Description
The self-titled, third album by the American rock band The Seventy Sevens was released by Exit Records in 1987, manufactured by Island Records and distributed in the US by Atco Records, a division of Atlantic Recording Corporation, a Warner Communications Company. The album was recorded during autumn 1986 by Robert Musso, assisted by Steve Griffith and Daryl Zachman, at Exit in Sacramento, California; with Musso producing. Mixed by Musso assisted by Peter Sturge at Quadrasonic in New York.
The album track “I Can’t Get Over It” (as well released as a 12-inch single) got included on Island Records’ promo CD Sampler #1, squeezed in between tracks by British mainstream outfits The Comsat Angels and Frankie Goes To Hollywood, and the label’s radio advertisement for the album proudly proclaimed that “The 77’s will take you on a journey through the past, present, and future of rock & roll.” The album was well received by the music press. Rolling Stone Magazine‘s critic Margot Mifflin stated that the Seventy Sevens had “digested a smorgasbord of pop and rock history and come up with a sound that suggests not only that they know where they’re coming from but also that they’re going places“, while The Album Network wrote “The 77’s make snappy, pop rock with a 60’s-meets-80’s fun feeling“. Despite a great album and great press the album went nowhere. The staff at Island Records originally was going to push the 77’s album hard into the mainstream music market, but another one of their albums broke big right beforehand and thus this push never happened – U2’s The Joshua Tree drew so much attention from the public that the label’s other releases got lost in the shadows.
When the new album didn’t meet everyone’s hope at radio and retail, things began to disintegrate at Exit Records as the Island deal fell apart, and within the band as professional and personal pressure mounted. The quartet recorded a set of demos to court new record companies, played several showcases and ultimately recorded a live album, which later were released separately before disbanding (the demo sampler Sticks and Stones released in 1990 and the live album Eighty Eight released the following year). In 1992 a new incarnation of the band, featuring the remaining members Michael Roe and Aaron Smith, alongside new members David Leonhardt and Mark Harmon of The Strawmen, released the band’s fourth studio recording on Brainstorm, yet another self-titled album.
The 77’s are a Bay Area band whose 1984 debut LP, All Fall Down, hit the top of many college charts. Their new release explores the terrain between rollicking rock and lugubrious blues, using memorable hooks, quirky guitars and heady lyrics. While this record suggests the group has varied influences – from Duane Eddy to Echo and the Bunnymen – it succeeds by virtue of Mike Roe‘s unusual singing and songwriting. Roe shows remarkable vocal diversity, from the Billy Idol baritone of «I Can’t Get over It» to the Lou Reed-like talk-singing of «I Could Laugh», a ponderous, cynical plaint underscored by sparse acoustic guitar. In «Pearls Before Swine», the pick of this litter, he laments the selling of a soul. None of the songs tells much of a story – they’re more about attitude and ambiance. In the case of «Frames Without Photographs», Roe’s lyrics are downright silly. But his delivery, idiosyncratic without being mannered, propels this record. The 77’s have digested a smorgasbord of pop and rock history – mostly of the Fifties and Sixties – and come up with a sound that suggests not only that they know where they’re coming from but also that they’re going places. [Margot Mifflin, Rolling Stone Magazine, 1987]
After Ping Pong Over The Abyss and All Fall Down, two much-praised releases on Exit with Word distribution to the Christian market, this debut in the major marketplace puts the 77s where the band belongs, competing for the airwaves with the likes of INXS and Pretenders. While artists often suffer when they seek to move outside the safe confines of Christendom, 77s just get artistically stronger and better defined.
“Peace of heart is better than peace of mind,” Roe sings in «Bottom Line», the LPs most astute and pop offering and a clear expression of the underlying sentiment of 77s. «Do It For Love», driven on by the muscular punch of Musso’s production and marred only by a guitar line just too close to a Springsteen cop, is no doubt the album’s best single and strongest track.
The bottom line for a Christian is a life motivated by love and, as Roe sings in «I Can’t Get Over It», “You need somebody who can get over it” and, in «Frames Without Photographs», “If only once / Someone would fill me up.” Of course, those Christian rock listeners who require “naming the name” or accompanying scripture references to validate a statement will not find 77s satisfying, not that they really appreciated All Fall Down. Any thoughtful listener, however, will notice that the lyrics point towards a biblical spirituality, one that sparks curiosity and interested questioning. These are seeds that would encourage thoughtfulness and growth in believers and nonbelievers alike.
