Giraffe released The Power of Suggestion this month

The Power of Suggestion Giraffe

Released: April 1988 Peak: -- Sales (in millions): -- Genre: neo prog rock

Tracks: Click on a song title for lyrics. Overture [1:36] The Last Thing on Your Mind [4:07] In Every Line [3:38] This Warm Night [4:27] Imagemaker [4:30] Because of You [5:05] Everything We Are [4:23] New Patriots [2:30] Can’t Make This Love Go Away [4:48] The World Just Gets Smaller [5:28] Power Reprise [1:10] Because of You (11th Hour Mix) [9:26] Finale [1:57] All songs are produced, engineered, arranged, and written by Kevin Gilbert, copyright 1987 at The Recording Studio, Sunnyvale, California, during the winter of 1987. If you listen very carefully you can hear it raining between cuts. IT The Players: Kevin Gilbert (vocals, piano/keyboards, bazooka) Stan Cotey (guitar, keyboards, backing vocals) Michael Abowd (keyboards and sequences) Chris Beveridge (bass, backing vocals) J. Scott Smith (drums, triggers, loops, backing vocals)

Rating: 2.971 out of 5.00 (average of 9 ratings) Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album: Band member Chris Beveridge explains the origin of some of the songs: “There was a collection of songs left over from a few different projects: This Warm Night and World Just Gets Smaller from the earlier Giraf, Because of You and Imagemaker from a band Kevin, Scott and I previously had together and these tracks and a few others became the first CD.” CB “Given the time it was released, [The Power of Suggestion is] an interesting and worthwhile effort. The style is very much European sounding dance pop, with some progressive rock elements creeping in amongst the conventional structures, but only a little. Really it’s a Gilbert solo album, in that he played all the instruments as well as singing (The View from Here, which followed, has Giraffe expanding into more of a band). The vocals here are good, but with less of the sardonic expression characteristic of Gilbert's later work. The lyrics are better than average for this style and he proves his potential already both as a singer/songwriter and as a musician.” IT “What's most interesting is the inclusion of vocal phrases, picked up from various sources, in a way that…anticipates some of the later work of Porcupine Tree (both are probably influenced by Pink Floyd)…A cute example is the closing one, taken from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. ‘We are the music-makers and we are the dreamers of dreams.’” IT “Mostly though, these quotes tie into the loose theme of suggestion, with many sounding like they are from self-improvement tapes. The drum machines get a bit relentless in places and the music is sometimes a bit underworked and simplistic (more guitars and less keyboards might have broadened the sound) but, as a whole, it works and does include some fine songs. An indication of greater things to come.” IT Notes: It is assumed that the 11th Hour Mix of “Because of You” was not on the original release, but this is not known for sure. The Kevin Gilbert estate released the two Giraffe albums, The Power of Suggestion and The View from Here, in a set with a DVD which features a nine-song live set from the Gold Star Café at Mountain View, California on April 28, 1988. It also has an interview and the two songs they performed at the Yamaha Soundcheck National Finals at the Universal Ampitheatre in Los Angeles, California on September 16, 1988; an interview by Michelle Blaine with Kevin Gilbert; and video of the Band Explosion World Final at the Fuji Television Studio in Tokyo, Japan, from February 9-12, 1989. Finally, the DVD includes a video of “This Warm Night.” The set is available at PopPlusOne.com.

Resources and Related Links: CB Chris Beveridge, ShadowSelf.com. No longer online. IT Ian Thomas, Roadkill.com First posted 4/2/2008; updated 6/5/2021.

Melissa Etheridge “Occasionally” released as B-side

 

Occasionally Melissa Etheridge

Writer(s): Melissa Etheridge (see lyrics here) Released: April 27, 1988 (B-side of “Bring Me Some Water”) First Charted: -- Peak: 1 DF (Click for codes to singles charts.) Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 0.17 video, -- streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: When I look at some of my favorite albums of the 1980s, a pattern emerges. First, the album that tends to become the pinnacle for me isn’t necessarily the debut album, but it is the one which introduced me to that act. Second, I usually am led to the album by a big radio hit that everyone has embraced. The element that pushes the album to classic status for me, however, is when some non-radio song on the album grabs my attention – and sometimes becomes even more of a favorite for me than the hits. I was introduced to Marillion’s Misplaced Childhood via “Kayleigh” but then also fell in love with “Childhood’s End?” I found my way to Tears for Fears’ Songs from the Big Chair through “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” and “Shout” but was even more enamored with “The Working Hour.” Terence Trent D’Arby caught my attention with “Wishing Well” but Introducing the Hardline became a classic for me because of “As Yet Untitled.” Melissa Etheridge’s 1988 self-titled debut is another such example. I learned about the singer because “Bring Me Some Water” got airplay on album rock stations. However, the album became one of my all-time favorites because of “Occasionally.” Like some of the other examples cited, this wasn’t a song which was likely to be released as a single. That’s part of what made it stand out. In this case, the song was practically a cappella. Melissa powerfully emotes “I’m only lonely when I’m driving in my car / I’m only lonely after dark / I’m only lonely when I watch my TV / I’m only lonely occasionally” while accompanying herself only with hand thumbs on her guitar. She explained that she wrote the song driving in her car and tapping on the steering wheel. It worked that way so she never added any more to it. She didn’t need to. It is an absolute classic in its powerful message delivered with such starkness. Related Links: First posted 8/4/2022.

