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City Boy - Dinner at the Ritz

City Boy
I've picked up an awful lot of stuff over the last few months, probably more than I should have, but dagnabbit, a deal is a deal. The shelf where my incoming pile is stored is getting pretty full, which means I get to spend more time in the basement listening to tunes and avoiding other chores.

Win win.

Of all the guys in City Boy, it was Mike Slamer's name I was familiar with from his work with Steve Walsh, both solo and as a member of Streets. The guy was a super tasty player and could really rip it up too. I found out he'd been in a band called City Boy, and ever since I've sort of kept an eye out for them.

Fast forward, and I picked up a really nice-looking copy of Dinner at the Ritz. I scan the back cover and there are six dapper-looking lads wearing tuxedos. Also on the back cover, Mutt Lange was listed as producer and co-engineer. I was already sold, this just made it more solder. I have yet to hear anything associated with Mutt that was a stinker ... that includes Shania Twain. I know, I know.

I generally try not to form an opinion before hearing things ... although I had already pegged this as a rock record that was likely going to melt my face. The album opened with "Mama's Boy," which was just rock enough to put a little grin on my face. I was thinking, "Man, this was 1977, but this would sound right at home into the early '80s." To be fair, there were a few years between 1978 and 1983 that were pretty interchangeable until they weren't. Then it was a pretty hard stop that cratered a lot of bands who couldn't adapt or grow out their hair.

credits

However, I'm only a song in, let's not get too far ahead of myself. The guys didn't make a batch of cookies from the same recipe. Musically, City Boy was meandering all over, from near progressive with bits of Yes, to bordering on Sweet-favoured glam. In short, it was a lot of fun and the guys had chops. Heck, the boys even went deep into the '70s schlock with a string-infused ballad, "The Violin," a song that I can imagine a sea of lighters flickering along with a host of burned thumbs.

It's actually a very good song. That features a lot of, well, violin. It felt long, but I didn't realize it was seven minutes long. Yeah, I'm pretty sure no one was going to hold a lighter up for seven minutes. Still, a pretty ambitious song. It's no more out of place than any other rock ballad that's sandwiched between a couple of rock songs. Although if I'm to play along with the album conceit, each selection was a table, not a song, or a serving, which would have worked better, but then again I wasn't asked my opinion.

The album closes with table No. 7, "State Secrets - a Thriller," which is spread over three parts and clocks in at seven and a half minutes. It's a fitting close to the album.

Interesting now that I've had a chance to go through it, the opening track really is the most straight-ahead rocker on the album. Don't get me wrong, the whole album is really good. It's not like a bait and switch, the guys are just covering more ground musically than a lot of other rock bands from the same time. This is what album-oriented rock should be: an album that is fitted together and takes the listener on a journey. I'm still having a dickens of a time trying to process this as an album that came out in the mid '70s.

The title track, "Dinner at the Ritz," didn't really catch me the first time through. I thought it was good ... but having played this through a couple of times now, this song is amazing. It feels like Queen and Supertramp with a dash of Floyd all at the same time ... yeah, that's not quite right, but it's really cool. They didn't sound like a lot of other bands. They were doing their own thing.

back cover
After giving this a couple spins, I figured it was worth looking up the band, and apparently Dinner at the Ritz was originally released in 1976, but in North America it came out on Mercury Records in 1977. As to Mutt Lange, the first full album he produced was City Boy's debut, and Dinner at the Ritz was their second album together. All in all, he'd produced five of the band's seven records. By 1981, the band would release their final album, and despite their best efforts they seem to have been mostly forgotten.

Which is a shame. This one is really a lost classic, and frankly I'm now on the lookout for more of their stuff.

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