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RUSH and GINO VANNELLI, and what I propose to be the historical connections between them, apart from their shared Hoser-ness!


alieninvasion76
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Full disclosure: “I’m a Hoser, eh?” :sundog: of 57 years who is proud of two of our most musically progressive and innovative Canadian exports. That said, I totally expect skepticism at the mere suggestion that a Top 40 Jazz-Pop crooner should even be discussed in a Rush forum.

 

And this is obviously a thinly disguised attempt at highlighting the non-Rush side of this coin. Unless you’ve heard Gino Vannelli beyond the ‘singles’, or seen video of one of his many Jazz Festival appearances over the last couple of decades, you may be unaware of the progressive, even fusionistic, flavour of Jazz that he frequently embraced on his recordings, especially during the 70's.

 

Indulge me then, if you will, this highwire balancing act of attempting to convince you of more than a passing connection between the Godfathers of Progressive Metal, Rush, and this crooner from Montreal whose big break came as a reuslt of accosting the head of A&M Records in their L.A. parking lot, wielding a guitar while being chased by a security guard!

 

Suffice it to say, those who only know him from Top 10 ballads like “I Just Wanna Stop” and “Living Inside Myself” are missing out on a whole other world of his music (samples of which included as YouTube links at bottom with reference numbers throughout).

 

And hopefully, in laying out my theory re these "connections", apart from learning something about someone I consider to be an important artist, you’ll be more convinced of my supposition in the end than your were in the beginning…

 

 

The Band Geek connection:

 

Why am I even pondering this all of a sudden? Well, my son recently gave me a “Caress of Steel” t-shirt for Father’s Day (see my recent post “My own history with “Caress of Steel” + my new t-shirt w/original art work from that album!” - link below1 ) and the other day, while proudly wearing my new shirt, i ran into someone who knows me primarily as a jazz musician, and they inquired: “Rush? What the dillio?” In response I explained how, when I was younger, I and my fellow “jazzers” in talking one day discovered that we were all big Rush AND Gino Vannelli fans. Now Rush fans in here know well the legend of the “band geek” drawn to Rush’s musicianship… and Gino Vannelli is no exception. And, of course, I’m sure you’re aware that there’s actually footage on YouTube of Marching Bands, of all things, playing Rush songs… and the same can be said for Gino, which may partially be owing to the fact that legendary drummer Buddy Rich and his band covered a couple of Gino’s tunes, which brings us to…

 

 

The Kick-Ass Drummers connection:

 

The son of a Big Band singer, Gino himself was a jazz drummer (he majored in Percussion and Music Theory at McGill University) before he became a singer. So it is no coincidence that the complexity of many of his song arrangements necessitated top-notch drummers playing very dynamic drum parts.2

 

And this may be why Neil Peart’s hero Buddy Rich’s “Speak No Evil” album boasts cover versions of 2 cuts from Gino’s “Storm at Sunup” album (N.B. 4 of the 8 tunes on “Storm at Sunup”,3 released in 1975, have yielded all these years later a multitude of YouTube "jazzers" doing covers and video clinics of same).

 

I would be remiss, however, if I did not also mention Billy Cobham who Neil not only cites as an influence, but whose licks, by Neil’s own admission, he copied verbatim and practiced as part of his early development. No doubt then, it gave Neil great pleasure when his own star had risen such that he could invite Cobham to appear on Volume 1 of his “Burning for Buddy” Buddy Rich tribute project.

 

Vannelli’s connection to Billy Cobham, on the other hand, was being invited to sing lead on the “groove-tastic” tune “We the People” 4 from Cobham’s multi-disc project “Drum N Voice”.

 

Ultimately… well, call me Alex Jones :rage: but I thought that, through some twisted logic, with Buddy having done covers of Gino, the fact that Neil, in turn, did covers of Buddy’s tunes on “Burning for Buddy”, and then one of the guys he hired for that tribute (Cobham) turns out to have later worked with Gino… well in my mind… wait for it… it completes a rather mind-bending brand of “drum circle”… or Mobius Strip perhaps (my brain hurts :smash: ).

 

 

The Concept & Long Song connection:

 

To members of this forum, Rush’s mid-to-late-70’s indulgence in Prog is not news! Beginning with “By-Tor and the Snow Dog”, their first, and victorious, stab at “internal concept”, the lads followed that up with 4 concept-laden albums, 3 of which contained full blown, side-long concept pieces. Even after the straw-that-broke-the-camels-back “Hemispheres”, they snuck in a few long, internal-concept tunes over the course of the next couple of albums, a weaning-off period for both band and fans alike… until, that is, “Clockwork Angels”.

