Published on Aug 25, 1998
Any time that life tends to start dragging me down, there are
always certain albums in the Pierce Archives that I can take
comfort in. I go there, slap it into the turntable/tape deck/CD
player, crank up the headphones, and let the music work its
magic.
And with a lot of music that has either a negative or a
nihilistic message these days, someone thought we needed to be
reminded that positive music has been created and can be enjoyed.
That’s the premise for
Back On My Feet Again, a collection of 16 happier tracks.
And while there are some questionable inclusions on this
collection, it overall does the trick.
Spanning four decades of music, this collection takes the well
known (The Beach Boys’ “Don’t Worry Baby”, Joe Cocker &
Jennifer Warnes’s “Up Where We Belong”) and mixes it with the
not-so-familiar or lost through time (The Five Stairsteps’ “Ooh
Child”, Ollie & Jerry’s “Breakin’… There’s No Stoppin’ Us”).
I remember many of these songs well, and many of them still see
active duty on my turntable – but even I was surprised to hear some
of these songs for the first time in years.
Exhibit “A”: Santana’s “Winning,” a song I grew up with. Had it
not been included on this compilation, I not only would never have
known who did it (until I eventually picked up that album) but also
wouldn’t have heard it for a few more years. While this might not
be Santana’s best work, it still is a great song, and is one that
doesn’t deserve to be buried in obscurity. The same thing I can’t
say for Matthew Wilder’s “Break My Stride,” a song I absolutely
hated as a teenager. My opinion hasn’t changed at all with the
passage of well over a decade.
Two remakes on
Back On My Feet Again are a tad questionable. I love the
song “I Can See Clearly Now,”having grown up with Johnny Nash’s
original version. So, I have to wonder why the producers chose to
go with Jimmy Cliff’s version of the song. Cliff does a decent job
with it, no question about it, but Nash’s version is far superior,
and has a more natural groove to it. Likewise, I question why
Chantay Savage’s slower version of “I Will Survive” is used in
place of Gloria Gaynor’s more energetic version.
Back On My Feet Again contains many songs that should bring
back smiles of memories past. It has been years since I heard
Manfred Mann’s “Runner” and Pat Benatar’s “Invincible,” two more
songs that have unfortunately been dumped into the annals of rock
history. Both songs have held up well with time, and it’s great to
hear them again. Likewise, I don’t ever remember hearing The Four
Tops’ “Indestructible” or The Five Stairsteps’ “Ooh Child,” so
these were nuggets of gold waiting to be harvested.
I do question whether Boston’s “Don’t Look Back” is a song of
hope and inspiration, but it is a good track nonetheless. Soul II
Soul’s “Keep On Movin'” is another song that doesn’t seem to fit;
this one seems to stretch on a little too long than I would have
liked it.
Instead of considering
Back On My Feet Again as a mood-elevation album, I would
rather consider it to be a collection of positive-feedback songs,
many of which have been out of the spotlight for some time. While
nothing will ever take the place of whatever music you use to break
you out of a deep funk,
Back On My Feet Again helps to break the mood. At the
absolute worst, it’s a pleasant collection spanning the whole
spectrum of popular rock music – and that’s something to smile
about right there.
(Caveat: I was informed by the publicist working this album that
it would be released today; both CDNow and Music Boulevard have a
release date of September 15.)