Bradley's Buzz

bub107 Tanya Tucker – Tear Me Apart
December 11, 2007
Original Release: November 1979
MCA Records #5106

First let me tell you that Bubbatunes actually did a reissue of this album back in 2004 (see bub39) and that was a very good reissue, it had new artwork, the great remastering-ish skills of my pal Luther and his pristine record player and even had some bonus tracks which were actually just the pop songs from Tanya’s 1978 highlight TNT. When I decided to do the Tanya Reissues I wasn’t going to redo this album but after thinking about it and realizing how I wanted to be able to listen to each and every Tanya album right in a row without having back tracking bonus tracks, I decided to do it. So I dumped the TNT songs since if you are listening to Tanya in succession then you have just listened to TNT and now it’s time for Tear Me Apart.

Tanya's rock album of 1979, Tear Me Apart is one of my all time favorite albums ever, and I'm not even kidding! When I figured out how to take my vinyl records and put them into the computer to make a CDR, Tear Me Apart was the very first album I had to do. Luckily, my pal Luther had a better stereo and a better system to do this and he did a little "remastering" and this classic, and oft overlooked little ditty is now available on CD!

Tear Me Apart has intrigued me ever since I was a little kid. The album was the follow up to 1978's TNT which had shown Miss T heading to a more pop/rock orientated style than the country she had been known for. It only made sense to me that she would go this route as she was only about 21 years old at the time and though she had made country records for the last 6 years, I could hear the rock voice in her just itching to come out. Around 1978/79 producer Mike Chapman approached our girl about producing a full on rock album for her, even (according to Tanya) offering not to charge her if the album wasn't successful.

Mike Chapman is one of my all time fav producers, having taken Blondie to brand new heights in 1978 and through to the end of the first incarnation of their career. He also produced parts of Pat Benatar's debut album that came out in October 1979. Rumor has it that Tanya Tucker was even in the recording booth during Blondie's Eat To The Beat sessions early in the summer of 1979. Anyway, Mike had also been responsible for Nick Gilder's "Hot Child In The City", The Knack's album (“My Sharona”), Smokie, Sweet ("Ballroom Blitz") and Suzi Quatro ("Happy Days" Leather Tuscadero).

So he opted to take our girl T into the valley and record what would become Tear Me Apart. I've always liked the album but due to bad vinyl copies, I was never able to fully appreciate it until now when it's all cleaned up and I have to say I love it, love it. In fact I can't stop listening to it.

Listening to it now, Tear Me Apart isn't as radical, or rock and roll for that matter, as it probably seemed upon its release. There are even twinges of country on some of the songs but in 1979 and with Mike Chapman at the helm, I'm sure the album was perceived as completely out there.

As for the music, Tanya sounds incredible - she is harsh, she is raw, she is fun! The album opens with the straight up in your face rock of "Blind Love". Tanya as the rock goddess is a very convincing thing once you hear this number, with its keyboards and drums. Of course the rock and roll reflected on Tear Me Apart is a little more subtle than say Pat Benatar's "Heartbreaker" but it is very much in the vein of Suzi Quatro and Sweet - the glam rock/southern rock hybrid Mike Chapman had been perfecting for years.

Mike even uses his own back catalog for Tanya's album with "Lay Back In The Arms Of Someone" and "Tear Me Apart" - both of which were done by his other female protégé Suzi Quatro. To me Tanya's raspiness really takes the songs to new levels, particularly “Lay Back In The Arms Of Someone.” The song was chosen as the first single and it should’ve been a huge hit if not in country (it has some twang to it) at least on the 1979 pop scene. It's an interesting note that Juice Newton known as one of the first to successfully blend pop and country recorded the song the same year only Juice’s was more country sounding… strange isn’t it?

