With six weeks of winter ahead, what better place to hibernate than deep within the realm of the Unknown 80's?
Welcome back.
This time around, I thought I might try something different. While researching last months featured artist;
Yipes, I had come across a small number of pictures highlighting the band in an early 80's live performance at a college. While there was nothing groundbreaking there, the
candid's got me to thinking about the band's earlier days, before the
A&R person came along with a pen in one hand and a recording contract in the other.
Everyone starts somewhere.
What were they doing in the weeks, months and years leading up to that momentous occasion?
How difficult was it to play original material in the Wisconsin club scene at that time?
What did it take to rise above the other bands and get those tunes heard?
How did it differ from that of the Long Island club scene with which I had become so familiar?
I can pretty much break down the 1980's Long Island scene into two categories:
A. Bands in pursuit of a record deal
B. Bands in pursuit of a party.
RPM fell into the latter category.
This is not to take away from the musical prowess of any of the individuals depicted here. Each and every one of them were musically gifted in their own right.
RPM left an indelible imprint on the Long Island circuit. Beginning in 1984 as a cover band, they started out in smaller clubs, often opening for some of the more established local acts. It was on one such night, in a room in the New York City borough of Queens that I had first come across
RPM. Specifically, it was on the eve of the historic Live Aid show that would commence the next morning several miles south in Philadelphia, Pa. I listened with half an ear, waiting rather impatiently for the main act to hit the stage, a group of friends whom I will one day write a book about as it was they, who more or less provided the soundtrack of my life during those years.
RPM however had not gone forgotten. I vividly remember the band capably covering the
Steel Breeze hit "You Don't Want Me Anymore," one of my favorite one-hit wonders from the early part of the decade. The memory stops there. It would be another two years yet,
before I would cross paths with these guys again. By the fall of 1987, the
RPM I had stumbled upon was a completely different unit. Scaled down to four members, the band was now led by renowned front man
Joel Frixx. Having made a name for himself over the years with Long Island's
Vixen, followed by
Tara, Joel brought
RPM out of the smaller rooms and into the Long Island limelight, cementing themselves as one of the top drawing bands on the copy circuit. An entirely different dynamic, the band ran through an immense catalog of tunes ranging from the 1960's through the
new music sounds of the mid-80's, covering the likes of
New Order, Erasure, The Cure, and
Depeche Mode to name a few. The idea of performing a set of their own music had never been a priority, primarily because there just were not enough original tunes to draw from, yet in 1986, the band had been offered a gig at Long Island's legendary
My Father's Place, an institution that gave rise to the likes of
Billy Joel,
The Police, The
Talking Heads, and so many more. With less than two weeks to prepare, they put their heads together and (in what I would like to assume was an intense writing session) rapidly penned enough tunes to cover a set. Today, they laughingly admit that most of those tunes were not worth much more than the paper on which they were written. A small number of similar gigs would follow in Manhattan, but after a short period of time, the band went back to doing what they did best, conducting some of the greatest party nights that Long Island club owners and patrons would remember long after those years had become but a memory.
It is with that very thought in mind, that I happily induct into my personal
Unknown 80's hall of fame; a group of guys that I am both proud and honored to consider as friends. The live footage that follows was shot in 1987 at Long Island's
Rumrunner of Oyster Bay. The interviews were conducted at
EKO studio's in Deer Park, Long Island nearly a decade later, in the fall of 1996 as the band was preparing for a 10 year reunion/anniversary celebration. The original music featured here is really only of the tip of the iceberg, yet briefly allows a small glimpse into Long Island's 80's music scene.
Sound Engineer,
Steve Porcelli summed it up best during the recording of the '96 interviews:
"They don't want to tell you about all of the debauchery that this band has left in its wake."
What is left for me are some of the greatest memories of those carefree years, and it is my hope that for some, this preview might rekindle just a bit of the good times that transpired back then. For the rest of you; enjoy this trip back in time. Once again, I
implore you to
leave a comment on your way out, and spread the word. In the meantime, hit the play button below and take a journey with me once more into the world of the
Unknown 80's.
See you next month!
Morty
Feb. 2009
Comebacks, Reunions and remakes all played an integral part of the fabric of the 1980's. Early on in the decade we saw the return of 50's and 60's icons including Chubby Checker, Del Shannon, and Gary U.S. Bonds, all of whom returned with new albums filled with original material. Then there were the established bands of the 80's who elected to re-visit the music of their youth, before it became somewhat of the norm. Van Halen's 1982 release, Diver Down is a perfect example. The band struck gold for the second time in their career with a monster rendition of a 1960's classic. Following the earlier success of You Really Got Me, along came an unforgettable rendition of Roy Orbison's Oh, Pretty Woman. The album featured five cover tunes and only seven originals. Whether or not VH purists embraced the record was of no consequence, as it propelled this band beyond popularity and into the realm of super-stardom. Burgeoning artist or mainstream performer, there was big money to be made in remakes; a substantial return on a return to the past. Billy Idol exploded on to the early 80's scene with the Tommy James and the Shondell's classic, Mony Mony. Who can forget Naked Eyes hitting it big with There's Always Something There to Remind Me; a semi-forgettable Burt Bacharach penned tune. Cheap Trick stayed current with a memorable version of the Elvis Presley fave, Don't Be Cruel. David Lee Roth on his solo outing continued to hit with cover tunes including the Beach Boys California Girls, and the flamboyant Just a Gigolo/Ain't Got Nobody. The medley version dated back to the mid 1950's, but the individual tunes go back to the early 1900's! Equally unlikely was the 
resurfacing of a 1929 Irving Berlin classic made popular by Fred Astaire. Taco's Puttin' on the Ritz put him on the map in 1982. There are certainly many more both worthy of mention, and probably quite a few that were not so worthy. This month I will take you back to 1985, 1983, and 1984 respectively. The possibility exists that some of these tunes are indeed not unknown, but most certainly have been forgotten. As curator, of an 80's museum in my mind, I felt it time to dust off the vinyl, and bring these classic tunes back from the grave to hopefully gain a small bit of notoriety, or at the very least a smile or two. I am assuming by now that all of you know the drill, however should this be your first time here, I urge you to hit the play button below, close your eyes, and journey back with me once more into the land of the Unknown 80's.
