Quote:
Originally Posted by Unknown Soldier
Also Check This Out........
This is an extra album from the same year that I've chosen, that either just missed the final cut, I think could be of interest, or even from a different genre that could be of interest or influence on the hard rock/heavy metal genre.
The Babys The Babys 1976 (Chrysalis)
Hard Rock
If the Angel debut showed just how thin the line was around this time between heavy metal/hard rock and AOR, then The Baby’s debut would show it at its thinnest. The Babys were a British band that consisted of John Waite-Bass/Vocals, Wally Stocker-Guitar, Michael Corby-Rhythm/Keyboards and Tony Brock-drums. From the word go the band were seemingly being groomed for stardom and were on the Chrysalis label and had Bob Ezrin on production (even though there is little of his production on show here) and the band looked the part as well. Their debut album would be the best album that the band put out and despite being their best, it’s still an album with a number of flaws. Quite quickly the quality of their work dried up and the band would soon garner the label of being a band of potential and nothing more and in 1981 they would eventually fold. In hindsight the band were nothing more than vehicles for some of its members most notably frontman John Waite, who of course would go onto find success as a solo artist and future member Jonathan Cain-Keyboards would of course find stardom with Journey. The debut album is a combination of melodic rock, with a heavy backdrop and an emphasis on commercialism, even though there is no obvious single here. Standout tracks are “If You’ve Got the Time” “Over and Over” and the epic “Dying Man” a song I can listen to anytime, in fact it’s one of my favourite video montages on You Tube. *Also the album cover above is actually from their second album and not their debut, as I had a problem of getting the correct size of the debut*
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I remember this one, as well as a few of the band's US hits. They were pretty popular with the Head First album on my side of the pond, but when 1980 rolled around, they were starting the slide down with the Union Jacks album which at least included the Detroit FM Radio hit "Midnight Rendezvous".
Doing some Detroit Drive In research recently, I came across an article in The Detroit News on their first Detroit gig that was not well reviewed. The writer said that the talent was there, especially sighting Waite's singing, but it sounded generic.
I came across their final album, On the Edge, mainly for it being from 1980 and Produced by Keith Olsen (Ex-Music Machine turned super producer). It was more on the energetic Pop side of things with a couple of nice tracks although you could hear the band about to go by that time. I also got (for 25 cents) Waite's Ignition album just to hear what it sounded like while the original image aimed for some kind of MTV-centric Pop stardom that happened with the next album.