Bands Who Sold Out: Rockers In The 70s Who Went Soft In The 80s – The Bands Who Lost Me…

We’re in the dog days of our miserable “winter of discontent,” if I may borrow that phrase from Shakespeare. Cold, grey days that go on seemingly endlessly. Can’t really go outside, everything is still blanketed in dirty, soot-covered snow. Typically this time of year sends me into some deep rock n roll ruminations. Last year it led me to post about my favorite Psychedelic Rock Albums. This year I find myself thinking back to the late 70s/early 80s… for no particular reason at all.

I think my annual rumination is typically driven by the fact that there is usually a dearth of new music to listen to/think about at the dawn of a new year. Artists tend to drop new music on us during the holiday season so Santa can make sure to get it under everybody’s tree or in their stocking, or wherever he puts your gifts. We usually have to wait until Spring for new LPs.

Although, I can’t really say that new music releases are lacking this year. January saw new blues flavored releases from Van Morrison and Lucinda Williams and a nice EP from soul legend Al Green. Death Cult, aka The Cult, also released a wonderful live album. We also got promising new singles from upcoming LPs from the Black Crowes and Peter Gabriel!

And yet my mind keeps wandering back to the past as I stare out of frosty windows into a colorless sky. It’s like a large wet blanket, soaked in an ice bath, has descended over the world. While it’s a brand new year – with the same ol’ shit, some might say – I seem to be casting my mind backward to those crazy days at the end of what passed for my primary education.

I was shuffling my music the other day and a few bands popped up that were so big when I was in junior high/high school. It’d been a long time since I’d heard some of these bands and I wondered why? Some bands like AC/DC or the Stones just seem to have an almost magical ability to survive throughout the decades while some bands have their “moment in time” and then… fade.

I know most bands break up, or lose a key member. Or a key member gets megalomania and tosses the chemistry out the window and takes over the creative process. But sometimes these bands made a conscious choice to be, for lack of a better description, “more popular.” I get wanting to reach a bigger audience but man, a lot of it feels like they sold out… and I’m not talking about tickets. These bands were already pretty dominant when they made this choice. And as a result, they lost me, which is a hard thing to do.

I realize every era has its “flash in the pan” kind of bands, shooting stars who blaze brightly but only briefly. The bands I’m thinking about had sustained, pretty long careers and some are still around in some form today. I’ve never subscribed to the “decade” theory of rock n roll. This band is “60s” or “70s.” A lot of music hews to that but the 60s style music didn’t fade until maybe ’72. It could be argued that the 80s didn’t really begin until ’83. The bands I’m thinking about were popular in what might be called a “sub-decade,” from 1975 to 1985. All I’m suggesting is it’s all kind of loose when trying to “carbon date” a band.

I’m specifically talking about the bands who, when I was in jr. high/high school, could come into my sleepy, “small market,” midwestern town and sell out our local basketball arena, not just one night but often two. These bands played straight up rock n roll. There wasn’t a preponderance of ballads and typically very little synthesizer. Its was guitar/drums/bass/keyboards/vocals. These were the bands who dominated my local rock radio station, the venerable KY/102.

Looking back I realize the bands I’m thinking of are now deemed “arena rock.” What can I say, we weren’t cool enough or subversive enough to be listening to punk or the New Wave music that followed it. We were fed arena rock by our local radio station and we ate that shit up. You’ll never hear me apologize for most of it. It rawked in such a good way, like say, Boston. I wish I could say I was listening to Iggy Pop in 9th grade, but if I had been my father would have sent me to some dismal military reform school. The threat was never zero on that deal…

For the record, the Rock Chick who occasionally reads what I’m scribing over my shoulder, wants me to make it clear she was never of a fan of the bands I’m writing about. Let’s face it, she’s known as “The Rock Chick” for a reason. She likely had harder, better taste than most of us.

Somewhere along the way, these bands began to realize in order to fill these aforementioned arenas, they had to move in a more “pop” direction. Maybe a key member took off and somebody else with more pop sensibility stepped into the creative void. Or the band began to sputter creatively so “song doctors,” outside songwriters, came in. The synth appeared along with big chorus ballads. And suddenly our wonderful rock bands were now… well, pop bands.

I’m not suggesting you’re wrong to have remained a fan of these bands. I still love a lot of the early music from this following list of bands who broke my heart and went soft or went nuts. It’s just that none of these would make my “B&V Hall of Fame,” and at one time as youngster they’d have been shoo-in’s. I can remember everybody walking around my high school in these band’s T-shirts, especially after they’d barnstormed through town and played Kemper Arena.

Who knew, that right around the corner, they’d lose me. By growing a new audience of pop fans, they lost some of their rock n roll, original fans. Without further ado, these are the bands that made me feel, well, as Nathan Lane said in The Birdcage, “I don’t know, betrayed?” There are many more I could have included – Heart or Genesis to name a few – but these are the bands whose LPs I actually owned while still in high school.

