{"id":23564,"date":"2020-05-14T13:10:27","date_gmt":"2020-05-14T17:10:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/?p=23564"},"modified":"2020-05-14T13:10:28","modified_gmt":"2020-05-14T17:10:28","slug":"coattails-albums","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/coattails-albums\/","title":{"rendered":"Coattails Albums"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/favorite-reunions\/#comment-165449\">recent mention<\/a> of a <strong>Talking Heads<\/strong> reunion song and <strong>Jerry Harrison<\/strong> being the only band member beside David Byrne to appear in the video, got me wondering it was time to FINALLY revisit Harrison&#8217;s 1981 debut solo album, <em>The Red and The Black<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Things Fall Apart\" width=\"695\" height=\"521\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/7dhvt3ZJbTI?feature=oembed&amp;wmode=opaque\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Before stores had to close and we had to stay safely tucked away in our homes, I&#8217;d spent a few months eyeing a used copy of that album in my favorite local record store. I first heard <em>The Red and The Black<\/em> in the basement frat room of one of my most influential college friends, an upperclassman who had both the most kick-ass stereo and the tightest purple buds I&#8217;d ever seen. To this day, I&#8217;ve only experienced one better stereo system. It&#8217;s been ages since I&#8217;ve smoked pot, but I doubt not even <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/1VVtzQfAJzY\" target=\"_blank\">attendees at the weed convention featuring Jefferson Starship<\/a> have enjoyed better buds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--nextpage-->\n\n\n\n<p>Until today, that time in my audiophile, stoner, Talking Heads-loving friend&#8217;s room was also the last time I heard <em>The Red and The Black<\/em>. The thing I remember about that single spin of the album in 1981 is that it was both surprisingly great and surprisingly disappointing because it sounded exactly like outtakes from <em>Remain in Light<\/em>, with a less interesting singer and rhythm section. Listening to the album today, I had the same reaction. It feels like Harrison&#8217;s first foray as a solo artist is completely riding on the coattails of his band&#8217;s sound and success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I didn&#8217;t know it at the time, but there were already tensions within the band. To Harrison, maybe it felt like the end of the line and he figured, &#8220;Why not take some of the contributing musicians from my band&#8217;s biggest-selling album &#8211; Adrian Belew, Nona Hendryx, Bernie Worrell &#8211; and show the world that I am a stronger contributor to our sound than Byrne and Eno would have anyone believe?&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At the time, though, it felt like the band was in its prime and, rather than show the world who Jerry Harrison was, what made him tick, he blatantly aped the unique sound of his meal ticket. Even <strong>Phil Collins<\/strong>, who was at the helm of <em>ABACAB<\/em>-era Genesis, did something different on his concurrent debut solo album.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Excluding band members who step out and make solo albums while their roots or pub rock band (or reggae, country, or some other codified genre) are in mid-flight, are there other examples of band members from stylistically distinct bands going solo and releasing what I&#8217;ll call a coattails album, like Jerry Harrison&#8217;s <em>The Red and The Black<\/em>? <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I guess the solo albums that <strong>Steve Howe<\/strong> and <strong>Chris Squire<\/strong> put out while Yes were at their peak qualify. Maybe some of those solo KISS albums, too. <strong>Tom Petty<\/strong> somehow managed to ride his own coattails and unnecessarily blatantly copy himself when he went from making solo albums backed by his band to what were simply billed as solo albums. He must have really hated <strong>Stan Lynch<\/strong>!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To be fair, by the time Talking Heads expired and Harrison put out another solo album, he was still doing a <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/ZaM6lTmhnak\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Blues Hammer<\/a> take on funky Talking Heads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Jerry Harrison -  Rev It Up &amp; Man With A Gun The Late Show 1989\" width=\"695\" height=\"521\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/3QU6hiQ2iBg?feature=oembed&amp;wmode=opaque\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n<nav class=\"page-links\"><strong>Pages:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/coattails-albums\/\" class=\"post-page-numbers\"><span class=\"page-num\">1<\/span><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/coattails-albums\/2\/\" class=\"post-page-numbers\"><span class=\"page-num\">2<\/span><\/a><\/nav>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The recent mention of a Talking Heads reunion song and Jerry Harrison being the only band member beside David Byrne to appear in the video, got me wondering it was time to FINALLY revisit Harrison&#8217;s 1981 debut solo album, The Red and The Black. Before stores had to close and we had to stay safely <a href='https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/coattails-albums\/' class='excerpt-more'>[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[342],"tags":[37],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23564"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23564\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}