Author:Paul Rees
Those of us old enough to qualify for a free bus pass will remember the pre DAB radio era. FM radio existed but the Bellamy Brothers crooning “If I Said You Had a Beautiful Body” on Radio 2 was as close to experiencing this new sonic nirvana as we’d usually get. Radio 1 was still saddled with wobbly AM, and by the time Aunty finally bestowed FM on it in 1991, the UK had missed the American “rock radio” moment by about ten years.
Rees’ thesis is that AOR thrived because of high fidelity radio, especially in cars, where the broadcast compression created the perfect soundstage. It was the ideal soundtrack for the otherwise disco infused 80s – I’m listening not dancing.
He opens with the claim that no genre has been so misunderstood or consistently scorned as AOR. I’d gently point him toward prog and heavy metal, who’ve spent decades being kicked around by critics like the musical equivalent of estate agents, but point taken. Despite being a fan, Rees doesn’t rant. Instead, he lets the musicians talk, and they do so with some alacrity.
Rees covers a lot of ground. There’s a five page “Cast of Characters” to help those of us who don’t know our Styx from our Kansas. Unfortunately, not the easiest thing to access on an e-reader. Toto’s Steve Lukather and Styx’s Dennis DeYoung steal the show: funny, self aware, and perfectly happy to make themselves the butt of the joke. A rare trait among platinum selling musicians, particularly compared to lead vocalists who can hit top C and never stopped believing(g).
Rees wisely avoids genre splitting distractions — AOR vs prog vs yacht vs hard rock — and instead dives straight into the stories of Journey, Heart, Kansas, Boston and Foreigner. Then he wanders off to the bands that never really inhaled – Yes, Genesis, Asia, before exploring the bands who underwent full blown AOR conversions (Def Leppard, Aerosmith, Whitesnake). Some omissions? Fleetwood Mac, the Eagles’ Hotel California era, Meat Loaf, and — whisper it — Steely Dan. I’ll just put my tin hat on and hide under the desk.
Across 450 pages and 77 chapters (Rees does not believe in brevity), he follows a mostly chronological path. The oral history format means some contradictory memories placed side by side. Early influences? Lots of Beatles, naturally, with Joe Elliott bravely throwing in Gary Glitter. Bold.
The book covers artists I knew well (Journey, Pat Benatar, Boston, Heart), those I barely knew (Kansas, Styx, REO Speedwagon), and a few I’d only ever seen as T shirts (Loverboy, The Babys, Night Ranger). Some stories were familiar — Journey being told to write hits or be dropped — but many were new to me, like the fact that Journey originally set out to be a West Coast Wrecking Crew before stumbling across Steve Perry and realizing they’d found a golden throated money printer if only they could get over themselves and write songs that featured his voice.
Some chapters are tightly focused; others are a patchwork quilt of quotes. Occasionally the stitching shows — Buck Dharma pops up because of “Don’t Fear the Reaper”, yet Blue Öyster Cult’s dismissal of “Run to You” goes unmentioned despite Bryan Adams and that song in particular being covered in some depth. By chapter 12, we’ve moved from million selling hits to the usual rock and roll trifecta: personality clashes, firings, and cocaine. Songwriting credits become battlegrounds. Lawyers thrive.
Rees also includes sharp commentary from the Wilson sisters and Pat Benatar on the era’s casual sexism. Nancy: “boys will be boys. Men will be slimeballs.” Ann: “Two sisters, wow! Think of the possibilities.” Apparently, the ads commissioned by their record label did — repeatedly.
Rock radios illegitimate son, MTV, pitches up, and the musicians’ collective horror at having to become video stars turns out to be almost unanimous as well as another major expense to be recouped from royalties. Elsewhere, the anecdotes are plentiful: David Paich snogging Steve Lukather’s soon to be ex girlfriend mid audition. Still, a gig’s a gig. Ritchie Blackmore hides Graham Bonnet’s shirts because he objected to his wardrobe. And his haircut.
Payola is pinned to the front cover, and out of proportion with the revelations in the book. Lukather briefly describes “independent promotion” – not actual cash for play but the purchase of Porsche’s, vacations, dinners, “drugs, chicks, boys whatever the fuck they were into …. God knows how much was spent over the years on our behalf, but it always came out of our pockets”.
Rees frames AOR as meticulously crafted songs performed by elite musicians. Critics, meanwhile, dismissed it as “corporate rock”, manufactured and soulless. Lukather recalls the press “handing us our asses”. DeYoung is more philosophical: “Foreigner… were dismissed because they had the audacity to write memorable songs that people liked.” The bastards eh?.
And that’s the real issue. Was Journey’s shift from jazz rock noodling to “Don’t Stop Believin’” a sell out or a stroke of genius? Is “Hold the Line” a perfectly crafted melodic rocker or corporate slop? In all honestly, who cares? If it speaks to you, so much the better. Leave the hand wringing to the music snobs. Let’s face it, “Civilians” enjoy their music more free of the burden of thinking they can be arbiters of artistic purity.
Rees’ book celebrates an era that produced some truly unforgettable songs. Yes, some ballads remain no go areas for me— I still don’t want to know what love is, and everything I do absolutely isn’t for you — but “Hold the Line”, “Heartbreaker”, “Dirty White Boy” and “Owner of a Lonely Heart” still punch as hard today as they did in the 80s.
