Our journey through the 1991 Pro Set MusiCards SuperStars set takes us next to #34 Michael Bolton. He's giving us his sultry stare as we admire that bold hair choice. Mid-age women really went bonkers for that look back then, I guess. Haha
I'll admit that there was a brief moment when I was a kid that I regarded his "How Can We Be Lovers (If We Can't Be Friends)" as a pretty cool song. But that was fleeting and he soon became a target for everyone to rag on.
But hey, the guy can sing and to his credit he laughed it off all the way to the bank. Only Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation 1814 was a bigger album in 1990 per Billboard.
It's funny that he started out as a hard rock singer before transitioning into the power crooning he's best known for.
"Maybe it's the Power of Love" is the most popular track from his early rock band Blackjack.
Sure, let's whip up a custom for them. Checking out their stuff for the first time now while drafting this post... Yeah, these guys seem to have put out some solid late 70s/ early 80s pop rock. I can dig it. You could picture them opening for the likes of Boston and Aerosmith back then. But I guess they just never got their big break and Michael eventually focused on catering to the ladies with soulful ballads.
That seemed to work out well for him. "Bolton's achievements include selling more than 75 million records, recording eight top 10 albums and two number-one singles on the Billboard charts, as well as winning six American Music Awards and two Grammy Awards." (wikipedia)
He still cranks out an album every few years. Folks in my demographic probably remember him best these days thanks to the film Office Space (where an unhappy character is stuck with also being named Michael Bolton) and the Lonely Island, with whom he guested on a funny Pirates of the Caribbean song that was featured on Saturday Night Live. He also released an amusing special on Netflix in 2017 titled Michael Bolton's Big, Sexy Valentine's Day Special.
Cool that he doesn't take himself too seriously.
Today's his 68th birthday, so I'm rushing to get this post finished in time to publish today. You know, my little cap-tip to the guy. lol
He's also got a card in the UK edition of the MusiCards set, so assuming this blog keeps motoring along, we'll eventually revisit him again on here in a few years.
Can any of you muster up any feelings one way or the other to share about Michael Bolton? If so, go ahead and leave a comment below.
Thanks for reading. Mr. Robert Barisford Brown is next up.
We're up to #32 in the set: Bad English. This photo feels like a throwback to the hair metal bands of the 80s.. you know, a few fellas looking tough in leather jackets with long, poofy hair. There are a few MusiCards along these lines, but such acts were on the decline by the time ProSet was shipping these cards to retailers in 1991. I still dig a lot of that stuff, even if the look hasn't aged particularly well.
Bad English is vaguely familiar to me, but I couldn't name you any of their songs off the top of my head. I want to say "Bad Company"... but no, that's a different rock band with a similar name.
The write-up indicates they were something of a supergroup, with guys coming from other established bands. That's John Waite on vocals, right?
Ok, I just looked up the band on Spotify and their most popular song by a wide margin is "When I See You Smile".
Oh yeah! When it gets to the chorus, now I remember this song. I heard it a lot back then, and occasionally still get that chorus stuck in my head these days even though I forgot who the artist was.
So yeah, seems these guys' bread & butter are power metal ballads. Not my favorite genre, but I can still appreciate a cheesy love song with big guitars.
Reading up on the band, turns out they were an offshoot formed after Journey broke up. And yep, I was right about John Waite, so that's cool. (Loved his "Missing You" song back in the day.) Their self-titled debut came out in June 1989 and did pretty well, with "When I See You Smile" going to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 among a few successful singles. The follow-up record, Backlash, came out in August of 1991 but the band dissolved around that same time with the guys all straying to other projects, and that was it for Bad English.
CUSTOM CORNER
I think I'll use this moment to clarify for myself the difference between Bad English and Bad Company.
Bad Company are an English band, adding to the confusion. lol
But no, Bad Company is best known as the rock and roll outfit behind the classic rock staple "Feel Like Making Love" and a few other solid hits in the 70s including the eponymous "Bad Company". Like Bad English, you could call them a supergroup: two former members of Free, singer Paul Rodgers and drummer Simon Kirke; former Mott the Hoople guitarist Mick Ralphs; and ex-King Crimson bassist Boz Burrell.
They were before my time, and I'm only familiar with their hits, but I like what I've heard from them. If I had to pick between Bad English and Bad Company, hands down I'm going with the Co. And I'm sure I'm not alone there.
