From the "Cradle" to the "Underground"

Few rock ‘n’ roll stories are more unlikely than that of a spiky-haired punk rocker from a suburban residential district in northwest London who became an MTV darling.  The rise was all but meteoric for William Broad, who changed his name to Billy Idol and enjoyed a degree of success as lead singer for Generation X before going solo and becoming an eighties pop/rock icon.  Riding on a string of Top 40 hits highlighted by “White Wedding”, “Eyes Without a Face”, “To Be a Lover”, “Sweet Sixteen” and the #1 “Mony Mony”, Idol became one of the most recognizable commodities in popular music by the end of the decade.

As the nineties dawned, Idol seemed poised to continue his streak into the new decade.  Despite a breakup with longtime bandmate Steve Stevens and a motorcycle accident that nearly cost him his leg & did cost him a potentially successful movie career (he had been cast in major roles in “The Doors” and “Terminator 2”, but lost both due to his injury), his “Charmed Life” album was well-received and enjoyed an enormous amount of airplay on radio and MTV.  “Cradle of Love” even earned a Grammy nomination.

Unfortunately, his luck was about to run out.  At a time when his contemporaries were struggling to find their place amid the new grunge movement, Billy found himself at a fork in the road.  Had he continued along the bluesier path down which he had started on “Charmed Life”, he might have enjoyed a degree of success similar to that of Bon Jovi.  However, he took a calculated risk by embracing the new digital technology of the time and recorded a concept album.  “Cyberpunk” was released in 1993 and was touted as being one of the first by a major artist to be recorded completely by computers.

The album was panned by critics and shunned by fans.  It was around that time that Billy suffered a near-fatal drug overdose.  With his life AND career in shambles, he would shy away from public life to focus on being a father.

Over the next decade, Idol’s output was minimal.  In 1994, he and Stevens reunited and contributed the title song to the movie “Speed”.

In 2000, he appeared on Tommy Iommi’s solo album, co-writing and singing “Into the Night”.  A year later, an appearance on VH-1’s “Storytellers” prompted a hits compilation that included a remake of Simple Minds’ “Don’t You (Forget about Me)” (which was actually written for Billy in the first place, but he refused it).  During this period, he also played himself in “The Wedding Singer” and lent his voice to the animated film “Heavy Metal 2000”.

It wasn’t until 2005, though, that he would release another full album of all-new material.  As a whole, “Devil’s Playground” was probably Idol’s weakest.  However, it was propelled to #46 on Billboard’s Top 200 based largely on the strength of the first single, “Scream”, which stands among his best.  The song peaked at #34 on the U.S. Rock chart, but was inexplicably excluded from the otherwise excellent 2008 hits compilation “Idolize Yourself”.

Six years would pass before Billy would release another album of all-new material.  “Kings & Queens of the Underground” was released on October 14, 2014, a week after Idol’s autobiography, “Dancing with Myself”, hit bookstores.  It was also around that time that his #1 1987 hit “Mony Mony” was being heard in heavy rotation on national television thanks to its inclusion in a Nissan Sentra ad campaign.  It was a marketing blitzkrieg that put Billy virtually everywhere at once.  As a result, “Kings & Queens of the Underground” debuted at #34 on Billboard’s Top 200, his highest debut EVER.

Though the album received lukewarm reviews from many music critics, it’s easily Billy’s best since 1983’s “Rebel Yell”.  Much of the album sounds like his music from that time.

His “Kings & Queens of the Underground” tour is officially over, but Billy promises to be back on the road in the U.S. soon.

http://billyidol.net/update-from-billy-08-31-15/

Stop Believin'

Though few artists were bigger in the eighties than Steve Perry & Journey, both were very much in limbo by the dawn of the nineties.  Journey had quietly disbanded after 1986’s “Raised on Radio” with Neal Schon and Jonathan Cain forming Bad English with John Waite & Ricky Phillips, Cain’s former Babys bandmates.

The band would release two albums, 1989’s self-titled debut & 1991’s “Backlash”, and score 3 Top 40 singles before disbanding in 1991.

Meanwhile, Steve Perry delivered his second solo album to Sony in 1988 only to have it rejected by the label.  It would be 6 years before he would finally release new material.  1994’s “For the Love of Strange Medicine” was met with mixed reviews and would only generate one Top 40 hit.

The following year, Steve would finally agree to a Journey reunion with the “Frontiers” lineup of Schon, Cain, Ross Valory and Steve Smith.  The resulting album, “Trial by Fire”, would be released in 1996 and would contain the top 20 “When You Love a Woman”, as well as three other singles that would hit the Mainstream Rock or Adult Contemporary charts.

