He was the voice behind the greatest Jersey based band that never existed, the ultimate "Milli Vanilli," (long before that sad chapter in music history would see the light of day), the poster child for identity theft, a modern day Sybil...all right, I'm getting carried away.
He did however; provide a multitude of tunes that would make up some of my very favorites from the 1980's, though it would take me until sometime in the mid 1990's to realize it. John Cafferty is one of those artists that I would truly love to sit down with for five minutes just to hear his side of the story. Does he have any regrets? Does he inwardly hate the monster he had inadvertently created? Have his musical goals and aspirations suffered due to the existence, death and reincarnation of his alter ego?
Am I reading too deeply into this?
As I return from my elongated sabbatical, eager to continue the legacy I envision Unknown 80's to become, I go back to the very roots from which this blogging endeavor found life.
"He's got something we need Doc, words and music," the great Eddie Wilson once said.
I find it ironic that more than quarter of a century following the release of
the movie that temporarily thrust an unsuspecting John Cafferty into the limelight I am quoting a film that I, like the multitudes of others worldwide thoroughly ignored at the box office. Bowing down several months later to what I can only construe as peer pressure, I unexpectedly found myself a convert and part of the millions of fans who made this a pseudo cult classic through the power of cable television. I realize now that back then as cable was still a growing industry, there was considerably less than
57 Channels (and Nothin’ On). While the experience failed to make me a Springsteen fan, it did turn me on to what I always considered the Jersey Shore sound. Ten years after Eddie Wilson drove off the
Stainton Memorial Causeway, I finally had the opportunity to see John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown band live on (where else?) the Jersey Shore, in a Long Branch bar eerily similar to one portrayed in the movie. Long after their brief brush with fame, the band put on a spirited set highlighting a number of cuts from both films, (we’ll leave the sequel out of this for now) and several original tunes from the band’s own repertoire. Granted all of them were Cafferty penned, but it was difficult to separate the
Beaver Brown selections from those of the once mighty Cruisers. Separating John Cafferty from Michael Paré, aka
Eddie Wilson proved a far simpler task. Following the evening, I made it a point to get my hands on as much John
Cafferty material that I could. Until that point, I had only owned
Tough All Over; the first single released under the band’s own name. I remember this tune getting some radio airplay before it, and the band fell back into relative obscurity. In 1988, they released their second album.
Roadhouse is simply a continuation of the good time Jersey Shore sound that Cafferty helped to create. Granted I did not learn of the record’s existence until sometime in the1990’s which happened to coincide with the bombshell that these guys actually originated from Rhode Island.
What the heck, they have a shore there too, right?
It’s on the same ocean, in fact.
Sadly, (and I say this under my own assumption), Cafferty could never escape the legend that was
Eddie and the Cruisers. It was only recently while I researched them as this month’s featured artist that I learned the CD copies I possess do not portray the original cover art, but draw attention to
the face and music of Eddie Wilson and the Cruisers. Mr. Cafferty, should you have the genuine honor of accidentally finding yourself here, I appreciate the music and all that you have brought to the rock and roll world.
Tough All Over,
Roadhouse and the soundtracks to both of the Eddie and the Cruisers films are an integral part of the soundtrack that is my life. I consider it both pleasure and honor in doing my small part to draw some more attention to the music you have created. For first time visitors and return clientele as well, I invite you now to hit the play button below and take a trip with me back to 1988. If I may quote the late, great Eddie Wilson just one more time…
“Alright, now let’s get on with the music!”
...Simply because there are few words on the very existence of this band. It's no mystery if you've been following my exploits here over the last couple of years that you will find a lot of this music comes from my short time spent in college radio. Non-Fiction is no exception. Hailing from the great state of Texas (something I only recently uncovered in my exhaustive research on this artist), One would not expect music of this type to emerge from the Dallas area, but then one cannot perceive that the only music out of the Lone Star State would be of the Country and Western variety. In my clueless years as a college disc jockey however, I may have construed that notion to be quite true. All kidding aside, this band may have fallen well beneath even my finely tuned radar, had it not been for the inclusion of a creatively crafted update of the Rolling Stones classic, Let's Spend the Night Together. In 1982, while New Wave had become well established in the music mainstream, I found myself a newly converted fan of music created decades earlier. Kivetsky; a local band had become my first passion on the Long Island club circuit. A group of four musicians, they recreated the 1960's nightly to exuberant, often overflowing crowds and opened my mind to music I had only been peripherally aware of. I resisted a lot of the New Wave movement during those early years in radio, yet hypocritically embraced this techno version of my all-tine favorite Stones tune. Like so many of the other bands featured here, I carried my own personal torch for Non-Ficiton. Now, nearly three decades after the release of their only record, I proudly induct them as honorary members into the Unknown 80's Hall of Fame. If anyone happens to have some viable information on this band, I'm all ears. After viewing the video below, please feel free to leave any comments and/or suggestions for future artists to be featured here. Thanks for dropping by.
