Atgent god gave rock and roll to you windows#

Rod Argent went behind the scenes to work with Tanita Tikaram, who had a big MTV track “Twist in My Sobriety,” and then promptly disappeared.Īrgent’s cousin, bass player Jim Rodford, decamped for the Kinks.Īnd drummer Rob Henrit ultimately followed him, after doing some session work.īut then something strange happened, in 1989 the stoner comedy “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure” was released and succeeded smashingly. Yes, in addition to “Liar” and “Hold Your Head Up,” he also composed “New York Groove” for Ace Frehley, “You Can Do Magic” for America, “Winning” for Santana, and even “I Know There’s Something Going On,” from my friend Frida’s first English solo album, produced by Phil Collins. The act made two more albums on Epic, even one on RCA, but it was almost like they didn’t come out, there was no attention, no radio action, and Russ Ballard left after “Nexus,” the band’s 1974 follow-up to “In Deep.”īallard went on to be a songwriter, he also recorded, not that anybody seemed to know, but he’s got enough classics in his catalog to be living on royalties. And since Argent had little commercial history to speak of, so did the album, “In Deep.” Sure, the Jesus movement had fomented, but tying in religion and self-congratulation, the power of rock and roll…it was all just a bit too over the top, to the point of appearing ersatz. The title alone will swear you off the track.

Atgent god gave rock and roll to you windows#

The album version was six minutes and seventeen seconds long, it was cut down to just over three for AM radio after it had such an impact on FM, it blared out of car windows ALL OVER THE WORLD, this is the rock that has been pooh-poohed by the critics, those rewriting history, but this was the music that dominated back then, when it became about bigger and bigger shows, when politics was fading and only the sound remained. And then Russ Ballard emerged atop it all and the cake was baked, the whole concoction rose. That was “Hold Your Head Up.” The ethereal squeal of the intro followed by the pounding drums entranced you immediately, and then when the guitar riff was introduced, you were completely sold. And what they were looking for was instant smashes, tracks people would get on one listen and clamor to hear again.

And free-form was history, the music was programmed.

Now by 1972, every hamlet had an FM rock station. A year later, Three Dog Night” covered “Liar” and made it a hit, and that take is pretty good, but the dynamics, the ethereal sound, is absent.Īs for the second Argent album, “Ring of Hands,” a year later Three Dog Night included “Chained” in their 1972 LP, “Seven Separate Fools,” but it wasn’t a single and…I’d see Argent albums in the bins, but I never ever knew anybody who owned one.ġ972… Let me see, that summer also saw the release of “Thick as a Brick.” In the U.K., T.Rex was dominant, and David Bowie was exploding with “Ziggy Stardust,” never mind the debut of Roxy Music…but those acts took a long time to cross the pond. The first album, the eponymous “Argent,” contained one of the best records of all time, “Liar.” Doubt me? Pull it up, the dynamics alone will close you. And the end result sounded nothing like the Zombies, but there was a certain magic, which eluded the public. In this case, the frontman was Russ Ballard, who was also the primary songwriter. Meanwhile, Rod Argent may have written “Time of the Season,” but Colin Blunstone was the frontman, the vocalist, then again all of the Zombies’ success occurred prior to the explosion of rock rags, back then most people hadn’t even heard of “Rolling Stone,” which might have launched in 1967 but truly didn’t hit critical mass until the seventies.īut Argent was a different band. They’d had legendary hits, but they were years before, except for “Time of the Season” from “Odessey and Oracle,” which Al Kooper rescued from the dustbin and made a hit after the band had broken up. No one was waiting for the band, today they would have gone out as the Zombies, just like Led Zeppelin started out as the New Yardbirds, sans name recognition you’re starting at zero. Argent released two albums to crickets before they broke through.