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Clone Club News Flash Winter 1988

Production Begins On "I Predict 1990" Video Album

[Photo and caption: Steve Taylor on location inside the TAYLOR-CAM. "It's fun to wear, but will it get my good side?"]

HOLLYWOOD (API) -- The calm, placid atmopshere of Hollywood Boulevard was shattered here last night when tourists and locals alike heard a voice yell "Action!", and all eyes turned from the autographed footprints of Grauman's Chinese Theatre to a most peculiar spectacle. A tall, lanky young man was making his way down the famous sidewalk, engulfed in what appeared to be a web of aluminum scaffolding with four cameras attached, all pointing inward. A fifth camera was attached to the man's leg, and a pair of large speakers around his neck broadcast a song with lyrics stating, "Life unwinds like a cheap sweater, but since I gave up hope I feel a lot better."

Was he a dropout from "Narcissists Anonymous"? Was this punishment for being a habitual parole violator? Guess again. Dubbed the "Taylor-cam", the contraption was designed by video director Jim Hodson, and is being worn by semi-obscure rock recording artist Steve Taylor (Myrrh/A&M Records). The song is from Taylor's latest album release "I Predict 1990," and the concept video being shot tonight is all part of Taylor's latest project, an ambitious video album somewhat redundant titled "I Predict 1990 -- The Video Album."

Plans for the upcoming project (set to be release this spring with the clever retail price of $19.90) include filming concept video clips for eight of the songs on Taylor's album, to be shot on location in Colorado, France, Poland, England, and here in Los Angeles. The Parisian cemetary where legendary Doors' singer Jim Morrison is buried serves as the backdrop for "Jim Morrison's Grave," which Taylor filmed himself last summer while visiting France during a break in touring. Plans for Taylor's controversial "I Blew Up The Clinic Real Good" include a cast of thousands, a barrage of water balloons, and a troupe of deranged marionette puppets. The video for the first single off the album, "Svengali," contains footage from the classic 1931 movie of the same name, and an abandoned Colorado iron smelter is to be the setting for "A Principled Man." Other songs set to be included in the video album are an exotic-looking "Babylon" and dramatic retellings of "What Is The Measure Of Your Success" and the ballad "Harder To Believe Than Not To."

S.T. & Some Band Begin World Tour

LONDON (API) -- March 1st marks the official start of Steve Taylor & Some Band's "I Predict 1990 World Tour," their first major concert tour in over two years. Beginning here in Great Britain, the tour continues through the month of March with six more dates in Norway, Sweden, and Finland, then begins the U.S. leg of the tour in Tampa, Florida on April 2nd. Other schedule stops through the summer include Japan, Hong Kong, The Philippines, and Australia. (Please see page four for a complete schedule of U.S. tour dates.) Recently confirmed special guests for the U.S. tour--Refuge recording artists Whitecross.

When asked if he had a statement to make regarding the upcoming tour, Steve Taylor replied, "Yes, I do."

I Predictionary

I Blew Up The Clinic Real Good

As a strong believer in the sanctity of human life and an outspoken opponent of abortion, I felt like this was a song that needed to be written. I've been dismayed to watch the Pro-Life Movement in the U.S. lose some of its credibility because a few people don't believe God when he says, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay," (Deut. 32:35, Rom. 12:19).

What Is The Measure Of Your Success?

The question is as loaded today as it was when Jesus first asked it 2,000 years ago, "What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his own soul?" (Matt. 16:26).

Since I Gave Up Hope I Feel A Lot Better

A rather satirical song (something of a departure for me, don't you think?), this one takes a look through the wide eyes of a college freshman at existentialism and nihilism, the philosophies that fuel much of contemporary American thought.

Jung And The Restless

This song is not a musical treatise on Jungian Analysis nor a reactionary slap at the benefits of psychology (some of my best friends are shrinks). It is simply a light-hearted look at what happens when the practitioner of an imperfect science tries to take the place of the Author of Life.

Babylon

This is both the story of God's chosen people, the Israelites, in exile and a modern parable of the cleansing which comes from repentance.

Innocence Lost

This conversion story was inspired by a friend of mine who, as a volunteer for a number of years, has obeyed God's command to visit those in prison. "I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me." (Matt. 25:40)

Jim Morrison's Grave

The idea started a couple of years ago when I went to Paris and visited Jim Morrison's grave. The experience made me think a lot about who Jim Morrison was and what he stood for. I was into The Doors' music and read a biography of Morrison called, No One Here Gets Out Alive. As I read the book, a picture emerged of Jim Morrison as someone who embraced the Rock-n-Roll myth, "It's better to burn out than to fade away."

I guess he thought of himself as somewhat of a "tortured artist" who not only believe that genius justifies cruelty but that genius and selfishness are inseparable. And that's really how he lived his life. He was very cruel to the people who were close to him, even the people who loved him. So this song is just my thought about going to the grave, almost a stream-of-consciousness lyric.

"Jim Morrison's Grave" asks the age-old question: Does artistry justify being a weasel? The last line of the song is, "The music covers like an evening mist/Like a watch still ticking on a dead man's wrist." Morrison left the world some intriguing music. As far as I'm concerned, that's not enough.

A Principled Man

"Blessed is the man who does not walk in the cousnel of the wicked, or stand in the way of sinners, or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is the law of the Lord, and in His law He meditates day and night." (Psalm 1:1-2).

Svengali

Inspired by a 19th century French novel, the song tells the story of Svengali, a manipulative music teacher, who takes a young, vibrant singer and turns her into an opera star by developing such power and control over her that she can't sing without him. I used the story to illustrate a type of relationship I often observed while working as a youth pastor, where a young person would subtly be pulled away from the church and God because of a romantic involvement, usually with someone outside the faith. Like the opera singer, the girl or guy would gradually become controlled by their boyfriend's or girlfriend's wishes, to the place where they'd being to lose their sense of identity, morality and even turn their back on their faith.

