Craig Vincent Smith

Craig Vincent Smith (April 25, 1945 - March 16, 2012), sometimes known simply as Craig Smith or Maitreya Kali, was an American musician and songwriter.

Chris and Craig

In mid-1965, Craig and fellow musician Chris Ducey met while auditioning for a proposed ABC program called The Happeners (the cast's third member, Suzannah Jordan, would later find success with California garage rockers The Pillory). Although the TV project ultimately fell through,^[1] Chris and Craig felt enough of a connection to continue working together in a musical capacity. Under the name Chris and Craig they released a single on Capitol Records in 1966, the exotic "Isha", which caught the ear of Michael Nesmith of The Monkees (interestingly, Craig had in fact auditioned for a role in The Monkees' eponymous television program as well).

The Penny Arkade

Nesmith expressed an interest in working with Chris and Craig based upon hearing their single and demos and witnessing them in performance - in fact, he once remarked that their music was "quintessentially the L. A. sound of the time."^[2] By the time he and the duo finally began earnestly working together in early 1967, they had added Texan drummer Bobby Donaho and bassist (and future horror filmmaker) Donald F. Glut to their lineup and were calling themselves The Penny Arkade.

Rehearsing at Nesmith's house, The Penny Arkade began honing a sound which combined hints of other contemporary bands such as The Byrds and Buffalo Springfield but also much more daring and, for the time, avant-garde touches - most notably the ambitious twelve-minute "Not the Freeze". Sadly, by the time the band really began coalescing as a unit, they were perceived as too "straight" in the emerging psychedelic music scene (a situation not helped by their very clean-cut stage presence). Nesmith's interest had also waned as The Monkees' own fortunes began to founder, and The Penny Arkade finally broke up in 1968 not having actually released any of their recorded output (although a number of their songs were eventually cobbled together and issued by Sundazed Records in 2004 and some appeared on Craig's solo albums).

Metamorphosis

During his tenure in The Penny Arkade (which technically terminated slightly before the band totally imploded) Craig had written a number of songs on his own which had been recorded by such notable contemporary musicians as Glen Campbell ("Country Girl"), and The Monkees themselves ("Salesman"), as well as actress Heather MacRae ("Hands of the Clock"). He had also secured a position prior to The Happeners as one of The Good Time Singers on The Andy Williams Show (Andy in fact covered Craig's song "Holly", about another lady Craig briefly dated). Using his sizable royalties, Craig decided to embark on a journey which would take him to, among other places, Peru, Argentina, Ecuador, Suriname, Tibet, Afghanistan and India.

On the trip, Craig became very interested in religion and spirituality and arrived back home sporting a new name, Maitreya Kali, which unusually blended elements of both Buddhist and Hindu traditions. His appearance also changed and at some point he had a spider very prominently tattooed on his forehead. This transformation did not sit especially well with some folks who had previously known him—for example, Chris Ducey said he had gone "totally loony tunes"^[3] while Glut more tactfully stated that "he returned... a quite 'different' person."^[4] For his part, Monkees producer Chip Douglas put it rather succinctly: "He was pretty trippy." By the early 1970s, nearly everyone who had been acquainted with the former Craig Smith had completely lost contact with him.

Solo recordings

In 1972 Craig (as Maitreya Kali) combined old Penny Arkade recordings with solo pieces he had recorded after his trip and released them in successive vinyl pressings (each in very tiny quantities) on his own labels, Akashic Records and United Kingdom of America Records. The two resulting albums were titled Apache and a double album combining Apache with a second disc, Inca, and Craig sold copies himself on the streets of Los Angeles, California. The Arkade songs sound much as one might expect given the times in which they were recorded. By contrast, many of the other compositions are far more introspective and spiritual in nature, often (but not always) featuring Craig alone on vocals and acoustic guitar.

There are a few musical surprises as well - "Love Is Our Existence" is actually an old Arkade song called "Century of Distance" with far more altruistic lyrics (and a bridge featuring some very spirited handclapping), and there is also an early demo of the aforementioned "Salesman" with Craig himself on vocals (overlaid for some reason with a track of Craig and Mike Love of The Beach Boys giggling hysterically while they listen). The LPs also contain some interesting spoken-word segues, like Craig chatting up the local ladies (who pretend not to understand him) in Paramaribo, Suriname. Sadly, "Apache" and "Inca" were Craig's only two releases.

Later years

Craig spent most of the subsequent four decades as a vagabond (reverting to his birth name), living on the streets of Studio City, California, where he had grown up. He died on March 16, 2012, in North Hollywood, California, aged 66.

A book about Craig Smith's life by author Mike Stax, Swim Through the Darkness: My Search for Craig Smith & the Mystery of Maitreya Kali, was published by Process Media in September 2016.^[5]

References