matt
Veteran Rocker Rollin'
Posts: 1,010
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Post by matt on Feb 13, 2023 9:00:17 GMT
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mortified
4500 Timer
Posts: 5,861 
Favourite Quo Album: Hello!
Favourite other bands.: Talking Heads, Rolling Stones, Sheryl Crow, Gary Numan, Alabama 3, ZZ Top, Paul van Dyk, Jeff Beck, Bowie, Gerry Rafferty, Band of Skulls, UFO, S.A.H.B
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Post by mortified on Feb 13, 2023 11:04:51 GMT
Not read this before. Good stuff 👍
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quodec
Veteran Rocker Rollin'
Twelve bar blues is now alright.
Posts: 1,213
Favourite Quo Album: Blue For You
Favourite other bands.: early AC/DC, Angel City, Blackfoot, Rose Tattoo, Slade
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Post by quodec on Feb 13, 2023 14:12:08 GMT
Back to the same old issue. RAOTW, the album, was produced, with its cleaner/AM sound to make headway into the US market, together with the single, written by Fogerty. So, where was the promotional push? They didn't even tour America in '77! The band, according to Pip, were happy with the direction and the raison d'etre for the new sound, yet management and/or the band thought it not worthwhile to organise a make or break attempt on the US market. Just dosn't make sense!
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mortified
4500 Timer
Posts: 5,861
Favourite Quo Album: Hello!
Favourite other bands.: Talking Heads, Rolling Stones, Sheryl Crow, Gary Numan, Alabama 3, ZZ Top, Paul van Dyk, Jeff Beck, Bowie, Gerry Rafferty, Band of Skulls, UFO, S.A.H.B
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Post by mortified on Feb 13, 2023 14:56:06 GMT
Back to the same old issue. RAOTW, the album, was produced, with its cleaner/AM sound to make headway into the US market, together with the single, written by Fogerty. So, where was the promotional push? They didn't even tour America in '77! The band, according to Pip, were happy with the direction and the raison d'etre for the new sound, yet management and/or the band thought it worthwhile to organise a make or break attempt on the US market. Just dosn't make sense! Reasonable observations to be fair. I wonder how it all panned out and how much input the band genuinely had in some decisions about direction and production. And the Alan puppet thing in the Rockin' video didn't exactly give the impression everyone was singing from the same hymn book. Like you say, it's one thing the record company - and maybe the band - wanting to crack America but you'd have thought they'd have been taken there to do some serious promotion. Reliance on radio airplay alone seems a bit half hearted. Were they there in 1978? They certainly didn't tour the UK, although I think they did the Reading Festival. Looking back, you do wonder about the band's management at the time, what with this and the whole roll of denim thing for the Blue For You promotion. No wonder people like David Walker got a foothold and was allowed to take them forward. You can't blame them. |
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Post by dennis on Feb 13, 2023 15:31:27 GMT
Although the John Eden attempt to re-doobry the album produced some interesting results, it wasn't possible to put in the missing ooomph because it just wasn't recorded that way in the first place. That much becomes clear during the course of this interview, imo.
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Post by fretbuzzzzz on Feb 13, 2023 20:49:18 GMT
If the management had been deadly serious about the 'American market', why didn't they try to record there in the first place and promote the album whilst there? Can't be completely sure, but to me, it all seems a bit of an afterthought to explain away the resulting sound of the album. Even the title track came late to the table and was suggested by Rick I think.
I can see that the natural development or evolution would be to try to tidy things up in the studio and Pip certainly did that but with that came the addition of arguably busy extras. Making a complete album that would be accessible to a wider market. Though conversely the emerging punk and New wave scenes weren't about studio maturity. Never thought we would get a re-mix and seems Pip wasn't keen on the idea. Good then that John Eden did get his hands on the tapes all those years later and the re-mix restored some of the album's rock credentials rather than being more pop-orientated.
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Post by Mrs Flittersnoop on Feb 13, 2023 21:09:36 GMT
I thought there was an understanding that Francis didn't want to spend a lot of time in the States. I can't remember what the timeline was on that. It was one of the things that soured things between him and Al, who DID want to.
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Post by dennis on Feb 14, 2023 11:51:00 GMT
If they really were thinking of the american market, why not bring in an american producer - maybe somebody like Jack Douglas?
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Post by Mustang Bass on Feb 15, 2023 23:15:44 GMT
If they really were thinking of the american market, why not bring in an american producer - maybe somebody like Jack Douglas?  |
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Post by 4th Chord on Feb 16, 2023 9:42:04 GMT
If they really were thinking of the american market, why not bring in an american producer - maybe somebody like Jack Douglas? Wu-hey! |
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Post by backwater67 on Feb 16, 2023 10:31:13 GMT
Previously mentioned many times before. Quo had toured the States 1974 - 1976. Each time costing a fortune for little return, where as they were making good money everywhere else. (It was a time when nobody knew how long the band would last) It seems after the previous tours they would release Rockin’ with its so called new AM friendly sound & take it from there. Unfortunately it didn’t receive that much airplay & Wasn’t a hit there. At the time Quo never wanted an American producer as they wanted to keep the British sound. Around this period there seemed to be a lot of differences between record companies & management. Capital had wanted to change the sound on the 76 Live album, Quo were adamant it was released as it was played with no overdubs ect….Later the Whatever you want album (Now hear this) was butchered & badly edited compared to the European version. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, looking back though there were probably big mistakes made on either side of the pond. Sometimes things are just not meant to be…
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