The Buoys -

The Buoys were an American pop-rock band that released seven singles and one album between 1969 and the mid-Seventies. Their February 1970 Scepter single “Timothy,” written by Rupert Holmes, reached No. 17 on the Billboard Hot 100 after a prolonged regional rise. “Give Up Your Guns” later reached the Dutch Top 10 in separate 1972 and 1979 runs.

Members: Bill Kelly (vocals, guitar, flute), Fran Brozena (vocals, guitar, keyboards), Steve Furmanski (guitar), Bob Gryziec (bass), Jerry Hludzik (vocals, bass), Carl Siracuse (vocals, guitar, keyboards, flute), Chris Hanlon (drums, percussion)

Background

The Buoys formed in Scranton, Pennsylvania, in 1965 when thirteen-year-old singer-guitarists Bill Kelly and Fran Brozena combined their community-center groups. Kelly sang lead, while Brozena played lead guitar and supplied backing vocals. The pair recruited guitarist Steve Furmanski, bassist Bob Gryziec, and drummer Chris Hanlon from the northeastern Pennsylvania circuit.

Scepter staff engineer Michael Wright brought the group to the label’s New York studio for “These Days,” issued in June 1969 (b/w “Don’t You Know It’s Over”). Rupert Holmes wrote and arranged the A-side under the Julian Gill alias, while Furmanski and Brozena co-wrote the reverse. Wright and Robert O’Connell produced both sides for C. Michael Wright Productions, with Pete Dino as orchestrator and conductor.

The Buoys

The Buoys released their singular self-titled album in 1971 on Scepter.

Bassist Jerry Hludzik and guitarist–keyboardist Carl Siracuse replaced Gryziec and Furmanski after “Timothy,” joining Kelly, Brozena, and Hanlon for the album lineup. Five group compositions balance five Rupert Holmes titles, including the Danny Jordan co-write “Give Up Your Guns.” Sally Rosoff adds cello to the latter recording.

“Give Up Your Guns” draws an outlaw lament into an extended instrumental coda. “Castles” arches through courtly phrases with a sweeping, ornate contour. “The Prince of Thieves” strides through flute figures and repeated closing declarations.

“Timothy” bounds through sprightly brass punctuations and dramatic strings beneath a grim narration. “Tell Me Heaven Is Here” swells through harmonies and bongos before a tempo-shifting guitar solo. “Bloodknot” careens through chase-scene cues and theatrical tension. “Tomorrow” lingers in a haunting doomed-love lament before a wordless close. “Absent Friend” settles into a single-singer lament over spare acoustic accompaniment.

A1. “Give Up Your Guns” (4:14) – Holmes, Jordan; follows a Tampa bank robber cornered in a cabin after his lover leaves a surrender note and the sheriff arrives. “Shooting here or hanging there, either way I lose” reduces his options to death through resistance or execution.
A2. “Castles” (2:24) – The Buoys; recounts a doomed medieval romance between Mary and David, who crosses the Channel while she faces marriage to a duke. Burning fortifications and lovers’ graves leave their courtyard silhouettes as the pair’s sole memorial.
A3. “Sunny Days” (1:43) – The Buoys; links summer and seaside freedom to memories of a woman absent throughout the season. His wish to roam beside the sea sets imagined liberty against an attachment he cannot escape.
A4. “Memories” (3:20) – The Buoys; follows separation from autumn into winter as the narrator questions whether renewed contact could restore their former relationship. Her calls have ceased, and he now searches in vain for someone who once pursued him.
A5. “The Prince of Thieves” (4:15) – Holmes; presents a beggar’s son who imagines jewels, an ivory throne, and an unattainable woman while inheriting his father’s fatalism. Divine favor passes him by, leaving material ambition and spiritual hunger unresolved beneath his princely claim.

B1. “Timothy” (2:46) – Holmes; traps three miners underground with no food and insufficient water, then leaves only Joe and the narrator to meet rescuers. His blackout, newly full stomach, and Timothy’s disappearance disclose cannibalism without a direct confession.
B2. “Tell Me Heaven Is Here” (3:31) – The Buoys; turns an alpine sunrise into a prayer for release from grief and fear after a woman leaves. Snow-covered peaks, circling lovebirds, and a fountain become possible signs that reunion or transcendence remains within reach.
B3. “Bloodknot” (2:12) – Holmes; sends a young car thief to juvenile detention for a year and a day, where punishment confirms his criminal identity. His supposed progress consists of mastering theft and deception, which converts reform into an apprenticeship for further crime.
B4. “Tomorrow” (3:23) – Holmes; follows a young man who delays reunion until he earns money and considers himself mature enough for love. Each postponement consumes more of his life until age replaces opportunity and tomorrow becomes permanent evasion.
B5. “Absent Friend” (3:47) – The Buoys; depicts a man immobilized by someone’s departure, unable to stop revisiting the relationship. He spends passing days in reverie and finds himself without companionship, direction, or relief from memory.

Sessions occurred at Scepter Recording Studios in New York with producer/engineer Michael Wright, who worked in sequence on titles by Dionne Warwick (Very Dionne) and Loretta Long (Susan Sings Songs from Sesame Street). Rupert Holmes arranged nine tracks after contemporary assignments for The Cuff Links (Tracy) and the Street People (Jennifer Tomkins). Howard Reeves arranged “Timothy.”

Very Dionne art director Dick Smith designed the fold-open Unipak sleeve around Ronald Naschak photographs. The label and spine identify the record as The Buoys; display lettering elsewhere emphasizes “Timothy,” “Bloodknot,” and “Give Up Your Guns,” while a restaurant portrait bears the caption “Dinner Music.”

Scepter issued “Timothy” in February 1970 (b/w “It Feels Good”). The single entered the Billboard Hot 100 in January 1971 after regional airplay across the preceding year and reached No. 17 on the survey.

“Give Up Your Guns” followed in May (b/w “The Prince of Thieves”) and reached No. 84 on the Hot 100. In October, “Bloodknot” appeared as the third album single (b/w “Tell Me Heaven Is Here”).

A 1972 Dutch Scepter edition of “Give Up Your Guns” reached No. 5 on the Nederlandse Top 40. EMI reissued the single in the Netherlands in 1979 and returned it to No. 8 on the same survey.

EMI International also returned the album to the Dutch market in 1979 under the original billing. Remember Records expanded the catalog to 18 tracks on the 1993 CD Give Up Your Guns, combining the LP with early and later recordings.

Later Singles

The Buoys moved to Polydor for two Rupert Holmes-produced singles drawn from group compositions. “Don’t Try to Run” appeared in March 1973 (b/w “Dreams”), followed in October by “Liza’s Last Ride” (b/w “Downtown Singer”).

Ransom issued the Michael Kamen-produced “Don’t Cry Blue” in 1975 (b/w “Borderline”), after Kamen served as music director and keyboardist on David Bowie’s Diamond Dogs tour.

Later Activity

Bill Kelly and Jerry Hludzik formed the Jerry-Kelly Band with musicians from northeastern Pennsylvania. Chicago drummer Danny Seraphine and Rufus keyboardist David “Hawk” Wolinski produced the 1978 Epic album Somebody Else’s Dream after sound engineer Michael Stahl circulated the duo’s demo.

Columbia renamed the group Dakota for the 1980 self-titled follow-up, again produced by Seraphine and Wolinski. Dakota opened 35 dates on Queen’s The Game tour and later recorded the 1984 MCA/Full Moon album Runaway with Humberto Gatica and Seraphine.

Album discography: