Comprised of guitarists and singer/songwriters Dave Curtiss and Clive Maldoon, the duo Curtiss Maldoon made a couple of low-key rock albums in the early '70s and were later most remembered for their associations with much more famous musicians. Curtiss (on bass) and Maldoon were both in Bodast, the short-lived group that Steve Howe played lead guitar for between stints with Tomorrow and Yes. Maldoon (whose birth name was Clive Skinner) and Curtiss wrote -- alone, together, or with Howe -- much of the material that Bodast recorded in 1969, which showed up on some reissues after Howe's vault to fame. When Bodast broke up at the end of the '60s, with Howe joining Yes, Curtiss and Maldoon formed a duo that took off in a less harder-rocking, more singer/songwriter-inclined direction than Bodast had. Curtiss Maldoon signed to Deep Purple's label, Purple, releasing albums in 1971 and 1973. Steve Howe and Bruce Thomas, later in Elvis Costello's Attractions, were among the large pool of musicians to help out on their self-titled debut LP. Their second and final one, simply called Maldoon, came out in late 1973. This second album was credited to Maldoon solely, although Curtiss plays on the whole thing; he asked for his name to be taken off of it, unhappy with the results. Unsurprisingly, the duo disbanded soon after and Maldoon died accidentally from drug-related causes in 1978. In 1998, Curtiss Maldoon achieved some retrospective renown: Maldoon's niece, Christine Leach, of the band Baby Fox, worked with producer William Orbit on a re-recording of a song, "Seraphyn," from the duo's first album. When superstar Madonna contacted Orbit to sound out new material, he sent her a backing track of Leach's new version of "Seraphyn." Reworked again and retitled "Ray of Light," this became the title song for Madonna's 1998 album. ~ Richie Unterberger