Great Rock Albums of 1983: 38 Special- Tour De Force

 

"Tour de Force" proves what I probably said about albums by 38 Special in previous posts. Each new album is not as good as the ones before. Going back to the very first 38 Special album I listened to, "Rockin' Into the Night" was outstanding, their best album ever. The next one, "Wild Eyed Southern Boys" was an excellent album and "Special Forces was somewhere between good and very good. However, the 1983 "Tour de Force" album was just good.

Another thing which I have said in the past was my belief that if the single opens the album, then the album may not be up to much because that has always been a trick of one hit wonders. In the case of this album, the first three tracks are the singles that were released on the album. Of those three, the middle one, "Back Where You Belong," is the best. That song is more the 38 Special I had come to know and love back then. A good opening hard riff with a cool guitar solo, full marks there. Saying that, "If I'd Been the One" is a decent enough song but I've never been impressed with the third track, "One Time for Old Times."

Here is a case where instead of one song not making an entire album, it's two. I won't include "Back Where You Belong" because it is a great song. However, after those three singles, things definitely turn up a few notches for the good. "See Me In Your Eyes" starts to return things to a normality with 38 Special and then "Twentieth Century Fox" is a complete rocker. The exact same thing can be said for the tracks that follow on after that. "Long Distance Affair" and the closer, "Undercover Lover" are fine rocking tracks with the latter song, when it closes out the album, leaves you with an all's well that ends well feeling towards the album.

I must also add that "I Oughta Let Go" is more of a Southern boogie number which proves that at this time, the band hadn't completely abandoned their Southern Rock roots. But my brain has me wondering if the decline in each album is down to cause and effect. With "Rockin' Into the Night," Donnie Van Zant sings lead on five songs and Don Barnes three and one cracking instrumental. On the ensuing albums, the number of Van Zant leads lessen and Barnes sings lead on more. On "Tour de Force" Donnie Van Zant only sings lead on three songs with Barnes the other six. Now, I'm not knocking Don Barnes, he is a great vocalist and I should have included him in my list of great rhythm guitarists but Donnie Van Zant definitely brings an energy to the songs he sings. So, I wonder that if they kept it as it was on the first album, there wouldn't have been such a noticeable decline. Oh yes, I've said it before and I'll say it again because it remains true on "Tour de Force." Jeff Carlisi is a very underrated guitarist.

Track Listing:

1. If I'd Been the One
2. Back Where You Belong
3. One Time for Old Times
4.  See Me in Your Eyes
5. Twentieth Century Fox
6. Long Distance Affair
7. I Oughta Let Go
8. One of the Lonely Ones
9. Undercover Lover

[caption id="attachment_1691" align="aligncenter" width="313"] 38 Special[/caption]

Don Barnes- lead vocals, guitar

Donnie Van Zant- lead vocals

Jeff Carlisi- lead guitar, steel guitar

Larry Junstrom- bass

Steve Brookins- drums

Jack Grondin- drums

Carol Bristow- backing vocals

Lu Moss- backing vocals

Jimmy Markham- harmonica

38 Special were at a cross roads at this point in time. I remember tearing my hair out trying to convince my friend that they were not a top forty band and that they were a cool Southern Rock band like Lynyrd Skynyrd and Molly Hatchet. I'm not sure if he ever believed me but while this album may lead one to think that they had sold out, there is enough on this good album to show that hadn't.

Next post: Rolling Stones- Undercover

To buy Rock and Roll Children, email me at: tobychainsaw@hotmail.com 

Great Rock Albums of 1983: Yes- 90125

 

When people mention great 1970s progressive rock, the first two names that come to mind are Emerson, Lake and Palmer and Yes. To me, they were the building block on which the genre was built on during that decade. Yes classics like "Roundabout" and "Yours is No Disgrace" continue to move me whenever I hear them. That meant that when the new Yes album, "90125," came out in 1983, my ears were definitely tuned towards them.

