Gary Wright, musician, singer and songwriter who had a gold disc with his hit Dream Weaver – obituary
Gary Wright, who has died aged 80, was a musician whose 1976 single Dream Weaver brought him a gold disc; though born in America, he had been a member of the British band Spooky Tooth, and had played on George Harrison’s triple album All Things Must Pass, as well as Ringo Starr’s hit singles It Don’t Come Easy and Back Off Boogaloo.
He was also a pioneer of electronic music, the Dream Weaver album relying almost entirely on drums and keyboards, and he was one of the first to play a portable keyboard on stage, worn with a strap and dubbed the “keytar”. The website vintagerock.com said Wright was “as responsible for the emergence of the synthesiser as a mainstream instrument as Keith Emerson and Rick Wakeman”.
Gary Malcolm Wright was born on April 26 1943 in Cresskill, New Jersey; he became a child actor, appearing in the TV show Captain Video and His Video Rangers and, on Broadway, the musical Fanny, which he performed on The Ed Sullivan Show with the cast.
He also learnt the piano and organ, playing in various local bands while still at high school, and in 1960 with Billy Markle he released a single as Gary and Billy, Working After School.
But music seemed too unstable a career, and Wright studied medicine in Virginia and New York then shifted to psychology, attending the Free University of Berlin. But while he was there he was reinfected with the music bug and began playing in bands; one of those, the New York Times, supported Traffic on tour, and when Wright met Chris Blackwell, head of Traffic’s label, Island, he moved to London.
There, Blackwell introduced him to the members of the band Art, who had just disbanded, and they formed Spooky Tooth. They released several successful albums but disbanded in 1970.
Wright made a solo album, Extraction, on which Klaus Voorman, bassist and friend of the Beatles, played. When George Harrison was recording All Things Must Pass an extra keyboard player was needed in short order – thanks to the producer Phil Spector’s penchant for massed ranks of instruments – and Voorman suggested Wright, who dashed across London to Abbey Road from another session. But there were early hiccups, as Wright recalled:
“Phil Spector’s voice rang out from the control room into the studio where all the musicians were: ‘Wait a minute, wait a minute; who’s that on the Wurlitzer piano making all those mistakes?’ Devastated and utterly embarrassed, I meekly raised my hand and said, ‘Sorry it’s me, Gary. I’m still learning the structure of the song.’ George immediately walked over to me and said consolingly, ‘Take all the time you need, we’re in no rush.’ He was so kind at that moment; I immediately felt a rapport with him.”
Wright would play on all Harrison’s 1970s albums and the two became lifelong friends; Harrison returned the compliment, backing Wright on the Dick Cavett Show in the US. Wright was also invited by John Lennon to play on the Imagine album but was kept away by clashing schedules.
He reformed Spooky Tooth with a different line-up, releasing the well-received 1973 album You Broke My Heart So I Busted Your Jaw, but in 1974 they split again, Wright resuming his solo career.
His big hit, Dream Weaver – “Fly me high through the starry skies/ Maybe to an astral plane/ Cross the highways of fantasy/ Help me to forget today’s pain” – was inspired by a trip he took to India with Harrison, who gave him a copy of Paramahansa Yogananda’s Autobiography of a Yogi. Reading more of Yogananda’s work, Wright read lines about “the idea of the mind weaving dreams”; the title was also inspired by a line in John Lennon’s song God: “I was the Dreamweaver/ But now I’m reborn.”
For Wright, the song is about “the consciousness of the Universe: God moving us through the night – delusion and suffering – into the Higher Realms”. The single reached the top three in the Billboard charts, while the album of which it was the title track made the Top Ten; the follow-up single Love Is Alive reached No 2 in the US. On the back of this success, Wright toured with a band comprising a drummer and three keyboard players (plus his sister Lorna on backing vocals).
His last single to make the charts was Really Wanna Know You in 1981, after which he devoted himself mainly to soundtracks and instrumentals, though he popped up in the 1992 film Wayne’s World, singing a new version of Dream Weaver, and his work was sampled by a host of artists including Jay-Z, Eminem and Tone-Loc. There were occasional Spooky Tooth reunions, and Wright played with Ringo Starr’s All-Starr touring band in the 2000s.
Gary Wright’s first two marriages ended in divorce; he is survived by his third wife, Rose, and by two sons from his first marriage.
Gary Wright, born April 26 1943, died September 4 2023