 

Vannelli, on the other hand… with his indulgences of a more conceptual nature, while not necessarily always “Prog” by definition, were text-book “concept” nevertheless. His first crack at this was the title tune from his second album, “Powerful People” in 1974. Now, while it only clocks in at a mere 6:09 in length - a haiku in Prog terms - Gino still manages to squeeze in numerous mood, tempo and feel changes, with an anti-pollution message as its underlying lyrical concept. And under the “I”… for Industry Anomaly… this song, by all accounts not the ideal “dance” choice, was nevertheless featured during Gino’s appearance on “Soul Train”. If you YouTube this, you’ll be treated to the bizarre sight of people attempting to dance (sound familiar?) to this very cool, but nevertheless complex, semi-concept Jazz piece.5

 

In general, his 70’s albums featured Jazz-Pop songs interspersed with Funk, and then more exploratory works that rode the fine line between Prog and Jazz Fusion - some short, some long, and not necessarily always “concept” - sometimes they were just complexly arranged Jazz Fusion tunes.

 

That said, a full blown example in the “very much Prog” vein is the side-long, “pure concept” 7-part work entitled “War Suite” from his 1976 release “Gist of the Gemini”. In addition to Gino’s inspired singing, it features great sonic landscapes and the usual exemplary musicianship. But perhaps what was most Prog about it was how E.L.P.-esque it sounded on some of the more aggressive tunes.6

 

And if one didn’t know his background, they may leap to the conclusion that the inspiration for his next album came from Deep Purple’s 1969 recording with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. And Vannelli did indeed use that same orchestra in realizing his 16 minute, 4 part opus “A Pauper in Paradise” from the album of the same name. But this was, in fact, inspired by the same force that drove him to study music theory at McGill: his love for the orchestral arrangements of French impressionist composers like Ravel and Debussy - that and, of course, his Jazz bent! The flavours in “A Pauper in Paradise” also include touches of Prokofiev and Gershwin; but it’s the 3rd movement that is of the intensity and quality that any Progger would be proud to include in their repertoire.7

 

 

The Embracing Technology connection:

 

Rush have long been famous for latching on to technology, the potential of Moog’s ‘Taurus’ footpedals in particular being instrumental in them not having to add another band member in order to achieve a “bigger” sound. Likewise, the advent of Midi in 1983 enabled them to take that next step of live-triggering more complex synth and other sounds on stage. Neil even incorporated this technology on his kit!

 

The arranging on Vannelli’s tunes was all done by Gino, along with his brother/keyboardist Joe Vannelli, and their brother/producer Ross. And, as Gino’s brothers all shared his love for those lush French Impressionist orchestrations, the rapidly evolving synthesizer technology of the 70’s was just waiting there for them to exploit it!

 

And, if Keyboard Magazine’s 2012 article “An Afternoon with Joe Vannelli” is any indication, keyboard gurus continue to talk like giddy school girls where the keys on Gino’s “keyboard-centric” 70’s albums were concerned.8 The restrictions re “polyphony“ (ie. how many notes a synth could play at one time) during Gino's early days meant considerable innovation, overdubbing, and carrying 3 keyboardists on tour to reproduce, live, their multi-layered, sometimes in-your-face, always exciting keyboard tour-de-force…

 

…and the pioneering that resulted now consitutes numerous threads on today’s synth forums.

 

 

The Devoted Fan Base connection:

 

Okay… to suggest that Gino’s fan base boasts the same, insane Rock-Hall-of-Fame-email-inbox-flooding-Travel-to-a-different-continent-to-see-them devoted insanity of Rush fans :notworthy: would be a lie. That said, Gino, now three decades removed from his glory days, is still in demand enough such that, while all these old acts - I’m talkin’ Deep Purple, Chicago, Three Dog Night, The Beach Boys, etc. - that show up in places like Branson, Missouri and Casino Niagara - can be seen for $80 per ticket or less, the most recent concert tickets of Gino’s, here in Canada anyway, were going for almost $200.

 

Regardless, both acts felt the love from fans even when it wasn’t forthcoming from critics and Grammy Award committees (Rush had zero wins despite 7 nomnations - Gino the same despite 4 nominations, though both acts took home a lot of Juno Awards here in Canada).

 

It’s worth noting that Vannelli’s European success was largely due to sales in The Netherlands and the Scandinavian countries where Jazz and particularly Jazz Fusion have a large following. Moreover, the new millenium has brought collaborations between Gino and Jazz artists from these areas which have served to revitalise his popularity there!

 

 

The Latent Cultural References connection:

 

Rush’s transition into more of the mainstream via “South Park” and “Freaks and Geeks” references, etc., as well as their “Colbert Report” appearance, is now a part of rock history.

 

As for Gino who back in the 70's appeared on “Soul Train”, “American Bandstand”, “Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert” and later "Arsenio Hall", his latter day popularity injection includes his music being used for TV shows like “Mindhunter”, “The Sopranos”, and “Walker, Texas Ranger”, movies such as “Behind the Candelabra”, and the video game “Grand Theft Auto”.

