Its new president, Jerry Schoenbaum, closed a deal with Ten Wheel Drive, and together with producer Walter Raim the band released its first album, Construction #1.

Ten Wheel Drive's first big concert appearance was in 1969 at the Fillmore East in New York City.

Apart from the band's intense musical presence, Ravan caused some excitement when she took off her see-through jacket and continued the performance half-naked with painted breasts and shoulders.

Reviewing in Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981), Robert Christgau wrote: "This beats Lighthouse (arrghh) and Blood, Sweat & Tears (urrp), but with their intricate charts and printed music Michael Zager and Aram Schefrin make like they paid their dues in a conservatory.

The project consisted of a rock opera based on the Battle of the Little Big Horn and the history of the Native North American peoples.