 

Melissa Etheridge “Bring Me Some Water” charted

Bring Me Some Water Melissa Etheridge

Writer(s): Melissa Etheridge (see lyrics here) First Charted: April 27, 1988 Peak: 10 AR, 100 UK, 34 CN, 9 AU, 1 DF (Click for codes to singles charts.) Sales (in millions): -- US, -- UK, -- world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 4.7 video, 12.49 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: The first time I heard “Bring Me Some Water” I thought it might be a new Tina Turner song. It had the rocked-out vibe of some of her ‘80s hits like “Better Be Good to Me” and “We Don’t Need Another Hero.” It turned out it wasn’t someone who’d been around for decades, but a brand new artist. She was even practically a hometown girl. Melissa Etheridge was from Leavenworth, Kansas, which was less than an hour from Kansas City where I’d grown up. I was in college in Warrensburg, Missouri, at the time, but it was close enough to pick up the KC-area radio stations. The album-rock stations embraced Etheridge wholeheartedly. Etheridge, Tracy Chapman and Indigo Girls emerged as personal favorites in the late ‘80s and pointed the direction for other ‘90s favorites of mine including Sheryl Crow, Shawn Colvin, Sarah McLachlan, and Tori Amos. While I never heard anyone else lump them together under one banner, they were all part of the “Lilith Fair” genre in my mind. Lilith Fair was a festival organized in the ‘90s by Sarah McLachlan for female artists and female-driven bands that generally traversed the ground between album rock and alternative with elements of folk thrown in. Etheridge was definitely more on the rock-end of the scale. “Bring Me Some Water” even garned enough national attention to land at #10 on the Billboard album rock chart. It also earned her a Grammy nomination for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance. It has become, she says, her song with “the highest recognition value and that wherever she plays the song in the world, everybody at her concerts knows the song after the first seconds of the intro.” WK Etheridge was living in Los Angeles, away from her girlfriend, Kathleen, when she wrote “Bring Me Some Water.” It was an open relationship, a fact which Etheridge clearly wasn’t completely on board with, considering the song’s themes about “the pain and jealousy arising from thoughts of her lover being intimate with someone else.” WK As she said, “It was very painful. It was very true. It was awful.” SF The song was cleverly written so that the listener didn’t know if Etheridge was singing about a relationship with a man or woman. She wouldn’t come out as gay until five years later. Resources: SF Songfacts WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 8/4/2022.

 

Tracy Chapman’s debut released

Tracy Chapman Tracy Chapman

Released: April 5, 1988 Peak: 16 US, 13 UK, 19 CN, 2 AU Sales (in millions): 6.0 US, 2.4 UK, 20.4 world (includes US and UK) Genre: contemporary folk rock

Tracks: Song Title [time] (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to singles charts. Talkin’ ‘Bout a Revolution [2:38] (7/30/88, 75 US, 45 AC, 22 AR, 24 MR, 85 UK, 42 CN, 66 AU) Fast Car [4:58] (5/7/88, 6 US, 7 AC, 19 AR, 5 UK, 1 CN, 4 AU) Across the Lines [3:22] Behind the Wall [1:46] Baby Can I Hold You [3:16] (11/5/88, 48 US, 19 AC, 94 UK, 27 CN, 68 AU) Mountains O’ Things [4:37] She’s Got Her Ticket [3:54] Why? [2:01] For My Lover [3:15] If Not Now… [2:55] For You [3:09] All songs written by Tracy Chapman. Total Running Time: 35:51

Rating: 4.457 out of 5.00 (average of 14 ratings) Quotable: -- Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album: “Arriving with little fanfare in the spring of 1988, Tracy Chapman’s eponymous debut album became one of the key records of the Bush era, providing a touchstone for the entire PC movement while reviving the singer/songwriter tradition. And Tracy Chapman is firmly within the classic singer/songwriter tradition, sounding for all the world as if it was recorded in the early ‘70s.” STE Chapman’s acoustic-based music was a turn-off to many producers because of the popularity of snyth-driven, dance-pop music at the time. However, David Kershenbaum embraced her musical direction. WK He recognized that, as he said, “there was a sense in the industry of a slight boredom with everything out there and that people might be willing to listen again to lyrics and to someone who made statements.” WK While the album may sonically be a throwback to the ‘70s, the subject matters “are clearly a result of the Reagan revolution. Even the love songs and laments are underscored by a realized vision of trickle-down modern life – listen to the lyrical details of Fast Car for proof.” STE Music critics widely praised the album for its politically and socially-minded lyrics, as well as Chapman’s vocal ability and the simplicity of the music. WK “Chapman’s impassioned liberal activism and emotional resonance enlivens her music, breathing life into her songs even when the production is a little bit too clean. Still, the juxtaposition of contemporary themes and classic production precisely is what makes the album distinctive – it brings the traditions into the present. At the time, it revitalized traditional folk ideals of social activism,” STE but “the record continues to sound fresh because Chapman's writing is so keenly observed and her strong, gutsy singing makes each song sound intimate and immediate.” STE

Resources and Related Links: STE Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide WK Wikipedia Other Related DMDB Pages: First posted 2/26/2008; last updated 9/4/2021.