I Want to Know

    A new 2 CD 1 DVD release from rock icons Foreigner has kept me entertained for the past few days at home, in the Civic, and my minivan. Their first all new album in a decade and a half, “Can’t Slow Down” is superb. I especially like the title cut and “Too Late” a very catchy radio ready tune I’ve been singing for days. These guys have successfully preserved that Foreigner signature sound while evolving into the present with new lead singer, Kelly Hansen. He has admirably taken over for long time front man Lou Gramm, who at one time I thought irreplaceable.

    What intrigued me into buying the new set was a curious CD of remixes of the hits we all know well. Was this just a new remastering job from previous “master” tapes? Was any new vocals or loops added? I knew that the songs already sounded great but was unprepared for what I would discover. Producer Marti Frederiksen and his recording engineer Anthony Focx have uncovered the original multi-track tapes and exactly matched the original mixes. These new mixes a far clearer than their predecessors with deeper bass and better sounding representation of Lou Gramm’s awesome vocal performances. It was as if I was hearing them for the first time (pun intended). In fact, Feels Like the First Time opens up the disk with the electric guitars cranked to 11. Wow!  I quickly pulled out an original CD. The older mixes sounded muffled by comparison, as if someone had placed a blanket over the loudspeakers. The new mixes truly sound like they were recorded yesterday. The only limit now are the constraints of the 16 bit, 44.1 kHz sampled CD format itself. I hope more hits are forthcoming as remixes. It truly gives new life to the Classic Rock genre.

    I first notice Foreigner in the early 1980’s when I borrow the foreigner 4 album from a friend. The opening bass line of Jukebox Hero hooks me and the rest is history. Forward to 1986, I Want to Know What Love Is is a huge hit on radio and Mtv. I am especially intrigued by the heavy gospel influence and wish to share the song on my radio show on Gospel 90 AM. I am not allowed to play the “secular” version, but the station is given the gospel version of the song by the New Jersey Mass Choir who backs Foreigner on the original.

  I can name numerous mainstream hits adapted for the gospel market. Accusations of hypocrisy notwithstanding I have never seen anything wrong with presenting a “secular” artists’ songs in a “religious” setting providing that the lyrics are compatible. The movie An Officer and a Gentleman produced Up Where We Belong sung by Jennifer Warnes and Joe Cocker made better by The PTL Singers & Orchestra (a BeBe and CeCe Winans duet) and a marvelous cover version on Christian radio arguably the biggest hit on my first radio home. The gospel version was only slightly modified by singing Lord lift us up where we belong instead of love lift us up. How is that any different than Love Lifted Me? God is love, right?

  Before I close; ever consider Eric Clapton’s Tears in Heaven for gospel radio airplay? That song holds up well despite being secular. Unmodified it would make a great candidate for what I call a reverse crossover. Yesterday I heard Kirk Franklin do an old Kenny Loggins number, This is It, made a great gospel song. Bravo.

  Anyway I am pondering similar ideas for my new Internet radio station that will feature a good mix of secular and sacred both old and new. It will be a whacky format for sure. It will be positive music in the purest form. The best of both worlds without rules of outdated traditions aimed at the seekers of this world not unlike myself.

Stay tuned