A LEGEND NEVER DIES
So, let’s get to a song. When you decide on an album order, you better be prepared that cut one, side one is what the radio stations are going to judge by. In our case, that song wasn’t the song I felt was the ‘big hit’… but in retrospect, it really worked for AOR radio in 1982. Against all odds, KLOL, the major AOR station in Houston, and a very influential station in the world of rock, took to our track. We were out at a time where we were competing with Richie Blackmore’s Rainbow, Whitesnake, Joan Jett, The Scorpions and Van Halen to name a few. If you can believe it, we charted at No.1 on this station’s playlist! We were doing so well there, and so quickly, the station asked us to headline their annual rock-fest held in the Houston Astrodome. It took about a second, and we said yes. We land in Houston and we pile into a car that took us into town to our hotel. We heard our song on KLOL multiple times as we made the drive from the airport to our hotel… it was insane. We were certainly in heavy rotation.
We get to the Astrodome, and the other bands are playing and the place is buzzing. As the headline act, it’s finally our turn to hit the stage. We’re introduced, and we’re greeted with the roar that only thousands of anxious rockers can make… and here’s where this leads. I start the riff to “A Legend Never Dies”… and the roar went up in volume tenfold. It’s a moment I’ll never forget. I start the song by myself, the place is going nuts and they’re on our side. I’m thinking, all those years in the basement, in bars and gyms, the studio, and now I’m on stage in the Astrodome, and I see a line.. and I’m finally going to cross it. The power of radio. The show was a real thrill and went better than any of us could have imagined. As a side note, re-arrange two letters in Gendel and you get Legend. So much for my humility at the time. You had to have confidence to step into this arena, and I had it.
I have to state here that very quickly, our reputation for our songwriting spread through a certain sector of the rock community. To make the point, the band Blackfoot, led by Ricky Medlock, currently of Lynyrd Skynyrd, covered this first song very soon after we released it.
So, click here for the RPM version,
And click here for the Blackfoot version.
2 + 2
Short story on this one....
'2 + 2' is the second song on the debut RPM album. Besides 'A Legend Never Dies', this song got covered, as well, shortly after our debut album’s release. This time, Van Zant (formerly The Johnny Van Zant Band) recorded our song. What’s interesting is that both the Van Zants and Ricky Medlock are members of Lynyrd Skynyrd and they both independently covered our songs! So strange, but so cool!
'2 + 2' is the second song on the debut RPM album. Besides 'A Legend Never Dies', this song got covered, as well, shortly after our debut album’s release. This time, Van Zant (formerly The Johnny Van Zant Band) recorded our song. What’s interesting is that both the Van Zants and Ricky Medlock are members of Lynyrd Skynyrd and they both independently covered our songs! So strange, but so cool!
I hope you’ll compare both versions and share your thoughts. Of note, the guitarist on Van Zant’s recording pretty much nicked my solo note for note. They say “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery”… what do you think?
For 2 + 2 by RPM, click here
For 2 + 2 by Van Zant, click here
For 2 + 2 by RPM, click here
For 2 + 2 by Van Zant, click here
RENDEZVOUS
You’ve probably determined that the overall feel of this album certainly had a “commercial” slant. It was prevalent in the business that if a major label was going to place a bet on you, you had to have 'the song', or better yet, 'the songs'. Journey, Loverboy and Foreigner ruled the airwaves around this period, and that was what we were up against. These acts set the bar for commercial rock and so we knew we would live or die on the quality of our material when played against them, and that was our focus, especially for Robert and I. This focus certainly paid off for us because the labels who came calling felt we had the songs.
There’s lot’s of interesting stuff surrounding this song. I had most of the music for this worked out before I left Canada and got to try it out in my Toronto basement with Bill Mair and Jim Minas. When Robert Johnson and I polished up the chorus and verses, Brent Maher, engineer and producer, stepped in with the angle on the story of the ‘friend’ waiting in the wings while the girl of his dreams is questioning the treatment from her current guy. It was a good addition and gave the song a unique twist.
There’s lot’s of interesting stuff surrounding this song. I had most of the music for this worked out before I left Canada and got to try it out in my Toronto basement with Bill Mair and Jim Minas. When Robert Johnson and I polished up the chorus and verses, Brent Maher, engineer and producer, stepped in with the angle on the story of the ‘friend’ waiting in the wings while the girl of his dreams is questioning the treatment from her current guy. It was a good addition and gave the song a unique twist.