Most unique are the two sides’ closing tracks: the live recording of «Pearls Before Swine» grabs a near-Velvet Underground quality that’s absolutely out of control and the equally dark, apocalyptic acoustic blues of «I Could Laugh» lets Roe’s meandering lyric get to the point that life without truth and love of God just “ain’t funny.” 77s cut it. [Brian Q Newcomb, CCM, May 1987]
Recorded for major label Island in 1987, The 77’s was meant to be the record that catapulted the band from California cult icons to rock superstars. That it had the unfortunate honor of being both released with and overshadowed by another Island release – U2’s The Joshua Tree – is irony at its most awful. Though The 77’s earned a favorable write-up in Rolling Stone, Island was too busy handling the runaway success of U2 to figure out how to properly market the anachronistic band. It’s a shame, because The 77’s has the very sort of breadth and courage it would have taken to rescue the quartet from its niche-market status. Michael Roe & Co. come roaring out of the gate with «Do It for Love», a soaring and triumphant rock number that breathlessly eclipses all of their work up to that point. From there, Roe leads the band on a tour of regret and self-loathing, spiraling down through bitterness («I Can’t Get Over It») and heartbreak («Frames Without Photographs») before finally arriving at chilling judgment («I Could Laugh»). The music is either desperate or bitter, pausing only for the Byrds-ian jangle of «The Lust, the Flesh, the Eyes, and the Pride of Life», a song that would become Roe’s signature. [J. Edward Keyes, AMG]
Score one for energy and sheer joie de rock. The 77’s are a four piece that play garage rock like they just invented the thing. What sets them apart from all the other youthful garage musos is they’ve learnt to really drive their vehicle before taking it on the road. So Mike Roe and Mark Tootle’s guitar breaks seemingly fly off at odd angles; Jan Eric’s bass and Aaron Smith’s drums threaten to overwhelm the proceedings. But the collapse never happens; it teeters on the edge but never goes over.
The album openers, «Do It For Love» and «I Can’t Get Over It», are perfect MTV fare; cool, clever, hooky pop. But it’s the likes of «What Was In That Letter» and «Frames Without Photographs» that put this lot ahead of the pack. In putting together their rock collages, the 77’s never cop from one source when two or more will do – «Pearls Before Swine» is a seamless Velveteen Cramps graft, «I Could Laugh» a bleak acoustic excursion into the realms of Dylan and Buckley, sung in a Jaggerian tone of despair. The big payoff is «Bottom Line», a gorgeous strollin’ blues type ballad that shows young Mike Roe to be quite the crooner. It’s the kind of eyes-wide-open love song you’d expect from Elvis Costello or John Hiatt; coming from this more or less unlikely source only hints at the potential of the 77’s. Their number’s coming up. [Lenny Stoute, Rock Express, June/July 1987]
If commercial street smarts, red-hot rock’n’roll, and lyrics evangelistic in their fervency mean anything, the 77’s have arrived. Covering a musical range from the Simple Minds to the Stones, this group of rockers has captured the urgency and pain of the Present Tense.
“The lust, the flesh, the pride of life…/ Drain the life out of me/ Lord, please don’t ask me what for.” Like fellow-musician Steve Scott (the Lou Reed of Jesus Music) the 77’s music is energized by visions from the dark side of life. In the face of the growing “sugar and spice” trend in both “ccm” and secular rock, a bit of Ecclesiastes is much welcomed.
After all, it’s hard to find redemption without a knowledge of our need of a redeemer: “Who you are and what you’ve been/ Is what you’ll bring to every place and every thing,” moans Michael Roe. Yet the cynic is also an ultimate gambler: “I’ve got everything or nothing at all/ I want someone to love me forever/ Peace of heart is better than peace of mind.”
