Payolas - Hammer on a Drum

At the risk of sounding like a broken record and repeating myself, I'll bring you up to speed on my love hate relationship with Payolas. At best I was a casual fan but I will give credit where credit is due. When they were good they were as good as it got. Seriously, "Eyes of a Stranger" is just about as good as it gets, and over the decades the song has woven itself into the fabric of Canadian classic rock. 

When the band followed up their 1982 release No Stranger to Danger a year later with Hammer on a Drum also produced by Mick Ronson, there was anticipation in the air. This was going to break the band wide open. "Where is this Love" was the song that got me in the feels and I would have picked up the album except the other song that got radio play was "Never Said I Loved You" where Paul and Carole Pope took turns singing ... in other words it was a duet. To say I had a visceral reaction to the song understates the meaning of the work visceral. I still can't put my finger on why I had such a strong reaction, but I did, and I never bought the album. The misguided opinion of youth? Maybe, but I also know that as I write this the album is playing in the background, and the song hasn't come on ... oh, wait ... here it is. 

Hold on.

Ah, that's why. It wasn't Carole, it was the song. The song for me was and will always be - undeniably awful. Now to be fair (to be fair) a lot of people really liked the song, and here in Canada the song was a hit cracking the top ten in many markets. At the time I had little respect for Carole Pope, somewhere along the line I'd decided that I didn't like her or her band, and by association anything related to her involvement. Of course when "Never Said I Loved You" song hit the airwaves with it's pseudo-reggae rhythms it was already pushing air uphill for me. 

Listening to it now, it's still not a song a like, but I can see the appeal. Carole Pope who I've recently revisited and am working to revise my long held bias really did bring a ballsy swagger to the song, and lyrically it's pretty funny and biting. It's just too bad the music sucked so hard for me.

If it isn't evident at this point I'm going to just say it: of all the new wave and post punk flavours, I was never partial to the ska, or reggae infused stuff. There were some exceptions of course, as there are bound to be but in general it was not my cup of bile - I'll drink tea ... and with Payolas, there were two bands vying for dominance. There was the band who penned "Where is this Love" and the moody atmospheric "No Prisoners" that had an organic futuristic take on the early '80s new wave that was evolving. A song like "Christmas is Coming" was a more straight ahead pop song that still had an edge.

The core of the band was still centred on vocalist Paul Hyde and guitarist Bob Rock. The two wrote the songs drove the band. Chris Livingstone was on keyboards, and Chris Taylor was on drums. They were in between official bass players at the time. Payolas were a band who balanced alternative with various influences, and while for me the results were uneven there was something that was engaging about the band. I would eventually end up picking up many of the band's albums, and despite what always felt like an unbalanced hit and miss ratio, there was something about their songs when they came together that gave them a disproportionate weight. 

On Hammer on a Drum, the band put together a collection of angry, edgy songs. For me, I was drawn to the more straight ahead pop songs, which meant that "Where is this Love" the haunting "No Prisoners" and the hidden gem "Hungry" were the songs that stood out. From a nostalgia perspective I'd even suggest that "Never Said I Loved You" is one loud party and drunken sing-a-long from being a great song.

I do have to call out the very clever and musically awkward closing number (think "Sit on my Face" by Monty Python, but without the subject matter ... it was more of a feeling than anything) "People Who Have Great Lives" that surely must have been a genuine WTF moment for the suits at A&M when they heard it. Me, I love it, and frankly it sums up the band.

Back to the album, despite doing reasonably well at home, the folks at A&M seemed to be of the opinion that greater things were in store for the band, and despite Mick Ronson's impressive resume and rock cachet, he was not able to get the job done, and this was laid at his feet.

The album would do reasonably well at home, and despite not breaking into the US market, A&M would give the band another push with David Foster, and that as they say is another story. If you look you'll find it here. I still find it oddly punitive that the band's catalogue remains locked somewhere in a vault. I may not have liked some of the songs here, but dang it the band had it's fans and in Canada they're still a pretty big deal.

In an age where everything can be streamed it boggles the mind as to why Payolas and their contributions to Canadian music are locked away somewhere. Hammer on a Drum my ass, nails in a coffin more like it.