Rick Springfield??!!?!

[the winter tree]

I got a call out of the blue last week from a musician friend - "Do you want to go to a show tonight? One of our friends backed out and I've got a ticket you can have for free..."

"Who's playing?" I asked.

"Aaah", he said hesitantly, "Rick Springfield"

"Rick Springfield??!!?!" Visions of "Jesse's Girl", General Hospital, screaming girls came into my head.

"My wife is a big fan but he's actually really good" my friend said sheepishly.

But being an open-minded kind of guy, I thought "Why not?" . If nothing else there would be many women at the show. I accepted his invitation.

It was for the most part a great show. The weakest parts for me were his big hits. Everything else he performed was cool as hell. It was just him and his guitars(with some minimal backing tracks he put togother on about 2/3 of the songs. Although his acoustic playing was serviceable, he is quite a great electric rock guitarist. He also played convincing silde dobro on an old Delta blues song. He told many funny stories about getting high with Todd Rundgren, playing in Vietnam when he was a teen during the war, and many others. He did a kick-ass version of Fleetwood Mac's "Oh Well". The guy is 65 but looks half his age and plays with fire and energy.

I even bought his latest CD, "Songs For The End Of The World" for $10 when leaving the theater. I'm very impressed with it, high energy and "modern" sounding without being contrived.

Who would have thought?

[rcarlberg]

Dude, Rick Springfield?

[Scott Bails]

I always thought he was kinda underrated, given the whole General Hospital/heartthrob thing.

[luvyesmusic]

65, really?

Some time ago when I was in Vegas we saw a show he was in. Can't tell you the name but he had replaced David Cassidy I believe. Show wasn't bad but I remember thinking watching this "old guy" ( not young and spry ) leaping/jumping from one platform to another during part of the show that he will get hurt. Two weeks later back at home, I hear or read he broke his leg during that show. I know what I'm talking about. ;-)

He's a good performer. That's what he does. Now acting, that's another matter entirely. ;-)

[the winter tree]

He seems to have the Dorian Gray thing going on. Or maybe a good plastic surgeon? ;-) He looked like he was in really good shape. All the women certainly thought so ;-)

[Gruno]

Do yourselves a favor and locate Sahara Snow. It's Rick Springfield with Bob Marlette and Tim Pierce.

http://www.amazon.com/Sahara-Snow/dp/B00000B5UN



The story Tim Pierce told me, was that in the 90s, no record label would release anything with the "Rick Springfield" name on the album cover. Rick, Bob and Tim had these songs and recorded them as a trio. They released the album under than band name Sahara Snow. I believe it was only released in Germany in 1997. After this release, record labels started to get interested. This is by far my favorite Springfield album.

Another track to check out is "Lust".

[No Pride]

Do yourselves a favor and locate Sahara Snow. It's Rick Springfield with Bob Marlette and Tim Pierce.

Sounds like YesWest. Which I don't consider to be a bad thing.

[Dean Watson]

His album 'TAO' is awesome.

[SteveSly]

A long long time ago, I was at someone’s house and there was an album playing in the background that I found myself bopping my head to and really digging. Turns out it was Rick Springfield’s “Rock Of Life” album. Normally I would not have given Springfield the time of day, but I had to admit that this album was pretty damn good. An old girlfriend of mine also had the “Working Class Dog” album which I remember having some decent tunes on it as well.

I always liked the title track to “Rock Of Life”. Kind of has a Billy Squire vibe to it.

[100423]

Living In Oz, Tao, and Rock Of Life are all in my collection, though I haven't listened to them since the late '80s.

[luvyesmusic]

Sadly thanks to Winter Tree ( you bastid ;-) , you brought me back some memories when I was a young man due in part to re-checking out this song after many years.


Very 80's sounding song ( duh, it was the 80's ;-) ), it had plenty of rotation back in the day on Mtv. I had had a summer romance with my brother's best friend's girlfriend. I was not the boyfriend type so when he came back from being away she went back to him. I was often at the same parties, even at her house or his. I had fallen for her but never told her. I remember this song playing on t.v. in the background at one of those parties watching the two of them together but getting the occasional longing look from her when he wasn't looking.

Thanks again, Winter Tree. ;-)

[the winter tree]

No problem mate!

[GuitarGeek]

I actually play Rick pretty regularly on Journey Of The Sorcerer's Apprentice. No, I haven't played Jessie's Girl (and probably won't, even though I like the song quite a bit), but I have played Don't Talk To Strangers, I Get Excited, and State Of The Heart. The 12" mix of State Of The Heart has this really cool reverse reverb acapella vocal intro, which I think isn't on the album version. I've also played a few songs from his first solo album, Beginnings, which came out around 73 or so, way before General Hospital.

