Don_Krider's Full Review: King Biscuit Flower Hour Presents the Romantics by...
"Would you please welcome, from Detroit, Michigan, The Romantics!"
Many an audience must have heard that introduction to The Romantics over the years. The band's energy-charged live sets were captured live on MTV in that network's early days and the group scored a string of pop hits, including "Talking In Your Sleep" and "What I Like About You."
The early days:
The band's was formed on Valentine's Day, 1977 (at least, that is, according to legend) and opened for The MC5 (who hit # 23 in 1969 with "Kick Out The Jams") during a one-time reunion show by that band in Detroit.
The Romantics reportedly "blew the hard-core MC5 audience away," according to the CD booklet, with its performance.
By their third gig --- their third live performance, mind you --- the band was playing before 80,000 fans as opening act for Peter Frampton, J. Geils Band and Steve Miller in Pontiac Stadium!
Soon the band was on the legendary California independent label Bomp Records (run by Phonograph Record Magazine writer Greg Shaw) releasing their regional hit single "Tell It To Carrie."
That song led to major gigs at such rock clubs as Manhattan's Max's Kansas City and Toronto's El Mocambo. These appearances, in turn, led to the band signing a major record deal with Nemporer Records (distributed by Epic Records).
Produced by Peter Solley:
Produced by Peter Solley, the band adopted a Ramones punk look, Rolling Stones' attitude, Dave Clark Five metallic-pop stylings and vocal harmonies of The Hollies as their image.
Solley, the producer, should be a familiar name. He was a member of such classic rock acts as Procul Harum ("A Whiter Shade Of Pale," "Conquistador"), Terry Reid, The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown (with Carl Palmer and Arthur Lee), and Whitesnake, among others.
Solley also did production work for a number of acts, including John Parr, Oingo Boingo, Ted Nugent, Peter Frampton and Motorhead (their Grammy-nominated "1916" album).
Success:
Right out of the box the band scored with their debut album, simply entitled "The Romantics." That album rose to # 61 in 1980 and spent 15 weeks in the Billboard Top 200 Album chart.
That same year, the band scored its first national U. S. hit with "What I Like About You," a tune so well-known today via television commercials and classic rock radio plays that its chart peak at only # 49 in the Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart comes as a surprise.
Guitarist Mike Skill explained the group's sound to a reporter at the time saying, "We want to have fun with three chords."
Disappointment:
The band slipped a bit later in 1980 when their second album, "National Breakout," peaked at # 176 on the charts.
This was followed in 1981 by another disappointment for the group when their third album, "Strictly Personal," peaked at only # 182.
In the make-it-in-two-years-or-else of corporate music companies, most bands would have packed it in, but not The Romantics.
Top 10 hits:
That then-new cable music video network, MTV, discovered The Romantics about this time.
Needing videos to play and with not many acts having videos, MTV played anything it could find.
The Romantics had made videos for their tunes such as "What I Like About You" and MTV began playing them to very popular audience response.
When The Romantics released their video for "Talking In Your Sleep" in 1983, it began getting massive MTV airplay (even winning Friday night viewer vote-driven video-against-video contests on the network).
"Talking In Your Sleep" soon picked up massive radio airplay as well, as radio began following MTV's lead on what was "cool" in pop music (the phenomenon of seeing the video before you ever heard the song on Top 40 radio, a reversal of the previous "get a hit and then be seen on TV" normality and a trend that continues to this day).
Soon after hitting the Billboard Hot 100 on October 22, 1973, "Talking In Your Sleep" was the # 3 tune in the nation. It was followed into the Top 10 by "One In A Million."
The band also had what would be its biggest hit album, "In Heat," which reached # 14 on the Billboard Top 200 Albums chart.
That LP spent 36 weeks on the chart, during which time MTV aired a live concert by the band that was a rock 'n' roll tour-de-force.
"King Biscuit":
"The King Biscuit Flower Hour" aired on some 400 stations in national FM radio syndication about this time. In the pre-CD era, the shows were broadcast with CD-quality, multi-track remote units, meaning that the sound quality was state-of-the-art. Every show was recorded, as well.
The live performances on that series are finally being released on CD and are among the best live recordings around --- good, clear recordings without any hint of distortion. You hear every vocal and instrument played by the band; every scream by an audience member is also captured.
The Romantics were captured just as they began their final climb to pop superstardom. This performance from October 30, 1983 (just eight days after "Talking In Your Sleep" first hit the pop charts) was recorded live in San Antonio, Texas, before an enthusiastic audience.
The band is captured in its youthful prime, full of energy and playing as a very tight unit at the time. Pop-rock doesn't get any better than this.
The tunes:
The 17 tracks are: "When I Look Into Your Eyes," "Do Me Any Way You Wanna," "Gimme One More Chance," "Love Me To The Max," "Stone Poney," "Keep In Touch," "C'Mon Girl (Work Out With Me)," "Got Me Where You Want Me" and "Rock You Up."
Also, "Night Like This," "Tomboy," "Open Your Door," "Talking In Your Sleep," "I'm Hip," "Shake A Tail Feather," "What I Like About You" and "Little Latin Lupe Lou."
