Mission of Burma : That's When I Reach For My Revolver
On July
4, 1981 Mission of Burma released their debut EP Signals, Calls
and Marches on the Ace of Hearts label. Best known for “That’s When I Reach For
My Revolver” and “ All World Cowboy Romance”, the “Marquee Moon” of post-punk,
the EP’s intense, noisy, yet catchy punk rock sound nearly instantly transformed alternative rock and what we played on college rock
radio. My favorite EP of the year, the CD version includes the first single
“Academy Fight Song/Max Ernst” and other extra tracks.
Gang of Four : To Hell With Poverty
On July
3, 1981, Gang of Four released the single “To Hell With Poverty”, perfectly encapsulating the Reagan/Thatcher
attitude towards people of lesser means. The punky funk number became a dance club
hit in America where cheap wine comes in refrigerated boxes.
Foreigner : Urgent
As July of 1981 began, a new song topped FM rock station playlists. Featuring synthesizers programmed and played by an unknown Thomas
Dolby and a sax solo by the legendary Junior Walker, “Urgent” was one of the
great booty call songs of the decade. The first single from 4, “Urgent” was a
US#4 hit. The album is also a huge seller because most listeners aren't as annoyed as I am by Lou Gramm constantly pushing his vocal range to the breaking point (ie "He heard one guitar/juts blew him away" on "Juke Box Hero").
Electric Light Orchestra : Hold On Tight
Electric Light Orchestra : Yours Truly, 2095
Like a lot of fans I walked away from Electric Light Orchestra following the Xanadu soundtrack and I now realize that was a big mistake. For Time, released July 2, 1981, a concept album about time travel, Jeff Lynne traded his orchestra strings for the sounds of synth pop. Gary Numan and OMD are often mentioned as influences, but I hear a lot of New Musik. The album spent two weeks at the top of the UK charts. Its reputation has grown over the decades especially among science fiction fans. I'm posting "Hold On Tight" because it was the only American hit and the music video was the most expensive ever made at the time. But check out "Yours Truly, 2095" to hear why fans were originally baffled by the new ELO.
On March 8,1977 the British/American supergroup Foreigner released their self-titled debut album. Founded by ex Spooky Tooth Mick Jones ( who wrote "Feels Like The First Time"), the former King Crimson member Ian McDonald ( at least half responsible for the 1971 psychedelic classic McDonald and Giles) and vocalist Lou Gramm, Foreigner sold five million copies of its debut thanks to its hit singles "Feels Like the First Time"(US#4) ,"Cold as Ice" (US#6) and " Long, Long Way From Home" (US#20).
This somewhat formulaic classic rock radio mainstay, like its even better follow-up Double Vision, quickly found an audience, vaulting the band into major stardom. Creem Magazine readers voted Foreigner the best new band, over the likes of The Babys and Cheap Trick.
The critics were not necessarily kind. Robert Christgau summing up the feeling in this way in his C graded review: "You've heard of Beatlemania? I propose Xenophobia."
And from Rolling Stone's John Milward:
Foreigner's influences are hardly alien -- two parts Bad Company and one part ELO spiced with just a pinch of Roxy Music. Endowed with an assured studio sound and strong writers (lead guitarist Mick Jones wrote or collaborated on all the material), Foreigner's debut album speaks with the kind of authority increasingly common in the Seventies hard-rock world of instant stars.
"Long, Long Way from Home" is Foreigner at its best, lead singer Lou Gramm pumping out the chunky rocker with the characteristic ease of Bad Company's Paul Rodgers but without that singer's occasional heavy-handedness. Synthesizer and a sax round out the rocker's edges, giving it the barest hint of Roxy sophistication. Thick harmonies serve the same function for the other uptempo standout, "At War with the World," though little could have saved the tired lyrical and musical ideas of the riffy "Headknocker."
The melodic feel and production of the ballads and midtempo material reveal ELO sources -- "Woman Oh Woman" is a particularly fetching soundalike. The swirling vocals and stately guitar of "Starrider" reveal similar pop influences, but like most of Foreigner's tunes, the lyrics add little to the song's final impact. While more than half of these tunes are powerful performances, none of them invites much emotional involvement.
Foreigner clearly has the moves to step into the big time, but needs a bit more time to gel before the group can offer more than already proven formulas. Unfortunately, in these days of prepackaged phenomena, such development sometimes seems secondary to producing a slick and marketable recorded sound. So while Foreigner already looks like a strong contender, one hopes success doesn't rob them of the time and space they need to grow.
10cc's playful debut spawned four singles in the UK ( the #1 "Rubber Bullets" and #2 "Donna" among them). One of the weirdest art pop bands of its day, 10cc's entire catalogue from here to Bloody Tourists is worth owning.
Although it's home to "Knockin' On Heavens's Door" ( US #12), this soundtrack of mostly instrumentals makes for nice background listening and that's it. And why would you by a Dylan album that you didn't want to really listen to?
Fusion doesn't get more furious than on this 5-track album from Carlos Santana and members of the Mahavishnu Orchestra ( as well as Stanley Clarke of Return to Forever and Larry Young of the Tony Williams Lifetime). It's not a particularly easy listen , but the album went gold anyway.
No band went through more stylistic changes than this Dutch group which formed in 1961. (Their Beatlesque stuff is pretty great!) Twelve years later, Moontan and its single "Radar Love" broke Golden Earring in the US where they toured with the Doobie Brothers and Santana. Album closer "The Vanilla Queen" is a classic rock track for disc jockeys needing a pee break. "Just Like Vince Taylor" sounds like something the Del Lords would have put out in 1984.
Prone to disenchantment, Cat Stevens left behind his hit making era with Foreigner, an album featuring a side long suite and some prog rock and funk experimentation. Tedious but it still went gold.
After years of playing and arranging for Bette Midler and singing and writing commercial jingles, Barry Manilow signed with Bell and released his first album. "Could It Be Magic" was a #6 hit in 1975 . But the real surprise here is the rocking tune "Flashy Lady".
1. After sticking around for the first two King Crimson albums, In the Court of the Crimson King (to which multi-instrumentalist Ian McDonald contributed the serene "I Talk to the Wind") and In The Wake Of Poseidon, McDonald and Michael Giles record the insanely great 1971 prog rock album McDonald and Giles. If you don't own this album, you can't really call yourself a progressive rock fan.
2. In 1976 McDonald is one of the co-founders of the hard rock band Foreigner. He plays guitar, woodwinds and keyboards for the group.Guitarist Mick Jones writes the hit song "Feels Like the First Time" and co-writes "Cold As Ice", and just about any other Foreigner song you've ever heard of... including "Blue Morning, Blue Day" from Double Vision
4. In 1976 Mike Kellie joins Peter Perrett and guitarist John Parry in the legendary power pop band The Only Ones. Parry begins on bass but eventually replaces the original guitarist Glenn Tilbrook.
5. Tilbrook becomes the lead singer and guitarist for those power pop maestro's Squeeze, named after an oft-derided Velvet Underground album called Squeeze.
6 The 1973 album Squeeze, may have been called a Velvet Underground album but not one original member of the band plays on it. It's actually a Doug Yule solo album. (Yule played on the third and fourth VU albums) Polydor Records and VU band manager Steve Sesnick made the sleazy deal to call it a Velvets album.
