Eric Mercury, Canada’s ‘Electric Black Man,’ singer for ‘Be Like Mike’ campaign, dies

TORONTO — Eric Mercury’s raw and soulful vocals pushed the boundaries of rock music so successfully that the late musician’s 1969 solo debut “Electric Black Man” earned him the nickname of its title.

While friends of the Toronto singer-songwriter called him “Merc,” those who admired his music crowned him “the Electric Black Man,” a testament to the impact of an album that didn’t sell in huge numbers but won over his most esteemed contemporaries, including Miles Davis.

“He’s a Black rock star pioneer,” suggested Mark Ruffin, one of Mercury’s friends and host on Sirius XM’s Real Jazz channel.

Mercury died Monday in Montreal after a battle with pancreatic cancer, said his niece Lee Ann Mercury. He was 77.

Born in Toronto to a Methodist minister and a deaconess, Mercury was the youngest of seven children in a household of musicians. Together, many of the siblings performed in choir and as a group at church functions and other community events.

Those early experiences opened his eyes to the world of live music and by the late 1950s, he’d begun playing in Toronto rock and R&B groups just as the city’s live music scene caught fire.

The Pharaohs welcomed Mercury into their group before he stepped to the front of the stage as part of the Soul Searchers, an act where he shared top billing with fellow lead singer Dianne Brooks.

Brenda Russell, a four-time Grammy nominee, met the Soul Searchers when she was 14 years old and hoping to play live shows. Eventually, she opened for the band.

“They were the most stunning things I’d ever seen,” she remembered.

“They were the biggest soul band in the country; there was nobody like them.”

By 1968, Mercury had split for New York in pursuit of a solo career. It was a rough start with some friends saying he spent his earliest days in the Big Apple effectively homeless.

When he found his footing, he landed in the recording studio to make “Electric Black Man,” a bold and vibrant debut that showcased his voice against a wall of electric guitars.

The songs were urgent and unpredictable, ranging from the funky “Long Way Down” to a cover of Donovan’s “Hurdy Gurdy Man,” and the nearly seven-minute psychedelic journey of “Earthless.”

The album was recorded at the same time Jimi Hendrix laid down his own songs at New York’s Record Plant studio. The two musicians would often cross paths.

“We’d work from noon to midnight,” said Gary Katz, who produced “Electric Black Man.”

“When we left at midnight, we’d open the door and Jimi would be sitting outside with a group of six or eight people, some of them young kids all in tie-dye. We’d walk out the door and they would walk in. The room was filled with Marshall cabinets, floor to ceiling, I can’t even tell you how many, and we would sit right outside the door and we would listen.”

Upon its release, “Electric Black Man” found its fans, one of the most notable being jazz legend Miles Davis who, as Mercury’s friends tell the story, herded his bandmates into a room with a stash of drugs to help immerse them in the album.

“He made them just listen to it — and they loved it,” said Russell. “They listened to it over and over.”

After a dispute with his original record label, Mercury jumped to Enterprise Records, an imprint of renowned Memphis label Stax Records that was created to branch out of the traditional soul market.

He released four more solo albums with singles that included “I Can Smell That Funky Music,” which fused elements of roots and soul, and “Don’t Lose Faith in Me Lord,” an exuberant call to the dance floor that drew from his church roots.

His other work included writing for and producing several other artists, among them Dusty Springfield, Donny Hathaway and Dionne Warwick, while his song “You Are My Heaven,” co-written with Stevie Wonder, was recorded by Roberta Flack.

Mercury continued to make music later in life, contributing vocals to “Bright Eyed Woman,” a 2019 song by Montreal composer Anthony Aramouni.

He also tried his hand at acting over the years and appeared in a stage production of “Jesus Christ Superstar” and on the silver screen in “American Hot Wax,” a 1978 drama about the career of radio disc jockey Alan Freed.

Mercury left his stamp on other corners of popular culture, most notably as lead singer in Gatorade’s “Be Like Mike” advertising campaign starring basketball superstar Michael Jordan.

His song “Long Way Down” would also be sampled by hip hop group A Tribe Called Quest for their 1991 track “Rap Promoter.”

“He was a creative junkie,” Ruffin said of his friend.

“He absorbed pop culture more than anybody I know. And by absorb it, I mean all of it. When we were hanging in Chicago … we used to go to this place and play Trivial Pursuit and he would wear people out no matter what the subject.”