Former Orpheus band member finds the time to look back to the ’60s: ‘Those were exciting times’

By Carol Britton Meyer

Fans of “Can’t Find the Time” – a memorable song performed by Orpheus that made the Billboard Magazine “Hot 100” list in 1969 – will be pleased to know that band member Stephen Martin is still into the music scene, continuing to write songs and produce music for himself and other local musicians.
“I wouldn’t like to live in a world without music,” Martin told the South Shore Senior News. “When I have something to say, I say it to music.”
Martin, now an ageless 79-year-old, wrote 15 songs that were recorded by Orpheus, but he didn’t perform with the four-member band until the release of their fourth and final album, singing and playing the guitar and harmonica.
“I played the cowbell on the first album,” he recalled.
“Can’t Find the Time” was featured on the band’s first album, “Orpheus,” and also was recorded as a single. Surprisingly, the single “bombed” in 1968 but became a hit when re-released the following year, due to a greater promotion effort.
When asked what he thinks made the song so popular, Martin said it was a “different sound at that time. Some people said we sounded a bit like the band Chicago because of our four- and five-part harmonies. Our music was something new that no one had heard before.”
Sunshine pop
Martin recalled that the music played by Orpheus was dubbed “sunshine pop” at the time, and the band was part of the Boston Sound scene.
The name “Orpheus” came from Greek mythology. Orpheus was a Thracian bard, legendary musician, prophet, and a renowned poet.
Martin moved to San Francisco in 1973 – a couple of years after Orpheus broke up – playing in bands for 14 years before moving to Rhode Island with his family. He moved to Hull in 1991.
Three of the former band members and Martin formed Orpheus Reborn, which performed new original songs along with some of the most popular earlier tunes, from 2004 to 2008.
“We had to perform ‘Can’t Find the Time,’ even though we had performed it a thousand times before [because of its popularity]!” he said.
Looking back 56 years since Orpheus was formed, Martin recalls that those were exciting times. “There were 180,000 garage bands in the United States in the late 1960s, and there was a social revolution going on. At the time, I was in for the fun and not the money,” he said.
Martin is still in touch with former Orpheus member Harry Sandler and recently saw Jack McKennes at a celebration of life for Snake Gulliksen, another band member. Bruce Arnold passed on some time ago.
Grewing up in Worcester, Martin started off as a singer-songwriter at the age of 16, when he wrote “When I Was Young.” The first instrument he played was the ukulele, transitioning to a baritone ukulele and then to a guitar.
“I enjoyed performing as part of Worcester’s great music scene,” he said. “There were [and still are] lots of places to play.”
Creating a mini-Haight-Ashbury
After visiting San Francisco during the summer in the late 1960’s – “the summer of love with flowers in my hair,” Martin quipped – “I was so impressed with Haight-Ashbury that when I returned to Worcester I created my own mini version, Congress Alley, with 300 people living there. Orpheus’s first album included a song of the same name. Congress Alley was a creative scene for musicians, artists, poets, writers, and activists.”
Martin and his wife, Kathe Donlan, have hosted the Catbird Cafe coffeehouse, which raises funds for the New England Wildlife Center in Weymouth, for the past 18 years.
The Cafe is now virtual (since the pandemic) attracting performers from all over the world. Martin serves as emcee and sings and plays the guitar during the open mic, performing both original songs and covers. For part of that time, he worked as special projects manager for the wildlife center.
Besides raising funds for NEWC, Martin co-founded Lakota Kidz in the early 2000s to help the people living on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota pay for heat.
“The winters are hard there,” Martin said.
He was also co-founder of Musicians for the Greater Good, “which put on concerts to benefit various progressive organizations and candidates and other causes until this year,” Martin said.
Keep an open mind to new music
His message to South Shore Senior News readers is to thank them and other fans for their support of Orpheus in the late 1960s.
“Their being there was essential to our success,” he said. “I would encourage them to not close their minds to the music that’s happening today while still enjoying the music of yesterday, including ‘Can’t Find the Time,’ to bring back memories.”
During the past 15 years, Martin, a former journalist, has produced eight CDs in addition to his first novel, “Thumper” – which he refers to as “autobiographical fiction” – about “a precocious troubled kid navigating the travails of growing up in a fractured family in a gritty New England factory town in the 1950s,” according to a review by Dominican University of California Professor Robert L. Bradford.
“My first job was as a copy boy for the Worcester Telegram & Gazette,” he recalled, noting that his writing is influenced by Jack Kerouac. “I always wanted to write a novel, and when I stopped working for the wildlife center, I got that chance,” he said.
Martin is currently working on an audio version of “Thumper” and is writing a sequel, “Thumper Grows Up,” which he hopes to finish this year.
‘Keep creating’
“Creativity, especially for people in my age bracket, is important,” he said. “Keep creating, whatever it is – whether writing, painting, writing poetry, collecting shells, doing jigsaw puzzles, or gardening. Society still has a need for what we do, and it’s important to be part of a community.”
Martin and Donlan have been married for 30 years.
“I love her so much. I’m very happy for the first time in my life,” Martin said. “She’s basically my agent and keeps the world away, which is important to me. She’s my soul mate.”
For more information and to order a book, visit www.stephenbmartin.net.