It makes sense that a band born and raised in Dayton, Ohio, which has donned the mantle of funk capital, would be compelled to construct the monstrously heavy drum syncopation that opens Swithold’s “Slow Burner.” As the band’s leader and only consistent member over their nearly ten-year tenure, Ed Lamb recalls a different inspiration. “We were trying to get some of the disco sound in there,” he recalls about the band’s first and only single. Lamb and the rest of the band grew up in and around Dayton’s Belmont neighborhood and reluctantly attended Belmont high school. As a freshman in 1967, Lamb learned guitar and formed a quintet by his sophomore called Hope. His brother Mike Lamb got the bass gig and Ed recruited Jack Haas as rhythm guitar, Jim Clinger on keys, and drummer Mark Worstein. Hope was just an aspirational term, not referencing anything in particular, and they shed it after about a year.

Other than playing house parties and a few requisite talent shows, Hope made little impact. They needed a rebrand, and a membership shake up. They changed their name to Swithold… a reference to the Shakespeare character Saint Withold (which was contracted to Swithold in King Lear.) By the name change, Mike, Jack, and Mark had all been replaced. While still in high school, they managed to sign on with Cincinnati-based AJ Entertainment, who booked them at frat parties and student unions at University of Dayton and University of Miami Ohio. Their parents had to sign their contracts. Mike Lamb ends up working for AJ Entertainment (now called Athens Entertainment) and helps manage the band, now a slimmer quartet: Ed, Jim, Dan Gibson on vocals, and Chuck Maue on drums. A few more personnel changes across the early 1970s resolves them into a power trio: Bill Todd on bass and John Loy on drums. Mike Lamb returned as their manager and booking agent, upgrading them Despite playing since 1968, it would be Ed’s first recording session. He had become aware of Phil Mahaffey’s Cyberteknics Studios from popular DJ Gene “By Golly” Barry on AM1410 WING, who shilled for the small operation on his radio show. Today, the Cyberteknics name is best known for giving ’90s rock bands Guided by Voices and Brainiac their start, but at the time they were also recording some significant acts like Sun and The Ohio Players. “Phil had a pretty small recording track, only a 12-channel board and a one-inch tape machine.” It was enough for the trio to leave their mark.

Swithold’s goal was to produce a single to sell off stage, promote the band to prospective venues and, of course, court interest from a fully-operational record label (the brand that would appear one the label itself, Pork, was a vanity imprint available only to those using the Cyberteknics rooms, baked into their fee). Despite their stated interest in cashing-in on the disco phenomena, “Slow Burner” sounds nothing like any disco record on the market. It seems to anticipate hip-hop, from the opening breakbeat to the psychedelic mush that closes the track. “The fade-away at the end of was done with slap-back echo…” Slapback is done with just a reel-to-reel tape machine, no external effects box or pedal, so it was unclear to them how it turned out until they mixed it. Other than a few spins from Gene “By Golly” Barry, they got no radio play, and it never led to interest as a disco record or bait for major label interest. Mostly they sold it from the stage as they toured the regions dive bars and officer’s mess halls, and ran through the small run. Instead of cashing-in on disco, the new fad actually dried up their gigs. “Swithold fell by the wayside after disco took over. You could still play a country club but you couldn’t play a bar anymore.” Chasing work, the band changed their name to the upmarket-sounding Diamond and moved down to Norfolk, to tap the scene around Norfolk and Newport News that expanded their possibilities to include resorts and tourist towns, as well as the usual military bases and clubs. They still couldn’t cut it, so Lamb moved back to Ohio. Formed the part-time Van Dalton band to play Southern Rock. He took on construction and remodeling work during the day and put less expectation into his music. Taking another shot at recording, he found a backer to help them record an album but she ran out of money after a loan to another local band fell through. The Van Dalton Band continued until the mid-1990s before Lamb threw in the towel on playing music.