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.

 

Queensrÿche Operation: Mindcrime released

Operation: Mindcrime Queensrÿche

Released: April 27, 1988 Peak: 50 US, 58 UK, 75 CN, -- AU, 8 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): 1.0 US, -- UK Genre: metal

Tracks: Song Title [time] (date of single release, chart peaks) I Remember Now [1:17] Anarchy – X (instrumental) [1:27] Revolution Calling [4:42] (Oct. 1988) Operation: Mindcrime [4:43] Speak [3;42] Spreading the Disease [4:07] The Mission [5:45] Suite Sister Mary [10:41] The Needle Lies [3:08] Electric Requiem [1:22] Breaking the Silence [4:34] (single, 1988) I Don’t Believe in Love [4:23] (July 1989, 41 AR) Waiting for 22 (instrumental) [1:05] My Empty Room [1:25] Eyes of a Stranger [6:39] (April 1989, 35 AR, 59 UK) Total Running Time: 59:14 The Players: Geoff Tate (vocals, etc.) Chris DeGarmo (guitar) Michael Wilton (guitar) Eddie Jackson (bass) Scott Rockenfield (drums)

Rating: 4.245 out of 5.00 (average of 30 ratings) Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

The Band’s Early Years The progressive metal band Queensrÿche formed in Bellevue, Washington, in 1980. The original band consisted of Chris DeGarmo (guitar), Michael Wilton (guitar), Eddie Jackson (bass), and Scott Rockenfield (drums). They added singer Geoff Tate in 1982. They released an eponymous EP that year. After signing with EMI Records, they released the studio albums The Warning (1984) and Rage for Order (1986) before making 1988’s Operation: Mindcrime. The Concept Album Operation: Mindcrime went platinum after the band’s first two albums had reached gold status. It is considered one of the best concept albums of all time. Nikki is a “fortune hunter” AM and “drug addict” WK who has become “disillusioned with the corrupt” WK “Reagan-era American society.” AM He “reluctantly becomes involved with a revolutionary group” WK who have hatched “a shadowy plot to assassinate corrupt leaders.” AM Singer Geoff Tate got the idea for the album after hearing talk from members of a militant separatist movement in Quebec. He also worked in memories of some friends whose heavy drug use had led them to become derelicts. WK “The lyrics and political observations can sometimes be too serious and intellectual for their own good…But despite the occasional flaws, it’s surprising how well Operation: Mindcrime does work, and it's a testament to Queensrÿche’s creativity and talent that they can pull off a project of this magnitude.” AM The Story The album starts with Nikki, the protagonist, in a hospital in a near-catatonic state. In the song “I Remember Now” his memories come flooding back. “He remembers how, as a heroin addict and would-be political radical frustrated with contemporary society due to the economic inequality, corruption and hypocrisy around him, he was manipulated into joining a supposed secret organization dedicated to revolution (‘Anarchy – X,’ ‘Revolution Calling’).” WK Dr. X, who heads the organization, manipulates Nikki into becoming an assassin who will act whenever Dr. X uses the word “mindcime” (‘Operation: Mindcrime’). As his position in the “organization grows, so does Nikki’s ego and adherence to his master’s vision” WK (‘Speak’). Nikki befriends a “a teenage prostitute-turned-nun named Sister Mary (‘Spreading the Disease’)” WK and begins questioning what he is doing, as well as Dr. X’s agenda (‘The Mission’). Dr. X orders Nikki to kill her and a priest. While Nikki complies with the latter command, he can’t murder her (‘Suite Sister Mary’). They decide to leave the organization but Dr. X tells Nikki he will “go back to his bleak life as a self-loathing but helpless addict (‘The Needle Lies’).” WK Nikki leaves anyway, but when Mary ends up dead (‘Electric Requiem’) he can’t cope, especially thinking he might have killed her. A 2007 live DVD revealed Mary killed herself when Dr. X threatened to kill Nikki. Nikki starts succumbing to insanity, running through the streets calling her name (‘Breaking the Silence’). Police take him into custody for the Mary’s potential murder as well as other murders he committed (‘I Don’t Believe in Love’). With almost complete memory loss, he is institutionalized in a mental hospital, where he retraces his final moments with Mary (‘Waiting for 22,’ ‘My Empty Room’). The story then comes back to the present with Nikki regaining his memory, “but now stares at his image in a mirror, unable to recognize who he is and what he has become (‘Eyes of a Stranger’).” WK The Music and Songs “For such a detailed story line (there is also a tragic romance thrown in), the band keeps its focus remarkably well, and the music is just as ambitious, featuring a ten-minute track with orchestrations by Michael Kamen. Those experiments don't tend to work as well as the tighter, more melodic prog metal songs, which are frequently gems, especially the singles ‘Eyes of a Stranger’ and ‘I Don’t Believe in Love.’” Those two songs were both released as singles and marked Queensrÿche’s first chart entries on the album rock chart. Reissues During the 1990 tour for the band’s Empire album, they performed Operation: Mindcrime in its entirety and released it as Operation: Livecrime in 1991. In 2006, the original album was expanded to a deluxe box set which also included a full live performance of the album as well as a DVD collection of videos.

Reviews: AM AllMusic.com review by Steve Huey WK Wikipedia Related DMDB Links: First posted 9/6/2025.