We’re in the control room at Creative Workshop in Berry Hill, Nashville and we’re about to listen to a mix of the song. Just as the play button is hit, this guy walks in and is listening along with us. When the playback is over, this gentleman states, “..that’s got a hook the size of the anchor on the Titanic.” I’d never heard it stated like that before! I said to him, “Wow, thank you... I’m Mark… and what’s your name?”. He responds, “I’m Elliot Scheiner.” I knew the name but have to admit that at the time, I had no idea the scope or the musical history of Mr. Scheiner. Twenty-seven Grammys is only the tip of the iceberg. As a master mixer/engineer/producer he’s worked with everyone who’s anyone. The list is ridiculous and includes Steely Dan, Eric Clapton, Queen, and Sting, and is documented on his Wikipedia page. It was a wonderful vote of confidence coming from such a legendary figure.
This was the song I felt could make our mark at top 40 radio, and so did a group of guys across the Atlantic. I have to fast forward with this next story. We’re already recording our second album which places us at Trevor Horn’s famed SARM Studios in London. I’m going to delve more into how this transpired when we get to that story, but for now I’m sitting at the bar in the kitchen area as we’re taking a short break. A gentleman sits down at the bar beside me and we’re chatting away. He tells me he’s a producer and he’s here at SARM doing some editing. I tell him I’m here with my band making our second album. Seeing as he stated he was a producer, I ask him if he has anything about to be released. He says he does… “It’s a song I’m excited about called ‘Rendezvous’ that I recorded with a band called Tygers Of Pan Tang.” I respond with, “Now that is an amazing coincidence because that’s the title of one of the songs on my first album.” He asks me, “Well, is your band called RPM?” …and I naturally respond, “Yes!” He says, “Well, we’ve covered your song!” We've both got this dazzled expression and we're both laughing out loud at this absolute strangeness. I introduce myself and he introduces himself to me as Peter Collins. Now what are the odds that I’ve traveled to London, I’m in the kitchen in one of who knows how many London studios, and this story unfolds?!!! Peter is a legendary producer having worked with everyone from Rush, Queensryche and Bon Jovi...just to name a few. We connected again years later in Nashville when Llynda and I played him her solo album, which he loved. I’m sad to report that Peter recently passed away at age 73. He was a great guy, he recorded one of my songs, and added to the story of my journey in a most unbelievably coincidental way.
Here are the two different versions:
For RPM’s version of Rendezvous, click here
This track opened side one of Tygers Of Pan Tang’s fourth album, ‘The Cage’.
These guys reached the top 30 in England and other European markets with their version of our song.
For Tygers Of Pan Tang’s version of Rendezvous, click here, and let me know what you think.
This was the song I felt could make our mark at top 40 radio, and so did a group of guys across the Atlantic. I have to fast forward with this next story. We’re already recording our second album which places us at Trevor Horn’s famed SARM Studios in London. I’m going to delve more into how this transpired when we get to that story, but for now I’m sitting at the bar in the kitchen area as we’re taking a short break. A gentleman sits down at the bar beside me and we’re chatting away. He tells me he’s a producer and he’s here at SARM doing some editing. I tell him I’m here with my band making our second album. Seeing as he stated he was a producer, I ask him if he has anything about to be released. He says he does… “It’s a song I’m excited about called ‘Rendezvous’ that I recorded with a band called Tygers Of Pan Tang.” I respond with, “Now that is an amazing coincidence because that’s the title of one of the songs on my first album.” He asks me, “Well, is your band called RPM?” …and I naturally respond, “Yes!” He says, “Well, we’ve covered your song!” We've both got this dazzled expression and we're both laughing out loud at this absolute strangeness. I introduce myself and he introduces himself to me as Peter Collins. Now what are the odds that I’ve traveled to London, I’m in the kitchen in one of who knows how many London studios, and this story unfolds?!!! Peter is a legendary producer having worked with everyone from Rush, Queensryche and Bon Jovi...just to name a few. We connected again years later in Nashville when Llynda and I played him her solo album, which he loved. I’m sad to report that Peter recently passed away at age 73. He was a great guy, he recorded one of my songs, and added to the story of my journey in a most unbelievably coincidental way.
Here are the two different versions:
For RPM’s version of Rendezvous, click here
This track opened side one of Tygers Of Pan Tang’s fourth album, ‘The Cage’.
These guys reached the top 30 in England and other European markets with their version of our song.
