While the songs here were signature tunes from Head East, two of them standi tall among their back catalogue being ‘Since You’ve Been Gone’ along with crowd favourite ‘Elijah’.
Written by: gdmonline
ARTIST: Head East
ALBUM: Head East
LABEL: A&M
SERIAL: SP 4680
YEAR: 1978
CD REISSUE: Discogs Reissue List
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA
LINEUP: John Schlitt – lead vocals * Mike Somerville – guitars, backing vocals * Roger Boyd – keyboards, backing vocals * Dan Birney – bass, backing vocals * Steve Huston – drums, percussion, backing vocals
TRACK LISTING: 01 Open Up The Door * 02 Man I Wanna Be * 03 Nothing To Lose * 04 Since You Been Gone * 05 Pictures * 06 Get Up & Enjoy Yourself * 07 I’m Feelin’ Fine * 08 Dance Away Lover * 09 Elijah
WEBLINKS: Site Link
Background
During 2021, GDM made a concerted effort to complete the discography of Illinois mainstays Head East. A year on, we have three more to go, all from the heyday of radio rock and FM during the period between 1978-1979. It certainly was a good era, and by this stage, Head East already had three studio albums in the can plus they were establishing themselves as a decent live act. The band were well known as a Midwest act, but on a national scale not so much.
The Songs
The band lineup was intact, so too the label, while the songs here were signature tunes from these Midwestern stalwarts, with two of them standing tall among their back catalogue being ‘Since You’ve Been Gone’ (the Russ Ballard and Rainbow chestnut) along with crowd favourite ‘Elijah’. These two notwithstanding, the album is complimented by strong efforts elsewhere.
These include the tough opening strands of ‘Open Up The Door’, ‘Pictures’ too sits at the rockier edge of the scale. For something different, take a listen to ‘Nothing To Lose’, the poignant 30 second intro would have you thinking this is an acoustic ballad – not so. Let’s not forget the hard rockin’ pair of ‘Get Up And Enjoy Yourself’ and ‘I’m Feeling Fine’. They certainly don’t record music like this anymore.
In Summary
Heading into 1979 and the last year of the illustrious 70’s decade, Head East would release two albums; the first a double live album, the second being the studio effort ‘A Different Kind Of Crazy’. These two albums would bring to a close the first and significant chapter of the Head East storybook, their label A&M parting company before the arrival of the 80’s. More about their next decade can be read by clicking on the Head East tag below.
Video
Since You Been Gone
[Nick C] Ah! Love the album – some of my fave HE tracks on here. Dance Away Lover such a great song of betrayal and bitterness. Funny the band covered Since You’ve Been Gone on this and the following year Rainbow did it on their Down to Earth album, then on US No. 1 Head East covered I Surrender and the following year on their Difficult to Cure album Rainbow again followed suit. It made me wonder at the time if they were listening.
[Rkbluez] Love that album…it had a great production and a lot of good punchy songs…IMO they should of used the song Get Up And Enjoy Yourself as the single instead of Since You Been Gone but record company Exec’s didn’t know their ass from their elbow.