FEE WAYBILL
Continued from page 20 ontinued from page 24
IE : There were actually promotional
ontinued budgets from page back 24 then . I collected all the promotional buttons and badges the labels put out . You had an iconic one , too , from the Capitol years . FW : Yeah ! The little plastic ’ T .’ Although A & M probably had badges , too . I know we had matches for * The Completion Backward Principle , and we had coasters , too . I still have a big box full of Tubes coasters with that album cover on it , and a big box of the matches , too . I haven ’ t done any matches or coasters yet for my record , though . But luckily , we finished this record just before the pandemic last February , which was great because I can ’ t imagine doing this now . I mean , how am I going to do vocals with a mask on ? But we didn ’ t wait — we put it together , and I got Prairie Prince to do the artwork for the cover . He wasn ’ t doing anything , either — he was just sitting around painting and stuff . So it ’ s kind of helped everybody .
IE : When and how did you first meet Richard Marx ? He was on EMI , and The Tubes were on Capitol , so you theoretically could have bumped into each other at label offices . FW : He was on Manhattan ; you ’ re right . But I met him way before that . I met him when he was 18 years old , back in 1983 , and we were recording with David Foster . We were doing the * Outside , Inside album , and Richard was a songwriter from Chicago , and he had placed a song with Lionel Richie . So he came out to L . A . to watch him record it , and while he was there , he asked him if he could meet David Foster , and Lionel knew David Foster and knew that he was in the studio with us . So he called him up , and Foster said , “ Yeah , go ahead and have him come over .” So he did — he came over to the studio and kind of sat in the back of the room in the shadows , innocuously , and just didn ’ t say anything . And at the time , we were having a tough day , and I was there with Bill Spooner , the guitar player , and he was having trouble getting his amp to sound right — he was having electronic trouble and getting really frustrated . And at one point , we were in the studio listening to a tape , and it wasn ’ t happening . But he saw this guy sitting in the back of the room , and he kind of went off on him . He was like , “ Who is this guy ? What ’ s he doing here ? Call security — get this guy outta here !” And I went , “ Dude ! He ’ s just a kid ! He came here to meet Foster — he ’ s just a kid from Chicago , so leave him alone ! Now let ’ s go back to work and get this thing done .”
So at the end of the day , at the end of the session , Richard came up to me and said , “ Man , thanks for standing up for me — I really appreciate it .” Then he said , “ You know , I really like your lyrics — I ’ m a fan . Would you write a song with me ?” And I said , “ Oh , okay , sure !” And I ’ d never heard of him , and I ’ d never heard of
24 illinoisentertainer . com march 2021
his dad , who was a very , very famous jingle writer . Dick Marx wrote the Doublemint Gum jingle , and he wrote Ken-L Ration — “ My dog ’ s better than your dog / My dog ’ s better than yours .” He wrote all these millions of jingles , but he was also this jazz keyboard player in Chicago and really well-known . So he had all these jazz clubs , and he obviously taught Richard everything he knew . So Richard and I decided to write a song together , and the first song we ever wrote together was on my first solo album , called “ Who Loves Ya , Baby ?” Which was the tagline for * Kojak . And that was on * Read My Lips , my first solo record in ’ 84 . And then we just got to be friends and wrote another song , then another song . And we had a hit with “ Livin ’ On the Edge of a Broken Heart ” with Vixen . Remember Vixen ? We wrote that song together , then he got an artist deal with Manhattan in 1988 , which is part of EMI , and he said , “ Okay — let ’ s write some more songs .” And I think I had three co-written songs on his first record , and “ Don ’ t Mean Nothin ’” was a big hit . So when that record sold three million , we were off and running .
6
IE : There ’ s a Brandon Marx credited with drums on “ Rides Again .” I ’ m assuming that ’ s Richard ’ s son . FW : Yes . That ’ s correct . Richard has three sons — Brandon , Lucas , and Jesse — and they ’ re all brilliant . Brandon can play drums and guitar , and Lucas can play keyboards and write . On Richard ’ s new record , * Limitless , Lucas plays and produces and writes some things . But Jesse , the youngest son , is actually a speed-metal guitar player . I dunno — I guess he ’ s rebelling . He went about as far afield as he could from Richard ’ s style . So they ’ re all great kids , and I am their godfather . And they ’ ve all moved out to California , along with Richard . But I don ’ t have any children myself . Not that my wife and I didn ’ t try — it just never happened .