Just turn the radio up.
Length of Read:Long
Might appeal to people who enjoyed…
Anything from Toto to Asia, Styx to Kansas, Def Leppard to Aerosmith and so on.
One thing you’ve learned
Toto would have been fronted by Michael McDonald had he not already signed on as a Doobie Brother. And that was after considering Kenny Loggins and (of course) Leo Sayer.
Wow. This is me in the early 1980s.
I will buy this.
I recall the Michael McDonald/Kenny Loggins options fronting Toto being mentioned in a Netflix Yacht Rock doc (I know we’re not splitting genres, but just saying).
AOR – is there a TRUE definition? American Orientated Rock, Adult Orientated Rock, Album Orientated Rock, Arena Orientated Rock … whatever (the R probably stands for Rock whatever the other 2 letters signify).
Was it AOR that begat Hair Metal?
Steve Perry leant vocal tonings to We Are The World – not to be outdone, bandmate Neal Schon lobbed a guitar so into Hear n Aid’s “Stars”
(there was a lot of hairspray at that recording session)
A really interesting read that delves deep into this much (unjustly) maligned genre, although as with all these terms it’s up for debate regarding who is and isn’t included.
I was a big fan of much of this stuff. City Boy would have come under this sub genre and they were a big favourite of mine. And disrespectful treatment of “I wanna know what love is”, well; I’m aghast.
I’m up for this.
I grew up on Norfolk, you know.
The author is on a Word in Your Ear podcast that has just ‘dropped’, as the AOR connoisseur would say.
Having seen this and heard the WIYE podcast, I may well investigate.
FWIW I’ve just finished his biography of John Entwistle; having put it down halfway through a few years ago, I picked it up again. The post-Moon part of his life turned out to be more interesting, if rather sad. Pity about the “The Last of the Great Rock Stars” cringeworthy subtitle, though
At least the writer saves us all the leg work by using the word ‘cocaine’ in the title.
If nothing else, we should be thankful for that. Don’t like dodgers.
You don’t? I don’t think you’ve mentioned that before.
What “leg work” is that, then?
I guess some use their feet to turn the pages. 🤔
This kind of stuff didn’t pass me by, it was in a visible and accessible parallel universe, just over there somewhere. When a band like Toto, Boston, Air Supply or Foreigner appeared on TOTP, it was something I sat through obediently until something I really liked came on. Objectively, Eye of the Tiger is a better song than Da Da Da by Trio – but I was entertained more by the latter.
But there are no absolutes here. I really like most of ELO, a lot of Fleetwood Mac (who didn’t deserve the particular disdain heaped on them by the Reynolds Girls) and a lot of Yes. I just can’t sit through “I Wanna Know What Love Is” or “Broken Wings” or similar highly polished soft-rock classics. Those bands seemed to be from another place and I suppose they were i.e. the USA.
The Yes aren’t really AOR. Not having read the book, I’m guessing that their inclusion is based entirely on one (or possibly two) albums in the 1980s. The rest of your post chimes with my own thoughts – I didn’t hate this stuff enough to turn the TV off, but I didn’t buy it or listen by choice.
The book picks up on the “90125” album, the AOR phase being just this and the “Big Generator” album. Apparently “90125” is Yes biggest selling album, resulted in numerous Grammy awards and prompted their best earning tour.
The change in direction was mostly down to Trevor Rabin, From reading elsewhere I discovered that when Yes broke up in 1981, Atlantic records suggested that Squire and White work with Rabin, adopting the name “Cinema”, and with Trevor Horn producing. Tony Kaye then came on board and Squire then recruited Anderson. Rabin found himself now in the midst of what was effectively a Yes reunion, and was persuaded to change the band name to Yes given the obvious commercial benefits.
Atlantic seem to have been the driver behind the subsequent “Union” and “talk” albums which had nothing like the same success, and enjoyed more patchy support from Yes alumni. I think Rabin has always been an innovator, being one of the earliest adopters of digital recording, guitar synths and an early version of wireless on stage sound transmission, but not necessarily a fit for Yes.
Essentially, Yes’ AOR phase was also their Trevor Rabin phase – a pretty nasty phase, in my opinion.
But then OOAA – I know that some Afterworders like a bit of 90125.
That’ll be me. Prog is a broad church, and I like a bit of grit and melody. I think the change in direction of The Yes was going to happen anyway, the other splinter group (Asia) was doing the same thing. They probably had managers telling them to do it. I didn’t especially like Big Generator because it was just a bit too late for a follow up, and everyone else had moved on.
If you throw out all the genre labels, then I’d agree.
But…
90125 isn’t prog (broad church notwithstanding): it’s AOR – that’s why it’s in the book.
I’d suggest that Fragile and TYA are chock-full of both melody and grit, while most definitely being progressive.
I’m kind of saying it’s both. In any case, you’re right. If it’s prog, then it’s due to the adoption of new technologies and production methods, combined with some interesting time signature changes (admittedly only in a couple of places).
I’m certainly not saying it’s better than those albums… that would be a hard argument to make.