had to obtain a restraining order against Smith.[72] His appearance became more and more unkempt, with long hair and a wild beard.[73] At one point, he shaved his head and beard off, and dressed in robes, his appearance comparable to a Buddhist monk, although his hair and beard would later grow back.[57] He visited Heather and Sheila MacRae in Miami, and was asked to leave by Sheila's new husband after he woke up to find Smith standing over their bed with a knife.[74] Heather saw him again in Los Angeles in 1972, when he "looked really scary [...] just totally looked insane, and would say weird things."[75]

Smith wrote two solo albums Apache and Inca in 1971, which were self-released in 1972.[76] In the liner notes to both albums, Smith claims to have played every instrument.[77] The liner notes as a whole have been described as "bizarre [and] rambling",[78] and display his belief system.[79] Apache was released on his own 'Akashic Records',[77] and features three songs from the Penny Arkade recording sessions.[80] Inca was released a few months after Apache, in the summer of 1972,[81] not as a standalone album but as a double gatefold with Apache on his new 'United Kingdom of America Records' label.[82] Like Apache, Inca also features songs from the Penny Arkade recording sessions.[83] The albums were mainly distributed to Smith's friends or sold on the street.[84]

After the albums were released, Smith sold his car with the intention of going to Ethiopia.[85] His mental health problems continued, such as suggesting to a friend that they fight to the death using samurai swords.[86] He also had a small black spider tattooed in the middle of his forehead in 1972 or 1973.[87] On April 22, 1973, Smith attacked his mother at the family home.[88] An attempted murder charge was not established,[89] and following a psychiatric examination, he pleaded 'no contest' to a charge of assault.[90] He was sentenced in November 1973 to six months to life, the maximum sentence for the offence, and the Judge suggested intense medical and psychiatric treatment.[91] He began his sentence at the California Institution for Men, before transferring to the Deuel Vocational Institution in December 1973.[92] He transferred again, to the California Men's Colony, in February 1974.[93] He was granted parole at the fourth attempt, and was released from prison in June 1976.[94]

Suzannah Jordan, the third member of The Happeners trio, ran into Smith in LA in 1977; he was homeless but did not display any mental health issues.[95] He drifted in and out of mental hospitals until the mid-1980s when funding was cut, and would then spend the next years homeless.[57] He also had various run-ins with the law.[96] In 1981 or 1982 he saw another old friend and told her he had been recording music.[97] He has been indeed recording music, according to Mike Stax, as late as the late 1990s,[98] which includes the 1994 song "Waves", which was released on the 2018 CD version of the album Love is Our Existence.[99] By the early 2000s his "ramblings" had moved from Eastern philosophy/his Maitreya Kali persona to aliens.[6] Smith died on March 16, 2012.[100] His family declined to collect his ashes,[101] and they were eventually collected by journalist Mike Stax.[102]

• Not the Freeze (Recorded in 1967-68) (Sundazed, 2004)

• Apache (Released under the name Satya Sai Maitreya Kali) (Akashic Records, 1971) (Re-issued on Maitreya Apache Records, 2019 together with Inca)
• Inca (Released under the name Satya Sai Maitreya Kali) (United Kingdom of America Records, 1972) (Re-issued on Maitreya Apache Records, 2019 together with Apache)
• Love is Our Existence (Maitreya Apache Music, 2018)[103]