The Cynics were a band out of Fairbanks Alaska who recorded, mixed, produced, and distributed their own EP.
It’s your standard early 80’s Rock and Roll sound that with better production would have been successful in my opinion.
However professional production does not come cheap and is all but impossible to get on a self funded album. Other than that I know nothing about this band.
Track Listing:
1 – Gas Riot
2 – American Economics
3 – Rock Apocalypse
4 – Fools In Hell
Credits:
Producer – The Cynics
Written-By – Pasillas, States
The album Horrendous Disc by Daniel Amos was a very popular early 80’s CCM album.
While it was released in 1981 it has a strong mid 70’s sound. The reason for this is that it was actually recorded in 1978. It was rejected by Maranatha Music and ended up in the hands of Solid Rock Records.
For reasons only known to Larry Norman (owner of Solid Rock at the time) it was not released until 1981. It played a part in a messy situation that ended up with Daniel Amos at Newpax Records.
All that said it was a well received album with the single “I Love You #19” still very popular.
Track Listing:
1 – I Love You #19 – 3:33
2 – Hound Of Heaven – 4:06
3 – (Near-Sighted Girl With Approaching) Tidal Wave – 3:05
4 – Sky King (Out Across The Sky) – 4:05
5 – On The Line – 5:20
6 – I Believe In You – 3:45
7 – Man In The Moon – 4:00
8 – Never Leave You – 3:08
9 – Horrendous Disc – 5:20
Credits:
Bass [Uncredited], Backing Vocals [Uncredited] – Marty Dieckmeyer
Drums [Uncredited], Percussion [Uncredited], Backing Vocals [Uncredited] – Ed McTaggart
Guitar [Uncredited], Lead Vocals [Uncredited], Backing Vocals [Uncredited] – Jerry Chamberlain, Terry Taylor
Keyboards [Uncredited], Backing Vocals [Uncredited] – Mark Cook (2)
Percussion [Uncredited] – Alex MacDougal*
Producer [Uncredited] – Daniel Amos, Mike D. Stone
I either forgot huge parts of this album or I blocked them out. It’s weird.
Track 1: Drop the needle, and the first thing you hear is the beginning of “Greensleeves”. Where’d that come from? The first verse of “Saviour” might fit in as a Christmas song, but only on the Lump of Coal CD.
So many lyrics I’ve forgotten, like “I want an angel for a next door neighbor / Hey, Gabriel just might drop in for tea!” Maybe I forgot because you can’t make them all out unless you read the liner notes.
“Little Faith” has an almost Israeli-style feel, but like everything else on the album, the operative word seems to be “almost”.
One lyric you can’t forget (I didn’t) is from what is truly the signature song on the album: “Marshalls and drums! Cymbals and bass! / Get out and blow ’em away – playin for Me! / You’ll be playin’ for Me.” The next time around, it’s “We’ll make all the noise we can, so you’ll believe in Him / Marshalls and Drums! Cymbals and bass! Get out and blow ’em away – playin’ for Him!”
“No More Blues” starts laying down a nice bluesy bass line, but don’t get too into it, because before you know it, they’ve added a punk rock vocal and some hard rock guitar riffs, especially in the solos. I don’t know what it is at that point, but despite the underlying bass line, there really are no more blues in there.
The next track is “Father of Lies”, which lays down a nice little beat that you can start grooving on until… once again, the vocal comes in.
The lyric sheet is truly worth reading if you want to know what the lyrics are. Some of them are really over the top. The sheet includes a short statement of faith and thanks JPUSA and the Vineyard of West Los Angeles. Maybe they even met Larry Norman out there somewhere, but neither seems to be advertising it.
Track Listing:
1 – Saviour – 3:02
2 – There’s A New World Coming – 2:35
3 – Directory Assistance – 3:55
4 – Little Faith – 2:54
5 – He Loves You – 3:20
6 – B.C. – 2:22
7 – Playin’ For Him – 3:33
8 – No More Blues – 7:28
9 – Father Of Lies (A Song About The Other Guy) – 2:30
10 – It’s Up To You – 3:00
Credits:
Art Direction – Dan Lienart
Photography By – David Randle
Producer – David Storrs
Written-By – Barnabas
Bass – Gary Mann
Drums – Kris Klingensmith
Guitar – Monte Colley
Lead Vocals – Nancy Jo Mann
Geri Baird has been described as the Pat Benatar of Christian music.
This album doesn’t really have any hard rock tunes but I think it could have held it’s own in the secular music scene that was the 80’s. My research into this album indicates that it was only released in Canada which is a pity as I think it was ripe for the U.S. market.
The fan favourite was “Backside Of The Desert” but my personal favourite was “Taking My Baby For A Ride”. Oh and she was very attractive which is probably the reason we bought this album 🙂
Track Listing:
1 – Super Heroes
2 – Backside Of The Desert
3 – Cool Age
4 – Somebody Loves Me
5 – Family
6 – Taking Baby For A Ride
7 – Living On Broken Hearts
8 – Visions
9 – Just A Heart
10 – I Know
