Thief in the Night
(1985)
My first LP for Elektra. Boy was I thrilled! But at the same time I was scared. My lawyers had secured me a lucrative contract. I was being paid more than I ever got from Epic, so I knew I had to deliver!! Bob Krasnow, who ran the label at that time, had a lot of faith in me and gave me much encouragement, but I was still scared. The year was 1985.
The truth of the matter is my years at Elektra were the worst in terms of creativity and success. Not because I was forced to do what I didn't want, but because the music biz had changed, and I wasn't sure where I fit anymore. Again, that's not to say there aren't some absolutely wonderful moments on these records, but as a whole, all three would have been better scaled down to one record utilizing the best moments.
However, let me talk about them one at a time. Again, there is a lot of singing. I felt the only way to success was not as an instrumentalist but by using my lesser talent of singing.
Despite all, there were some great musicians on the record. Steve Ferrone did the majority of the drumming (aside from the Synclavier drums); Paul Jackson on guitar, Paulinho Da Costa on percussion; and Louis Johnson on bass.
I had some valid musical ideas, but they just couldn't be sustained by my vocal ability. In other words, in general the material is good, but I should have used other lead vocalists whose voice and vocal ability fit the songs better.
"I Surrender" would have probably been a hit with James Ingram singing it. "Remembering The Sixties" would have been a hit with Stevie Wonder singing. The same is true for "We're Supposed To Have Fun." I did do a decent job on "Love Mission" and "Ride" though. I didn't figure out until Night After Night, what kind of material I should be doing vocally, which came to fruition in my first Warner Brothers record Snapshot. In the end, it was a real simple answer. Keep it real, falsetto is your thing, and don't abandon piano as your main instrument!! I had forgotten what made me, ME!
Tommy Vicari and my new friend Mick Guzauski engineered the LP. This became my last record engineered by Tommy to date. Overall not one of my better efforts as a project, so, in the end, I didn't deliver!
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George Duke