Harder To Believe Than Not To

This song, recorded very simply in London with a chamber group of orchestral musicians, takes its title from a line found in the collected letters of Flannery O'Connor, a critically acclaimed fiction writer from the Deep South. Her literary friends in New York City had a hard time believing that a writer of her caliber could be something as common and unfashionable as a follower of Jesus. She reacts in her letter to a criticism that Christianity's primary function is as a crutch for the weak-spirited. She writes how they just don't understand the cost involved in Christianity, that "It's much harder to believe than not to believe."

That quote stuck with me, and the song is written from the point of view that the cost involved in Christianity--the ideal of taking up your cross everyday and following Jesus--makes it hard to believe, because Christianity demands things from us that we don't naturally want to give. In the words of the playwright Dennis Potter, "There is, in the end, no such thing as a simple faith."

Record Reviews

by Glen C. Holmer
Newsflash Music Critic and Some Band Bassist

Whitesnack -- "Rad Brain Food"
(Nutri-Grain Records 4005)

At long last there is music for the discerning heavy metal fan. This band asserts that you don't have to have soup for brains to love metal. Whitesnack proves that it's possible to fuse kickin' stainless steel energy with a rich and fine English literary heritage and still shred.

Lead singer Adam Evening tells us about the band: "I started in a band called Hair Supply. We had two top ten hits ("Burgers, Fries, and Tears In My Eyes" and "Way Cool Love We Got"), but the group just drained me artistically. I left to get my degree in literature from Newark Junior College, where I made some friends and we decided to start a band, Richie Withmore played drums, I played bass, and we had a buddy, Randy Random, that played a little guitar. We chipped in and bought him a bigger one and started writing songs.

The album kicks off with "Rock You More Than Anyone In The History Of The Universe" and roars straight into "Don't Deafen My Dogs." Then the band promptly shifts gears, revealing their sensitivity and finesse on "Baby, Don't You Ever Change," which is a song about genetic engineering. Side two contains my personal favorite, the compassionate and outspoken "Saturday Night":

We are into feeling good, we are into feeling right
We are into gettin' crazy on a Saturday night
Now we know there are those without enough to eat
We know they can't party 'cause they live on the street
So we'll party for them 'cause we wish they were here
Then we'll drink them a toast, then we'll all shed a tear

Other cuts include "Porous and Mobile," "I Told Anna, Anatole France," great triple bass drum work on "Stun Gun Fun," and the up-tempo "Gilligan and Gaugin."

Asked about the controversial practice of throwing copies of "War and Peace" into the audience, Evening replied, "Yeah, well I guess a couple of people got banged-up real bad, so now we just throw the Cliff Notes."

"Rad Brain Food" is a perfect combination. It is Van Halen and Van Gogh together on stage. It is Hulk Hogan in the ring with Truman Capote. IT is equal parts Chuck Berry, Chuch Norris, and Chuck Dickens. And it all comes together on the final album cut, an impressive remake of that Tommy James classic recently covered by Billy Idol. It's called "Monet, Monet."

[Photo and caption: After years of praying and waiting, Steve Taylor & Some Band were finally allowed to travel into Poland last August in order to perform in three concerts that were actually sponsored in part by the Polish government. Also included on the bill were the London Community Gospel Choir and Swedish singer-songwriter Charlotte and another band from Sweden called Kurt Keck and The Boys.

Not that the tour went exactly as planned. Local Party officials came and saw the first concert, then promptly cancelled the third. And our promoter in Poland, who believed in us enough to bring us into the country in the first place, has been imprisoned for working with "dissident musicians."

As a band, we ask for your prayers for our imprisoned brother and for the opportunity to return to Poland some day.]

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Steve Taylor & Some Band I Predict 1988 World Tour

With Special Guest Whitecross

Date	Location
April 2	Tampa, Florida; State Fairgrounds
April 7	St. Louis, Missouri; Webber's Grove Auditorium
April 8	Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Zoo Ampitheatre
April 9	Dallas, Texas; Bronco Bowl
April 11	Atlanta, Georgia; Center Stage Theatre
April 12	Nashville, Tennessee; The Cannery
April 14	Coston, Massachusetts; Gorden College
April 15	Elizabeth, New Jersey; Ritz Theatre
April 16	Lancaster, Pennsylvania; McCaskey High Auditorium
April 18	Washington, D.C.; TBA
April 19	Warren, Ohio; W.D. Packard Music Hall
April 20	Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Syria Mosque Ballroom
April 21	Cleveland, Ohio; Hanna Theatre
April 22	Ann Arbor, Michigan; Pioneer High Auditorium
April 23	Chicago, Illinois; Wheaton College
April 24	Minneapolis, Minnestoa; Bethel College
April 26	Indianapolis, Indiana; TBA
April 28	Denver, Colorado; Paramount Theatre
April 29	Aurora, Nebrasks; Aurora High Auditorium
April 30	Kansas City, Missouri; Worlds Of Fun
May 2	Tulsa, Oklahoma; Brady Theatre
May 5	Phoenix, Arizona; TBA
May 6	San Diego, California; Point Loma College
May 7	Los Angeles, California; Universal Ampitheatre
May 13	Portland, Oregon; The Starry Night
May 14	Seattle, Washington; Seattle Pacific University
May 20	Santa Clara, California; Great America
- PLUS - Australia, Canada, England, Finland, Hong Kong, Japan, Norway, Scotland, Sweden & the Philippines.

Dates subject to change.

WHITECROSS appearing in U.S. only.

Sock Heaven

A salute to the solo artist Steve Taylor and the bands Chagall Guevara and Steve Taylor & The Perfect Foil