Sunday, July 7, 2013

Song Reviews - No Time to Lose by The Tarney Spencer Band


I figured I'd try a new direction for this blog since I was losing interest in making fun of cheesy music videos. I'll definitely do more of that in the future, but for now, I want to focus on more serious music reviews, specifically obscure and forgotten songs that I love.

The first entry is an obscure minor hit on radio and MTV from the late seventies and early eighties called No Time to Lose by the Tarney Spencer Band.

There's nothing I can say about this song that sums up my feelings about it than the following statement... It's my favorite song ever. I remember hearing it on the classic rock radio station in St. Louis every so often when I was growing up there, and it always mesmerized me. Whenever they played it, I stopped in my tracks, dropped whatever I was doing and gave it my full attention.

If I had to describe it's sound, it's like if Bob Welch had stayed with Fleetwood Mac during the Buckingham/Nicks years. It's the kind of glossy, commercial pop/rock coming out of southern California during the last year or two of the 1970's. But it has an immediacy and power to it. It still gives me the chills when I hear it, and I've listened to it countless times.

The guitars sound like an update to the surf rock of the 1960's, only without the breakneck speed of guys like Dick Dale. The interplay between the rhythm section is fantastic. I'm not a musician, so it's difficult for me to explain. It just has to be heard. It's not surprising that the duo of Tarney and Spencer are a bassist and drummer respectively.

The Tarney Spencer Band was a duo made up of bassist/singer Alan Tarney and drummer Trevor Spencer, a pair of Australians who were members of Cliff Richard's backing band during the seventies. Richard was one of the biggest pop stars in the history of English music, and their most long lived, although he never caught on in the States aside from a few hits, including Devil Woman. I personally think he did his best work in the seventies when these two were in his band. Tarney was also one of his regular songwriters.

Tarney went on to produce a handful of eighties artists, including a-ha and their international smash hit, Take on Me.

As for the song, I can't find any indication that it was a big hit anywhere. It charted in the lower reaches of the Billboard pop charts twice, in 1978 (at #86) and 1981 (at #74) respectively. I believe that charting in 1981 was because of MTV airplay. I've seen a video for it, and it's a different version of the song than the one I'm used to. It's about a minute shorter, and quite a bit slower. I sort of prefer the faster, longer version, but the shorter version has the better opening. I'd say that the opening to this version is one of the best I've ever heard in any song.

I'm not sure if the version in the video was the one on the LP or the single, or just a version edited for airplay, but both versions are worth listening to. Here's the longer, faster version (the video used is apparently from another video they did, so it just looks like horrible lip synching.)


 And here's the shorter, slower version.