By late 1983, MTV had pretty much taken over as my new resource for discovering new albums and bands. Note: in 1983, MTV still actually played decent music. Yes's new release came to my attention via the first single "Owner of a Lonely Heart." This song was okay in my view, I loved the guitar riff introduction to the song but to me it sounded too choppy in the 1980s style and definitely not what I was used to from Yes. Fortunately, as I know from experiences good and bad, one song does not make an album.

The rest of "90125" is more of the traditional Yes we kids new and loved back in the 1970s. "Hold On" is nearly a hard rock track dominated by the guitar but "It Can Happen" is for sure Yes at their golden best. There is some superb progressive rock sound here with a little bit of everything. Some magnificent keyboard work from Tony Kaye and a little impressive guitar work compliments of Trevor Rabin. Holding all of it together is the vocals of Jon Anderson with some help from the harmonizing with the other members of the band. "It Can Happen" is the key to the album and links everything in very nicely. The remainder of the album follows on in this mold rarely venturing outside the box but still keeping the band's creativity in tact.

"Changes" is the prime example as it follows on perfectly from "It Can Happen" and I have to say that I have always found the guitar work on the instrumental "The Cinema" very well performed. Furthermore, I prefer the second single from the album, "Leave It" as it is done in the traditional Yes fashion. That sets the tone for the remainder of the album, just some good old fashioned progressive rock from the remaining tracks.

Track Listing:

1. Owner of a Lonely Heart
2. Hold On
3. It Can Happen
4. Changes
5. The Cinema
6. Leave It
7. Our Song
8. City of Love
9. Hearts

[caption id="attachment_3319" align="aligncenter" width="322"] Yes[/caption]

Jon Anderson- vocals

Trevor Rabin- guitar, keyboards, vocals

Chris Squire- bass, vocals

Tony Kaye- keyboards, vocals

Alan White- drums, percussion, vocals

After a break up in 1981, Yes came back two years later and it was still good to hear that they hadn't lost their touch with "90125." This could be one of the best progressive rock albums of the 1980s but that will be left for others to debate.

Next Post: 38 Special- Tour de Force

To buy Rock And Roll Children, email me at: tobychainsaw@hotmail.com 

Great Rock Albums of 1983: Bob Dylan- Infidels

 

"Infidels" was Bob Dylan's first album after his three albums professing his faith as a Born Again Christian. Now I posted about two of those albums, "Slow Train Coming" and "Saved" and like I said at the time, I have no problems with people who want to use music to express their beliefs on anything, within my personal boundaries on decency, which are quite broad. Those two albums were quite good in their own right and I remain convinced that those albums from Bob helped usher in the emerging tide of Christian rock artists that were gaining notoriety in 1983. Anyway, enough about that because it is said that "Infidels" with Dylan's first secular album since his conversion and in many ways, it is a good album.

The first time I heard the single, "Neighborhood Bully" on the radio, I was duly impressed. To me, that song had a bit of hard rock swagger to it with a very catchy rhythm. In fact, it has taken it's place as my fourth favourite Bob Dylan song. What also has fascinated me about the song was trying to figure out who was the neighborhood bully he was singing about. My first, thoughts was on account of the political climate at the time, that the bully might have been the Sandinista regime in Nicaragua and Ronald Regan's determination to make war on it. It could have been a Middle Eastern country and it turns out that I was right. After reading about it, (they didn't have Wikopedia in 1983), I found out that he was singing about Israel and the persecution of the Jewish people as well as the contributions they have made to the world. The fact that this has mystery has finally been cleared up for me after more than thirty years doesn't take away the fact that it's still a brilliant rock tune.

