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"Boy when you're all alone
Holdin' back when you wanna go
Take a stand 'cause it's not over now"
I was reading Colson Whitehead's "Harlem Shuffle," which is far superior to its sequel, "Crook Manifesto," when something made me think about Stage Dolls. Don't ask me why. That's how it works, when the day is deep, when you've got no obligations, that's when your mind drifts, when it becomes creative.
And I knew there was one amazing song on the album, not that I was sure of its name. I pulled up Spotify and decided to look for it. And that's when I found out Stage Dolls were still active. I'd forgotten they were Norwegian. As far as I knew there was only this one album, back in '88, on Chrysalis.
So I'm shifting through the options and I find the album I'm looking for. And I remember there was one really good rocker, but also an absolutely amazing moody cut, which one was which? And I'm staring at the track listing and I think the last song on the album is the moody killer, entitled "Ammunition," yet another memory has it earlier in the record. Am I going to have to listen to every cut on the album to find the one I desire to hear?
That was it, the last one, "Ammunition."
"It was early in the mornin'
Back when I was five
Somebody's knockin' on our front door
One chilly winter's night"
It felt so good, so right, it brought me right back to what once was.
You see CDs were once exotic, rare and expensive. And the goal was to work your way up in the business until you got on the mailing list, until you got CDs for free. And if you released a CD, you were above the fray. Most acts never got signed, if someone invested money in you your music was worth hearing. Well, if you were on Warner/Reprise, or Atlantic, and certainly Chrysalis. So I played every one.
Now I remember when Derek Shulman took over RoadRunner. He sent me a pile of CDs, and the one that resonated was Nickelback, I could hear it, this was long before "How You Remind Me," back before most people knew who Chad Kroeger was, never mind hated him and his band. There was no radio play, that was difficult to achieve, especially in the metropolis. Then there were CDs by acts I was familiar with, like Robin Trower. I immediately played his 1990 album "In the Line of Fire," it's really good, and unless you're a believer you've never heard it, I don't think radio ever played it.
Not that most of these CDs were worth playing more than once. But some were, and one was Stage Dolls.
Usually the first track is the best, and if it sucks it's hard to go much deeper into an album, but the opening cut of Stage Dolls' album was instantly memorable, it hooked me, it was called "Still in Love."
"New York City and I'm out with the boys
On 42nd Street makin' some noise
Another weekend and my baby's away
Temptation's drivin' me insane"
Funny that this Scandinavian band was singing about New York City.
But that's just the verse. There's a pre-chorus:
"Ain't makin' no promises I can't keep
'Cause I've got a lady back home
And she's waitin' there for me"
And a chorus:
"I'm in love, still in love
Oh-oh-oh
I'm in love, still in love
Oh-oh-oh"
Now if you were conscious in '88, if you were a devotee of rock, the sound will be so familiar, it's right in the pocket. This sound is expensive. You can't cut it at home. You need a big studio. But that was the paradigm back then. It's the sound of the guitar that closes you.
But was "Still in Love" the really good song I remembered along with "Ammunition"?
So I let the album play, into the second track, "Wings of Steel."
"Workin' in the city, it's a heartless city
Every day's the same
And I'm on the line from nine to five
Just playin' the game"
"Wings of Steel" is a bit quieter than "Still in Love," more meaningful, and the sound of the verse was great, but then I got to the accelerated chorus:
"I'll fly like an eagle wild
On wings of steel and thunder
I'll run with the wolves at night
I'll go where the action is
Ride fast on an endless highway
I'll fly like an eagle high"
And it sounded so good. Not like I'd just heard it yesterday, but like reconnecting with an old friend you went to camp with, someone you knew intimately, everything about them, but haven't spoken to in decades.
So that's three cuts that are ringing my bell, I decide to look at the complete track listing. And that's when I realize I know track 3, "Lorraine," by heart. And this seems so weird. This is just an album cut, not made to wow you, just for fans. And I know it as well as I know classics.
In truth this is a passé sound. As a matter of fact, it was squeezed off the airwaves by the Seattle sound, "Smells Like Teen Spirit" hit MTV in September 1991 and things were never the same. Kurt Cobain was authentic and credible in a way the hair bands never were, he didn't care what you thought, he wasn't pandering, he was just being himself.
