Rick Springfield: “Surviving the 80s”
Part Five: “Beautiful Feelings”
1984 happened to be a very prolific year for Rick Springfield. Two full-fledged albums were released, though at a closer look, one turned out to be a rather nondescript soundtrack and the second one came out without the singer’s involvement. Well, sometimes success and popularity lead to unexpected consequences, when the artistic aim is offset and the contents of yesterday’s waste bin is displayed to the public regardless of the author’s opinion.
Nevertheless, was it because the material from 1978 which Springfield scrapped was so bad that he didn’t want it seeing the light of day? Or was the commercial expectations of the label that rerecorded the LP justified with the quality of the record hidden from the potential audience? Again the original material was nevertheless released in 2007 as
The Early Sound City Sessions as if hinting on its “rawness”.
From the first seconds
Beautiful Feelings throws the listener back to the previous decade. It is truly unusual and pleasant to listen to the album released in mid-80s, which emerged like a daring swimmer on a wrong beach, looking rather dashing at that. It can be compared to a company of friends that got together to bring back the good old days. Here we have a sunny pop-rock number (
Looking for the One,
Brand New Feeling), a classic rock-oriented approach a la
Fleetwood Mac at their height (
Just One Look), ballads dished out in proportion to the main stuffing (
Everybody's Cheating,
Beautiful Feelings), a wide palette of early
Elton John (from bucolic folk of
Guenevere to brisk rock ’n’ roll of
The Solitary One and
Cold Feet), and even a slice of the
Bee Gees noticeable in
Spanish Eyes.
In self-deprecating
Bruce Springfield plays around the confusion between Springfield and
Springsteen with put-on insult. The track is also noteworthy for its guitar solo motif which is strikingly similar to the analogous segment in
If You Can’t Beat Them from the
Queen’s
Jazz released on the same year
Beautiful Feelings was recorded. A coincidence? Or maybe it is Rick hinting that he is inspired by somebody else and not the famous Bruce?
Be as it may having familiarized with the album it might be fair to reproach Springfield for a certain naivety of his approach (camouflaged as levity) and excessive interest in the other’s successful accomplishments. The latter though is not too improper if it goes in hand with respect and quality. And these the album has in spades.
Oh but there is one more shortcoming we’ve almost forgotten! He shouldn’t have hesitated to release this back in the day – the material presented was better that to end up in the abovementioned waste bin, and is actually heads above many of the albums Springfield released in the 80s. And “Rick” would have been a better suiting title. After listening to the LP it is clear he is no Bruce. Which is for the better, actually, since each is good in his own right and Rick proves this with the forbidden work.
