When reviewing proceedings years later, it’s easy to put the pieces together for Adrenalin and lay the blame squarely at the feet of MCA who it appears couldn’t be bothered promoting this to the required level which begs the question: why did they bother signing them in the first place?
Written by: gdmonline
ARTIST: Adrenalin
ALBUM: Road Of The Gypsy
LABEL: MCA
SERIAL: MCA 5757
YEAR: 1986
CD REISSUE: Discogs Reissue List
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA
LINEUP: Marc Gilbert – vocals * Flash – guitars * Michael Romeo – guitars * Jimmy Romeo – sax * Marc Pastoria – keyboards * Bruce Schafer – bass * Brian Pastoria – drums
TRACK LISTING: 01 Road Of The Gypsy * 02 Northern Shores * 03 Broken Hearted Bound * 04 Summer Nights * 05 Faraway Eyes * 06 The Kid’s Got A Will To Live * 07 The Pressure’s On * 08 Michael * 09 Photograph (Time Passes On)
WEBLINKS: Wikipedia Page
Background
The world of 1980’s record labels and the politics that transpired is so legendary that someone should write a book about it. Perhaps Sterling Whittaker should be given the job? As I write this, I am referring to the Detroit band Adrenalin and their experiences dealing with MCA imprint label Rocshire, the label of convicted embezzlers Rocky and Shirley Davis.
If you thought the 1970’s tax dodging labels that Eric has often spoke about in his reviews (refer Guiness,Tiger Lily etc), then Rocshire carried it over into the 80’s. I’m sure they weren’t the only ones guilty of dodgy business practices back in the hairy days of the 80’s, but at least we know that in 1985 they were thrown into prison for fraud and embezzlement charges.
So what does Adrenalin have to do with all these shady dealings? Well nothing actually, apart from being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Anyhow, parent label MCA heard and saw enough to bring the band under the parental wing so to speak, giving the band a new deal.
This was probably due to the exposure that Adrenalin got from their participation on the movie ‘Iron Eagle’ featuring Lou Gossett Jnr, the soundtrack for which was sponsored by Capitol Records. In a strange set of circumstances, MCA decided to re-use most of their ‘American Heart’ songs from the Rocshire days (minus three), and bolt on three new songs.
The Songs
The songs that have been re-badged from ‘American Heart’ I won’t bother revisiting, the review of that album you can read from our tags to Adrenalin’s other articles below. The three new songs are as follows.
The title track ‘Road Of The Gypsy’, which is a very smooth slice of AOR and arguably the pick of the bunch across the whole album for mine. Easy to see why it was a good fit for the ‘Iron Eagle’ soundtrack.
The tippy-tap piano and surging AOR of ‘Broken Hearted Bound’ is a good measure of where Adrenalin were at in 1986. I’m kinda dumb-founded that MCA didn’t include more new material of this quality, but it seems the label were more about saving money rather than spending it.
‘Summer Nights’ is big on the booming drum work (hard to tell if these are electronic drums, but it’s certainly up-front), plus some sassy sax for good measure.
In Summary
When reviewing proceedings years later, it’s easy to put the pieces together and lay the blame squarely at the feet of MCA who it appears couldn’t be bothered promoting this to the required level. Which begs the question: why did they bother signing Adrenalin in the first place?
Pretty soon the band found themselves without a deal, but they soldiered on regardless, working with Mark Farner for a little while before reimaging themselves as DC Drive for a 1992 release.
In 2012, German label Yesterrock would deliver the first official digital reissue of ‘Road Of The Gypsy’, along with a remastered sound and liner notes provided by Dave Reynolds. Finally, common sense prevails.
Adrenalin on Video
Click to go to YTM album page.