And Stage Dolls had big hair. Not that they wrote a power ballad, at least not one I've heard, but they were definitely genre specific. But this kind of polished rock had a long run, from sometime in the seventies until the end of the eighties. And you might pooh-pooh it, call some of it yacht rock, but this was what dominated the airwaves back then, that resonated with the majority of the audience. We turned the records up loud on our multi-thousand dollar stereos. When our favorites played on the radio we moved our bodies, we banged our heads.
And today I hear so much that turns me right off.
But I'm listening to this Stage Dolls album and it's turning me right on.
Kinda like that Roxette album "Joyride," a near masterpiece, listen to "Watercolours in the Rain." The American company didn't want to release any Roxette music and then the band went to number one. It's different today, the labels are interested in the international sound, but usually it's country, region specific. Yet in this case these Scandinavian acts were doing the American sound, just as well as those born in the U.S.A. You could listen and not know they came from a foreign country. Rock dominated the world, and America was the heart and home of rock. Sure, there were great British acts, but they were influenced by American blues.
Now sometimes you play the old records and you wince. They're period pieces that make you cringe decades later. But I'm listening to "Stage Dolls" and I feel at home, this is the sound I cotton to, that no one makes anymore. Sure, there are rock bands. But melody is not a feature. It's like everybody listened to Metallica and jumped off from there. That music is not for everybody, just a sliver of the population, albeit lucrative. But once upon a time this rock sound was everywhere.
Stage Dolls were not a breakthrough. They were in many ways me-too. But it all comes down to the material, and that one song that closes the album is an absolute stunner."
"It was early in the mornin'
Back when I was five
Somebody's knockin' on our front door
One chilly winter's night
My father put his jeans on
And opened up the door
They were all dressed in uniforms
He was up against the wall"
Now in the Second World War Germany occupied Norway. But that was back in the forties, and this was the eighties, what exactly was the band singing about?
"My mother took us to the kitchen
My brother and me
She said 'Listen boys, your father's gone
There was someone he had to see'
And she cried her tears in silence
The sun began to rise
Oh, those moments I recall so well
Written down forever in my mind"
And it's nearly eleven last night, and I'm trying to put "Ammunition" in a pocket, in context. And I think they're singing about the U.S.S.R., Germany, Eastern Europe. This was before the wall fell.
"There was a black car on the pavement
Loud voices in the night
As they dragged him to the waiting car
He's puttin' up a fight
The streets were black and empty
Bedroom windows cold and damp
I held my arms 'round my brother
'Cause he didn't understand
The car moved from the driveway
And went into the night
Leaving two kids by the window
Holdin' each other tight"
You can see it, you can feel it. As generic as the rest of the lyrics I've quoted above are, "Ammunition" is different, it's personal, it's a mental movie. You can only sit in the dark and contemplate it, why were these rockers singing this song, why did they write it, there's got to be a story.
And then you play it again. And again. Because you don't want the mood to evaporate. You don't need to go to the show to shoot selfies, this is absolutely personal. The band is not playing to the back row, just you.
And then comes the chorus:
"Boy when you're all alone
Holdin' back when you wanna go
Take a stand 'cause it's not over now
Ooh, kid, keep your head up high
Dry your eyes and touch the sky
Take a stand 'cause it's not over now
Ammunition."
Now this is not a unique sentiment in rock and roll. Us versus them, stand up to the power. But the lyrics are not the dumb words of so many songs imploring listeners to do that. In this case, it goes to the core, the dad is gone, unjustly, how do you cope, how do you keep your optimism?
It's insanely difficult. This is the authoritarian system we're fearful of. Right doesn't matter, nor does innocence. You've got no power against the system. It's inherently unjust.
And the title of the song is only mentioned twice. Ammunition. That's what the offenders have given the oppressed. They've got this ammunition and they're holding on to employ it, to shoot it in the future, when those in control least expect it.
This ammunition is the essence of rock and roll, the other. Our bands didn't sell out to corporations, they existed in their own rarefied world, which we were drawn to, since the system didn't understand us. They were beholden to no one, not even us, which made their words have even more power. They were soothsayers. When we listened to their music we not only felt good, we felt like we were understood. Our music provided this, nothing else could, no movie, no book. There were these people, often without portfolio, who seemed to create this sound out of thin air, who knew exactly what we felt, who were inspiring us, giving us answers, they were irresistible.
Ammunition.
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