Okay, I am Bob Lefsetz. I really am. No I am not. Well, at least I don’t take myself seriously. I just type.
I’m a type. I like tacos…
So, back in the early ’90s the very talented and super excellent melodic metal/hard rock band Guardian added a new singer to their fold. It was a crazy long-shot, adding this red-haired lanky lunatic from the band Tempest.
And while we’re on the subject of Tempest, one of the funniest (and saddest – so sad) stories in Christian metal history is the Tempest getting signed to Pure Metal story. You see, kids, there was an amazing, edgy and explosive thrash metal band from Ohio called Tempest. This guy named Warren Harris was the frontman/bassist. The dude could wail and play bass guitar like a madman. This three-piece was simply amazing. There was such a power involved in the music that it was too tough to criticize. If anyone else had used a talking puppet talkbox soundbyte on their album, they would have been laughed at. But Annhilation of the Wicked was so stinkin’ awesome, thrashy and powerful at a time when thrash and speed metal were just newly explored terrain for bands like Exodus, Testament, Metallica and only a few others. Man, that cassette tape ruled!
Pure Metal Records heard the buzz about this band in the Christian metal underground, but someone who didn’t know their heavy from their metal got a submission or communication or something from a band called Tempest and they jumped on it, sending the band a contract and signing the band. Apparently, as the legend goes, someone from the label walked in and noticed that the music these four or so guys from Indiana were playing was nothing like thrash metal … and there was no intimidating, tall and dark-skinned frontman to be found. Turns out they signed the wrong Tempest!!!
Now, Eye of the Storm, the band’s second album, did have one good song on it – a ballad called “Good-bye.” Well, the band Guardian took a chance on this guy as their new vocalist, replacing Paul Cawley. Well, the experiment worked, as the Fire and Love album was a melodic hard rocker’s delight. Chi-wa-wah! That was a smokin’ hot album! “Time and Time Again,” “Forever and a Day” and “Time Stands Still” were great tunes. Notice how they all had units of time or the subject of time in their title? Weird. “Send a Message” and “The Power of Love” were both duplicate song titles from the King’s X debut album, Out of the Silent Planet. Probably just a strange coincidence.
Fire and Love was easily one of the best Christian metal/hard rock albums ever released. Well, the song had a ballad on it, called “Never Gonna Say Goodbye.” It was a pretty little song and it had a heart-tugging lyrical pull about eternity and heaven and death. The band’s label made a video for “The Power of Love” and also one for “Never Gonna Say Goodbye.” The second looked like a low-budget video, but it tastefully featured a lot of soup kitchen lines of people at a homeless shelter somewhere.
I had a hunch, and I’m sure I wasn’t the only one. “This song would go over great on Country radio. And the video had enough of a ‘feel good’ vibe to it that it could and would have its own life on rotation on CMT (Country Music Television).” I knew the folks at the label, so I called and talked to their promotions guy. An older gentleman that was really nice. I told him my idea and he listened. I think he might have even thought it was a good idea. Well, I did my part. I had no business telling a record label where to spend their money and their marketing energy.
But dang it if I know they were wrong not to try that. At least deep down in my heart. That song could have catapulted a very capable, professional band to much higher heights. I wonder what it would have been like for them (a real rock band) to have a hit on country radio. It might’ve messed ’em up. Maybe their song titles about time were a clue they were sending to me in the future.
“Doug, when you get your time machine working, come back to 1991 and take the ‘Never Gonna Say Goodbye’ video to CMT. Do it, Doug. DO IT NOW!”
Yes, I think that’s what they were trying to say. For now, though, I can sit on my armchair and scowl: “You blew it, guys! You really blew it!!!”
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