Bryan Adams - Into the Fire

Normally I don't buy a record I already have on CD, but I found this copy in a clearance bin because there was a scratch or something that made it unworthy of being in the regular rack. When I looked it over, it seemed pretty decent, although there was a little scuff on one side. I figured after a good clean it would likely play just fine - and it did. Sitting listening to this again has been like catching up with an old friend.

I do get some grief on occasion for my love of Bryan Adams albums from some of my more discerning friends - then again I also like Nickelback - so to them they're justified in their assessment of my lack of musical taste and inability to adhere to the accepted tenets of good taste.

Whatever.

Once upon a time there was a skinny kid with a really high voice who took over Sweeney Todd from Nick Gilder and wrote songs with his partner Jim Vallance that showed up on albums by Prism, and BTO, although to be fair by that time those bands were no longer in their prime.

I became a fan with his third album, 1983s Cuts Like a Knife. It didn't take too long to get the purple album that featured guest bass guitar work from Fred Turner (BTO), and Jim Clench (April Wine / BTO) which I thought was really cool, and there were a couple of really good songs on that one. Then his second album You Want It, You Got It was starting to solidify what would be his formula for success. Cuts Like a Knife, was the second of many albums to have Bob Clearmoutain on board with production and mixing. The album went platinum in the States and sold 300,000 copies here at home, something he'd do repeatedly with most of his releases, even after it seemed he was no longer cool (guess who's having the last laugh?). Which is pretty freakin' cool, considering the size of the Canadian market. You could almost feel the momentum building, and when Reckless was being prepped for release there was a near riot (okay, there was some broken glass and a kerfuffle of sorts) when there was an open casting call for extras to be in the videos being filmed for the singles (I was supposed to head down for this, but my buddy Ron who I was going with wasn't able to go at the last minute).

I remember driving into work for an afternoon shift, and on the radio the DJ said they were going to premier the new Adams single ... so I got to work, parked and waited. "Run to You" was great from the first time I heard it. Apparently I wasn't alone, and the album would be huge to the tune of over a million albums in Canada, and go platinum five times in the US, and globally sell over $12M copies.

Not bad, eh?

So what did he do when he was at the top of the world?

He released the aptly titled Into the Fire. With Reckless he'd set the bar pretty high, and there were two options for the kind of album he should make to follow up his monster hit:

1. Try and record Reckless II and likely fall short of people's expectations, or 
2. just do what you want, and likely fall short of people's expectations. After all, even David Bowie wasn't able to do Let's Dance II, and his follow up Tonight was met with a critical drubbing, although you do have to give it up for "Blue Jean" as that was a decent song.

Taking the second option, he released the album he wanted to make and still took a drubbing - there's no pleasing some folks. Critics were primed and waiting, as I guess there wasn't a new Toto record to shit on. It would seem the general consensus was lyrically the songs on the album were nothing but a series of strung together cliches and musically it was dull and boring. Boring.

Then there's me. This is one of my favourite albums by Mister Adams (you know I respect it, and him because I said Mister). As much as I loved many of the songs on Reckless, there was a real sense of maturity on this album, and the songs sounded like they belonged together. Here was a guy who was still only in his late 20s at this point, and he was literally out of the frying pan ... (you know I'm going to finish the sentence, I have to) and Into the Fire.

The music was tight and the band was working, well, as a band. Bryan was finally able to woo Mickey Curry away from Hall & Oates to be his full time drummer. Keith Scott now firmly entrenched in Adams band as lead guitar player is off the chain throughout the album. If you look up underrated guitar players you'd find Keith's name. Heck, I've read more than once that Keith's favourite song to play ever is the title track - which is a killer tune. Dave Taylor another long time member of the band provided the bottom end, and is solid as usual.

I will admit that when I first heard "Victim of Love" I was hoping for a Don Felder solo - aside from the title there's no similarity to the Eagles. This is about the cheapest shot I'll take.

Lyrically the critics weren't wrong about the cliches but if you're going to go after a pop artist for using cliches to convey meaning and emotion you may as well turn your nose up at greeting cards too. Yeah sometimes they can be clunky and earn an eye roll, but they are often emotional shortcuts, and to me I'm not looking for War and Peace in a four minute song, I'm looking for something to lift my spirits or give me an emotional connection.

There's a reason a song like "Remembrance Day" works so well for me. It's the music paired with the images. Has it been done before with more depth by better lyricists? Probably, but I still like the song. It's the same reason I liked "Only the Strong Survive" the music drove the images, and Keith Scott's fret work was just wicked. This would also mark the end of Adams / Vallance partnership for a while.

This was the right album for him to make, and for those who thought Bryan Adams would quietly burn down to ashes and just disappear were in for a rude awakening a few years later.