The Power Ballad

Ah yes, The Power Ballad. Some may prefer the term Heavy Ballad, others the Metal Ballad, you yourself may even say Hard Rock Ballad. Call it what you will, while this sub-sub genre certainly was not originated in the 80's, it is undoubtedly the decade when this particular form was perfected. The Power Ballad is quite simple in structure : a quiet bit in the beginning where the vocalist may highlight his "sensitivity", followed by a louder bit where the band may display its "sense of dynamics", Then the loudest bit, usually the chorus, to remind one that one is indeed listening to a hard rock/metal band, and at the mid point and the final coda, a guitar solo where because of the necessary slower tempo, the guitarist is permitted to display every single iota of chops he (or she) possesses. Sort of a reward for showing such restraint during the rest of the song. These of course are usually love songs (you know, "sensitivity" and all that), but not always.
During the 70's there were quite a few Power Ballads of note, Aerosmith's "Dream On", Boston's "More Than A Feeling", even Led Zeppelin's venerable "Stairway to Heaven" come to mind. But in the 80's the Power Ballad became one of the defining forms of the decade's rock, with every  hard rock/metal band worth its salt trying its hand at it, and some (Dokken,anyone?) making quite an annoying habit of it.
Any road, there were quite a few pearls among the proverbial swine, songs that more than justified the Power Ballad's existence. To follow are some of the better attempts. Let's see those lighters, people!




and perhaps the best of the bunch :

Classic Axes - The Gibson Les Paul

                                                              Les Paul
                                                                              

Introduced in 1952 as an answer to the runaway popularity of Fender's Telecaster model that came out in 1950, the Gibson Les Paul was a collaboration between Gibson president Ted McCarty and legendary jazz guitarist and electronics inventor Les Paul. Along with the Fender Stratocaster and Telecaster, it is one of the three most popular electric guitar designs in the world.
Aside from the unique body design, the Les Paul had other features that set the instrument apart from others. Although it was a solid body guitar, the strings were always mounted on the top like the company's hollow body guitars rather than through the body as found on many Fender models. An array of pickup options was also available giving a choice of inherent sounds. The double-coil Humbucker pickup was a Gibson innovation which cancelled the hum found in single coil and magnetic pickups. This pickup was introduced in 1957 to replace the Les Paul's original single coil P-90 pickups. The weight of the instrument was a result of the mahohogany and maple construction,both heavy woods. As design advances evolved, the company was able to make Les Pauls for every level of player and budget,with the exception of the complete novice. This beginner market was served by the Gibson Melody Maker, which despite the absence of the Les Paul nameplate, consistently followed the design and appearance of the Les Pauls.
Over the years the Les Paul has become an ever-present staple of all things rockin'. To follow are some of the Les Paul's more celebrated users.

             

Badfinger

The music business. Not a vocation for the faint of heart. For some it can be a benevolent giver, rewarding hard work, talent and persistance with success and wealth, or at the least, a living wage. For others, and they are legion, it can be a cruel mistress, rewarding each step forward with two steps backward, talent and inspiration reaping apathy and frustration, hard work producing only hard times. If ever there was a band for which the stars refused to align, it was the band called Badfinger, a group that despite a string of hit singles, never got the rewards they were due.

Originally a group called The Iveys, guitarist/keyboardist Pete Ham, guitarist Dal Jenkins, bassist Ron Griffiths, and drummer Mike Gibbons Got together around 1964 and were based in London. A year later, Jenkins departed the band and was replaced by Tom Evans. Their manager, Bill Collins had them working as a backing band for vocalist David Garrick and as a band on their own. While Garrick ultimately faded into obscurity, the band made a name for itself and atracted the attention of many in the business wanting to work with them, including one Ray Davies of The Kinks. Collins, keeping the band on a short leash, saw any such overtures as a threat to his own authority and rebuffed these opportunities. Finally there came an offer even he could not refuse when Mal Evans, road manager for The Beatles offered to work with The Iveys, impressed as he was with their sound. He got them an audition with the Beatles' newly formed Apple Records and they impressed Peter Asher, Apple's A&R man. Paul McCartney himself submitted a song to the group to be their first single on the condition that it be played exactly as it appeared on the demo McCartney supplied. The band of course agreed and "Come And Get It" became the band's first hit.

The song, a proposed part of a soundtrack for a movie called The Magic Christian, went to #4 in the U.K. and #6 in the U.S. Midway through the recording of the song, Griffiths left the group. Tom Evans switched to bass and Joey Molland was recruited to play guitar. It was at this time that the band changed it's name to Badfinger, after a Beatles' song "Badfinger Boogie", a working track that ended up as "With A Little Help From My Friends". This was to avoid confusion with another band called The Ivy League who were moderately successful at the time.
Ham and Evans were seasoned writers by this time and along with Gibbons, provided much of the rest of The Magic Christian's soundtrack, In addition they worked on Gearge Harrison's solo album All Things Must Pass, played on Ringo's solo song "It Don't Come Easy",and contributed to John Lennon's album Imagine.  They also found time to record an album of their own in 1970 called No Dice,which contained another hit, "No Matter What" as well as "Without You" which became a hit for Harry Nillson.


