I remember when Foreigner first arrived on the scene in the mid 70’s. Their first album Foreigner is still my favorite album…every song was a winner as far as I was concerned. Starrider was the first song I heard from the album. And then I heard Feels Like the First Time. The band I was in at the time added Feels like the First Time to our play list. We had the vocals and players to pull it off. Three of the members of this talented band I was familiar with. The other members though not known to me at the time were great as well.
Ian McDonald played in my favorite line-up of King Crimson. This was the first generation of King Crimson players. They were Robert Fripp (a very innovative guitarist), Michael Giles (one of my favorite drummers/percussionists), Gregg Lake (Emerson, Lake, and Palmer), Ian McDonald (keyboards and wind instruments), and Peter Sinfield (lyrics). Ian’s keyboard work was powerful. The swells and emotions he played on a mellotron in songs like Epitaph and The Court of the Crimson King were absolutely incredible. His flute work in I talk to the Wind, haunting and beautiful. 21st Century Schizoid Man had so many great parts, April Wine redid the song. The melodic part of Mood Child is sweet. All aspects of this album from the instrumental parts to the melodies and the beautiful quality of Greg Lake’s voice, to the incredible lyric writing makes this album my favorite of all time. It was released in 1969 with an incredible cover done by Barry Godber. I would call the music progressive with a classical flavor.
On a side note, Peter Sinfield is probably my main inspiration for lyric writing. He wrote with such depth and power, creating word pictures that you could close your eyes to see the images he wrote about. Both the music and the lyrics are what empower a song, with the lyrics defining that power….whether good or evil. Mine are about GOD and that is good.
Mick Jones, another Englishmen, came from the band, Spooky Tooth. Probably the most notable member of Spooky Tooth was Gary Wright (Dream Weaver). Mick’s guitar playing was always very tasteful. My favorite Spooky Tooth album was The Mirror. Two of the songs off that album that I enjoyed were, The Mirror and I’m Alive, both of which I am thinking of Christianizing in rewrites.
On another side note: Spooky Tooth was a band I had followed since the Spooky Two album (yes I am that old and did say album). Luther Grosvenor aka Ariel Bender (killer guitarist for a British Band called Widowmaker), was the guitarist on that album, and was a really great player…check out his solo on a song called Evil Woman. I caught them on Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert one night in the very early 70’s doing a killer hard slow rock version (not a ballad) of the Beatles’ song I Am The Walrus. I was so thunderstruck, the first band I played in, Euphoria, did it that way.
Finally there was an American, Lou Gramm. He looked familiar and sounded familiar…and then it came to me. I searched my album collection and low and behold, I found him. In 1974, there was a band called Black Sheep. The singer was the same person…a little different name, but the same person. His whole name is Louis “Lou” Grammatico. They did a song that got national airplay that was a “cover” song. The song was Woman, originally done by Free (Paul Rogers). While I mean no disrespect to the great singer Paul Rogers was and is still to this day (My wife and I have seen him twice and both shows were great), Lou’s voice was incredible on the song. They slowed the groove down and Lou just wowed me with his vocals. But I am sure all of us Foreigner fans know how good Lou Gramm is. He did two solo albums and on a few songs had a guitarist I would love to learn from….Dann Huff from Giant. What really excites me is Lou Gramm will be coming out with a new record/CD soon. The great thing is Lou is a Christian and the new record will be Christian Rock. I can’t wait.
To those of you that don’t know how good Christian Rock is, ask me for some bands and I’ll be glad to direct you to them. Christian Rock is the best kept secret in the world…but some of the world/secular musicians are finding out there is more than just this world.
