A Pound of Flesh
During the mid to late '60's, bands had weird names. Such was the case for a couple of Twin cities bands - The Grasshoppers and The Bananas.     The Grasshoppers had a good 5-year run and broke up in 1968. Jiggs Lee decided to try his hand at a draft deferment in college.     In 1969, The Bananas were trying to re-align the "image thing" by making some changes. Jim Offerman and Joe Soucheray (who, today, is a Highly Paid Broadcast Professional, Author, and Columnist) were replaced by Jiggs Lee on vocals and ex-Crow drummer Mike Mlazgar. With Dave Elmeer on bass, Lloyd Forsberg on guitar and Al Dworsky on keyboards, the Bananas continued to fill existing contracts with the intention of making a change.  What to name the band? Lloyd said "Cain". Nobody had any objections, so then it began.Numerous teen club dates and school dances later, Cain began to stretch its base out. College shows where audiences were more politically active (after all - it WAS the early '70's) started to garner a "heavier" reputation for the band.Cain always seemed to have a devil of a time keeping drummers and keyboard players. By the time the band broke into the Chicago scene, Mike Mlazgar had been replaced by Tom Osfar. Cain learned about the long hours of a working Rush Street band - 6 hours per night and 7 on Saturday for two weeks straight.During that period, Al Dworsky left to live on a Kibbutz in Israel (ok……………) and was replaced by Fane Opperman for a short time. Jerry Magee filled those duties next. AfterJerry's stint, the keyboard position was filled by Chas Carlson. Chas authored "Katy", and it wasn't long before other members of Cain began to pen some original material.Cain would leave Minneapolis-St. Paul every 4-6 weeks in order to spend long nights at The Rush Up, The Corporation, Beginnings, and the Night Gallery (9 PM - 5 AM) in Illinois and The Stone Toad and Humpin' Hannah's in Milwaukee. Those led to dates at Merlin's in Carbondale, IL. and other outstate venues.Along the way, Cain worked club dates with similarly hopeful bands like Cheap Trick, Styx, and Kansas.2:30 in the morning would often turn into jams with whoever might be in the crowd that night. Fleetwood Mac, Iron Butterfly, Spencer Davis, Todd Rundgren, Mott the Hoople and others would haunt the clubs after shows looking for an open stage to jump.Tom Osfar left to join Tufano & Giamarese in Chicago. "Ozzie" was replaced by Kevin DeRemer from the Everett James Band. After all the changes, Dave, Lloyd, Kevin and Jiggs decided to do this thing as a 4-piece.Finally, the core that went into the studio was in place.Cain's first album - "A Pound of Flesh" originally was intended to have a very ethereal theme with a reference to Wm Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice". The resulting cover was the idea of ASI Records' marketing department run amok.Tours to support the LP took Cain to Texas, Michigan, Indiana and Kentucky besides the usual stints throughout Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa and Illinois.Cain's second ASI album "Stinger" was written during road trips and infrequent rests from touring. It fulfilled the 2-album contract with ASI and Cain's management was free to pursue other label opportunities.Cain began the work on a third LP in 1978. It was only half completed before, weary of unfulfilled promises and faced with the diluted market as a result of "Disco", Dave and Jiggs left to "air out". Lloyd & Kevin continued to play as Cain for an additional year until that, too, folded.Today, Dave is an Anesthesiologist in Minneapolis, Jiggs works as a commercial sound system designer in the Twin Cities, Lloyd is "somewhere in North Carolina", and Kevin is married to Melissa Manchester and living in Los Angeles.