Though the album had a few too many slow songs, it also had its share of rockers and haunting mid-tempo numbers.  Steve’s voice was flawless and the band was able to effortlessly recreate the “Frontiers” sound over a decade after that classic album was released.

Unfortunately, just as “Trial by Fire” was building momentum and the band was preparing to embark on a world tour, Perry was injured during a hiking accident & would be unable to perform without hip replacement surgery, which he was reluctant to undergo.  Finally, the band decided to move forward without him, hiring former Tall Stories vocalist Steve Augeri as his replacement.  Their first album with Augeri, 2001’s “Arrival”, would give the band their final Top 40 hit.

In 2005, Journey was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame and Steve Perry made a surprising appearance.  Later that year, the band celebrated their 30^th anniversary with a new album entitled “Generations”.  The album failed to generate a hit single and Steve Augeri was let go in the midst of a tour in 2006 due to a “chronic throat infection”.  Jeff Scott Soto would fill in for the remainder of the tour.

In 2007, the band would begin a search for a new lead singer, ultimately settling on Filipino singer Arnel Pineda, whom they found on YouTube singing Journey covers.  Their first album with Pineda was 2008’s “Revelation”.  Two of its singles would become hits on Billboard’s AC chart.

The follow-up, 2011’s “Eclipse”, would give the band another AC hit.

They continue to tour extensively with Pineda blowing audiences away with his vocal chops that rival Perry’s at his peak.

But what of Journey’s former lead singer, the man who made famous all of those hits that Arnel is now singing to sold-out crowds all over the world?  Well, after almost 2 decades out of the limelight amid rumors of throat problems that had rendered him unable to sing, Steve Perry resurfaced at an Eels performance, of all places.  He had been a fan of the band for years, eventually meeting them through a mutual friend, resulting in him becoming a regular at their rehearsals and weekly croquet games.  Over time, they convinced him to sit in with the band at rehearsals, never dreaming that he would eventually take them up on their invitation to join them on stage…but that’s just what he did one night in 2014 in St. Paul, Minnesota.  Perry joined The Eels for an encore during which he sang “It’s a Motherfucker”, “Open Arms” and “Lovin’, Touchin’, Squeezin’”.

Clearly, he wasn’t attacking the high notes like he used to*.  Was that because he CAN’T...or was it because he hadn’t sung in almost 20 years and was just out of practice?  Who knows?  He has said in recent interviews that he’s working on a new album.  He’s also expressed interest in reuniting with Journey at some point.  That seems highly unlikely, though.  Given their current worldwide success with Pineda, it’s doubtful that they would want to risk alienating him (even though he’s stated that he would welcome a reunion of Steve and the band) for an aging Perry who may not even be able to sing their songs anymore and probably wouldn’t be in it for the long haul anyway.  No, as romantic an idea as a reunion of the classic Journey lineup might be, it’s NOT going to happen.

*Here's an excellent article about Steve Perry’s voice:

Steve Perry - A Bit Confusing, Frankly

Indiana Jones & the Stone of Sisyphus

Since the dawn of rock & roll, fans have been intrigued by rumors of unfinished or unreleased musical works.  The masters of Green Day’s “Cigarettes & Valentines” were stolen from the recording studio and the band chose not to re-record the album, producing “American Idiot” instead.  An electric version of Bruce Springsteen’s “Nebraska” exists but has never seen the light of day.  The Beach Boys’ fabled “Smile”, the most legendary unreleased album of all time, was finally released in “approximated” form in 2011 after nearly half a century of speculation & deliberation.  In each case, the circumstances are different, as is the ultimate fate of each album.  Some are finally made available, be it complete or in part, many years after the original intended release date.  Others remain mysteriously out of reach.  All of them leave us wondering what might have been.

Below are my top five unreleased (or eventually released) albums by eighties artists in order of when they would have been released:

Prince – “Crystal Ball” (1987)

In 1985, Prince & the Revolution began recording tracks for “Dream Factory”, which began as a 9-song follow-up to “Parade”, but would eventually become a double-LP.  Unfortunately, Prince had a falling-out with several members of the band and scrapped the project in favor of a “solo” three-album set called “Crystal Ball”.  However, due to the poor sales of “Parade”, Warner Bros. balked at the idea and convinced the purple one to trim it to a double-LP again.  He would cut seven tracks, add “U Got the Look” and release it as “Sign o’ the Times” in 1987.  The original track listing for “Crystal Ball” was as follows:

Rebirth of the Flesh

Play in the Sunshine

Housequake

The Ballad of Dorothy Parker

It

Starfish & Coffee

Slow Love

Hot Thing

Crystal Ball

If I Was Your Girlfriend

Rock Hard in a Funky Place

The Ball

Joy in Repetition

Strange Relationship

I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man

Shockadelica

Good Love

Forever in My Life

Sign o’ the Times

The Cross

It’s Gonna be a Beautiful Night

Adore (Until the End of Time)

The seven songs that were cut would later show up in one form or another.  In 1998, Prince would release an album called “Crystal Ball”, but it would bear practically no resemblance to this version outside of the inclusion of the title track.

