The other day I was listening to GNP's lone album, the one with Robert Bevan on vocals, and it brought to mind the old CBC television show The Raes - that featured Robbie Rae (who was really Robert Bevan if that wasn't obvious) and Cherrill Rae. Prism guested on the show, and they played a couple of songs from their latest album. It's funny the pointless stuff you remember, but I still can't figure out where I hid my spare keys in case there was an emergency.
Armageddon was Prism's third album in three years, and this would be the album that would stand as the band's commercial high watermark. In the summer of 1979 the title track "Armageddon" was the best song I'd heard in a long time and over the decades has aged into one of the coolest rock songs - ever. It was pushing nearly eight minutes but it there were no wasted moments.
My summer job in 1979, the year I turned sixteen, was with the forestry service, and along with a youth crew of close to forty other raging hormonal teenage boys it was more than just a night to remember ... it was a summer to remember. Heck, my buddy Bill who could grow a full beard would mule beer and other assorted contraband into camp whenever we made a trip into town. I had a large bottle of Bacardi (that I couldn't stand, but thought it was more economical and each easier to stash than beer) that I never did drink - but I had just in case I needed to be one of the cool kids.
That magical summer we would sit around by the lake arguing over the merits of Van Halen II, curse disco, got sick of hearing "My Sharona" played Styx cassettes and wonder what boobs felt like. It was the summer I bought Caress of Steel by Rush (this has nothing to do with anything) ... but in the middle of all this was Prism, and we all agreed that Armageddon was a great song, and another great album by the band. One night one of the guys in our cabin ran a spool of wire up a tree, and then wrapped the other end around the antenna of his radio. We were basically up in the middle of nowhere, and he's farting around with the dial trying to see if anything would come in ... lo and behold we got a station from who knows where, and "Armageddon" was playing. It was a really cool memory.
It's interesting to listen to this now, and realize a very young Bryan Adams co-wrote three of the album's eight tracks. Vocalist Ron Tabak was in absolutely killer form throughout the album. If there's a tragedy in Canadian music, okay, music in general - it's the sad tale of Ron Tabak and the equally troubled story of Prism - the band that should have had it all. I have no idea what really happened, nor do I want to. You read things here and there that are likely as accurate as the hamster in a microwave urban legend. As a teenager I justed just assumed a band who has a record deal are rockstars, and if they have songs on the radio they have to be millionaires. My friend Steve had a Lindsay Mitchell signature guitar - how cool is that? You don't expect them to have feet of clay and have the same problems and insecurities as the rest of us mere mortals.
Prism was as big a deal as any band in my opinion - and with Armageddon they cemented their place in history - at least Canadian History. From the opening riff on "Comin' Home" to the talk box solo on "Mirror Man" that closes out the record the band was firing on all cylinders. The songs still had an edge, and the band still loved their ballads - this time around it was "Night to Remember" a song that got used for a lot graduation ceremonies that year.
The songs were much more straight ahead, gone were the heady keyboard parts that made John Hall so integral to the first two records. This was still very much a rock album, and while the songs were steeped in '70s rock roots, the band was making a gentle turn that should have taken them into the early '80s as a band to be reckoned with. After all the decade was closing out there were changes on the horizon and you either kept up, or you got left behind.
Bruce Fairbairn was still in the producers chair, with Bob Rock engineering and mixing most of the album. The classic line up was still intact:
- Lindsay Mitchell - guitar
- Rock Norton - drums
- Al Harlow - bass and rhythm guitar
- John Hall - keyboards
- Ton Tabak - vocals
Prism would make one more album with the classic album in 1980, Young and Restless and after that things would make a small change that was really pretty big, and things would start to unravel pretty quickly. Eventually there would be no one left and Prism would be a band in name only.
For a few short years between 1977 and 1980 Prism was at the heart of my musical world.
Comments
Post a Comment