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

To buy Rock and Roll Children, go to: https://www.amazon.com/Rock-Roll-Children-Michael-Lefevre/dp/1609763556/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1501095764&sr=8-6&keywords=michael+d+lefevre

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

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

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