IE : But now you ’ ve written the perfect post-pandemic anthem , “ Meant to Be Alone .” Eerie , huh ? FW : Yeah . Really , who would have known ? I wrote that before my wife , and I got back together . And I ’ d kind of given up because we got married , then we got divorced , then we got back together , then we got separated again . We got back together , I think , four or five times , all in all .
So there were periods where I was living alone in a little dinky house in Venice , and I was feeling sorry for myself and thinking that maybe this was never going to happen again . Even though I had been writing poems to her — I wrote her a whole book of poems , and they ’ re all about her and all about getting back together . So “ Meant to Be Alone ” was actually the last song that we recorded for
MOAT Poison Stream
( Schoolkids )
Globetrotting guitarist Marty Willson- Piper lets no moss grow under his feet , inviting new experiences with a vast array of collaborations on solo albums and recent side projects including Atlantaeum Flood , Anekdoten , and Noctorum . Willson-Piper now returns to MOAT , a rich collaboration with multi-instrumentalist Niko Röhlcke of Swedish scenesters Weeping Willows to follow their 2013 selftitled debut . The inclusion of regular cast members including violinist and singer Olivia Willson-Piper and producer / jack of all trades Dare Mason connects the sound comfortably to MWP ’ s oeuvre . The sparkling chorus of “ Helpless You ” belies the portrait of a self-defeated soul , as MWP and Röhlcke trade shimmering acoustic riffs with OWP ’ s sprightly strings . Röhlcke ’ s accordion during “ The Ballad of Sweet Marie ” adds old-world flair and charm to a pensive duet between the Willson-Pipers . A spectral and unsettled mood haunts the cinematic “ Judgement Day ,” as the bone-weary oppressed seek the upper hand against their oppressors . Late-night crooner “ Lover ” adds smoky brass to the bitter sting of romance lost . “ Acid Rain ” is the collection ’ s driving rocker , propelled by percolating electropop sequencers and Eddie John ’ s urgent drumming . MWP navigates the acrid weather as it deconstructs his physical body to reveal a troubled spirit wracked by desire . This textured and gothic Anglo-Scandinavian folk-pop rewards repeated listens with lyrical and musical twists aplenty . ( schoolkidsrecords . com )
– Jeff Elbel
8
JAPAN Quiet Life LP Reissue
( Polydor )
It ’ s minimizing and limiting this potent band ’ s depth and impact to put it so bluntly , but it remains true : ‘ 80s kids who still dance to Duran Duran and want to know who drew the blueprint should embrace this . Japan were two shades darker in tone and pushed harder at the boundaries , but the sound of tracks like Quiet Life ’ s title cut echo through double-D radio favorites from “ Girls on Film ” to “ Rio ” – all the way down to fretless bass maestro Mick Karn ’ s saxophone and future Porcupine Tree keyboardist Richard Barbieri ’ s percolating synthesizer foundation . Japan reveals some of frontman and singer David Sylvian ’ s own adventurous source material during “ Fall in Love ,” which owes debts to early Roxy Music and Bauhaus . Sylvian tips his hat overtly to the Velvet Underground , with a clever version of “ All Tomorrow ’ s Parties .” According this reissue ’ s liner notes , Sylvian presented the cover song ’ s chords to his bandmates as new material for arrangement in the studio and only revealed the lyrics and melody when singing his lead vocal afterward . With its melancholy mellotron and
funeral-procession piano drone , “ Despair ” is reminiscent of David Bowie ’ s initial Berlin-period collaboration with Brian Eno for Low a la “ Warszawa .” Karn leads the way with a slippery bass figure for the slinky groove of “ In-Vogue ,” earning his stripes as a New Wave bass hero alongside other rarefied players like Simple Minds ’ Derek Forbes , while Rob Dean plays a snaky e-bow figure ( the guitarist ’ s tool was relatively new at the time , creating infinite sustain for violin-like solos ). “ Did nobody warn you ?,” sings Sylvian in a heavy-lidded baritone purr . “ Love ’ s in vogue again .” The band fuses krautrock and dark funk on “ Halloween .” Drummer Steve Jansen drives an intricate and stuttering but quixotically danceable groove through “ Alien .” Sylvian ’ s lyrics for songs like the sweeping and orchestral “ The Other Side of Life ” reflected the worldliness the band had gained while traveling the world in support of work released only the prior year . Although the band distanced itself from the New Romantic movement , Quiet Life proved to be an early signpost of the genre as the band shed the glam-rock trappings of its first two albums and headed toward new horizons in