Description
Have Yourself Committed is the solo debut album by the American singer and songwriter Bryan Duncan, formerly lead singer of Sweet Comfort Band, released on Light Records in 1985. The album was produced, recorded, and mixed by Larry Brown at Pakaderm Studios in Los Alamitos, California; with engineering assistance from Mike Mierau. Arranged by Dennis Brown, Larry Brown, and Bryan Duncan. Vocals arranged by Bryan Duncan, Larry Brown, and Bob Carlisle. All songs written by Bryan Duncan.
A pleasant and unexpected pop delight release. Blue-eyed soul featuring saxes, Hammond organs, and slightly funky bass guitars arranged with the synthesized homogeneity that dominated the radio in the 1980s, as well as a couple of pop-rock tunes that would not have been out of place on a Toto recording from that time period. Featuring the Tower of Power horns on four tracks. The icing on the cake is Bryan Duncan’s impressive and soulful vocals, voted Best New Male Vocalist 1985 in CCM Magazine‘s Readers Poll.
Have Yourself Committed was voted one of the Top Ten Gospel Albums of 1985 by Billboard Magazine and Album of the Year in Campus Life Magazine. Three top ten singles on the CHR charts.
Have Yourself Committed is a darkhorse candidate as one of the year’s best albums. I like it better than anything Duncan’s done with the Sweet Comfort Band, and it’s one of the best debut albums I’ve ever heard since – dare I say it? – Steve Taylor. You’ve gotta love a guy who can follow a juicy ’50s-styled bop tune like «Have Yourself Committed» with a dramatic ’80s-styled rock epic like «Darkness Is Falling». Both songs going to make some adventuresome station programmer very, very happy.
You’ll hear elements of everybody from Kansas to Styx to Steve Taylor to Hall & Oates here, but Duncan copies no one. Have Yourself Committed sounds more expensive that it really is, and a lot of the credit has to go to producer/engineer Larry Brown.
My favorite cuts include the bright and bouncy pop of «Livin’ on the Bright Side», the imposing, punchy rock of «Sweep Me Away», the melancholy power ballad «Talk To Me Gently», and the singer’s heartbreaking love song to his son, «A Child’s Love».
Finally, Have Yourself Committed shows that Duncan has a genuine, imaginative sense of humor – especially on the world’s first Christian yuppie song, «Last Graduation», and the title track – and an intelligent, far-reaching lyric vision. It’s going to take an awful lot to knock this one out of my year-end Top 10. [Bob Darden, CCM, July 1985]
Have Yourself Committed was released in 1985, and the title song was both funny and deadly serious for me. I had lost my sense of identity during those years in Sweet Comfort Band. When someone asked me how I was doing, I’d say, “Oh, we’re fine,” as if I were more than one person. Being torn from those relationships was both traumatic and exhilarating. I was depressed because I really felt I had ruined my life – and really kind of excited because I was finally free. I was nuts, so the song suited me fine.
For both «Livin’ on the Bright Side» and «Come To Find Out», I was making an earnest attempt to be as upbeat as possible in order to balance out my “serious side.” «Livin’ on the Bright Side» was about making a conscious decision to live with som optimism (I’m prone to pessimism). I could see what I had reaped by my poor attitude and decided “to right what was left of my heart.” I wrote «Come To Find Out» because, after the newness of faith had worn off, the hardest thing for me to believe was that God really loved me and that his love was enough to sustain me through the most difficult situations.
I pour myself into songwriting in an almost dysfunctional way. I probably only write ten to twelve songs a year, and I become almost trance-like in the process. «Maybe This Time» was dedicated to my solo career with the hope that maybe this time I would get it right. «Sweep Me Away» and «Talk to Me Gently» were my worship songs. I remember singing them alone in my studio, The Cosmic Doughnut, renewing my communication with a personal God.
«A Child’s Love» was inspired by my son, Brandon, and was the last song I wrote for Have Yourself Committed. It was written in the first year and a half of my first child’s life. I remember distinctly the change of the seasons during that time with my firstborn. We had roses planted by the front door of our home. I remember sitting on the porch with Brandon and watching the petals begin to fall off the roses because of the cold air. It reminded me that my life, too, had begun a transition to a new season. The record company felt as if the album needed a gentle, poignant moment, and this song turned out to be the best one on the record (and one of my personal Top Five songs I’ve written). «Last Graduation» was also about transition. I had recently received an invitation to my first high school class reunion and was reflecting on how faithful I’d been to God’s call in my life…a fitting benediction to commitment.
Bryan Duncan, June 1995.
[Excerpt from the CD-booklet of the Bryan Duncan compilation, The Light Years]
> Apple Music (https://music.apple.com/us/album/have-yourself-committed/660807379)
LP tracklist:
Side One
A1. “Have Yourself Committed” – 3:27
A2. “Darkness Is Falling” – 4:05
A3. “Maybe This Time” – 2:57
A4. “A Child’s Love” – 3:57
A5. “Come To Find Out” – 3:55
Side Two
B1. “Livin’ On The Bright Side” – 4:21
B2. “Sweep Me Away” – 2:56
B3. “Talk To Me Gently” – 4:19
B4. “Last Graduation” – 4:50
Note: Simultaneously released on cassette and 12-inch vinyl LP by Light Records. Later re-issued on CD.
CREDITS. Produced by Larry Brown. Recorded and mixed by Larry Brown at Pakaderm Studios in Los Alamitos, CA. Assistant Engineer: Mike Mierau. Mastered by Doug Sax at the Mastering Lab, Hollywood, CA. Arranged by Dennis Brown, Larry Brown, and Bryan Duncan. Vocals arranged by Bryan Duncan, Larry Brown, and Bob Carlisle. Photography by David Brandt. Art direction and design by Rhonda Jesson. Hair & Make Up Artist: Jetty Stutzman for Cloutier. Direction: Ray Ware Artist Management. All songs written by Bryan Duncan at the Cosmic Doughnut Studio in Riverside, CA.
Musicians: Bryan Duncan (Lead and Background Vocals, Additional Keyboards), Tim Heintz (Keyboards and Programming), Dennis Brown (Guitars, Linn Drum Programming), Randy Thomas (Additional Guitars and Solos on tracks B2 and B4), Jimmy Johnson (Bass), Larry Brown (Drums and Percussion, Additional Keyboards). Background Vocals: Bob Carlisle, Tim Miner. Horns by Tower Of Power: Emilio Castillo, Greg Adams, Marc Russo, Mike Chichowicz, Stephen “Doc” Kupka. Marc Russo (Saxophone solo on tracks A5 and B1).
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