Despite the album’s rock flavor, it’s the ballads that have really captured me. The first ballad we hear is "Somebody Must've Loved You Right Last Night" the story of an affair from the wounded woman's point of view set to a 1979 synthesized keyboard. The song contains such brazen delights as "I don't think that smile’s for me/ you didn't make it home till after 3" but it's the chorus and her delivery which grabs me.. " "Somebody must've loved you right last night cuz you're so faraway today/somebody turned your love light on in a different way." The second verse continues with “Don’t you get tired of using me,” a line which she growls so ferociously I get chills. “Am I just the fool you come home to/ after someone else has had the best of you?” The song shows the guts behind the glory that is Tanya Tucker. Sure, she’s being used and sure she’s sad but she’s not about to let you just walk in without her getting some things off her chest. I think it’s one of Tanya's best vocal performances and one of her best songs.
“San Francisco (Be Sure Wear Flowers In Your Hair)/I Left My Heart In San Francisco” always seemed to be such a strange selection. Particularly since this was the time in Tanya’s life where she was hitting the Hollywood scene with fervor. Perhaps she wanted to celebrate California life in general and found this song (s) to be the best way to do it. The song has some good guitar playing in it but it doesn’t particularly stand out as anything much more than filler, though the added change in the song to incorporate “I Left My Heart In San Francisco” (the only line of that song used here) is a fairly creative turn.

"Tear Me Apart" and its next number "Crossfire Of Desire" are more rock in flavor than anything else on the album. “I’ve been seen in the back of a limousine/I may not own it but it’s bigger than you’ve ever seen/She’ll ride around and think she’s a star/if you please she’s a tease you won’t get far/Tear Me Apart/if you want to win my heart” growls the Texas Queen in the title track.

“Crossfire” is a pretty hilarious song in terms of its subject manner. The crossfire Tanya finds herself in is whether to cheat with a complete stranger or head home to her lover. Typical flavor for a country tune I think but the piano churning and the synthesized guitar riff coming through shines as Tanya says, “I know he would never understand if passion finds me in a one night stand/but I can’t let the pleasures so close at hand slip by.” What a slut, I love her.

“Crossfire Of Desire” has the additional delight of a killer sax solo and backup vocals whispering "crossfire" filling up the middle of the song before the guitars kick back in and Tanya finishes up the cut.

Both "Tear Me Apart" and "Crossfire Of Desire" are absolutely spectacular songs and wonderful vehicles for Tanya's voice, which can be very fairly argued is pretty much made for rock and roll (which is why she's so wonderful when she growls in her country tunes).

“Better Late Than Never” is a strange little song but one strange little song I can’t get enough of. The song opens with Tanya half singing/half talking; “The insults and the punches flew/just like they always have” and then she growls, “He knocked me down and left the room/but I came running back/and I said, “Hey look around/Hey look in the mirror/Lay your ego down/it will get so much clearer.” The song has by this time become a country rock hybrid with a twangy guitar pushing the drama through. The chorus is brilliant as Tanya delivers, “Put up the flag/lay down your weapon/this perpetual battle royal here is a long way from Heaven/Call it a mistake/or call it whatever/let’s just call it off/better late than never.”

The second verse continues the talk/sing part before breaking into some of my favorite lines ever, “So you keep the car/and all those passionate letters/it won’t get you that far/they won’t make you feel better…” The chorus comes up again and before we get another refrain Tanya crashes in singing, “I’m through with you, you son of a ….” And I fall off my chair every time I hear it! In fact, don’t be too surprised if you hear a Swivek rendition in the near future.

"I've Never Said No Before" is the ballad that is more in the Tanya vein people were probably used to in 1979. Ever since 1975's Tanya Tucker album, Tanya was moving slowly into a more pop attitude and would incorporate electric guitar, keyboards and the like into her ballads. “I’ve Never Said…” could have fit in on any of those country albums and a reworking today would no doubt work on country radio without any problems.

The song is typical Tanya rhetoric, opening with "I've never said no before/ I didn't know how/ I've never said that before now", moving into the verses where she growls and croons, "you need the peeerrrfeeect looooove, it's just not me.." before breaking into the song's crescendo of "It's easy to see what you're doing to me/you're stealing my heart/I've got to let goooo..." and quietly ending with, "I've never said no before/I didn't know how/for your sake I'm saying 'No' now."

I love songs like these. It’s a love song yet not really. It’s not a poor poor me type of song, instead it’s a song saying, “You better stay away from me because I could fuck you up,” and that’s sad, but brilliant.

