Rick Springfield Living In Oz: thought he passed his own shadow, by the backstage door...
Written: Jun 15 '04 (Updated Aug 17 '04)
Product Rating:
Pros: OH that eighties guitar sound! OH that eighties synth sound! OH those dreams of stardom!
Cons: ...stardom didn't acquiesce to my demands
The Bottom Line: #9 of the Top Ten Albums that molded my musical tastes. TMI about bob_tomato: when I was sixteen, I desperately wanted to be like Rick Springfield- singer, actor, general heart-throb
bob_tomato's Full Review: Living in Oz by Rick Springfield
There comes a time in your life when you have to face the fact that you probably won’t get to do all the things you wish you could do.
What’s on your list? Sailing the world? Owning a multi-national corporation? Managing the Los Angeles Lakers? (check our career site soon for new job postings!)
In 1983, at age sixteen, I dreamed of stardom in the music industry. I wanted the glitz, the glamour, the girls and the acclaim of millions of adoring fans. I listened incessantly to my cassettes, memorizing each note, each drum hit, each guitar lick, learning to perfect my skills as a consummate “air instrumentalist”. I could match up with the best of them, at least, “them” that were in my tiny but growing collection of tapes – for example, I could pound my air drums and sing right along with Phil Collinsas he menaced his way through Mama. Unfortunately, the only witness to my greatness was my cat, lying on the end of my bed, staring at me with obvious disdain. But I knew, I was convinced that I could be just as good as any of my jukebox heroes…
A few particular tapes received far more play than the others, but one in particular got a lot of attention from me as the artist’s fame skyrocketed when he added “soap opera actor” to his resume (“Comic Book Hero” and “Working Class Dog” being a couple other entries on his list). Rick Springfield was already an established teen heart-throb for his stratospheric hunkitude and his amazingly catchy brand of power-pop, but his role as Doctor Noah Drake on ABC’s General Hospital made him enormously popular with all the ladies (and others, or so I’m led to believe). This was a level of fame that really interested me – a real triple-threat! Rick released his solo album Living in Oz at the height of his fame as Dr. Drake, and I was probably one of the first in line to buy it (thank goodness for my job at Taco Bell…)
And OH! this album had everything that I liked about pop music in the early eighties – chorused guitars playing constant eighth notes, growling synthesized horns and strings, lots of PG rated sexual references (some of which went over my head) and enough power chords to pump my adolescent hormones into overdrive. My emerging tenor voice could match Rick note for note, and (when there was no one else around) my own interpretations of the melody and lyrics of Living in Ozwere obviously superior in every way. Springfield’s guitarist Tim Pierce had nothing on me – my air guitar versions of his frequent solos were my one way ticket to the top. The title song was my favorite air guitar song of the album, showcasing Pierce’s style really well, and it also has some fun synth arpeggios to attempt on air keyboards. Lyrically, this is the most revealing song of the record…
Ever since I was a kid
I remember having dreams of grandeur
I was gonna be someone, I know what I want
Everybody played second best
And I held you back just like all the rest
I think I got what I want
Everybody's got to fight their demons
And you know I had to fight mine, too
It took a lot out of me, it took a lot out of you
To be Living In Oz, Living In Oz
Sometimes the dream can wake you
Living In Oz, Living In Oz
Sometimes the dream can shock you, too
I think that Springfield made a real effort to make a statement with Oz. Perhaps he didn’t want his new fans to overlook his real passion as a musician, and so he put more of himself into this project. All of the songs are quite personal in nature, touching on relationships between friends and lovers, parents and children, and even sexual predator and prey. Me and Johnny is a simple pop rock tune that recalls the youthful ambition of two friends – musically, it’s one of the weaker tracks on the record, but it gives an interesting glimpse into Rick’s early dreams of stardom. Tiger By The Tail is a faux-reggae tale of someone who’s taken on more than he can handle – again, a weak tune and weaker, repetitive lyrics, but it’s one of the more interesting departures of his career. Like Father, Like Son is a musical clone of The BeatlesEleanor Rigby, while it’s discussion of traditional Catholicism, familial succession and personal regrets mirror Harry Chapin’s Cat’s In The Cradle - this is one of the tracks that I find appeals to me more and more now that I am two decades on from hearing it for the first time. The one song that most appealed to my adolescent fantasies was the hard rocking Motel Eyes - the title alone says it all.
There are a few radio hits on Oz, and you can probably hear these now on your local eighties nostalgia station (ouch – time flies!) Three hits lead the album – Human Touch is computer synth driven, perhaps in satire of the growing trends in music at the time as the lyrics discuss the need for the human element in everything we do. Affair Of The Heart also features a synth intro which morphs into the familiar choppy guitar rhythms of this very big hit for Springfield. Alyson wasn’t as big a hit as the others, but the lyrics fueled a lot of speculation about the goings on at the set of General Hospital…
Talk about life, imitating art
Well I was sure that I heard the Director yell,
"Take it from the start"
And I could feel my body crushing yours
Camera dollied into place
Your husband's in the front row, I couldn't look him in the face
The biggest hit of Living in Oz comes late in the album – I may be wrong about this, but outside of Jessie’s Girl, Souls has got to be one of Rick Springfield’s biggest hit ever. I always thought that this song could be used as the basis of a really bad TV movie about two star struck lovers up against the world, eking out a living in the cold city, trying to make a life out of nothing but their love for each other – this is exactly the sort of fantasy world that appealed to my young mind. I could sing this song! I could be one of the two Souls! I could be a superstar…
I should have paid more attention to my cat; he gauged my chances more accurately than I did.
Sure, I can sing pretty well, but I know my limits and they don’t reach to superstar level. Now I can listen to Rick Springfield with a more critical ear, and I have to say that despite the twenty plus year gap, Living in Oz still holds up pretty well as a great piece of early eighties power-pop, and I think that it’s his best work. Rick was always capable of penning catchy melodies with neat pop hooks, and his previous two efforts Working Class Dog and Success Hasn’t Spoiled Me Yet vaulted Springfield into the role of Top 40 artist. But the thing that sets Oz apart from his other albums is its sharper edge – admittedly, Rick Springfield can’t be accused of ever rocking HARD, but most of this set of songs rocked harder than anything he’d done before, and much of what he did later. But all those years ago, Rick’s personal best Living in Oz put stars in my eyes, and sometimes, when no one else is looking, I can still imagine that one guitar, slung way down low…
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Rick Springfield - Living in Oz
Originally released May 1, 1983 by RCA Records
Track listing
Human Touch / Alyson / Affair Of The Heart / Living In Oz / Me & Johnny / Motel Eyes / Tiger By The Tail / Souls / I Can't Stop Hurting You / Like Father Like Son
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My Top Ten List of albums that molded my musical tastes
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