BONUS CONTENT
Around the new year last year I shared my favorite songs of 2019. But I don't really have much to share regarding my favorite songs of 2020. The time during my commutes to and from work is where I typically check out new music, and seeing as I've been mostly working from home, I just haven't been listening to much new stuff since corona. I should probably break the habit and try listening to more music while I'm at home.
But when I put on music at home, it's usually old favorites that my wife doesn't mind, rather than drag her along for the ride digging up unfamiliar stuff. I also listen to music on headphones nearly every night when I go to bed-- I'm one of the unlucky people who take a while to fall asleep once my head hits the pillow, so I can usually get an album in before I drift off to dreamland-- but I tend to stick to familiar favorites in that situation rather than challenge my sleepy ears with new stuff.
One old song that I only first discovered last year was "Johnny and Mary" by Robert Palmer. What a cool song! From 1980. Doesn't sound like the later "Simply Irresistible" and "Addicted to Love" stuff he's best known for.
Anywho... any of you readers find any new favorites last year? What do you think of Bad Company and/or Bad English?
Number 24 in the 1991 Pro Set MusiCards set is another Led Zeppelin card. This one features a wholesome posed photo looking not too far from a Sears shoot for a family Christmas card or something like that.
No second photo on the back this time, but rather a wordmark/logo. The blurb seems to credit Zeppelin for coining the term "heavy metal" for hard rock music, though I'm not seeing anything to back that up on Wikipedia's heavy metal music entry, instead crediting producer Sandy Pearlman for using the term to describe The Byrds.
We've come to the first card that has a corresponding promo! Let's take a look at the relatively-rare early version of this card...
The front is very similar to the base card, though note the different font for "Pro Set" and "MusiCards" in the logo, plus instead of "Legends", it's marked "Hall of Famer" in the teal bubble.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation was established on April 20, 1983. The museum in Cleveland didn't open till 1995, which was the same year Led Zeppelin was inducted. So technically they weren't Hall of Famers at the time this card was created, which might be a reason Pro Set switched the subset name to "Legends" instead.
The easiest way to spot these promos is they are unnumbered. Some other minor differences on the back, but the basic layout isn't too far from the mass-produced finished product.
I believe these promos were available with the Pro Set Gazette magazine/catalog thing, but couldn't say for certain. There are another group of MusiCards promos with a completely different design (that are numbered), but that's for another day. Actually those would be the "first promo set", so this Zeppelin is actually part of the "second promo set". Kinda confusing.
Led Zeppelin - "Kashmir"
Since the back of the promo card mentions Physical Graffiti, here's one of the best-known tracks off that double LP.
"Kashmir" was an idea from Page and Bonham, and was first attempted as an instrumental demo in late 1973. Plant wrote the lyrics while on holiday in Morocco. Jones played Mellotron on the track, and arranged strings and brass parts that were played by session musicians. The song was one of the most critically acclaimed on the album, and was played at every gig from 1975 onwards. Page and Plant played it on their 1994 tour, and it was reworked in 1998 by Sean "Puffy" Combs for his single "Come With Me" which featured Page on guitar. [wiki]
The back of the featured card in this post mentions the origins of the term heavy metal in regards to music. So let's go with Steppenwolf, who were the first band to mention "heavy metal" in lyrics.
Steppenwolf - "Born to Be Wild"
"Born to Be Wild" was a solid hit for Steppenwolf in 1968, and the song gained even more popularity by being featured in the 1969 film Easy Rider. It's sometimes described as the first heavy metal song, and the lyric "heavy metal thunder" (describing a motorcycle) marks the first use of this term in rock music.
Steppenwolf formed in 1967 and had a nice run of success from 1968 to 1972, scoring three top 10 hits: "Born to Be Wild", "Magic Carpet Ride", and "Rock Me".
The band originally split after a farewell concert in Los Angeles on Valentine's Day in 1972, but later reunited in various forms over the years. Lead singer John Kay (now 76) is the only original member these days, and he announced last year that the band would no longer perform live.
Steppenwolf - "Magic Carpet Ride"
I don't know much about Steppenwolf other than their few hit songs, but let me know in the comments if you've got any lesser-known favorites of theirs I should check out.
Just one more Led Zeppelin Legends card up next, then we'll dive into the pop music section of Series 1. Stay tuned!
