Where is the LOVE for Michael Stanley?

How is his version of "Eleanor Rigby," George?

I'm from Akron.

Are you related to Michael Stanley? Because no one else I've ever asked has ever heard of him outside of NE Ohio.

News was, for that record, EMI had the act do one hundred different vocal edits for the song, in vain hope it would takeoff nationwide.

Am I related? Nope. It's just that Michael Stanley was part of the the "dumbbell thump of American hard rock," in Dave Marsh's supericilious description, that always worked for me.

lol

He had the sound and just enough good tunes live to make people jump up and down at places like the Agora. I was reading a newspaper retrospective of the band and Stanley related that management wanted Stagepass to be a Peter Frampton Frampton Comes Alive-type thing. Ha-ha, good try, though, and I think it's still in print.

he still is.

As a Cle lifer who's been exposed to plenty of MSB over the years, my opinion is that the real talent in the original band was Jonah Koslen. JK's band Breathless made two albums in the early '80s, and the first (s/t) is an excellent AOR/power-pop record.

Re: _Stagepass_, I think just about every '70s AOR band tried the live double thing in the wake of _Frampton Comes Alive_.

I'll buy. I like Koslen on guitar and vocals MSB a great deal more than Gary Markasky on guitar and Raleigh on some vocals. So that would make pre '78 material beats post, plus my fondness for the solo albums with Joe Walsh and Barnstorm.

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MSB were virtually unknown outside CLE, non-entities even in Cinci and Detroit IIRC. MS ending up a classic rock DJ = poetic justice.

I had considered writing that same sentence. And while the Koslen-era band was much more to my liking, looking at the song credits, it's Michael who wrote the best songs. Jonah wrote some great proto-hairband rockers, but after 25 years, I'm not as interested.

Ouch. Must've been the cover of Ladies' Choice. Hoo boy, Woody Hayes, the Buckeyes, booze and MSB. What a mix! Stanley also wound up on Drew Carey once, I think.

(I am less certain, but seem to remember that Huey & the News' "Heart of Rock N Roll" also appeared in regional mutations, with the locals getting a shout-out on the coda.)

On the WNCX website, he lists his favorite acts as Bruce Springsteen and Collective Soul. Something here is not like the other.

Kevin Raleigh ended up as a manager, managing (among others) Pittsburgh act Brownie Mary, which had some brief college radio success. A band I was in opened for them once and they were total assholes to us. I also once stood in line behind Michael Stanley at Lentine's Music on Richmond Rd. when he dropped several grand on guitars and keyboards. Woohoo.

Kind of lucked out with the track sequencing of The Thumbnail Michael Stanley. Just slapped it together, burned and started playing and discover the thing has quite a few really strong tunes on it. "Rock 'n' Roll Man" was totally unexpected, it being on one of his solo albums regarded as folk singer/songwriter style. Christgau has him in the infamous "Meltdown" section of his 70's book, along with a lot of other 180-rule-for-me artists.

-- Jason Toon

Heh heh...Yep, I only heard it on the radio once but once was enough: A patronizing "Toronto! Mont-real!" tacked on between the American cities and the fadeout.

This thread outlines a band with an impressively long string of albums but mostly unknown everywhere except Cleveland. Says to me radio play in one urban/suburban region was enough to sustain sales so that the majors were willing to go along and find name producers to do them. Eddie Kramer did North Coast which is about the toughest sounding record of the ones he did just before folding.
Kind of heartwarming.

He was a co-host of PM Magazine in the 80's and then went on to be a radio DJ.

I did get to see him and his band (which included several original members and some great new members) at a small, private concert. They kicked ass. Really talented musicians. They had a new CD coming out and I bought it and liked it. My wife (that local girl) loved it. I actually sold a guitar amp to Michael a couple of years ago at the Central Ohio Guitar Show in Columbus. Nice guy in person too.

Late '70s through early '80s were a great time to go through the teen years in Northeast Ohio. As the link above shows, we had a great radio station - and many other very good ones who tried to keep up with 'MMS.

I remember awaiting the Greatest Hints album after hearing the Cabin Fever album. Very good albums. When I first heard Stagepass (oddly, after first hearing the two later albums); wow! A great live album, especially considering the recording gear of thirty years ago.

When Greatest Hints came out, nearly everyone was talking about it. I remember thinking that they very likely might beat Led Zeppelin's attendance at the (dearly departed) Richfield Coliseum. Sure, they didn't have the national following of Led Zeppelin, but there was such anticipation for the concert that it didn't seem a farfetched notion. After that concert, they had the record. Great show as always. High energy and great music.

I remember seeing the Blossom concert with Donnie Iris and Michael Stanley. Both groups did a great job. (Back then, you'd have thought that Donnie's group was from Ohio too. He got plenty of airplay on the Cleveland and Akron stations for "Ah, Leah" and "Love is like a Rock", as well as "The Rapper" from his Jaggerz days. Today, radio's not anything like it was. Thank goodness I wasn't born ten years later!)

I listened to the CD of Stagepass a week ago and was even more impressed with the sound. No one overdid their part. Drumming was solid, but not overwhelming. Just an excellent variety of sounds, played by talented musicians. Listened to it twice in a row, in fact. It's just that good!

Later, I did some digging on the internet to see what I could find. I figured he would have a website; there are still plenty of fans who recall his glory years. (Maybe not national glory, but Cleveland did like good music and did support new groups who had a good sound. Witness Ian Hunter's "Cleveland Rocks" and the story behind it.) Found decent prices through Linelevelmusic.com. CDnow and Ebay have ridiculously high prices! $124??? C'mon!

Thanks for the reference to Christgau, George. Now that's an impressive website. Lots of material, interesting articles, well worth the time.

And thanks for posting the original comments, George. Brings back good memories!

-C.R.

Bitte schon. Standard rock critic exaggeration of worthiness of a patchwork of indie bar punk bands and art noise, some of which I like.
"I said whip it, whip it good..." Dump, dump, da-dump.

BTW, George, are you a former Ohioan?