The Ride / The Thief

Germany is not a place where you can find funk 45s. Even more unlikely it is to find a funk 45 which has been produced, recorded and released in Germany in the 1970s. There are a few exceptions though, and this one is certainly one of them. Still under the radar and not being played on neither the current soul nor funk circuit, Milton Bowser‘s The Ride could be a future hit within both scenes.

Little is known about Milton Bowser himself but our investigations led us to some interesting facts:

First off, we want to start with biographical info given on the back of the original single picture sleeve. According to this info, Bowser started as a performer in New York for “The Group”, likely some kind of musical at the Lawrence Merrick-Stage in 1966. Then, from 1969 to 1972, Bowser was active as a choreographer and composer for movies and TV, as well as writing lyrics for various record productions (though no credits for recorded works can be found on discogs or anywhere else until now). In 1973, Bowser was supporting the European tour by The Platters and Nancy Holloway as an “entertainer” which finally led him to stay in Wiesbaden, Germany. The same year, he continued his work as a musician by signing an exclusive contract with the German publishing company Breitkopf & Härtel. Futhermore, he is credited in the notes for writing the screenplay for a movie called “Ice Cold” as well as being singer and performer in a French version of “The Black Mikado (Le Black Micado)” – again, two productions no further info can be found of.

Most interestingly, this rather basic biography aside, the single already announces a full length album entitled “Soul of Mankind” by Milton Bowser, which of course set off the alarm! Wow – could you imagine a totally undiscovered funk album from Germany?

Unfortunately, Breitkopf & Härtel didn’t have any additional master tapes for the album and could not find out anything more about it. After getting the licence done for the single, our investigations continued by getting in touch with and talking to the people involved in the recording. Further research led us to producer Rudolf Leubner who could confirm that around 10-20 demo versions have been recorded with the same band as on “The Ride” in the same studio. Now where have the tapes gone? And where is Milton Bowser by the way?

According to Leubner, Milton Bowser stumbled into some legal problems in Germany for whatever reason. Bowser was provided a car by the publishing company to be able to go on tour with the band at the time. One day, the keys of the car and a written letter were left in the publishing company’s post box. In that letter, Milton Bowser explained that he had to leave the country, he apologized and gave them information about where the car was parked. “Oh, what a gentle guy at least, being fair enough to give back the car” – the people at B & H thought. Then, Leubner himself was sent to collect the car. The car was there but what the hell… the motor was gone! Bowser had sold it – possibly because it was easier to sell a motor than a complete car as he did not have the papers for it! Oh my gosh, you can only imagine what the good people at Breitkopf & Härtel, a company rather involved in classical music, may have thought now! It seemed he simply needed the money to flee to the Netherlands, Leubner assumes. Any projects of Milton Bowser, most importantly an album which seemed to be close to finished, completely fell apart.

Our last hope was that a guy called Peter Mühlbauer, who worked at the publishing company, could have taken the tapes with him as he was responsible for some of the works and build his own publishing company when he left. As Mühlbauer died a few years ago, one of his sons was helpful enough to check the archives of his father. Again, no luck, no tapes, nothing. Though, as Mühlbauer Jr. told us, they could have possibly been destroyed during a fire in 1980 when part of his father’s archive burned down.

Since then, Bowser, wherever he will rest or stay at the moment, never reappeared on the soul or funk scene – at least there is no other recorded output known. Actually, he may still have the tapes should he still be alive.

So, no matter what happened to the recorded works back then, it seems we have to stick with the glorious “The Ride / The Thief” release for now. At least one great single to prove his existence in funk history. Funny enough, the title “The Thief” – in which Bowser drops lines like “(at age) 16, I was stealing cars for fun” – gets a totally new meaning when we heard the story.

Written by John Raincoatman (2016)