Classic Rock Bottom

Before we get to the 14th album in this series and since it's Shocktober, you need to ask yourself one simple question: "Who's afraid?"

After reading that, I have decided that it's a pretty stupid question. I could erase it and start all over again.........hey, wait a second. That heartbeat monitor thing on the album cover forms "VW" and the name of the band is Virginia Wolf so everything is almost making sense now. 

Let's see......this is the first album from Virginia Wolf released in 1986 and just gotta say that many people WERE afraid of Virginia Wolf since this really didn't do much business. 

Interesting bio from allmusic.com, so we're going to include it here for your reading pleasure:

Despite their obvious lack of commercial success, British AOR export Virginia Wolf certainly seemed to be living the high life when they made their lunge for the brass ring, armed with a major-label contract, pristine sounds and looks, and, oh yeah, only the most coveted heir apparent to rock & roll's drum throne in Jason Bonham. But it certainly didn't start out that way, when vocalist/guitarist Nick Bold teamed up with bassist Clive Corner and vocalist/drummer Paul Johnson to launch Virginia Wolf in Manchester, 1976. Not only did they gamely set out to cut against the grain of punk rock as a Cream-inspired power trio, but with the arrival of lead singer Chris Ousey in 1980, they morphed into a more mainstream rock proposition, just in time to weather the fast-rising New Wave of British Heavy Metal. Well, there's no accounting for taste, as they say, and so while the rest of the U.K. was headbanging in denim and leather, Virginia Wolf wanted nothing more than to follow in the footsteps of AOR kings Foreigner -- a choice that cost the band several more years of anonymous songwriting and rehearsal, shaping the sound of their dreams in obscurity. But the band was eventually recompensed very handsomely for its commitment to this vision, when it entered into a management contract with the agency behind such superstars as Genesis and Ian Gillan, and subsequently netted an incredible $1.2 million recording deal with Atlantic Records!


But wait, it got better: Ousey and Bold were then paired with none other than Roger Taylor of Queen to produce Virginia Wolf's eponymous debut album (over separate sessions in Germany, London, and Ibiza!), and after hiring an experienced session bassist in Jo Burt, came the apparent coup de grace of attracting drummer Jason "Son of John" Bonham…nothing like having friends in high places. The album arrived in stores in February of 1986 and was shortly followed by a U.S. tour opening for Jimmy Page's newest supergroup, the Firm, but, unfortunately, this was where Virginia Wolf's recently charmed existence began to hit some snags, when having to fight for the attention of their high-profile management company while trying to justify disappointingly soft album sales began to catch up with the sizable investment made by Atlantic Records. For a while, there was serious doubt that the label (concurrently mining the glam metal surge with bands like Ratt and Twisted Sister, instead of peddling glossy AOR) would even pick up Virginia Wolf's option, but the green light was eventually given for the recording of sophomore album Push. This time the band spent three months in the San Francisco Bay area working with respected producer Kevin Elson (whose past credits ranged from Journey to Lynyrd Skynyrd to recent chart-toppers Europe), attempting to craft an even more commercial and irresistible confection for release in the summer of 1987, but it too was dead on arrival, and, with it, Virginia Wolf's career, which proceeded to unravel at an alarming rate once Atlantic dropped them, Bonham up and quit, and their management company really lost interest.

Of course this wouldn't be complete with an album review, so here it is from allmusic.com:

 While the presence of Jason Bonham behind the drum kit drove most of the publicity for Virginia Wolf, the band was actually more of a stage for vocalist and guitarist Chris Ousey. Oversinging in a style typical of the era, he fell somewhere between Eric Carmen and Paul Rodgers, and helped define the more workmanlike moments of this, the band's self-titled debut. "Livin' on a Knife Edge," for example, is achingly similar to contemporary pop-metal outfits like or Whitesnake; however, it's Ousey's histrionic vocal trills that give it some real spark. Elsewhere, standout tracks like "Are We Playing With Fire?," "Only Love," and the ballad "It's in Your Eyes" are all muscular, white-denim rockers that revolve around recycled, yet still appealing arena rock riffs. While he certainly proves himself as a propulsive drummer with little use for flash, Bonham doesn't do anything on Virginia Wolf to suggest his all-star lineage. At the same time, the by-the-numbers '80s rock production -- featuring egregious amounts of reverb and pitter-pattering synthesizers -- doesn't encourage any of the players to really stand out. Instead, Virginia Wolf's debut was designed with radio singles in mind. It only briefly fulfilled that wish; "Take a Chance" made a few waves, but for whatever reason wasn't able to build a bridge to the upper tiers of stardom. Nevertheless, the band and its individual members have enjoyed a strong cult following over the years, making this release essential for fans looking to replace worn-out vinyl or cassettes.

Virginia Wolf

1. Are We Playing with Fire
2. Make It Tonight
3. Only Love
4. It's In Your Eyes
5. Waiting For Your Love
6. Livin On A Knife Edge
7. For All We Know
8. Don't Run Away
9. Take a Chance
10. Goodbye Don't Mean Forever

Availability: Around $17 new. 

 

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I was convinced I had this CD, but a quick research of my library revealed that there is a Virginia in my collection just not a Wolf.

Listening to these tracks, I can't say I heard them before. Strange, given that I like the Bonham kid and Ousey, too. Nice AOR, meaning the songs are above the average, without a Mega-Hit. For me it's the slower tracks that shine. Especially, Make It Tonight has a beautiful arrangement. Don't Run Away is another track that should have been big and it's perhaps the track where they should have put the drums up front. It sounds good, but it's buried. They should have built this song around the drums.

I'd say, it just came out at the wrong time.

Funny, Bonham is hyped on the cover but it sounds like a drum machine on the very first track.

Well, SOMEONE has to program it.

Well, this was....how do I say...alright.  Not great.  Very 80's, which would make sense, based on the year of release.  A lot of stabs at radio airplay, that, if I'm correct, didn't take with the general public.

Make It Tonight and Livin' On a Knife Edge are pretty good examples of that.  The latter is definitely the best track on the album.  At least in my opinion it is.

Still sounds to me like a drum machine.  Nothing like the booming sound he's getting these days.  And something about these songs sounds kind of wimpy.  

Oh well, at least I've now heard Virgin Wolf...

Seems weird that the drums get lost in the mix on an album featuring a Bonham.  Somethings wrong with that right off the bat.  

Make It Tonight sounds like it borrowed a bit from John Waites Missing You song.  Man this is poppy!  Did not expect that at all.  The declared RED track gets lost in the background for me at least the Missing You knock off made listen closer. Therefore its the cherry pick of this post.

This was a weird listen, nothing liked I was hoping for.

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