This, in any market, is premium music, though it’s too early to say if such brilliant music will succeed commercially. It all depends on how many people remember what real rock used to sound like, and how it moved its listeners. [Jon Trott, Cornerstone Magazine, 1987, Vol 15 Issue 81]
> Apple Music (https://music.apple.com/us/album/seventy-sevens/378601309)
LP tracklist:
Side One
A1. “Do It For Love” – 4:26
A2. “I Can’t Get Over It” – 4:38
A3. “What Was In That Letter” – 3:07
A4. “Pearls Before Swine” – 8:20
Side Two
B1. “The Lust, The Flesh, The Eyes & The Pride Of Life” – 3:50
B2. “Frames Without Photographs” – 4:18
B3. “Don’t Say Goodbye” – 4:30
B4. “Bottom Line” – 3:50
B5. “I Could Laugh” – 7:50
Note: Simultaneously released on cassette and 12-inch vinyl LP by Island Records. Re-issued on CD by VIA Records in 1995 as a part of a triple disc box set entitled 1 2 3. Fully remastered and re-issued as a double CD by Lo-Fidelity Records in March 2012. (The 2 CD set is housed in a 6 panel deluxe digipak with art restored and inspired by the original vinyl pressing of the album.) Available at Bandcamp: https://the77s.bandcamp.com/album/seventy-sevens-deluxe
Seventy Sevens, Deluxe Edition (Lo-Fidelity Records 2012)
The 77’s (L-R): Aaron Smith, Mark Tootle, Mike Roe, Jan Eric Volz.
The upcoming eponymous album by the 77’s was announced in the December 20, 1986 issue of Billboard Magazine.
Pictured: Chris Hillman of The Byrds fame recording bass on “The Lust, the Flesh, the Eyes & the Pride of Life” during the 77’s sessions. [Excerpt from an Exit Records news letter]
The 77s – “Cant Get Over It” and “Frames Without Photographs”, Live at The Warehouse 1989
TrueTunes @45RPM May 1, 2023: Did The Joshua Tree Fall on The 77s? (More Roe From The Cutting Room Floor)
The 77s’ 1987 self-titled album was not only that band’s first real shot at the “big-time” success their fans knew they deserved. It was also the climax of a creative explosion from a unique Sacramento community that had been cooking up spiritually driven, culturally engaged, artistically excellent music for about a decade. On this special “From The Vault” episode of the podcast, we unveil previously unheard tape culled from frontman Michael Roe‘s conversation with True Tunes and with The Electric Jesus Podcast to finally answer one of the most fascinating questions of all time: Did U2’s breakthrough album The Joshua Tree inadvertently KILL one of our other favorite LPs?
CREDITS. Produced and Engineered by Robert Musso for A.E.G., Inc. Recorded at Exit, Sacramento, CA, Autumn 1986. Assistant Engineers at Exit: Steve Griffith and Daryl Zachman. Track A4 was recorded live at The Warehouse, Sacramento, CA. Live Remote Recording by Steve Griffith. Track B5 was recorded by Daryl Zachman. Mixed by Robert Musso at Quadrasonic, New York, NY. Assistant Engineer at Quadrasonic: Peter Sturge. Mastered by Bob Ludwig at Masterdisk, New York, NY. Pre-Production Demos Extraordinaire: Steve Griffith. Art Direction and Graphic Design by Marty Gessler/Sun Graphics. Photos by Deborah Wiley and Linda Pearson/Eyezone Photographics. Executive Producer: Mary Neely. The 77’s use: Fender Guitars and Amplifiers/Gretsch Drums/Paiste Cymbals/Morley Pedals, and all that other stuff… All songs written by Mike Roe except track A1 and B2 co-written with Steve Griffith, track A2 co-written with David Leonhardt, track A3 co-written Mark Tootle, and track B3 co-written with Griffith and G. Mascoli.
Musicians: The 77’s – Mike Roe (Vocal, Guitar), Mark Tootle (Keyboard, Guitar, Support Vocal), Jan Eric (Fender Bass, Support Vocal), Aaron Smith (More Pounding & Thrashing). Additional Musicians: Chris Hillman (Background Vocal and Fender Bass on track B1 – Long live the Byrds (God bless you, Roger)), Steve Griffith (Background Vocal, Keyboard), Jim Abegg (Spanish Guitar on track B5), Bongo Bob Smith (Ethnic and Orchestral Percussion, Hat Hair), Jon Skinner (Saxophone), Sam Ching (Fender 6-String Bass, Ibanez Midi Guitar Controller), The Cleverly Brothers (Prepared Piano), Pete “Fastfingers” Sturge (A.M.S. Sampling).
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