Bradley's Buzz

BubbaTUNESday Black Rose

bub 128 Black Rose – Black Rose
(June 17, 2008)

It’s so hard to be incognito when you’re Cher – even in her times of less than stellar stardom, the girl couldn’t help but be featured on the cover of magazines for just being Cher. So perhaps she was a little naïve in thinking that she could front a rock band without anyone noticing. Such was the idea behind Black Rose in 1980.

After done her discofied Casablanca Records, Cher picked up with her boyfriend at the time Les Dudek and his pals forming a rock band – Black Rose. Of course there was press all around and the minute she headed out front during concerts people snickered. Who did she think she was? She’s Cher for Christ’s sake not Pat Benatar. But Cher had always wanted to sing rock and roll, not disco, not syrupy ballads. It’s funny that she would come back in 1987 with the rock chick persona in full and be embraced. Oh well times change I guess.

In 1980, the reaction was less than stellar and I actually don’t know why. The opening cut was the first single and is my favorite on the album “Never Should’ve Started.” It starts out slow and hits big and it’s about three minutes into the song before you even realize it’s Cher singing. This could’ve been big if people actually didn’t know Cher was on it.

There’s only 8 songs total on the Black Rose album but of those there are a few highlights to be found – “Young & Pretty” is a moody rock song about making it in La La Land, “Julie” is a complete rock balls to the wall song with Cher bitching about the bitch that is Julie – and it’s co-written by Bernie Taupin AND Mike Chapman! “We All Fly Home” is classic late 70’s rock in it’s glory.

The whole Black Rose album is actually good for Cher’s first foray into rock and roll and though it didn’t chart, didn’t sell and didn’t even launch a single, it showed that Cher could wrap that warble around real guitars instead of just gypsy music box songs, disco dangles and sugary ballads. In fact there was one person who felt Cher could rock – Meat Loaf who did a duet with her “Dead Ringer For Love” in all its Jim Steinman rockin’ glory that was released as a single in 1981 where it was a big hit in the UK proving the United Kingdom liked Cher a rocking.

Black Rose – Black Rose (bub128)
Track List:
01. Never Should’ve Started 02. Julie 03. Take It From The Boys 04. We All Fly Home 05. 88 Degrees 06. You Know It 07. Young And Pretty 08. Fast Company
Bonus Track
09. Dead Ringer For Love (with Meat Loaf)

DOWNLOAD BLACK ROSE

Labels: Black Rose, bub128, Bubbatunes, BubbaTUNESday, Cher

posted by swivek @ 11:58 AM