"Shady Streets" is another one that could easily be re-recorded today - part ballad, part upbeat - it's very reminiscent of the pop flavorings offered on TNT. Again, it’s not much of a bombshell compared to the other tracks but the imagery is nice as Tanya hopes to find life on those elite shady streets while wearing shiny shoes, something that has apparently eluded her up to this point. Plus Tanya’s voice is so enchanting to me. The passion that comes through on even the most mundane lyric leaves me in a trance. Tanya from the age of only 13 has the power to make you believe she is feeling every single shred of emotion being described and I’m left rooting for her, hoping she finds those damn shiny shoes and her life works out.

Tear Me Apart ends with "By Day By Day" a jaunty run through pseudo rock that works almost as country as it is firmly based in the Southern rock mode. Piano jumping, drums and high hats thumping, gospel chorus crooning; it has it all. Tanya's "whoohs" add to the fun feeling coursing through the track, “Did you ever wake up sweating from a midnight dream…” is the song’s smoky opening line while Tanya continues, “You sit there smiling/ but if you could read my brain/you’d see yourself under the wheels of this runaway train/and you know that train keeps getting closer baby day by day/day by day now.” The song is pure Tanya Tucker declaring she’s “One part woman, one part wild, one part machine” and you better beware cuz that train known as Miss T keeps getting closer day by day now.

The musical break in the middle of the song is filled with a piano/sax combo solo that keeps this little bluesy train love song chugging down the track until Tanya is left screaming, “By day by day by day by day” and a full on vocal choir ending. It’s really quite a little ditty and a great way to end what has fast become my ultimate favorite Tanya Tucker album.

When listening to this collection of songs I am always amazed at to why it didn’t score. Maybe people didn’t like change. Rock fans didn’t want some country star coming over to their territory; the country fans didn’t want their ‘little dynamo’ headed to the scary side of rock. Either way, this album isn’t much different than anything else released by a female rock singer. It’s not as hardcore as Pat Benatar’s release of the same year but it’s not all that different from Ellen Foley’s Night Out and it’s gutsier than Olivia Newton-John’s Totally Hot, which scored huge.

Either way I think the album is great and even my Alf who doesn’t care for much had a straight face when he said he didn’t know why it wasn’t a popular album either, and he lived in the rock teenaged world of 1979 so he knows what he’s talking about.

Due to the dismal reception Tear Me Apart received and the tabloids constantly busting her in rather compromising positions around Los Angeles, Tanya's father grabbed her and brought her back to her "senses" to which put her back to country records with 1980's Dreamlovers which is our very next topic on these 11 Days Of Tanya Tucker and even though the next albums were good, as every Enquiring mind knows it was her personal affairs that proved bigger selling points than her music. Eventually, she’d completely clean up though she still kept up with her Ms. Bad Ass…she busted up bars, she had two children out of wedlock refusing to name the father in public, she doesn’t give a rip what you think about her…

It's really Mike Chapman who was the loser in the whole situation because MCA Records got their money from Tanya in other albums, we as fans got a fabulous little look at what could've been and Tanya got to sing rock and roll. But Mike, he offered to do this pro bono if it wasn't a hit and I get the impression he may have had to dip into all that Blondie savings to pay his condo that month.

As for Tear Me Apart, it's my hope this album sees the light of day on CD - preferably with the artwork I created for it and, as I firmly believe it is the most overlooked album in Tanya's career but one that should definitely not be ignored. Thankfully, I learned how to work that damn computer.

And for an extra dose of 1979 Tanya, check out this performance on You Tube with Tanya singing "Crossfire Of Desire" - it's too die for. I swear.

Tanya Tucker - Tear Me Apart (bub107)
Track List:
01. Blind Love 02. Lay Back In The Arms Of Someone 03. Somebody Must Have Loved You Right Last Night 04. San Francisco (Be Sure To Wear A Flower In Your Hair)/I Left My Heart In San Francisco 05. Tear Me Apart 06. Crossfire Of Desire 07. Better Late Than Never 08. I've Never Said No Before 09. Shady Streets 10. By Day By Day

and because I love you all so and it is the season for giving - I'm not messing around with piddly little mp3 downloads - no my friends, today you get the rare opportunity to download the entire Tear Me Apart album including the bubbatunes artwork - so enjoy (this is for a limited time)