If I had the albums they're on, I'd probably play Affair Of The Heart, Bop Til You Drop (dumb chorus, and really bad production, but I love the bridge in that song). You Better Love Somebody's a pretty good song too. So was Celebrate Youth (I think that's the title of the one I'm thinking of, had the b&w video where they only colourized little bits of the image, like the shirt the boy was wearing or whatever, while leaving the rest of the image b&w). He did a really good version of Black Is Black, too.

But you want to know how I first heard Rick Springfield? I wouldn't know this until about 20 years later, when it was mentioned on Behind The Music, but Rick starred on a cartoon show, circa 1974, called Mission: Magic! It didn't last long, so you've probably never heard of it, though it stayed in circulation for a couple years, long enough for me to see it in the late 70's. I had actually totally forgotten about the show, but as soon as I heard a bit of the theme music ("If you believe, you believe, you believe in magic/Cause I believe, I believe, I believe it's true...") on BTM, it all came flooding back. I watched that show, at least for awhile, when we were living at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri in the late 70's. This would have had to have been circa 77-79, though the "experts" on Youtube insist the show only was in syndication for like 75-76, but that can't be true because we were still in Darmstadt, West Germany at the time, and anyway, I highly doubt I'd remember a TV show from when I was 2-3 years old.

Anyhow, so Rick did the theme music for the show, and I think a song or two in each episode, and also voiced the "hero" of the show (apparently before he learned to speak with an American accent). It's on DVD, so if you like watching obscure cartoon shows from the 70's, give Mission: Magic a look see.

One thing I wish I could find is some of the recordings by Zoot, his pre-solo career band. At the time, he was "just" the band's guitarist. There's a few songs on Youtube, but the sound quality isn't good enough to make an mp3 from (not one I can play on my podcast, anyway). There's apparently been a couple CD's out of Zoot's music, but I gather they're out of print (or at least, they're out of print Stateside).

Something I've always wondered: if you watch the Jessie's Girl video, Rick is pretty clearly shown miming the guitar solo, and it looks like he's actually playing the solo (as compared to some people who mime guitar parts in videos or TV or movies, and you can tell they're not playing it). I've always wondered if he actually played the solo on the record (or maybe composed it?) or if it was a studio guy? Maybe Tim Pearce? I know Tim was in Rick's band throughout the 80's, so perhaps it's him on the record.

Oh, and as if to demonstrate his abilities as a thespian, Rick came back to General Hospital a few years ago, not only reprising the role of Dr. Noah Drake (apparently, Dr. Drake is still on staff at GH, we just don't see him most of the time) but also the role of an Australian rock "star" who ends up being admitted to GH, and Dr. Drake ends up having to deputize for him in concert because he's too sick to perform or whatever. Yeah, dumb plot, sounds like something out of the old Patty Duke Show, but it was amusing. And Patty Halliwell...er, I mean Anna DeVane got drawn into the plot, because apparently before she fathered Robert Scorpio's daughter and became a spy, she was a groupie who had the hots for the Australian rock musician. And anything that gave Finola Hughes more face time on GH worked fine for me. I wonder if His Phidificence had anything to do with that one.

[Chain]

One thing I wish I could find is some of the recordings by Zoot, his pre-solo career band. At the time, he was "just" the band's guitarist.

http://www.amazon.com/Zoot-Locker-Be.../dp/B00000FC1E

[rcarlberg]

The 12" mix of State Of The Heart has this really cool reverse reverb acapella vocal intro, which I think isn't on the album version.

Like the one posted above?

Incidentally, my wife likes music from the eigthies, so I created a channel for her on Pandora which I called "Drum Machines and String Pads." There was a remarkable consistency across hundreds of artists, all striving for THAT SOUND. When you listen to them cheek-by-jowl it's hard to pinpoint who is playing what.

[Plasmatopia]

[Scott Bails]

Haha! I used to love that song. ("Bruce")

[GuitarGeek]

re: State Of The Heart acapella backwards reverb intro

Like the one posted above?

.

Yeah, I think that's only on the single (or maybe just the video and the 12" mix), because there's several videos on Youtube (ok, I admit, I don't actually own the album in question) that don't have it. There's a number of records where they did stuff like that, like the intro that appears on the 12" version of Toto's Stranger In Town (again, it appears on the video, but not the album version) and the 7" mix of Yes' Lift Me Up. In all three instances, I took the respective intros and pasted them on to the album versions via Audacity. Actually, in the case of State Of The Heart, I took the 12" version and edited out the superfluous "dance mix" elements.

[GuitarGeek]

Here's a couple ballads off Rick's first solo album that I've played on my podcast:





And just for gits and shiggles, here's the Mission Magic intro:



It doesn't appear to be on Youtube, but the actual full theme song is something like 2 minutes long. I've played it a couple times on the podcast. Good tune to open a show with (well, of course it is! It was a TV show theme song!).

