I Talk Too Much Autobiogrpahy

Interesting thoughts and observations. I enjoyed reading them.  You make a lot of sense. 

I read the book too a while ago. It made no great efforts to portray its subject in an overtly positive light to put it mildly!

Rossi is unperturbed by statements made by himself in the past, he's a knee-jerk interview partner and quipster. It makes him sound caustic and callous on one hand, but he's refreshingly open (and unbothered about what people might think) on the other. But he's more than just a sardonic tough cookie. I witnessed his reaction to Alan losing it physically at the Stuttgart Frantic Four gig (towards the end, Alan could neither play bass, nor sing, nor stand and almost toppled over, Rossi took over the lead vocal in Bye Bye Johnny in the middle of the song) and you could see "both Rossis" in his frequent sideways looks to Alan. One was "You're ruining our performance, you stupid prick!", the other "My God, what's happening to Nuff?"

As regards the leadership discussion, all through the 70ies, I was never in doubt that Francis was the front guy of Quo, if not quite the leader in a dictatorial sense. Sort of what Paul Stanley is to Kiss. It didn't matter if Alan or Rick sometimes sang or wrote more songs than him, live he was the master of ceremonies for the band, did all the stage raps and the only improviser on stage. Rick and Alan had both fine voices, but there is something in Rossi's very quintessentially English nasal delivery that is unmistakably Quo. He is not really a rock singer and that - along with his penchant for major scale solos in a world where most guitarists play (or know) only minor scale solos - made Quo special.

I can understand that getting along with Alan wasn't always easy. His refusal to promote Marguerita Time was one such thing. I play in bands myself. Whenever you veto another guy's fave track, ask yourself what is more longlasting and more worthy of preservation for the band: Your satisfaction for "showing him" and his frustration about that OR his glee and gratitude that you perform the song you don't like just to do him a favor?

To me, Rossi always had tongue-in-cheek complete authority on stage. Even if the old beanpole just stood there playing rhythm to a Parfitt riff-solo or while Alan was doing vocals, it was clear to me, he's the guy. Alan was this lovable and cuddly mustached & muscular macho figure and Parfitt the blond rock god and of course girls' favorite, but neither of them really communicated with the audience, they threw (iconic!) shapes and were archetypes you could project your teenage adulation on (though I realized him as the leader, I never wanted to be Francis, I wanted to be Alan or Rick!). If you pictured Francis, Alan, Rick and John as a street gang, a group of gunslingers or GoodFellas in a Hollywood movie, you would always expect Rossi to play the world-weary, fast-tongued gang leader with quips to pull the rug from underneath his men at any time.

So any talk about Rick becoming the band leader and taking Francis' role would have bemused me too. Rick's idiosyncratic rhythm guitar playing was as vital to Quo as Johnny Ramone's, Malcolm Young's and Keith Richards' contributions to their respective bands plus I really liked his voice and songwriting (he was perhaps the strongest songwriter of the three), but a bandleader to me he was not, he just wasn't cut out for that role. At the same time, I never saw Rossi on stage as domineering the other two, he left ample space for both of them. Good leaders do that.

If there is one negative thing to say about Modern Quo (and I'm not one of their bashers) it is that Rossi sometimes strikes me as very lonely up there on stage with his new men; Parfitt to his left and Lancaster to his right were not just an immaculate headbanger trinity, the other two - not at all overtly, but with natural grace - also supported him in his front man role, like pillars. Those days are gone. Francis is now the unquestioned good-natured boss on stage, but no longer the leader of a gang.

I find his own impatience with and bewilderment at being a living breathing contradiction very familiar. Mind you, I'm also in my second marriage, so do have empiric experience!   Very non-male of him - which of course explains a lot of his conflicts with Alan's blue collar machismo. 

When he sang "He changes his mind more than a woman ..." in Johnny & Mary, he was really on to something. I wonder if he realized how much a Robert Palmer lyric described his personality.

Like refusing to ever even attempt - in more than 55 years of lead guitar playing - a proper minor key solo!  Francis Rossi - the Brit lead guitarist with the "happiest" solos  of his generation. In his next life no doubt, he'll be reborn as a member of a Southern Rock band, they will let him do a few C&W songs as well.

Unspoken Words?