David Roberts - All Dressed Up

All Dressed Up is one of the best albums you've never heard. Released in 1982 David Roberts was poised to be a big deal. At least here at home in Canada ... before the conquering the rest of the world. The album was slick with enough rough edges to appeal to the rock guy in me. It didn't hurt that the album contained a who's who of the best session players on the friggin' planet. This came out the same year TOTO IV and musically All Dressed Up borrows more from the late '70s light funk and jazz grooves than the harder West coast AOR that was starting to percolate to the top of the charts. It was really good. So what happened?

I remember watching David perform "Boys of Autumn" on the Juno Awards, and he was up for Most Promising Male Vocalist in '83 but lost out to Kim Mitchell, who was so far removed from being considered a "new" talent that it is mind boggling to me the guy was even nominated. Oh well. 

I don't know how well the album performed here at home (Oh, Canada). I know that he did score one minor hit that managed to stay on the charts for a while but never really caught on. Too bad, "Boys of Autumn" is a great song. I suspect WEA / Elektra put money into this record and probably never made back their money. This would be a one and done and the only times I'd see David's name would be in the small print on a Strange Advance record, and again on Rational Youth's Heredity where he was providing backing vocals - that was a long time ago.

There are no bad songs here. There are some cheesier moments that are pretty schmaltzy but dagnabbit they work. David's instrument is his voice. He has a really good voice. Just enough power to give him a bit of grit when needed, but mostly it's smooth like butter. Hell, he even knows how to sparingly employ a falsetto without sounding like a Smurf.

The album was produced by Greg Mathieson, who also contributed keyboards and synths. Jay Graydon, who also plays guitar on some of the tracks, served as executive producer. In this capacity I'm not really sure what his role was ... unless he was the guy writing the cheques. The album was recorded by Humbero Gatica, who mixed a couple of the songs on the album.

The songs are cohesive, and this is in no small part to the players. Good gravy man, Jeff, Mike and Steve from TOTO anchor the record.

• Jeff Porcaro: drums
• Mike Porcaro: bass
• Steve Lukather: guitar
• Michael Boddicker: Synthesizers
• Bill Champlin: backing vocals

If there was a secret sauce that put the album over the top it was Steve Lukather. The guy is all over everything. His solos are immaculately crafted and are as good as anything I've heard him perform. Starting with the first track, "All in the Name of Love" right out of the blocks this is so good. Steve's adding pinch harmonics. This should have been a hit. You may as well get comfortable I'm going to be a while. I'll try not make a list, but for intents and purposes it'll be a list that I was to lazy to format. "Someone Like You" features that right hand staccato piano chord thing I love. Think David Paich, but Steve's guitar work feels like something left over from the Hydra sessions. He's killing it. "She's Still Mine (That's My Girl)" is another great song. Steve's solo calls to mind "Talk to Ya Later" by The Tubes. Not that it sounds like that, but it conveys the same balls to the wall swagger. This was just the stuff on the first side that made my face melt.

The second side was more pop R&B which was never my thing, but I have grown to appreciate it. "99" and "Georgy Porgy" by TOTO took me a while to get into. The reason I say this is because "Wrong Side of the Tracks" is cut from the same cloth, and Steve's solo is mind blowing. Holy kermole it ... is ... so ... good.  

Back in the day I really liked this one, but I'll be honest I was partial to the songs that sounded like TOTO. I mean goodness there are some great songs here. I was a little less enamoured with stuff that sounded like Boz Scaggs, as that really wasn't my jam when I was in the teens. The most damning judgment came from my girlfriend at the time when she heard "Boys of Autumn" on a mix tape. "Is that Christopher Cross?" I almost stopped the car and asked her to get out. I never, ever thought of David as sounding like Mister Cross ... and he doesn't, but he does on that song, and after all these years I cannot unhear it now when I play that song. Thankfully she didn't catch on that at times he sounded like Joey Scarbury, the guy that sang the "Theme from The Greatest American Hero." I'll stop as I don't think I'm conveying the message I'm trying to get across.

Trying to figure out why this didn't catch on, it a little like trying to successfully fart in a jar. Lord knows I've tried. I think it was really just timing, and as good as this was it was almost dangerously anonymous. Was this TOTO, was it Boz, who was David Roberts?

Time has been much kinder and the album is considered by many (me for one) to be a near perfect example of early '80s album oriented rock. 

David Roberts should have been a big deal ... at least he got to be a big deal for me.