Euphoria(2)

by Bryan Thomas
By 1965, the musical duo known collectively as Euphoria -- bassist William D. "Bill" Lincoln and Hamilton Wesley Watt -- had already been in several bands in the L.A. area, including the War Babies (their song "Jeanie's Pub" appears on numerous compilations, including Teenage Shutdown: You Better Get a Move On!), and a band called the Word (reputedly a Christian garage folk group whose lone single had a juvenile delinquent theme). By 1967, the duo had relocated to the Houston area, where they often played with the 13th Floor Elevators. Lincoln and Watt were soon back in Hollywood, where they joined a folk-rock band called Euphoria. The other members of the band included Detroit-born guitarist Doug Delain and drummer Dave Potter, a veteran of the Texas band Endle St. Cloud and the L.A.-based East Side Kids. Delain later left the group to form the short-lived Motorcycle Abilene with then-unknown Warren Zevon (he also recorded songs with Ken Forssi and Alban Pfisterer of the Elektra band Love), while Potter formed Potter-St. Cloud with some of his former bandmates.

Lincoln and Watt, meanwhile, continued to use the name Euphoria for the release of their only single -- "Hungry Woman" b/w "No Me Tomorrow" -- released on Chicago's Mainstream label. Both sides also appeared the following year on A Pot of Flowers, a Mainstream various-artists compilation. By 1968, the duo had written songs for Potter's East Side Kids (led by Jimmy Greenspoon, later founder of Three Dog Night), which appeared on their Tiger and the Lamb album for UNI. Watt also played guitar and contributed two songs to Lee Michaels' Carnival of Life. In 1969, Lincoln and Watt recorded an ambitious album of their own, A Gift from Euphoria, for Capitol Records, which is today highly collectible among psych rock collectors. Around this same time, the duo produced a few songs on The Wheel, a fantastic solo album by Bernie Schwartz (aka Don Atello and Adrian Pride).

Lincoln and Watt continued to work behind the scenes in the L.A. music biz, mostly as session players; Lincoln plays bass on Mel Taylor & the Dynamics' live album from 1973, while Watt, often associated on projects with producer Buzz Clifford, appears on former East Side Kids/Three Dog Night songwriter Daniel Moore's own self-titled 1971 album for Dunhill (Moore and Clifford were also in a short-lived band, Carp, that featured actor Gary Busey). Incidentally, former Euphoria guitarist Delain has led quite an interesting life. A self-proclaimed "secret transvestite since childhood," Delain had the first of many sex change operations in 1969, and in 1978, officially changed his name to Angela Lynn Douglas (type either name into a search engine and enjoy the wild ride). Drummer Dave Potter, along with Tommy Thompson (owner of Bido Lito's, a Hollywood club during the '60s), perished in the 1980 MGM Hotel fire in Las Vegas. In 1996, A Gift from Euphoria was reissued on CD by See for Miles.