While coauthoring a memoir with guitar heroSteve Lukather, music writerPaul Reeswas scrolling through Spotify and realized something important.
Thenumber of monthly listenersfor Lukather's band, Toto, along with many classic rock artists such asJourney, Boston,Heart, Bon Jovi andStyxconsistently hit above 10 million, on par with plenty of contemporary hitmakers.
But most of the those artists who solidly ruled the airwaves from the mid-'70s through the mid-'80s were critically derided – then and now – as "corporate rock," their popularity an unfair diminishment.
Rees' casual research led him to recognize that this enduring music, which often still steers thehighest-rated radio stationsin major markets, "really hadn't been documented in any meaningful sense," he says.
The result is"Raised on Radio: Power Ballads, Cocaine & Payola – the AOR Glory Years 1976-1986"(Da Capo Press, 495 pp., out now), Rees' riveting oral history of the era of "Album-Oriented Rock," or AOR.The genre is exemplifiedby chart-toppers who crafted polished rock songs with memorable hooks, whizzing guitar solos and more technical skill than often acknowledged (see: Boston).As a radio format, AOR also spotlighted album tracks, with program directors at the time following their gut to play worthy songs not necessarily christened as singles by the record labels.
Over about 18 months, Rees conducted 53 original interviews – most of them remotely via video – and scoured his own archives from his years as an editor of vaunted U.K. music magazinesQandKerrang!to cull stories directly from the artists.
In a recent interview from his home in Scotland, Rees shared insight into assembling the book, which shares a name with Journey's 1986 album, "Raised on Radio" (trivia alert –Randy Jacksonof "American Idol" plays bass on it).
"It was the title right from the word go," Rees says. "It's music that, whatever the dopamine receptor is in the brain, this hits it. It's happy music, and we could all do with a bit of that at the moment."
Here's what else Rees imparted about his study of backstories during one of the most everlasting periods of radio.
Artists who offered surprising revelations
Rees tags Toto singer/keyboardistDavid Paichas one of his favorite interviews for the book, along with Lukather ("a man completely without filter") andBryan Adams'longtime writing partnerJim Vallance.
In the book, Vallance recalls how he and Adams wrote the smash "Summer of '69" while sitting across from each other with blank sheets of paper and volleying lines about their memories.
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It's those "happy accidents" that Rees was most fascinated with while talking to his subjects.
But his "absolute favorite" wasHeart guitarist/singer Nancy Wilson, who shares plenty of stories in the book about sexism ("I was kind of the Farrah Fawcett of rock for a minute there," she comments about the band's big-hair '80s makeover) and record label headaches.
"Nancy was fabulous. I did a Zoom interview with her in her kitchen," Rees says. "A woman playing guitar in a rock band at the time – and (sister) Ann as well – and to have endured what she endured … how much they were viewed as commodities. It's not as if people who were there at the time are apologetic. It's always passed off as sort of, 'That's what the audience wanted.' So her, Ann,Pat Benatar– full respect."
Which artists turned down the chance to be in the book
While the book is rife with anecdotes and deep conversation with musicians includingKevin Cronin of REO Speedwagon, members ofNight Ranger, Styx,Chicagoand Foreigner and archival chats with departed artists including Boston singer Brad Delp and Eddie Money, Rees notes three elusive subjects.
"I just couldn't get to (former Journey frontman) Steve Perry," he says. "I think hecomes out and talkswhen he has a new record to promote but I don't think he willingly submits himself to the process. Ditto Tom Scholz (themastermind of Boston). Another person I really wanted to talk to is Pat Benatar. It got as far as management and they knocked back the idea. That was a shame because I am a really, really big admirer of hers."
Rees still managed to get insights from the trio in the book with material from previous interviews.
One artist who initially turned down Rees' request but reconsidered has now become a professional pal.
"Billy Squierfinally said, 'I'll talk to you but not about my music. I'll talk about radio and what it meant to me.' And when I actually got him, I couldn't stop him from talking," Rees says with a laugh. "He was hugely interested and articulate and since then, he's messaged me out of the blue with a new song he's written."
Why is there still so much hate lobbed at tremendously popular artists?
Many of the artists in Rees' book are still some of thebiggest touring juggernautsdecades after their most popular work ruled the airwaves. Yet there still is an apology factor attached to sayingBon Jovi's"Livin' on a Prayer" or Journey's"Don't Stop Believin'"are irresistible earworms.
That lack of respect, Rees says, stems from a "simple truth."
"This music happened without the permission of rock critics. It wasn't music they uncovered like punk or New Wave, which had a critical cachet and discovery point. Music critics like to think they discovered things and this music was popular because people didn't need to be led by the hand toward it," he says. "If you read about 1977, it was the year of punk, as if that was the only thing in pop culture. But if you look at the biggest records of that year, they wereMeat Loaf's 'Bat Out of Hell'andFleetwood Mac's 'Rumours.'If you liked one, it didn't preclude you from liking the other. But that's why these songs have endured: they were brilliantly written."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Journey, Heart, Bon Jovi dig into glory years of classic rock