Steve Perry – “Against the Wall” (1988)

Following Journey’s “Raised on Radio” tour, the band formally disbanded in 1987.  Steve Perry would soon return to the studio to begin work on the follow-up to his 1984 solo debut, “Street Talk”.  After months of work, the album, entitled “Against the Wall”, was practically completed when Sony executives informed Perry that they were not satisfied with the musical direction of the songs.  The project was scrapped and Steve wouldn’t release his actual second solo effort until 1994’s “For the Love of Strange Medicine”.  That album would not contain any of the songs from “Against the Wall”, though several of those songs would be used as B-sides for some of its singles.  Seven of the songs would appear in their completed form on Steve’s 1998 compilation album “Greatest Hits + 5 Unreleased”.  A songwriting demo of a song called “It Won’t be You” also appears on the collection and, presumably, was meant for “Against the Wall”, as well.  Two more songs from the “Against the Wall” sessions would appear on the 2006 reissue of “For the Love of Strange Medicine”.  That means the final track listing for the unreleased album might have looked something like this, although an actual track order is anyone’s guess:

When You’re in Love (For the First Time)

Against the Wall

Forever Right or Wrong (Love’s Like a River)

Summer of Luv

Melody

Once in a Lifetime, Girl

What Was

It Won’t be You

Can’t Stop

Friends of Mine

In retrospect, the label probably made the right call on this one.  While “Once in a Lifetime, Girl” and “It Won’t be You” have the same infectious melancholy that made “Street Talk” a blockbuster hit, most of the other tracks alternate between lightweight pop songs and bland ballads that likely wouldn’t have found a place on late-eighties radio.

Mr. Mister – “Pull” (1990)

After releasing their 1985 breakthrough “Welcome to the Real World” and the commercially disappointing 1987 album “Go On”, Mr. Mister went back into the studio in 1989 to record what would have been their fourth album.  Entitled “Pull”, the album was an introspective collection of songs that were not to the record label’s liking.  As a result, the band was dropped by RCA and subsequently broke up.  Lead vocalist Richard Page would go on to co-write Madonna’s 1994 hit “I’ll Remember” with Patrick Leonard.  The two would eventually form Third Matinee, whose lone album “Meanwhile” would also be released in 1994.

However, the final Mr. Mister album would remain unavailable until 2010, when Page would finally release a remixed version on his own Little Dume Recordings.

After the lackluster performance of “Go On”, it’s unclear why the band chose to go further in the same direction.  It would probably have been a better idea to return to the catchy, guitar-oriented sound that made “Welcome to the Real World” so likeable.  However, maybe their sophomore album was just a case of catching lightning in a bottle.  Their other three albums certainly sounded nothing like that one, though they sounded very similar to one another.  Regardless, I’m a huge fan of Mr. Mister and I like “Pull”, but this is another case where the record label was probably right.

Chicago – “Stone of Sisyphus” (1994)

Recorded in 1993 and intended for release on March 22, 1994, Chicago’s “Stone of Sisyphus” was, according to band members, meant to be a musical statement and a conscious effort to avoid the pressure of trying to create hit songs.  Producer Peter Wolf, who took the reins from David Foster, urged the band to make music they loved.  Initially, the album was met with excitement from Warner Bros. executives who commissioned cover artwork and even printed t-shirts.  However, roughly one month before the album’s scheduled release, the label inexplicably rejected the project and asked the band to go back into the studio & record another album.  The band was devastated by the decision.  They would complete their contract with Warner Bros. with 1995’s “Night & Day:  Big Band”, which would perform modestly on the charts, and subsequently end their relationship with the label.

Over the years, “Stone of Sisyphus” would acquire legendary status among fans.  Many of its songs surfaced as bootlegs or live versions.  However, in 1998 the album would finally be released in its entirety (minus one song) a full 14 years and ten albums after its original scheduled release date.

