{"id":10786,"date":"2011-12-12T15:09:21","date_gmt":"2011-12-12T20:09:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/?p=10786"},"modified":"2011-12-13T01:26:26","modified_gmt":"2011-12-13T06:26:26","slug":"coulda-been-a-contendah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/coulda-been-a-contendah\/","title":{"rendered":"Coulda Been a Contendah"},"content":{"rendered":"

I confess to being rather pleased that I managed to stump the Hall on my recent Mystery Date<\/em><\/a> suggestion. Even sweeter was the fact that the song in question was a somewhat fluffy pop confection rather than some obscure and arcane bit of prog, which I could have so easily submitted. Mr. Moderator revealed it to be “A Night on the Town (With Snow White)” by Crack the Sky<\/strong> on last week’s Saturday Night Shut-in<\/em><\/a> program. Mr. Mod helpfully went into the history of an all-but-forgotten band that in a kinder universe would have been one of the major acts of the late 1970s. I want to emphasize here that the Mystery Date<\/em> song is not <\/em>really representative of CTS’s ability. I present my evidence to the Hall jury…after the jump<\/em>!<\/p>\n

Crack the Sky had a lot going for them when they emerged from West Virginia in the mid-1970s. Lead singer and prime mover John Palumbo was a clever songwriter with a penchant for whimsically sardonic lyrics as well as being a skilled and lyrical piano player. The rest of the band was no less talented\u2014a powerful twin guitar attack, a supple and precise rhythm section, and tuneful harmony vocals. Wikipedia described the band as being progressive<\/a>, but that’s not entirely accurate. Think of their sound as an amalgam of Queen<\/strong> (without the prissiness), Procol Harum<\/strong> (without the high-church aspirations), Steely Dan<\/strong> (without the jazz), and Cheap Trick<\/strong> (without the high-decibel vocal histrionics). While progressive elements certainly existed, the band members were also capable of rocking as hard as anyone at the time while ably throwing their considerable musical weight around with a near-Yes<\/strong> dexterity.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, all this promise was undercut right from the start. After shopping around to various labels without much interest, the band blindly signed an onerous contract with CashWest Productions, a team led by songwriters Terry Cashman and Tommy West who made a small fortune providing folk-rock hits for Jim Croce<\/strong>. CashWest created a new record label called Lifesong Records and CTS was to be the initial act. The contract\u00a0basically\u00a0gave CashWest the whole pie while leaving the band a smattering of crumbs.<\/p>\n

CTS’s 1975 self-titled debut album is a real gem and remains the best item in the band’s catalog. CashWest spared no expense on the recording, even bringing in top session players like the Brecker brothers and David Sanborn on horns. Palumbo provided vignettes about an adrift sailor trying to bargain with God, concerned parents who consider metal friends (and an aluminum cat) for their hopelessly unpopular son, a dream world that is more alluring than reality, an attractive yet air-headed woman, and a man who wonders if his lover is more than just a fair-weather companion. The album leads off with the two-part rocker “Hold On\/Surf City,” in which, after being admonished by his reflection in the mirror not to foolishly throw his life away, our protagonist tries out some lifestyle choices only to discover that they are not without hazards…<\/p>\n[audio:http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/01-Hold-On-Surf-City.mp3|titles=”Hold On\/Surf City”]\n

“She’s a Dancer” would have made a great single. A girl gets admiring looks at a club yet hides a secret\u2014not that it matters all that much in the end to the charmed singer…<\/p>\n[audio:http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/02-Shes-a-Dancer.mp3|titles=”She’s a Dancer”]\n

With this album\u00a0receiving\u00a0wildly\u00a0enthusiastic\u00a0reviews in Rolling Stone<\/em> and elsewhere, CTS seemed to be on their way. The band toured extensively, opening for or co-billing with name acts like Supertramp<\/strong>, Rush<\/strong>, Yes<\/strong>, Z.Z. Top<\/strong>, Edgar Winter<\/strong>, Frank Zappa<\/strong>, ELO<\/strong>, Kansas<\/strong>, and Styx<\/strong>. Palumbo later stated that CTS was thrown off the tours with ELO, Kansas, and Styx for blowing away the lead acts. But where was the radio play and why did the debut reach no higher than #161 on Billboard? Simple: Lifesong Records dropped the ball when it came to distribution and marketing. No singles were released, no songs were pushed to the radio for airplay, and albums failed to reach the stores. Baltimore was one of the few places where Lifesong got it right and the band was a success there. However, one city does not a career make and disillusionment as well as internal friction began to set in.<\/p>\n

John Palumbo was becoming distanced from the rest of Crack the Sky – he wanted to concentrate on long epic songs while the others were pushing him to write more commercial and radio-friendly material. Palumbo planned the second album to be a rock opera about the Mounties of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. In what was probably Lifesong’s only smart move, they (and to some extent the rest of the band)\u00a0successfully\u00a0objected to this concept, and Animal Notes<\/em> was released in 1976 to reviews that nearly matched the debut in\u00a0enthusiasm. The opening song (“We Want Mine”) was a thinly-veiled and bitter rant against Lifesong for withholding royalties from the group…<\/p>\n[audio:http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/03-We-Want-Mine.mp3|titles=”We Want Mine”]\n

While the RCMP concept album idea was dead, a song about a young Mountie\u00a0(“Rangers at Midnight”)\u00a0became the epic centerpiece of Animal Notes<\/em>…<\/p>\n[audio:http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/04-Rangers-at-Midnight.mp3|titles=”Rangers at Midnight”]\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Although Animal Notes<\/em> was nearly as good as the debut, Lifesong showed themselves to be no wiser about promotion and the album stalled at #142 on Billboard while receiving virtually no radio airplay. Palumbo left the band for a solo career (which went nowhere) during the recording of their third album – 1978’s Safety in Numbers<\/em>; however, a <\/em>couple of Palumbo songs did make it to the record.\u00a0The remaining members gamely carried on with writing songs (including the Mystery Date<\/em> pick “A Night on the Town”) and acquiring a new lead vocalist. All things considered, Safety in Numbers<\/em>, while still a dropoff in quality compared to the previous albums, was not the disaster it could have been. “Nuclear Apathy” – the closest CTS came to pure prog rock – is Palumbo’s exhortation to humanity to get its act together because aliens are sitting on the moon and laughing at us…<\/p>\n[audio:http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/05-Nuclear-Apathy.mp3|titles=”Nuclear Apathy”]\n

While Safety in Numbers<\/em> actually sold a little better than previous albums (reaching #126 on Billboard), the loss of Palumbo and the lack of financial success became insurmountable hurdles and Crack the Sky disbanded during 1978. Palumbo and a couple other members reformed CTS in 1980 and continued to tour and release albums for decades to come, but the window of opportunity was lost forever and the magic of the initial albums was gone. For those who wish to explore CTS further, a complete biography of the band can be found here<\/a>. So what do we get\u00a0on Classic Rock radio\u00a0as representing 1970s American demi-prog? Kansas<\/strong> and Styx<\/strong>. Yuck. It should have been Crack the Sky, and it’s our loss.<\/p>\n