Greg Sage - Straight Ahead (us 1985)

Greg Sage - Straight Ahead (us 1985)

Born:    Portland, OR, United States
Currently:    Phoenix, AZ, United States

Member of: Wipers
Related Artists: Beauregarde
Label: Enigma Records (3)
Catalog#: 7 72007-1
Format: Vinyl, LP
Release Date: 1985
Country: US
Genre: Pop/Rock
Style: Alternative Pop/RockAlternative/Indie Rock

Tracks:
A1. Straight Ahead  4:12 
A2. Soul's Tongue  2:45 
A3. Blue Cowboy  3:10 
A4. Your Empathy  2:58 
A5. The Illusion Fades  2:37 
A6. Seems So Clear  1:35 
A7. On The Run  2:12 
B1. Astro Cloud  4:08 
B2. Lost In Space  3:25 
B3. Let It Go  3:08 
B4. World Without Fear  5:05 
B5. Keep On Keepin' On  4:22 

Notes:
Recorded And Produced by Greg Sage.

Greg Sage was the principal songwriter, guitarist, and vocalist for the influential Portland, Oregon-based punk rock band Wipers.
Greg Sage's first recording was on the pro-wrestler Beauregarde's full length album in 1971 (reissued by Jackpot Records in 2004) when he was age seventeen.
Sage's dark lyrics were rife with references to confusion and severe alienation. His songs took unexpected turns and were typified by fractured melodic passages punctuated by massive, clean, intricate guitar parts. Sage operates his own label, Zeno Records (based in Phoenix, Arizona) and has also recorded several albums as a solo musician. He also builds his own music equipment and built his own studio.
Despite being right-handed, Greg Sage plays guitar left-handed. His instruments of choice are Gibson SGs.
 ~ by wikipedia.
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Reviews:
Greg Sage's first stopgap solo album was considerably more controlled than his work in the Wipers. The blackened thrust that made his band famous was replaced with thin, fiddly guitar work, not a rare occurrence in a situation like this, but the cold, raw-boned quality that fans were so fond of had also remained intact. Straight Ahead's worst flaw actually turned out to be what it had to say. Sage's diaphragm drawl stumbled around well-built compositions and articulated truly dreadful lyrics, the album's nadir being "World Without Fear," which was plagued with sullen platitudes and an embarrassingly cliche-wrought Hands Across America humanism.
 ~ by Dean Carlson.
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_"We've come too far to end up lost
You can't look back, you just look straight ahead "_
The lead man of the Wipers released this solo album soon after the recording of the Wipers legendary 'Over the Edge' album and whatever Greg Sage was on at the time, he definately turned up with another winner here.  The album is alot more sparse than any of the Wipers stuff ever was, but the vocal delivery and attitude is still there to the hilt. On this album Sage is still singing for the dispossessed and lonely.  He has the rare ability to cut through all the crap that most songwriters blind you with leaving exposed a raw nerve of truth or realisation that perhaps you've had before but couldn't properly articulate. Like the great songwriters Sage can also make you feel how he's feeling and that lonlieness and hopelessness works really well on this record.
Side one is where the images and feelings gather focus but on side two, Sage lets it all rip so that the 5 songs on that side drift through the speakers somewhat akin to floating through an astro cloud.  He's dealing with largely esoteric constructs on side two, beyond images of psychedelic reality, Sage is trying to tap into spiritual/mystical concepts, realities rarely touched upon by songwriters during the eighties. There's a heap of classic tunes offered up on this album.  Side one's '_Straight Ahead_', '_Soul's Tongue_' and '_Blue Cowboy_' could fit into that description, but side two is where this disc reaches legendary status.  '_Astro Cloud_' is a sad song about the emptiness of the human spirit in our times, '_Lost in Space_' deals with states of consciousness beyond everyday constructs of reality,  '_Let it Go_' attempts to document the dismantling of a relationship gone wrong, '_World Without Fear_' is a heartfelt ode to everything that makes this world a bad place to live and '_Keep On Keepin' On_' deals with the survival of depression and the individuals rise above being dragged down by extremely strong emotional forces. Sage is a survivor and musical warrior of the highest order.  This disc is highly recommended and shouldn't be too hard to track down.
 ~ by james_jones (RYM).

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