Thursday, September 13, 2007

Firefall Part 1 - Welcome To Byrdish Land










Quality: 320, 192, VBR

Michael Clarke - dr
Mark Andes - b, bv
Rick Roberts - v, g
Jock Bartley - g, v
David Muse - fl, sax, harm, p, clav, org, synth
Larry Burnett - v, g



In the early 1970s, Rick Roberts and Jock Bartley first met while Bartley was on tour with Gram Parsons as a member of his backing band The Fallen Angels. Both The Fallen Angels and Roberts were performing in New York City at the same venue on back to back nights. Roberts was impressed by Bartleys lead and slide guitar work. The duo soon began practicing and even performing together. Encouraged by their peers to form a band together, they contacted Mark Andes and Larry Burnett and coaxed them into joining their band, which they christened Firefall.
Although the band already had a vast repertoire of songs to play they still required a drummer. They auditioned several local musicians and played a few shows, they still required a drummer with more experience. Roberts chose his band mate from The Flying Burrito Brothers, Michael Clarke, who was most famous for his time in the Byrds. Clarke was literally hired over the phone.
The band then decided that they wanted to add a more exotic sound to their music, so they brought in Roberts' high school friend David Muse (who was later with Heart). Muse was a multi-instrumentalist who played
saxophone, flute, hamonica and keyboards. Jim Mason, who had worked with Poco in the past, was brought in as their producer. With their line-up complete, the band went into rehearsals in Boulder.
The resulting album, the self-titled Firefall became Atlantic Records quickest album to reach gold status. The group's first single Livin' Ain't Livin' reached the top 40.
The band's next single You Are The Woman, catapulted into the top 10. To add to their exposure, they began touring with Fleetwood Mac, who were at the beginning of their most successful days. Their next single, Cinderella, though played extensively on FM radio, did not fare well on AM radio due to its controversial lyrics being boycotted by feminist groups. This did not however, have a lasting affect on the band's sales.
The group then headed back to Criteria Studios to record their second album, which was to be titled Tropical Nights. After hearing the final mix, the band received a note from Atlantic CEO saying that the album needed to be reworked. The album was re-recorded and renamed Luna Sea. The album peaked at 27 on the charts and went gold less than two months after release. The single from the album Just Remember I Love You, featuring backing vocals by Poco's Timothy B. Schmit, reached the top 10.
In 1978, the band produced their third album Elan. It was a massive success, and it became their first album to reach platinum status. The singles Goodbye, I Love You and Sweet and Sour were released within a few months and continued the band's commercial hot streak.

10 comments:

TheSeeker said...

1976 Firefall - Firefall
http://lix.in/1f6d27

1977 Firefall - Luna Sea
http://lix.in/96ef68
Thanks to Lost-In-Tyme!

1978 Firefall - Elan
http://lix.in/bf8956

ad3kpro said...

Great stuff - informative and well written commentary plus wonderful music to rediscover.
May I suggest someone other than Rapidshare as your hosting service, there are many other with much less severe dwnld limits.

Thanks again for sharing.

Anonymous said...

I agree. Firefall is great! Is Part 2 far off? thanks!

Anonymous said...

Thanx for these post ,N' I have a request, Do you have "Clouds Across the Sun 1980" album? If you owned it, please upload it, I'll be very grateful! Thanx again!

TheSeeker said...

@ad3kpro
You're right, I'm thinking about a second server.

@anonymous:
Firefall Part II is in the works, so please be patient. But I think I'll post it in 2008.

@anonymous:
'Clouds Across The Sun' is really hard to find. Have written it in my list.

wkc said...

You have made my day! Thanks so much for these Firefall shares.

Wopper714 said...

Thanks for these! If you are still looking for Clouds Across the Sun, I have a copy.....

TheSeeker said...

@Wopper714:
No, we have all Firefall studio LP's already. But there are 2 newer CD's missing:

Firefall-Colorado to Liverpool
Jock Bartley-Blindsight

bongolong said...

Thanks for all these Firefall... I've been wondering about them for years and now that I've had a taste, I like 'em!!!

Anonymous said...

:)