I have this CD! Should I be bragging about this?Originally I was thinking of picking a different decade of music to write about because sometimes I get stuck in one time period for too long. Last night, I was surfing You Tube and found several lost classics of late 70's and early 80's Album Oriented Rock that I could not stop watching it. And out of that grab bag of forgotten bands like Device, FM and Orion the Hunter I came across something I felt needed some evaluation.
Anyone who has spent the last few decades scouring the cut out bins for classics (I got a lot of Cheap Trick albums that way in high school) knows there was a time when super cheesy Adult Contemporary god Michael Bolton was once super cheesy Rocker Michael Bolotin. Michael Bolton is like the William Shatner of music, at times his overblown delivery can power a song (such as "Soul Provider", "Missing You Now"). Other times, he seems to say "I'm goin' for it!" and strains to overemote like a man trapped under a heavy object ("When I'm Back On My Feet Again", "When A Man Loves A Woman").
But before Nicollete Sheridan and a bevy of housewives longed for the curly maned singer, Michael Bolotin was a member of the band Blackjack. I came across a promotional video for the band that included Bruce Kulick of KISS and includes two songs. In between the endorsement from the producer (I think it was Tom Dowd) and comparisons to Foreigner was surprisingly good late 70's AOR. Bolotin sounded really good and compared favorably to Paul Rodgers on the second song where they rip off Bad Company's "Can't Get Enough Of Your Love".
Needless to say, Blackjack didn't make it and Bolotin started a solo career as a hard rocker! I came across a used CD of his 1983 album where he delivers a competent Foreigner pastiche. Tellingly, there's a hard rock cover of the Supremes classic "Back In My Arms Again". Fortunately, Bolton was still able to make a living as a songwriter and without knowing it had enjoyed his music via Laura Branigan's preferrable version of "How Can I Live Without You" (the plaintive tone sounds better with her) and Starship's "Desperate Heart" (my favorite song from the Knee Deep In The Hoopla album).
After Michael Bolton (1983) dudded, Bolton had one of those "I'm goin' for it!!!" moments and tried hair metal on the album Everybody's Crazy in 1985. That's the second video here and all I can say is-on a cheese level this isn't American or Swiss but the whole Hickory Farms factory rolled up into 4 minute magic. If you can watch this and not bust out laughing you're a better person than me.
After a successful conversion to Adult Contemporary (initially aided by members of Journey) hard rock fans could stop sweating out whether or not Bolton would continue to abuse their genre. But while middle aged women were swooning about Bolton going the distance or wanting to touch you...there...he snuck in one more shot at hard rock. Bolton wrote the KISS power ballad "Forever", um, or is that "FOORR-EVVV-AHHHH!" which happens to be one of my favorite KISS songs (It's up there with "Let's Put The X In Sex").
Michael Bolton, you sir, get the last laugh.
Anyone who has spent the last few decades scouring the cut out bins for classics (I got a lot of Cheap Trick albums that way in high school) knows there was a time when super cheesy Adult Contemporary god Michael Bolton was once super cheesy Rocker Michael Bolotin. Michael Bolton is like the William Shatner of music, at times his overblown delivery can power a song (such as "Soul Provider", "Missing You Now"). Other times, he seems to say "I'm goin' for it!" and strains to overemote like a man trapped under a heavy object ("When I'm Back On My Feet Again", "When A Man Loves A Woman").
But before Nicollete Sheridan and a bevy of housewives longed for the curly maned singer, Michael Bolotin was a member of the band Blackjack. I came across a promotional video for the band that included Bruce Kulick of KISS and includes two songs. In between the endorsement from the producer (I think it was Tom Dowd) and comparisons to Foreigner was surprisingly good late 70's AOR. Bolotin sounded really good and compared favorably to Paul Rodgers on the second song where they rip off Bad Company's "Can't Get Enough Of Your Love".
Needless to say, Blackjack didn't make it and Bolotin started a solo career as a hard rocker! I came across a used CD of his 1983 album where he delivers a competent Foreigner pastiche. Tellingly, there's a hard rock cover of the Supremes classic "Back In My Arms Again". Fortunately, Bolton was still able to make a living as a songwriter and without knowing it had enjoyed his music via Laura Branigan's preferrable version of "How Can I Live Without You" (the plaintive tone sounds better with her) and Starship's "Desperate Heart" (my favorite song from the Knee Deep In The Hoopla album).
After Michael Bolton (1983) dudded, Bolton had one of those "I'm goin' for it!!!" moments and tried hair metal on the album Everybody's Crazy in 1985. That's the second video here and all I can say is-on a cheese level this isn't American or Swiss but the whole Hickory Farms factory rolled up into 4 minute magic. If you can watch this and not bust out laughing you're a better person than me.
After a successful conversion to Adult Contemporary (initially aided by members of Journey) hard rock fans could stop sweating out whether or not Bolton would continue to abuse their genre. But while middle aged women were swooning about Bolton going the distance or wanting to touch you...there...he snuck in one more shot at hard rock. Bolton wrote the KISS power ballad "Forever", um, or is that "FOORR-EVVV-AHHHH!" which happens to be one of my favorite KISS songs (It's up there with "Let's Put The X In Sex").
Michael Bolton, you sir, get the last laugh.
Blackjack Promo Video
Michael Bolton - "Everybody's Crazy"
2 comments:
I have never, nor will I ever, understand what usually rational females ever saw or do see in this guy. He's seriously funny looking, not sexy, and his voice makes me cringe. But thats just my opinion, what do I know, eh? My idea of seriously sexy in that era was Peter Frampton (who still is) and the lead singer of Cheap Trick (who is not).
I can't speak to who women find sexy, but I can say that Bolton came across like a kind of caveman appearance to me. An immensely sensitive caveman who yells his feelings in peoples faces all day.
At this point I'm just being mean, so to redeem it I'll say I like his cover versions of "Georgia On My Mind" and "To Love Somebody" more than the originals. Then I think of "Said I Loved You...But I Lied" and realize some of that meanness is justified. Someone's gotta pay for that one.
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