1970 also brought them together with manager Stan Polley, a shrewed experienced individual who had the expertise the band felt they needed at this point. Polley went right to work, first re-organizing the group's finances (red flag) and somehow as a result saw little money of their own. They released the next album, Straight Up at the end of 1971. The album was difficult to record going through two producers, George Harrison and Todd Rundgren in trying to find usable material. The album did include two major hits, "Day After Day " and "Baby Blue". Straight Up turned out to be a fine piece of work, and would have been more successful had Apple done more to promote it, but at the time Apple Records was having business problems that would ultimately shut the label down. Badfinger found itself on its own in terms of pushing the record.


The band toured constantly in 1972 and late that year attempted a self -produced follow-up album. It produced no hits and to make things worse, the band saw less and less money due to manager Polley's machinations. Nearing the end of their Apple contract, Polley engineered a big-money deal with Warner Brothers. In the meantime the band released their final Apple recording, Ass. This album had no tour to promote it and therefore tanked, as well as the subsequent self-titled album,the first for Warner Brothers. Apple by this time had collapsed, tying up the band's royalties for what turned out to be years. The group then recorded its next album, Wish You Were Here. Although this was the most critially acclaimed work  they had in years, their money woes escalated when millions went missing from an escrow account set up for the group by Polley.On the advice of the group's attorneys, Wish You Were Here was withdrawn weeks after its release.The  legal mess became huge,and the band's hastily recorded third Warners album was never released . The label dropped them. With the band impoverished and with no prospects of seeing any money any time soon, Pete Ham left the band, and on April3,1975 he hung himself in his garage at home.
Evans and Molland tried to contiunue the band on and off with different members starting in 1978, but the instability of the group efforts along with the ongoing legal entanglements proved to be insurmountable. On November 19,1983, after a loud argument with Molland on the phone, Tom Evans became the second group member to commit suicide by hanging.
The music business...a cruel mistress indeed.

Fishbone

 

Hard Rock. Funk. Ska. Jazz. Oh, sorry all...I was just trying desperately to describe the music that this band plays. Punk. R'n'B. It's all in there, my friends, presented with a seemingly inexhaustible amount of energy and humour. Fishbone is one of a kind. Oh, did I mention Alternative Rock? And the scathing social commentary? I think I may have covered it...but probably not.

Fishbone was formed in Los Angeles the year 1979 by vocalist/sax player Angelo Moore, bassist John Norwood Fisher, drummer Phillip "Fish" Fisher, Walter Kibby on vocals and trumpet, guitarist Kendall Jones, and Christopher Dowd on keyboards and vocals. Their first release was a single on Columbia Records called "Party At Ground Zero" followed by a self-titled EP and then a full-length album, In Your Face.

In support of The album, the band appeared in the reunion beach movie Back To The Beach starring Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello, as well as touring with The Beastie Boys In the U.S. and other parts of the world. They were mainly a ska/reggae band early on, but later incorporated hard rock and other styles. Their 1988 release Truth And Soul received wide pread critical acclaim, and rightly so. The album features a diverse range of musical styles, guitar-heavy and groove-rich. The lyrics touch on a variety of social editorializing and it's centerpiece, the Curtis Mayfield-written "Freddie's Dead", is a masterpiece of the first order. In spite of the critical raves, the album failed to be a commercial success. This was likely due to the difficulty the music industry in general had with categorizing a black group playing music other than funk or R'n'B.


Commercial success did come with the next album, 1991's The Reality Of My Surroundings. With the addition of ex-Miles Davis guitarist John Bigham, it reached #49 on the Billboard albums chart. The band made a memorable appearance on the tv show Saturday Night Live, made a video of the track "Sunless Saturdays" with Spike Lee directing and another track, "Everyday Sunshine" became a moderate hit on radio and MTV.


The follow-up album, Give A Monkey A Brain And He'll Swear He's The Center Of The Universe (think the title needs a few more words, lads?) continued  the trend of stylistic diversity with it's 1993 release, but of course no band story is complete without the inevitable internal upheavals. Guitarist Kendall Jones left the band battling mental instability, prompting bassist Norwood Fisher to seek him out with the intent to render aid, but instead somehow got charged with kidnapping. The band was dropped by Sony Records, and Keyboardist Christopher Dowd left to form his own band, Seedy Arkhestra, recording an anti-Fishbone song called "Flog Your Dead Horse".


1996 saw the release of Chim Chim's Badass Revenge which became a cult favorite but went largely unnoticed in the mainstream. In 1998 drummer Phillip Fisher left the band to be replaced by John Steward. John Bigham also departed to be replaced by former Sound Barrier and Mother's Finest guitarist Tracey "Spacey T" Singleton. Walter Kibby left the band in 2003. Several other line-up changes took place, but original members Angelo Moore and John Norwood Fisher are still working under the Fishbone banner. They are currently recording an album  for late 2011 release and a documentary, Sunless Saturdays : The Story Of Fishbone Is making the film festival rounds.
Fishbone...a brilliant band that deserved better.

One Hit Wonders # 4 - The Sanford-Townsend Band

Our latest One Hit Womder is an Alabama blue-eyed soul group called The Sanford-Townsend Band. They were formed by two keyboard players, Ed Sanford and Jonny Townsend. Their one hit was "Smoke From A Distant Fire" from their self-titled album and is a fine example of the quality material to come out of the ubiquitous 70's. Several nice touches including the interplay of the guitar and tenor saxophone, and the strong lead vocal work of Townsend. Also notable is the clever bass guitar figure appearing in the song's coda. All in all a truly fun listen that makes one wonder at the band's potential. The song went to #9 in the Billboard Hot 100 in 1976.