Hey Folks I’m taking a break for a wee bit. Kinda recharge the batteries and what not. I thought what better way than to peace out with some CanCon…
Ok,so how do you follow-up a mega selling album from 1985 called Reckless? Well if your Bryan Adams you go in the exact opposite direction from it. Kinda that is!
Into The Fire dropped in 1987. People were snapping up copies right off the bat and why wouldn’t they? Tbone and myself were always real suckers for good old hard rock pop! Adams delivered on both fronts as not only could he deliver a batch of catchy cooked up Rock(co written with Jim Vallance). Bryan also had a killer band backing him.
Mickey Curry on drums and especially Keith Scott on guitar are still to this day phenomenal musicians who are still with Adams. Scott is a monster on guitar and always plays his solo’s in the less is more approach! Memorable after Memorable solo’s from Keith. I mean just with the Reckless album alone you can just think about how many solos are still stuck in your noggin from an album that was released 34 years ago!
So with the Stellar Adams band in tow Bryan gets a little more introspective with the lyrics on this album.
10 songs make up Into The Fire and what a kickoff track with In The Heat of The Night which doesn’t come racing out of the gates but still gets the job done as Curry as he does on many of these tracks keeps the drums moving which in turn keeps the pace going. Love Scotts guitar work on this one….
Into The Fire keeps the beat and grooving forward. Another straight head Adams Rock track. Victim of Love is the first kinda sorta ballad like rock track that features some wicked guitar work at the end of the song by Scott.
Another Day has that uptempo like Adams groove where the keys and guitar lock in and Curry keeps the song clipping at a decent pace! Native Son is one of those songs that has Bryan looking inward and outward on what is going on at the time. The band really stretches out musically on this tune as it’s a 6 minute number and its great to see that Adams wasn’t looking for airplay on everything and playing the game!
Only The Strong Survive blasts off right off the hop and features a hard pop shuffle with Bryan and Scott’s slide guitar trading off after each line. Real great track and perhaps one of my fav’s of his! Rebel a song written about Tbone I’m sure. haha. Adams eases of the gas pedal somewhat and for a track that has a ton of piano in it I’m not annoyed by it!
Remembrance Day a salute to those fallen soldiers is a great track which has some nice Bass work, Adams sings the tale of the soldiers coming together to fight for us on Remembrance Day! Great track! Period!
Yup I will go on record and say that Hearts on Fire is one of my fav-o Adams tune. What a chorus! Easily one of those end of the album GEMS! Great vocal/ Great tempo and fantastic SOLO!
Home Again a nice tidy wrap-up for this record that ends the album on high. Dig the build up of the song into the chorus!
Sure this album did not sell mega like Reckless but still sold well (3 million plus!) But over time I have found new appreciation and liking this album.
Give Bryan and his Band props. Instead of making Side’s 3 & 4 of Reckless they wrote and recorded an album that was a little more serious yet still had a ton of catchy choruses and fine musicianship to keep the party moving ….
On a side note I have to say it was Tbone’s Brother Darr who when we did our Top 20 albums of all time Darr included Into The Fire which got my thinking on what a great call that was! So a few months back when I seen Reckless and Into The Fire sitting on the shelf at the local record shop it was a no brainer purchase!
Actually come to think of it Mr Books and Mr Stephen as well are big supporters of Into The Fire as well!
deKe's Vinyl Reviews & More... 