For Tygers Of Pan Tang’s version of Rendezvous, click here, and let me know what you think.
FIRESTARTER
There’s another cool story surrounding another song on our debut. Around this time, Steven King’s book, Firestarter was released. I thought it was a cool title and would actually make for an exciting song title.. provided the music and lyrics could match that excitement. Robert and I were working at my apartment one afternoon and Robert had to take a phone call. While he’s chatting, I started playing this thirds-type riff. Robert looks up at me with wide eyes and he’s nodding affirmatively, so I clicked the record button on our trusted cassette recorder, and we had our verse. By the time he got off the phone I had the chorus riff and he sang, “Fire… Firestarter…” and we had our song. Reverting back to our Astrodome show, I remember Robert introducing the song to the audience, and again, just the title got another huge roar of approval, and so did the song.
Well, when the album got released, I decided to write Steven King and give him a nod for inspiring the song. To my amazement, a few weeks later, I get a personally typed postcard from Mr. King! This is before computers were the norm, so when I held this postcard, I had to wonder how much brilliance was typed on the typewriter that my postcard was typed on.
Well, when the album got released, I decided to write Steven King and give him a nod for inspiring the song. To my amazement, a few weeks later, I get a personally typed postcard from Mr. King! This is before computers were the norm, so when I held this postcard, I had to wonder how much brilliance was typed on the typewriter that my postcard was typed on.
Another coincidence is the release of The Prodigy who had a massive hit with a song also titled 'Firestarter' in 1996, some 14 years after our release. Their song is made up of samples of other songs, one of which is a song called Close To The Edit by a band named Art Of Noise. One of the members of AON is a gentleman named Gary Langan… and Gary is about to engineer and co-produce our next album! Crazy!
When recording the guitar solos on this song, I just felt I had to get a little fire going on the fretboard in the tag, so off I went. It was the kind of thing I could do in one take. One of the blessings of youth is that you don’t consider things like difficulty or “will I get this”… you just go with the emotion. And capturing that emotion is the challenge of the red light.
There are other songs on the album I hope you’ll check out and enjoy. Llynda has often told me that her favorite song on our debut is 'It Don’t Feel The Same’, and my dear friend, Bill Mair has told me on more than one occasion that he likes the song 'Envy'. We actually heard that Mark Farner of Grand Funk Railroad had covered the opening song on side two, ‘You’, but I’ve never been able to confirm that, but I do think the song would suit him to a tee.
Although we gathered great reviews on the album, events transpired that had EMI place their priorities elsewhere. One of those events was EMI president, Don Grierson, dating and marrying Sheena Easton. Don was nowhere to be found during the release of our album as a result, and he was our so-called “key guy”. So, what do you do? Oddly enough, it was something we got over very quickly. We just had this mission and we just focused our energy on continuing down our path which was, “we’ll write more material, better material and we’ll show them. They may have missed it on this one, but they won’t on the next.” And so, we got busy.
Here’s the link to ‘Firestarter’:
Here is a link to the entire debut album, RPM.
Next chapter will take us to RPM's second album, PHONOGENIC recorded for Warner Bros.
When recording the guitar solos on this song, I just felt I had to get a little fire going on the fretboard in the tag, so off I went. It was the kind of thing I could do in one take. One of the blessings of youth is that you don’t consider things like difficulty or “will I get this”… you just go with the emotion. And capturing that emotion is the challenge of the red light.
There are other songs on the album I hope you’ll check out and enjoy. Llynda has often told me that her favorite song on our debut is 'It Don’t Feel The Same’, and my dear friend, Bill Mair has told me on more than one occasion that he likes the song 'Envy'. We actually heard that Mark Farner of Grand Funk Railroad had covered the opening song on side two, ‘You’, but I’ve never been able to confirm that, but I do think the song would suit him to a tee.
Although we gathered great reviews on the album, events transpired that had EMI place their priorities elsewhere. One of those events was EMI president, Don Grierson, dating and marrying Sheena Easton. Don was nowhere to be found during the release of our album as a result, and he was our so-called “key guy”. So, what do you do? Oddly enough, it was something we got over very quickly. We just had this mission and we just focused our energy on continuing down our path which was, “we’ll write more material, better material and we’ll show them. They may have missed it on this one, but they won’t on the next.” And so, we got busy.
Here’s the link to ‘Firestarter’:
Here is a link to the entire debut album, RPM.
Next chapter will take us to RPM's second album, PHONOGENIC recorded for Warner Bros.