It appears that Bob Dylan realized he stumbled onto something when he decided to go electric with his live "Hard Rain" album way back in 1976. For most of "Infidels," he uses the electric guitar and his songs sound more rock. "License to Kill" and "I & I" are good examples here. You definitely can not call him a folk singer who sings through his nose on this album. However, I did read back then that some called him that old singer who sounds like Dire Straits. Well, there's truth in that. The first time I heard Dire Straits, I thought it was Bob Dylan singing with Eric Clapton backing him up on guitar. Maybe it could be true owing to the fact that Dire Straits guitarist and lead singer Mark Knoepfler produced the album and he does a grand job in doing so. I think that on "Infidels," Dylan sounds the best he has in years. But before anyone goes off and says that Dylan had some how changed, let me say that he still tackles relevant social and political topics of the time just like the Bob Dylan of old. He just makes the music behind his messages much more enjoyable.

Track Listing:

1. Jokerman
2. Sweetheart Like You
3. Neighborhood Bully
4. License to Kill
5. Man of Peace
6. Union Sundown
7. I & I
8. Don't Fall Apart on Me Tonight

Bob Dylan- lead vocals, guitar, harmonica, keyboards

Mark Knopfler- guitar

Clydie King- vocals on "Sundown"

Robbie Shakespeare- bass

Mick Taylor- guitar

Sly Dunbar- drums, percussion

It would be silly of me to say that Bob Dylan was back in 1983 because he never went anywhere. He simply changed what he was singing about and went back to more traditional topics. This was still a brave thing to do in the ever increasing conservative mood of 80s Regan America. Still, he did and he proved that he could rock a bit as well.

Next post: Yes- 90125

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Great Rock Albums of 1983: Brian May- Starfleet Project

 

Here's another album that would have passed m e by hadn't been for MTV. The single from Queen guitarist Brian May's album, (yes I know it's really an EP) "Starfleet Project" was never played on radio, at least not on my local station in New Jersey and this was before it degenerated into a top forty station. I remember the video for "Starfleet." It looked like something out of "The Thunderbirds" with the puppets and stuff. The science fiction theme to the video added to it. To be honest, I couldn't have cared less about the video but I loved the song and thus, had to get the EP.

[caption id="attachment_3311" align="aligncenter" width="395"] From the video to "Starfleet"[/caption]

Now you have probably noticed that the album is from Brian May and Friends and boy did Brian choose the right friends to help him record this. He got Eddie Van Halen to accompany him on the guitar and Alan Gratzer from REO Speedwagon fame to do the honours on the drums. Those names right there should tell you that what you are about to hear is totally going to blow you away and they do.

There might only be three songs on the album but they are three memorable ones, plus the fact that the shortest of these three is still over seven minutes made "Starfleet Project" an album in my book back then. Starting with the title track, it is the more commercial of the three. Brian shows that he knows his way around a keyboard a little bit but he still does some great guitar work on the song. I had always suspected from his Queen days that he could sing and he clearly shows it here.

Track two is the more bluesy "Let Me Out." Here, May and Van Halen really start to go to town with the solos. They are so good that I can never remember what Brian wants to be let out of. However, it's the third track that takes you to Neptune and beyond. Here we have the two mentioned guitar greats paying tribute to another guitar god, Eric Clapton, with "Blues Breaker." When that happens you are guaranteed nothing short of guitar heaven. For nearly thirteen minutes, Brian and Eddie go back and forth trading off guitar solos, each one as good as the last. There is a short break in the action for a bit of ivory tinkling from Fred Mandel but things go back to the blistering solos. This song alone makes the entire album a must have.

Track Listing:

1. Starfleet
2. Let Me Out
3. Blues Breaker

[caption id="attachment_287" align="aligncenter" width="200"] Brian May[/caption]

Brian May- guitar, vocals, keyboards

Eddie Van Halen- guitar, backing vocals

Alan Gratzer- drums

Phil Cohen- bass

Freddie Mandel- keyboards

Roger Taylor- backing vocals on "Starfleet"

Queen might have been taking a hiatus in 1983 but Brian May wasn't. He went well above and beyond and showed his true talents on this album.

Next post: Bob Dylan- Infidels

To buy Rock And Roll Children, email me at: tobychainsaw@hotmail.com