Post-Punk Monk

Yesterday I got an urge and managed to scratch the itch on a weeknight! I played a record for the first time in almost two years! I had Robert Hazard’s near-hit “Escalator Of Life” buzzing around my skull and knew that I needed to act on it. I’ve not mentioned Hazard except in passing, on a review of the “Hardest Hits Vol. 4” CD where I had the song at first in my Record Cell. This is what I had said then.

“The final surprise on this disc was Robert Hazard’s US synthpop near-classic “Escalator of Life.” He had the Eurosynth sound down pat, but his vocals are comically overwrought as only a Yank can commit to tape. Still, his heart was in the right place, and it’s fun to hear this also-ran level of technopop decades later.”

That still holds water with me, but a decade ago I ran across his five track EP from whence the song had come, and I last night knew it was time to hear it and report back with my findings. So let’s go.

Robert Hazard: Robert Hazard – US – EP [1982]

1. Escalator Of Life 4:41
2. Change Reaction 3:55
3. Hang Around With You 3:05
4. Out Of The Blue 3:47
5. Blowin’ In The Wind 4:27

The synths in the “Elevator Of Life” intro prowl like cats in a dark alley. The vibe hooks me right away. Once the galloping beat starts up we’re committed. Then Mr. Hazard began singing. He sang like he looked. A hip dude adopting the de riguer thin tie New Wave look appropriate to the song itself. Like I mentioned, a little overwrought, but that’s the level of commitment that sells the song. When he name drops Gloria Vanderbilt he really makes the sale in the middle eight where the anguished climax of this neat little protest song [it really is] re-fitted to slot into the New Wave.

At the time I was a little snobby brat with my Ultravox records who looked askance at Hazard, but 44 years later it’s there, ready to liven up any mix tape or playlist with its driving energy and social critique. A song that got a little commercial oxygen at the time; getting some medium rotation MTV airplay and peaking at number 58 ,which in retrospect, should have been at least in the Top 40 owing to its strengths and pleasures.

The obvious follow up single came next. “Change Reaction” was the upbeat Pop side of Robert’s style. Not as cool, yet honorable in its achievements. The chords were major here, with an underlying wistfulness that was appealing. Vocally, Hazard didn’t bite down as hard on the song, logically. Yet it still manages to reference au courant New Wave in that the backing vocal arrangement seems to have been ripped right out of The Boomtown Rats “Keep It Up” from their “Fine Art Of Surfacing” album from two years earlier. The peppy organ solo by Jerry Weindel kept the mood up, where it needed to be.

Side two began with the ripcord rocker, [I Just Wanna] Hang Around With You.” The vibe here really was strongly redolent of the first [deceptively good!] Tom Petty song I ever heard; the atypically urgent rock of “I Need To Know.” There’s more than a hint of Dylan-by-way-of-Petty in Hazard’s delivery, but his tight band capably take the spotlight in the instrumental middle section where they all get to solo for a few bars before the chugging rhythm section and John Lilley’s guitars grab a fat solo.

“Out Of The Blue” was another urgent yet upbeat rocker with a stick “yo-oh” hook that was well used. The nice thing about EPs like this in the day was that there was no room for chaff that could manifest on a full album. The succinct twenty minute format made for a show of only strengths.

Finally, the EP wrapped up with a surprising choice; an urgent New Wave adjacent cover of “Blowin’ In The Wind!” The fast tempo was nothing like what we expect but Hazard’s vocal performance maintained a respectful resolve not to0 far from what one would come to expect. Yet like XTC’s stab at “All Along The Watchtower” on their first album, one got a sense of “why did they feel the need to do this” as no one was clamoring for New Wave Dylan, as far as I could see. And the ball was really dropped with the ultra-bombastic climax that went on for seeming endless measures before mercifully stopping.

Apart from the ending, it was a taut little EP with a good interplay of light and shadow. I’d say that the shadows [“Escalator Of Life”] edged out the light here, but either were enjoyable. Robert Hazard was apparently discovered in a club when Rolling Stone’s Kurt Loder ran across him and was converted by Hazard’s onstage charisma in the era where everyone was still looking for the “next Springsteen.” For his part, Hazard was a veteran folk/country music fan who was adapting to the times well enough. Loder’s advocacy probably led to RCA picking up his indie, self-released EP, but not before remixing three of its tracks.

If we were to make a REVO CD-R of this title [and we’re heading in that direction, frankly] there are plenty of bonus tracks that would be at home on it.

For a start the self-released version of the EP by “Robert Hazard + The Heroes” featured the original mixes of “Escalator Of Life,” “Change Reaction,” and “Out Of The Blue.”

The US “Escalator Of Life” 7″ features a short edit of the A-side and a non-LP B-side! “Say Yo!” Proof positive that Robert was a Philly Boy.

Finally, there was a “Change Reactions” US 12″ issued with an extended remix and an instrumental mix on the B-side.

Now we have a nice twelve track album that’s not such an egregious waste of a $3.00 gold printable CD-R! And if I’m being frank here, I can obtain all of these three releases for negligibly low pricing.

There must have been something in the Pennsylvania water. In the way he brought the goods to the table he was of a piece with Pittsburgh’s own David Werner, but ultimately, Hazard was a bit more derivative in his practice than Werner. The nods to Tom Petty and Dylan here were nothing that I’ve seen from Werner, who was moving more Bowie-esque direction. Werner aimed a little higher in his influences for my taste. But in getting the goods across, there was a simpatico, I felt.

Hazard, of course, struck gold by writing “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” whose demo reached the ears of Cyndi Lauper and probably changed the direction of his life for a while at least. His follow ups to this EP sank without much traces and by the time he got back into the game in this century musically, he deferred to his original tastes with Country/Americana. Ultimately getting signed to Rykodisc for that album above in 2007. A year after this he died at the young age of 59 from pancreatic cancer. Since then he’s been feted by fellow Philly musicians like The Hooters. But we’ll always have a soft spot for his foray into New Wave Rock.

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