Great Rock Albums of 1984: Planet P- Pink World

Tony Carey was a very busy man in 1984. In the early part of the year, he hit it big with his solo album, “Some Tough City,” which I visited a few months ago. God, has it been that long? In the later part of the year, he attempted to build on the success of his band, Planet P from 1983 with there successful “Project” album. In the latter months of 1984, Mr Carey treated us to the Planet P album, “Pink World.”

When I posted about the “Project” album, I was enlightened by a comment on the post to the fact that Planet P was only a band in the loosest of terms. The project was completely under Tony’s control with the named musicians brought in to provide necessary assistance. So now enlightened as I strive to get my facts right, I will say that I’m not really bothered by such semantics in this case. Whether Planet P are a proper band or not doesn’t matter because the result has been two really cool albums, “Pink World” being the second of those.

What was cool about MTV in 1984 was that they played videos by artists whose songs were never heard on radio. This case in point, the first single, “What I See,” which was later fused with the track “Behind the Barrier,” both songs fusing to make a rather cool concept video was what got my attention. “Pink World” is a concept album. It tells the story of a young mute boy named Artemis, who can see visions after drinking polluted water, shelters the survivors of a nuclear attack in a place called ‘The Zone.’ Fearful of the boy’s abilities, the government use him to control those living in the zone. As the album goes on, Artemis becomes less sure what to do and in the end vanishes leaving only a pink pool and a basket behind. The residents of “The Zone” realize they no longer need Artemis and leave it. There is a lot of abstract ambiguity here and Tony has always refused to give specifics.

Story or no story, this is a brilliantly crafted progressive rock album. The songs are all very well played and musically thought out and I can say that no two songs are the same. Listening to each of them is an adventure in itself. Plus, while Tony provides all the vocals, he doesn’t try to be Joe Cool Rock Singer. Since it was first presented to me as the single, “What I See” continues to be my favourite track on the album. However, there many a good songs that could rival it. I don’t even care that “A Boy Who Can’t Talk” sounds very much like Pink Floyd to the point that when I first heard the intro, I thought to myself, “Is this ‘Pigs on the Wing’?” Other standout tracks for me are “The Shepherd,” “Pink World,” “What Artie Knows” and the hardest rock sounding songs, “This Perfect Place” and “In the Zone.” But fifteen of the 26 songs could easily be included, (the other eleven are all less than 90 seconds and most of those are damn cool), so that’s pretty good.

Track Listing:

1. Into the Woods
2. To Live Forever
3. Pink World
4. What I See
5. To Live Forever Pt. 2
6. Power
7. Into the Forest
8. A Boy Who Can’t Talk
9. The Stranger
10. What I See Part 2
11. The Shepherd
12. Behind the Barrier
13. A Pink World Coming Down
14. Breath
15. The Perfect Place
16. What Artie Knows
17. In the Zone
18. Behind the Barrier Part 2
19. March of the Artemites
20. The Perfect Place Part 2
21. A Letter From the Shelter
22. What Artie Knows Part 2
23. One Star Falling
24. Baby’s at the Door
25. Requiem
26. A Boy Who Can’t Talk Part 2

Planet P

Tony Carey- vocals, all instruments except where noted below

Rheinhard Besser- guitar solo on tracks 4, 17 and 19

Helmut Bibi- guitar solo on tracks 6 and 12

Roderich Gold- Fairlight synthesizer

Fritz Matzka- drums on tracks 2, 17 and 23

Robert Musenbichler- lead guitar on track 23

Eddie Taylor- saxophone on track 23

“Pink World” was praised by the critics but sales of the album were modest at best. The latter is probably why Planet P didn’t make another album until 2005. However, this and the other Planet P album have gained a huge cult status since. Something Tony Carey can be quite proud of.

Next post: John Parr

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Great Rock Albums of 1984: Tony Carey- Some Tough City

Tony Carey was another great artist considered a one hit wonder by the MTV generation of the mid 1980s. In the spring and early summer of 1984, his biggest single, “A Fine Fine Day,” tore up the charts and eventually made it to number six or seven. It got tons of airplay on both radio and MTV. However, what these robots failed to understand that Tony had been rocking our world for many years before this. They didn’t know about his stint with the great Rainbow or even known that the year before, he had success with his band Planet P. Fortunately, I did and that information led me to procure his 1984 album, “Some Tough City.”

If I had been among the ignorant, the second single released from the album might have put me off buying the album. “The First Day of Summer” wasn’t bad, although there are much better tracks on “Some Tough City,” it’s just in the video for the song, he tries too hard to act like Joe Cool Rock Singer and that was a bit off putting. Now don’t get me wrong, Tony Carey has a good voice but he’s an even better musician as demonstrated on the album where he plays all the instruments. I know I have beaten the word ‘underrated’ to death on 80sMetalman but the term definitely applies to Tony.