Journey

Journey was formed when Neal Schon (guitar) and Gregg Rollie (vocals/keyboards) left Santana. They grabbed a few other guys but nothing really hit with the listening populace until they hired singer Steve Perry, who was working on a turkey farm. The albums Infinity (1978), Evolution (1979) and Departure (1980) built a big fan base, at least at my junior high/high school. My favorite was “Wheel In The Sky.” I also loved when Rollie and Perry co sang – a weapon they under utilized – in “Just The Same Way.”

After recording their 1981 live LP, Captured which should have been on my list of Essential Live LPs (if it wasn’t), Gregg Rollie split. Sadly, the band hired Jonathan Cain (keyboards) of the Babys who pulled the band in a more pop, polished direction. Some blamed Perry but it was clearly Cain who ruined Journey.

Escape should have been a clue but swept up in the 10x platinum sales even I bought it. But the real rocking songs that featured Schon’s guitar were relegated to side 2 and felt like filler. When Frontiers came out, I was off the bandwagon. I did see them twice in the post Rollie era… like I’ve said, once I’m into a band it’s hard to shake me. There’s still a version of this band still around with a different singer… but why?

REO Speedwagon

REO Speedwagon was a straightforward meat-and-potatoes rock n roll band. They were big in the middle of the country for a long time but couldn’t seem to catch fire on either coast. Gary Richrath was a formidable guitarist and lead singer Kevin Cronin was capable. They had great anthems like “Golden Country” and “Ridin’ The Storm Out” and a favorite live LP, You Get What You Play For. 

You Can Tune Piano But You Can’t Tuna Fish went 2x platinum but when Nine Lives only went gold (I loved bassist Bruce Hall’s “Back On The Road Again” from that one) they moved into a pop direction with Hi Infidelity. It’s clearly their most popular record with 10x platinum sales but it left me absolutely cold. I shudder every time I’m in the hardware store and “Keep On Lovin’ You” comes over the loudspeakers. From live wires to lame.

Styx

Styx was the second concert I ever saw. The Grand Illusion (1977) and Pieces Of Eight (1978) were required listening at any party I attended… not that I was invited to many parties in junior high. I always thought they were English, but they’re from Chicago. It was 1979’s Cornerstone that they began to lose me with lead single “Babe.” Man, I hate that song.

Dennis DeYoung (vocals/keyboards) let success go to his head and started to take over the creative process and they went mellow. Tommy Shaw (guitarist/vocals) still put some decent tracks onto their LPs, like “Too Much Time On My Hands,” but I just lost interest. When Kilroy Was Here came out with lead single “Mr. Roboto,” they were officially dead to me. The Rock Chick went to that concert and speaks about it in the most scathing terms… indeed.

Foreinger

Foreigner’s first three albums Foreigner (1977), Double Vision (1978) and Head Games (1979) came out in each year of my 3-year internment in junior high. We all loved these guys, especially their debut. I owned it and Head Games. While they employed the synth, they used it in the right way. Even their ballads were cool, like “The Damage Is Done” or “Fool For You Anyway.”

Then band leader, guitarist/songwriter Mick Jones fired two of the band’s six members in 1980. When they recorded their next album 4 Mick played all the guitars and brought in Thomas Dolby of “She Blinded Me With Science” fame to play the keyboards. We loved that LP, with tracks like “Urgent” and “Juke Box Hero.” I saw them on this tour at SummerJam where they headlined.

Sadly, the last single was “Waiting On A Girl Like You,” a syrupy ballad. By the time they put out Agent Provocateur, I was in college and maybe my music tastes had changed but “I Want To Know What Love Is” made me want to drive my car into the ditch. Two big ballad singles in a row spelled the death knell for these guys in my ears. Eventually Mick Jones’ megalomaniac act led him to fire lead singer Lou Gramm. Oh, the hubris. A version of Foreigner, with no original members, is still out there somewhere… but again I must ask, why?

It could be that I just aged out of these bands. I graduated from high school and went to college where I started to discover a ton of music that I’d missed when younger. I like to think between the beer and lack of success with women that my music taste got better. But for some reason I still look back at the aforementioned bands and can’t help but wonder what went wrong?

I’m sure that all of you out there have a certain band that you absolutely loved who took a bad turn and you fell off the bandwagon. I know great artists sometimes have a creative dip – McCartney, Dylan and Aerosmith to name a few – but they always seemed to find their footing. I don’t think you can say that about the aforementioned bands. They went pop and never came back to true rock n roll.

Again, no hate here if you still dig these bands. I saw each of them in concert “back in the day.” And there are tracks from their earlier rocking records that still bring a smile to my face. These were bands with a big following who wanted… more. And in grasping for that “more” they lost what they had. Let me know in the comments if you’ve had an experience with a band like this and share your story!

Forget about what Punxsutawney Phil says, Spring is on the way… I can feel it in my bones. Or, I just look at the calendar and see it’ll be here next month. Either way… Cheers!