 

Also, part of Vannelli’s European resurgence was due to “People Gotta Move” - his 1974 super funky breakout tune - being used in commercials there in 2008. And, still in Europe, the Classical infused, multilingual songs from his critically acclaimed 2003 album “Canto” led to a Europe-wide televised command performance for Pope John Paul II.

 

Of course, in the “from the sublime to the ridiculous” category we have as our final entry what is best illustrated by referencing the following excerpt from Wikipedia: ”In 2008, Vannelli became a symbol of sorts for the NBA championship run by the Boston Celtics. After each blowout home victory during the 2008 season, the video crew at the TD Banknorth Garden played a clip from Dick Clark’s American Bandstand that featured a bearded disco dancer clad in a tight Gino Vannelli T-shirt. The tradition became known in Boston as “Gino Time” and Gino T-shirts became common at Celtics games.” Priceless!

 

 

That’s it in a nutshell! Though, if you’ve managed to read this far, then you certainly deserve better than having to read…

 

 

A few things you wanted to know about Gino Vannelli but were smart enough not to ask:

 

As singles go, overall he had 11 songs make the Top 100 in the U.S. Of those 11 songs, 6 broke into the Top 40.

 

As for albums, most of what Vannelli recorded in the 70’s and 80’s turned to gold or platinum in Canada. And while 8 of them made the Top 100 in the U.S., only “Brother to Brother” broke the American precious metal barrier - platinum - while the main hit from that album, “I Just Wanna Stop”, made it to No. 4 on the Billboard chart.

 

His next release, 1981’s “Nightwalker”, while not as successful as its predecessor, still yielded the No. 5 U.S. hit “Living Inside Myself”. But it was, what was supposed to be, the next album that begat Vannelli’s contractual entanglements with his new label, Arista Records. To quote Billboard Magazine’s March 13/82 issue re Gino's new single: "The Longer You Wait" made several radio station playlists across the country, so it seems the song was starting to gain some real momentum & then Arista Records pulled the plug on the song…” In fact, the whole album got kiboshed, the beef apparently being with label owner, the controversial Clive Davis’ problem with Gino’s new “edgier” direction. Not that there was anything "edgey" about that single - but the hit song that was to come two years later, "Black Cars", may have been indicative of this.

 

Nevertheless, mercifully, after a long legal tussle in which he managed to finally break free of Arista, Gino managed to score a handful of hits in the U.S. on the next two albums he released in ’84 and ’87: most notably the aforementioned “Black Cars”, as well as “Hurts to Be in Love” and “Wild Horses”, all three of which also proved to be his biggest international hits to date.

 

But Vannelli’s disenchantment with the record industry subsequently drove him to withdraw from touring for several years. Eventually, having embarked on a “spiritual quest” in the Andes Mountains in Peru, he came to realize that he needed to do only that which brought him artistic fulfillment, rather than chasing commercial success, a stance borne out by the next few projects he pursued, including the classical turn with “Canto”.

 

Today, with his entire catalogue available on CD, including all that old scrumptious vinyl, he has settled down in his home nestled in the Columbia River Gorge in his wife’s home state of Oregon. Here, when he’s not touring, he spends his days in his state-of-the-art studio writing and teaching what he calls “Art of Voice” to small group classes comprised of people who, in some cases, have travelled halfway across the world to study with him.

 

 

Video Links:

 

1 re my Father’s Day t-shirt: http://www.therushfo...+steel +t-shirt

 

2 Kick-ass drumming, and other very hip stuff, as seen on tune “Brother to Brother" (from “Live in Montreal” DVD, 1991 - the drummer is the late Enzo Tedesco):

 

3 My 2 favourite tunes from the album “Storm at Sunup”

- "Mama Coco": https://www.youtube....h?v=yE0ig8YWTW8

- "Where Am I Going" (it goes into overdrive at 3:45 mark):

 

4 Billy Cobham's "We the People” “featuring Gino Vannelli:

 

5 Performing “Powerful People” on “Soul Train” in 1975:

 

6 War Suite: The Battle Cry” (from the album “Gist of the Gemini”)

 

7 “A Pauper in Paradise - 3rd Movement” (from the album “A Pauper in Paradise):

 

8 Keyboard Magazine’s web site orginally posted an awesome video to accompany the 2012 article, the link for which appears to have been subsequently removed, article and all! Fortunately, I managed to download it prior to this catastrophe :facepalm: and I can email it to anyone who is interested!!!

 

Bonus videos:

 

9 Had to include this performance of “People Gotta Move” from his 2014 “Live in L.A.” DVD. We should all be able to sing like this at age 62:

 

10 Documentary excerpt in which he recounts history behind his first hit as well as how a very cool happenstance led to him opening for Stevie Wonder on tour:

Edited by alieninvasion76
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Enjoyable post! I have been a casual Gino fan over the years. Your post has inspired me to do some further listening. :) (Plus Gino and Geddy both had some of the most awesome hair of the 70's ! :LOL: )
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