It’s hard to say how successful “Stone of Sisyphus” might have been in 1994.  It definitely doesn’t sound like anything that was on the radio at that time.  In fact, it sounds a bit more like the Chicago of 1974, although a couple of the songs have a hip-hop flavor.  Considering that the albums the band actually produced during that period didn’t exactly burn up the charts, I’d say this might have been just crazy enough to work.  Regardless, it’s worth a listen if you’re a fan of classic Chicago.

Duran Duran – “Reportage” (2006)

Hot on the heels of their 2004 comeback album “Astronaut”, Duran Duran went back into the studio to record a self-produced album that the band members have called angry, political, indie rock.  Unfortunately, when a rough mix was submitted to Sony, it was rejected for not having an obvious single.  The label suggested that the band record a couple of additional tracks with a producer who could give them a more commercial sound than the guitar-driven tracks they had already completed.  After meeting with a few producers, they settled on Timbaland, even as their relationship with guitarist Andy Taylor was dissolved due to an “unworkable gulf”.  As they began working on the new tracks, they eventually decided to shelve the “Reportage” tracks and start over from scratch with what would become “Red Carpet Massacre”.  In the years since, they band has expressed a desire to someday release the “Reportage” album, although none of its songs have ever surfaced ANYWHERE.

:-)

Thunder Sometimes Happens When It's NOT Raining

I had heard the song a few times, but I think it was probably the first time I ever SANG "Wagon Wheel" by Old Crow Medicine Show that I noticed an error in the lyric.  There's a line in the last verse that states that "he's headed west from the Cumberland Gap to Johnson City, TN".  I had lived in east Tennessee for several years at that point and I was pretty familiar with the geography of the area by then.  I immediately thought, "Wait a minute.  Johnson City is about as east as you can get and still be in Tennessee.  How could it be WEST of the Cumberland Gap?"  I jumped on Google Maps and my suspicions were confirmed - Johnson City, TN is actually about 100 miles SOUTHEAST of the Cumberland Gap.  How could Ketch Secor have not verified that before fully committing to it?  I find that very strange.

It got me to thinking, though, about other songs that have just plain gotten some well-known fact wrong.  I actually came up with nine on my own before consulting Google and finding a couple more.  Here they are in order of egregiousness:

1.  Fleetwood Mac - "Dreams"

Thunder not only "happens when it's raining", it sometimes happens when it's not.  I'm not really sure what else I can even say about this one.  It's just inexplicable.

2.  U2 - "Pride (In the Name of Love)"

MLK was shot at around 6:05 p.m., not "early morning", on April 4.  Why not just say "early evening"?

3.  Sade - "Smooth Operator"

Granted, Sade wasn't born and raised in America, but the line "coast to coast, LA to Chicago" is inexcusable.  "Coast to coast, LA to New York" in that cutesy little way that she sings would've worked fine...and it wouldn't have been wrong.

4.  Bruce Springsteen - "Glory Days"

Although the term "speedball" was supposedly used in baseball as early as 1918 and at least as recently as 1955, by the early-eighties it meant something VERY different.  It was widely-known to be the cause of John Belushi's fatal drug overdose in 1982, which would have almost certainly been prior to Bruce Springsteen writing this song.  It makes no sense for him not to have used the universally-recognized pitching term "fastball".

5.  Band Aid - "Do They Know It's Christmas?"

Actually, there MIGHT be snow in Africa this Christmastime.  The Atlas Mountains in Morocco get regular snowfall throughout the winter months from December through February.

6.  Toto - "Africa"

Technically, Kilimanjaro doesn't rise "like Olympus above the Serengeti".  They're 230 miles apart by car (179 miles apart by plane).

7.  AC/DC - "Shook Me All Night Long"

Brian Johnson goes on and on in the verses about how "SHE was the best damn woman that I'd ever seen".  However, in the chorus he seems to be referring to a completely different woman when he proclaims "YOU shook me all night long".  Why is he telling the woman who just shook him all night long about some other woman who was the best damn woman that he'd ever seen?  Was he deliberately trying to piss her off in order to get some angry sex from her?  Or was he trying to get rid of her after he'd gotten what he wanted?  It's very confusing.

8.  Pet Shop Boys - "Left to My Own Devices"

Neil Tennant made me look stupid once because of his mispronunciation of Debussy in this song.  It's deb-you-SEE, not duh-BOO-see.  Damn it.

9.  The Police - "Don't Stand So Close To Me"

Sting mispronounces Nabakov as NAB-uh-kof instead of nuh-BOE-kof.  Also, in "the book", Humbert is in his mid to late-thirties when he meets Delores.  That's not exactly an "old man".