Ok, we're back! Neglected this blog for a few weeks, overshadowed by the covid-19 craziness we've all been dealing with since the previous post. But I'll try to get back on track. I promise this blog will never die until we reach the final card in the set or I'm physically unable to post for whatever reason (you know.. like death or significant mental impairment). But as long as I'm still kicking, this blog will keep inching forward, even if it takes us a freakin' decade or longer to get through the set! This I vow! LOL
Another reason that I was dragging my feet writing this post is I got to the end of the card images I had prepared, so that means the chore of scanning or photographing the next several cards in the set in preparation to post about them (Sure, I could find "stock" images online, but for whatever reason, it's important to me to use my own images with these MusiCards).
And another reason for my procrastination is it's hard to finalize those "desert island disc" lists (Best Of playlists) because sometimes I agonize over them more than I should. I know it's not a big deal, but I'm weird about it. I might try moving away from doing those lists since they're standing in the way of this blog moving along at a good pace.
But really, I'm looking forward to getting beyond the Legends subset that begins the set. Dealing with very popular bands means there's more history there to try to cover. And more notable songs to feature. More thoughts and memories of mine to ramble on about. So that makes the posts take longer to write. I'm anxious to get past the Legends and onto the pop acts of 1991.. especially lesser artists who were just a blip on the Billboard 200 radar and then disappeared forever. Bands I'm unfamiliar with. Bands where I'll struggle to have anything to write about. Those are the kind of posts I'm excited to research.. no offense to The Who and other greats of their ilk.
1991 Pro Set MusiCards Super Stars #20 The Who
I'd say this card is a significant improvement over the previous card that featured a distant live shot of the band. Here we see the four fellows hunkered tightly together for a promo photoshoot, Pete and Keith looking at the camera, with John and Roger looking off distracted.
The back features another posed shot, this time with the guys dressed up a bit fancier.
"The Kids Are Alright" is a great song and I'm kicking myself for forgetting about it in the last post. (See what I mean about stressing over which songs I pick? haha) I don't think I've seen the 1979 doc with that title the card mentions, but I wouldn't mind catching it sometime. Honestly, I don't think I've watched Tommy or Quadrophenia either. Maybe someday.
Something I have watched! The short-lived TV show from a year or two ago called The Kids Are Alright was a solid sitcom that took place in the 70s. (And it featured baseball cards sometimes!) Bummer it got cancelled. But that doesn't really have anything to do with The Who other than the title.
As far as The Who themselves on TV, well the first thing that pops in my mind is their guest appearance on The Simpsons. That was way back in 2000 ("A Tale of Two Springfields").
The Simpsons also snuck in a subtle Who reference in a different episode with this "file photo" from Springfield that's clearly an homage to the photo on the back cover of the album Meaty Beaty Big And Bouncy.
I remember my mom owned Meaty Beaty Big And Bouncy on cassette when I was a kid, and it was always very awkward whenever either of us said the title, as you can imagine. But yeah, that's a great Who best-of, originally issued in 1971 on vinyl (and 1980 on cassette).
I guess that's enough to say about The Who for now, but they'll be back on the blog with a pair of Historic Concerts cards coming up later in the set.
Hmmm... um... I can't really think of a band. Well, I was planning on a big Pearl Jam write-up (they were heavily influenced by The Who), but that would be a whole can of worms and I want to keep this short so I can hurry up and publish this post. So I'll save Pearl Jam for another day.
Tell you what, I'm just going to show off this custom set I made recently for Dimebox Nick's dad. A few years back, we worked out a deal where I whipped up some custom cards of a few of his favorite musicians in exchange for some decent baseball cards. And then he came up with a new list of names for "Series 2". He gives me free reign in choosing designs to use, though he digs 70s oddballs most of all. Here's how they turned out:
I wasn't familiar with many of these folks (best know the Minutemen and Replacements out of the lot), but it was cool learning about them all while putting the cards together (they all have backs, too).
Speaking of hooking people up with printed-out customs, I'm working on a limited special offer where readers can score a custom of their choice from me. Like a "MusiCards Blog Supporter Pack" thing where you throw a little "donation" to the blog and then I send you a custom card or two and other cool stuff like a mix CD and an exclusive "print edition" blogpost. I think it'll be fun!.. Stay tuned for this offer to show up in a future post once I get it all sorted out.
Next up on the blog, we kick off a stretch of Led Zeppelin cards. I'm hoping to bust thru them quickly, since as I mentioned, I'm anxious to get out of the Legends section and into the meat of the MusiCards set. See you soon!
