got me a complication

Talk Talk came blasting out of radio speakers all over the U.S. when kids were going back to school in 1966. No one had ever heard anything quite like it on Top 40 AM radio. No one had ever seen anything quite like the band, the Music Machine.

They dressed all in black, dyed their hair black and wore one black kid leather glove. They were punk before punk was cool.

 

The Music Machine (1965–1969) was an American band headed by singer-songwriter Sean Bonniwell based in Los Angeles.  

 

The group came started as The Ragamuffins in 1965, but became The Music Machine in 1966. The single "Talk Talk" was recorded at RCA studios on July 30, 1966.

 

Their first album, (Turn On) The Music Machine, was released in 1966 on the Original Sound label. Seven of the twelve tracks were originals, written by Bonniwell. One of these, "Talk Talk," became a Top 20 hit in the U.S. The follow-up single, "The People In Me," peaked at #66. Bonniwell blamed the weak showing of this single on bickering between the band's manager and a top record label executive. It is very similar to the story in the movie, That Thing You Do, written and directed by Tom Hanks. Four cover songs were included on their debut release, due to record label pressure, much to the disappointment of Bonniwell.

 

After a promotional tour of the U.S., the rest of the original line-up, which included Ron Edgar (drums), Mark Landon (guitar), Keith Olsen (bass) and Doug Rhodes (organ), left Bonniwell, due to internal conflicts. In 1967, Music Machine, essentially only Bonniwell at this point, were signed to Warner Bros. and re-named The Bonniwell Music Machine.  A self-titled LP was released that year, made up mostly of previously recorded singles with the original line-up. The recording spawned no big hits, despite the inclusion of a few more pop-oriented songs.

 

A third album was recorded but never released. In 2000, a Bonniwell Music Machine album called Ignition was released on Sundazed Records. This is a collection of songs from the unreleased 1969 album, as well as demo tracks from the band's Raggamuffin days in 1965.

 

In 2000, Bonniwell, from 1980 on a devout Christian, wrote about his life and The Music Machine in a biography called "Beyond The Garage," published by the small press publisher Christian Vision.

 

He claims he has “thousands” of recorded songs stashed away in boxes at his home which could have been hits.