Raised On Radio #2: Marty Balin
May. 3rd, 2012 08:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bedsitter23Okay, you knew all my choices couldn't be hip British new wave bands. There is bound to be a guilty pleasure or too.
Being pressed a bit for time this morning, you will get one of those today.
Most of the songs I include here will be from the area's contemporary hit station of the time, but of course, I only listened to that when I was in my room.
The preferred station of my parents (and everyone else I knew over the age of 12) was the hometown station.
They played adult contemporary music (or whatever it was called at the time) which meant a lot of Fleetwood mac, Laura Branigan, ABBA, Cat Stevens, Juice Newton (who was huge at the time, but we only think of her with one song "King of Hearts" if we think of her at all) and a whole bunch of (pre-Faith and Shania) crossover country - Kenny Rogers, Ronnie Milsap, Oak Ridge Boys, Sylvia, etc...
I didn't like a lot of that stuff, but certain songs are drilled in from that time.
Which is where "Hearts" by Marty Balin comes in.
Balin is best known as being the male singer in Jefferson Starship. (If you are not that familiar with the whole Jefferson legacy, you may be thinking of Mickey Thomas. Thomas was the guy who sang on the 80s and 90s Starship hits like "We Built this City", "Nothing Gonna Stop Us Now" and "Sara")
I love Balin's voice for inexplicable reasons and think "Miracles" is just thee greatest song ever, though there's no reason it should be.
Of course, Balin isn't the public figure he once was. He is (I am assuming) out there with a competing Starship on tour (I know Mickey Thomas is, anyway) or at least still performing solo.
I also suspect Balin (who wrote the song "The Ganja of Love") is one of the most stoned men on the planet.
Still, if it makes him plaintive like this, I dig it.
1981's Balin reached #35 while "Hearts" went to #8. The follow up single went to #27, and the follow-up solo album stiffed (#156). Balin has since been in and out of various Jefferson Airplane/Starship projects (usually with another Jefferson icon Paul Katner), and recorded two records in the 90s.
Thanks to the video age for giving us a way to really express the metaphor of heartbreak as prison.
Being pressed a bit for time this morning, you will get one of those today.
Most of the songs I include here will be from the area's contemporary hit station of the time, but of course, I only listened to that when I was in my room.
The preferred station of my parents (and everyone else I knew over the age of 12) was the hometown station.
They played adult contemporary music (or whatever it was called at the time) which meant a lot of Fleetwood mac, Laura Branigan, ABBA, Cat Stevens, Juice Newton (who was huge at the time, but we only think of her with one song "King of Hearts" if we think of her at all) and a whole bunch of (pre-Faith and Shania) crossover country - Kenny Rogers, Ronnie Milsap, Oak Ridge Boys, Sylvia, etc...
I didn't like a lot of that stuff, but certain songs are drilled in from that time.
Which is where "Hearts" by Marty Balin comes in.
Balin is best known as being the male singer in Jefferson Starship. (If you are not that familiar with the whole Jefferson legacy, you may be thinking of Mickey Thomas. Thomas was the guy who sang on the 80s and 90s Starship hits like "We Built this City", "Nothing Gonna Stop Us Now" and "Sara")
I love Balin's voice for inexplicable reasons and think "Miracles" is just thee greatest song ever, though there's no reason it should be.
Of course, Balin isn't the public figure he once was. He is (I am assuming) out there with a competing Starship on tour (I know Mickey Thomas is, anyway) or at least still performing solo.
I also suspect Balin (who wrote the song "The Ganja of Love") is one of the most stoned men on the planet.
Still, if it makes him plaintive like this, I dig it.
1981's Balin reached #35 while "Hearts" went to #8. The follow up single went to #27, and the follow-up solo album stiffed (#156). Balin has since been in and out of various Jefferson Airplane/Starship projects (usually with another Jefferson icon Paul Katner), and recorded two records in the 90s.
Thanks to the video age for giving us a way to really express the metaphor of heartbreak as prison.