10.  Geico - The commercial with Europe

The announcer states that "if you're the band Europe, you love a final countdown - it's what you do".

The truth is:  The band Europe does not LOVE a final countdown and nothing in the lyric gives any indication that they do.  If anything, the band seems to find the final countdown to be bittersweet and they appear to have a degree of apprehension as to what comes AFTER the final countdown.

The song went to number one in several countries and made it into the top ten in the U.S.  Therefore, it's probably accurate to say that the band Europe loves the song "The Final Countdown".  Somebody at that ad agency just got a little too cute for his/her own good.

Honorable Mention:  Alanis Morissette - "Ironic"

Okay, Alanis isn't, technically, an eighties artist.  However, according to her Wikipedia page, she recorded her first demo in 1987...and that was enough to get her on the list as an honorable mention.  I'm not going to dissect every single example of "non-irony" in her lyric, but "rain on your wedding day" is not ironic.  It sucks, but it's not ironic.

It's just...not.

One Vegemite Sandwich, Hold the Vegemite!

It's been said that "a fingerful of vegemite is like like a meaty, salty punch in the face"...and that's pretty much how I would describe it.  It was in Massieville, OH sometime in the nineties when a guy from New Zealand who was 6'1" and a bit doughy, to be honest, offered ME a vegemite sandwich.  I gladly accepted it and excitedly took a bite.  It was...not good.  In the interest of detente, I finished it before remembering that there were no strained relations between the U.S. and New Zealand.  I vowed that day to never eat it again...and I never have.

I learned something else from that guy, too.  I learned that New Zealanders DO NOT like to be mistaken for Australians.  I assume that works the other way, as well, although I'm not sure about that.

Nevertheless, a number of Australians found prosperity in the (other) land of plenty in the eighties.  Some like Olivia Newton-John, AC/DC and Rick Springfield first became famous in the U.S. LONG before MTV killed the radio star.

Others became stars as a direct result of the aforementioned Music Television.

Several would enjoy limited success on the U.S. charts.

A few eighties Aussies, though, have continued to make viable music into the 21^st century.  I've talked at length about Rick Springfield in recent posts and I'll be spotlighting AC/DC soon, but there are a few others.

Kylie Minogue hit the U.S. Top 40 three times in the eighties with “I Should Be So Lucky”, “The Locomotion” and “It’s No Secret” – all three were from her 1987 debut album “Kylie”.  She wouldn’t hit the chart again until 2001 when she stormed back with this top ten hit:

Since then, she’s only hit the Top 40 one more time but has topped the U.S. Dance Chart 6 times.

INXS was a hit-making machine in the late-eighties, reaching the top ten 5 times with songs from 1985’s “Listen Like Thieves” and 1987’s “Kick”.  The hits would be fewer and further between in the nineties with only 2 more top ten hits, both from 1990’s “X”.  Fate would deal a seemingly fatal blow to the band in 1997 with frontman Michael Hutchence’s death.  However, the band would embark on an American Idol-esque search for a new lead singer in 2005, eventually choosing Canadian J.D. Fortune.  Their lone album with Fortune, “Switch”, put them in the U.S. Top 40 again later that same year:

Unfortunately, friction between Fortune and the band led to him leaving for good in 2011.  The band would announce their retirement in 2012.

Crowded House appeared to be destined for superstardom when their debut single “Don’t Dream It’s Over” hit #2 on the U.S. Top 40 in 1986.  Their chart success would be short-lived, though, with only one more top forty hit, the #7 “Something So Strong”.  Their second album, 2008’s “Temple of Low Men”, was a commercial disappointment.  Subsequent albums would also fail to generate Top 40 hits, although the band enjoyed a degree of success on the Modern Rock chart in the late-eighties and early-nineties.  After a hiatus of nearly a decade and a half, they would return in 2007 with an album very reminiscent of their self-titled debut.  “Time on Earth” was their first since the suicide of drummer Paul Hester in 2005.

None of its singles charted in the U.S., but it was their highest charting album since the eighties.  I highly recommend it if you're a fan of the band.  It's easily their second-best.

Midnight Oil had one of the most prolific runs of all the Aussie acts, releasing an album every 2-3 years from 1978 through 1998.  Though they only had one U.S. Top 40 hit, 1987’s “Beds are Burning”, they enjoyed tremendous success on the Modern Rock and Mainstream Rock charts.  In 2002, after a 4-year hiatus, they returned with “Capricornia”.  The album failed to chart in the U.S., although the first single received considerable airplay.

I still can’t get that Kylie Minogue song out of my head.