“A Fine Fine Day” is not typical of the album. It’s a great song and it won my 1984 award for best non metal song of the year but it’s more progressive rock and Tony definitely demonstrates his keyboard skills on it. Most of the rest of the album has more of a hard rock edge to it, even “The First Day of Summer.” However, some of the more rockier songs like, “Eddie Goes Underground” and “A Lonely Life” really cook on here. A real paradox on the album is “Reach Out,” where it starts out like it’s going to be some 80s synth pop song and then really explodes into a rocker. The big surprise on it is the fact that Tony hammers out a decent guitar solo on it. He does the same, actually his guitar work is even better on the more progressive rock sounding “Tinseltown.” Let’s face it, Tony Carey is a brilliant all round musician and his talent has been ignored for far too long.

Track Listing:

1. A Fine Fine Day
2. A Lonely Life
3. Eddie Goes Underground
4. The First Day of Summer
5. Reach Out
6. Tinseltown
7. Hungry
8. I Can’t Stop the World
9. Some Tough City
10. She Can Bring Me Love

Tony Carey- vocals, keyboards, guitars, bass

Now my mind is going off to strange worlds from posting about “Some Tough City” by Tony Carey. I wonder if he and Ronnie James Dio ever hooked up again after Rainbow. That would have been mind blowing. It wouldn’t have been possible in 1984 because Tony was riding a huge wave of success as a result of the album and its top ten single. As for Ronnie, that will be all explained in a future post.

Jefferson Starship- Nuclear Furniture

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Great Rock Albums of 1983: Planet P- Project

Who says American bands aren’t capable of making good progressive rock? Jeremy Clarkson to name one but don’t worry, he does write a column in The Sun, as does some other berk whose name I can’t remember, who insinuated a similar claim. If either of these two gentlemen were to make such a claim in my presence, I would politely guide them to the likes of Kansas, Styx and Planet P. True, the first two bands incorporated lots of hard rock and in the case of Styx, almost bordering on heavy metal but both bands also produced some great progressive rock tunes in their material. As for Planet P, this band was as progressive as anyone and this is proven with their debut album “Project.”

Planet P was the brain child of former Rainbow keyboard player, Tony Carey. I was first alerted to their existence when I heard several tracks from the album played on a rate an album radio programme. It wasn’t the hard rock/metal that I was now a devoted disciple of but I liked it.

The album opens with a bit of space rock, in the form of “Static.” It sounds enough like Pink Floyd that some people made comparisons to that band. It is a little trippy but it does haul your ears in for the rest of the album. Track two, “King For a Day” could have been released as a single. It is one of those songs capable of uniting both progressive purists and metalheads with its catchy melody and lyrics. The next few tracks are good progressive rock tracks and “I Won’t Wake Up” is very good. Then comes the song they did release as a single, “Why Me.” That is a very good song and the fact that it got to number four on the mainstream hot tracks bears testimony of this. However, the album doesn’t rest on the single. The very next track, “Power Tools” is my favourite track on this album. It is the closest they come to hard rock but it’s a catchy upbeat song.

“Send It In a Letter” is more experimental progressive rock. Great use of synthesizers are made here. It’s another space rock sounding song. “Adam and Eve” combines the best of progressive, space and hard rock and does it very well. It doesn’t settle down in one of those said genres for very long before one of the others hits you like a ton of bricks.

Before Planet P, I always knew Tony Carey to be a good keyboards player from his Rainbow days but had little experience of him as a singer. His vocals are more than sufficient on “Project.” He even harmonizes well on the song he doesn’t sing lead. Furthermore, he managed to put together a great band to back him up. Well done to Tony and Planet P!

Track Listing:

1. Static
2. King For a Day
3. I Won’t Wake Up
4. Top of the World
5. Armageddon
6. Tranquility Base (Only available on CD and cassette)
7. Why Me
8. Power Tools
9. Send It In a Letter
10. Only You and Me
11. Ruby (Only available on CD and cassette)

Planet P

Tony Carey- lead and backing vocals, keyboards, bass, acoustic guitar

David Thomas- lead vocals on “Only You and Me”

Johan Daansen- guitar

Robert Musenpichler- guitar

Helmut Bibl- guitar

Hartmut Pfannmeuller- drums, percussion

Fritz Matzka- drums, percussion

Peter Hauke- drums, percussion

Planet P not only proved that Americans (and Germans) could make some great progressive rock, the “Project” album gained them a lot of respect from metalheads and prog purists alike.

Next post: Stevie Nicks- The Wild Heart

To buy Rock And Roll Children, go to http://www.strategicpublishinggroup.com/title/RockAndRollChildren.html

Also available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Froogle and on sale at Foyles Book Shop in London