[GuitarGeek]

Oh here's one of my favorite Rick songs from the 80's:



Ironic that a song called Human Touch, which opens with the opening couplet "Everyone's talking to computers/Everyone's dancing to a drum machine" should have so few actual humans playing on it. Other than the vocals, sax solo and possibly the guitar, most of the track sounds like it's being played by a computer. That's obviously a drum machine, and most of the synth parts sound like they're sequencer driven. Still, it's a good song. Kinda interesting that 30 years later, we're still talking to computers (certainly more so than we were in 1984) and dancing to a drum machine. Oy!

[the winter tree]

[QUOTE=GuitarGeek;234634]

Something I've always wondered: if you watch the Jessie's Girl video, Rick is pretty clearly shown miming the guitar solo, and it looks like he's actually playing the solo (as compared to some people who mime guitar parts in videos or TV or movies, and you can tell they're not playing it). I've always wondered if he actually played the solo on the record (or maybe composed it?) or if it was a studio guy? Maybe Tim Pearce? I know Tim was in Rick's band throughout the 80's, so perhaps it's him on the record.

I just watched Dave Grohl's interesting documentary "Sound City" about the famous studio in LA. Keith Olson, staff producer at Sound City, produced "Jesse's Girl" and refused to let Rick play guitar. Neil Geraldo from Pat Benetar's band played the guitar. Springfield claimed that Olson didn't like his guitar playing. Geraldo told a funny story about the session.

Didn't Olson produce the abominable "In the Hot Seat" for ELP? He should be tried for war crimes ;-)

[the winter tree]

Now that you brought it up, I remember watching "Mission Magic" every morning when I was 9 or 10. I also remember seeing Rick on American Bandstand around '71 or 72. He was playing piano and singing a ballad.

There was also a similar show called"The Hudson Brothers Razzle Dazzle Show" . I remember buying their single "So You Are A Star". Mark Hudson ended up as a relatively famous producer. One of the brothers is Kate Hudson's father.

[profusion]

I just watched Dave Grohl's interesting documentary "Sound City" about the famous studio in LA. Keith Olson, staff producer at Sound City, produced "Jesse's Girl" and refused to let Rick play guitar. Neil Geraldo from Pat Benetar's band played the guitar. Springfield claimed that Olson didn't like his guitar playing. Geraldo told a funny story about the session.

I also saw that in the Sound City documentary (highly recommended, by the way). After that, it became obvious how much that song sounds like something on a Pat Benatar record. You could totally put her vocals on that song and have it fit. And yes, I'll admit, it's a damn catchy song.

Rick had no intention of being a teen heartthrob. He wanted to be a serious rock musician. On the other hand, millions of dollars do a way of speaking...

[trurl]

[QUOTE=the winter tree;234829]

Something I've always wondered: if you watch the Jessie's Girl video, Rick is pretty clearly shown miming the guitar solo, and it looks like he's actually playing the solo (as compared to some people who mime guitar parts in videos or TV or movies, and you can tell they're not playing it). I've always wondered if he actually played the solo on the record (or maybe composed it?) or if it was a studio guy? Maybe Tim Pearce? I know Tim was in Rick's band throughout the 80's, so perhaps it's him on the record.

I just watched Dave Grohl's interesting documentary "Sound City" about the famous studio in LA. Keith Olson, staff producer at Sound City, produced "Jesse's Girl" and refused to let Rick play guitar. Neil Geraldo from Pat Benetar's band played the guitar. Springfield claimed that Olson didn't like his guitar playing. Geraldo told a funny story about the session.

Yep- Rick is a good guitar player but that's clearly neil. One of his better solos too, imo. Neil had a habit of constructed extremely tasteful solos that would always have one jarring,m horrible, wrong sounding thing in them. The JG solo didn't have that *lol*

I'd put Jesse's Girl up as one the the best 80s pop songs there is- as good as anything Squeeze or Elvis Costello ever did.

[No Pride]

I'd put Jesse's Girl up as one the the best 80s pop songs there is

It IS a good tune! I've played it with one or two cover bands. Not very typical as far as form is concerned; no section is repeated exactly the same way with the same number of bars, making it uncommonly asymmetrical... and not as easy to memorize as most pop music is. The instrumental section modulates to a different key without any sort of warning cadence. Of course, my "muso" analysis is not what makes it great; what does is that it's a very catchy tune that has remained popular through the decades. It only takes two measures to identify, then people start applauding. Like much classic rock and pop, it has oversaturated the airwaves, which tends to offend some, especially us "progger" types. But a good tune remains a good tune.

I streamed one of his more recent albums a couple of years ago and though that kind of music is not my cuppa tea enough to make me want to acquire it, I had to admit it was a solid pop/rock album. He's more than a "decent" singer too.