The best tracks:
"What I Like About You":
Drummer Jimmy Marinos sang this song as a sweat-covered, muscle-shirted rocker.
His gritty vocal captures a sexual tension of a guy who really likes the girl he's singing to (whatever girl is nearby, no doubt), all above his outstanding drum kit-pounding style, with aggressive guitars driving the tune as the band yells "hey" in unison in the background (joined by the audience in this instance):
"What I like about you / you hold me tight / tell me I'm the only one / wanna come over tonight? / yeah, you keep on whispering in my ear / tell me all the things I wanna hear / and that's true / that's what I like about you..."
"Talking In Your Sleep":
With a great ringing guitar intro and a rock-steady backbeat, "Talking In Your Sleep" takes on greater depth here --- if a band can bring something greater to a live recording than what they accomplished in the studio, that's true talent, and The Romantics prove their talent here.
Ringing guitars, a plodding bass line and some well-beaten drum skins grab you as lead singer Wally Palmer seduces the audience as he sings:
"When you close your eyes and you go to sleep / and it's down to the sound of a heartbeat/ I can hear the things that you're dreaming about / when you open up your heart and the truth comes out / you tell me that you want me / you tell me that you need me / you tell me that you love me / and I know that I'm right / 'cause I hear it in the night / I hear the secrets that you keep / when you're talking in your sleep..."
"When I Look Into Your Eyes":
The band's set-opener on this collection (with Wally Palmer asking the audience, "How you doing, San Antonio?", after a micropone-inspecting-vocal of "check, check") offers New Wave-meets-power pop in the driving rocker "When I Look Into Your Eyes."
Marinos' power as a Keith Moon-style drummer is evident hear, but the band shines as a unit behind Palmer's Paul McCartney-ish lead vocal:
"...I'm wondering why / I feel so good inside / when I look into your eyes..."
"Rock You Up":
On "Rock You Up," you find yourself wondering why the harmonica has been largely abandoned by rock acts as an instrument --- used right, as it is here, the harmonica provides a wonderful, seductive rock 'n' roll accent.
Any thought you may have that The Romantics are just some romantic balladeers (thanks to "Talking In Your Sleep") are washed away here --- this band is a rocking live unit (still on tour in 2003, by the way).
Try not to tap your toes and fingers to this tune as the band sings:
"...wanna have a good time / it's all right / watcha doin' later on tonight / I wanna rock you up..."
"Night Like This":
Still, the band does do some great ballads, as shown by the soulful, Motown-ish "Night Like This," with its gently climbing bass pattern, short guitar solos, crashing high hat sounds and sensual backbeat.
As the band slows down to a near pause, the audience goes wild as Palmer lowers his vocal to a love-making whisper, then raises his voice, all the while singing "...on a night like this, oh yeah, like this..." as if he's, shall we say, having a real good time with a companion.
"Love Me To The Max":
Very much in the "What I Like About You" mold, "Love Me To The Max" has a catchy-as-anything chorus soaring over its power chord-driven melody (shades of Badfinger and The Raspberries):
"I give you all of my loving / I give you all of my heart and soul / and in return I get nothing / I get you hot but you treat me cold / well come on / ... / give me all you got / love me to the max..."
The CD:
17 tracks on a single CD (the track listing appears earlier in this review).
The CD booklet:
Included is an illustrated 12-page CD booklet with some biographical notes by Bruce Pilato and a band discography. Most of the pages, however, are devoted to a history of the "King Biscuit" series and promotion of KIng Biscuit Flower Hour Records releases like this one.
Recommendation:
Fans of pop-rock (The Beatles, The Beach Boys, The Who) will enjoy this.
The performances are outstanding in production and execution. No distorted mixes in this live recording, just good-time, fun rock 'n' roll that's very enjoyable to listen to.
The Romantics today:
The band's lineup has changed over the years (drummer Jimmy Marinos has left the group a couple of times (leaving in the mid-1980s and returning briefly in the mid-1990s) and and is currently not with the band).
The band's popularity waned in the 1980s as they left the recording scene for seven years in a legal battle with their former management over ownership of the copyrights to their songs.
Although the band's performances were being used in television commercials for companies such as Budweiser and Burger King, the band wasn't seeing any money from licensing fees, so they had to go to court to win back the copyrights to their own songs.
That suit is now settled and the band is finally seeing a large chunk of change from these songs.
The band is at work on a new album (scheduled for 2002, it's still in the "to be released" stage). The band's current tour schedule is posted at their official website: http://www.romanticsdetroit.com .
That website includes clips of the band's songs and video of the band (including appearances on "American Bandstand," on MTV and on "Soul Train").
In 1999, the band received the Distinquished Achievement Award at the Detroit Music Awards.
The current lineup is Wally Palmer (guitar/harmonica and lead vocals since 1977), Mike Skill (guitarist from 1977-81, he exited the group and then returned as bass player/vocalist since 1983), Coz Canler (guitarist/vocalist since 1980) and current drummer Clem Burke (formerly of the 1980s' supergroup Blondie).
On the web:
The official Romantics website: http://www.romanticsdetroit.com
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