Back to the Drive is an album by Suzi Quatro. Released in 2006, it was the comeback album for Suzi Quatro, her first album since 1990's "Oh Suzi Q" (apart from 1995's 'What Goes Around, which contained mostly re-recordings of her oldies and 1998's 'Unreleased Emotion' which had been recorded in 1983, but until then unreleased) and her eleventh studio album. Produced by The Sweet guitarist Andy Scott and Steve Grant, it was overseen by inveterate producer Mike Chapman and featured backing vocals by Shirlie Roden, and ex-husband Len Tuckey on guitar, including her daughter Laura Quatro (then Laura Tuckey) duetting with her on the download-only single "I'll Walk Through The Fire With You".
It was issued on EMI Records throughout the world, and in the UK on the revived Liberty Records and EMI distributed indepedent label Caroline Records in North America.
Music
The album was an eclectic affair that drew from several different music styles from the 70's glam rock title track which sampled the intro from "Devil Gate Drive" and the guitar line from her debut worldwide hit "Can The Can". "15 Minutes Of Fame" had a folk rock flavour to it, "Duality" was derived from an Indian raga, whilst "I Don't Do Gentle" was a throwback to 1950s big band rock. As with most of her albums, Quatro included a cover song, a version of the Neil Young song "Rocking In The Free World". Two ballads from the album "Sometimes Love Is Letting Go" and "Free The Butterfly" are her most personal and introspective songs to date, the former telling a story of her past relationships with her parents and Len Tuckey, the latter was also the album title of a New Age motivational album she made with Shirlie Roden as a discovery to self-awareness.
Cover art and title
The front cover photograph was created by Steve Payne which featured a photo of Quatro screaming whilst playing the bass guitar with graphics which made the cover look like she had shattered a window. The inside photographs and back cover photos were taken by Gered Mankowitz and Victory Tichsler-Blue. Mankowitz had previously photographed Suzi for her early albums on RAK Records.
The title "Back to the Drive" is a play on her 1974 hit "Devil Gate Drive", which implied she was returning to her rock'n'roll roots after the last few albums were more dependent on pop and soft rock.
Critical reception
Whilst the album was warmly received by the critics and fans, it did not chart anywhere. Allmusic gave it a four-star rating. It was four years before Quatro was ready to record another album, this time with Mike Chapman on production duties and due for release in early 2011.
Personnel
#0|30692934|I Love Brazil!|studio|Sarah Vaughan|1977|Bossa nova, Vocal jazz|Pablo|I Love Brazil! (1977)|54:43||How Long Has This Been Going On? (1978)|Sarah Vaughan with the Jimmy Rowles Quintet (1974)|October 31-November 7, 1977||Sarah Vaughan|I Love Brazil!
I Love Brazil! is a 1977 studio album by Sarah Vaughan, accompanied by prominent Brazillian musicians Milton Nascimento, Dori Caymmi and Antonio Carlos Jobim.
This was Vaughan's first album of Bossa nova/MPB, it was followed by Copacabana (1979), and Brazilian Romance (1987).
Reception
The Allmusic review by Scott Yanow awarded the album two and a half stars and said that Vaughan's voice was "still in tremendous form" but "few of the performances are all that memorable...this set is really more for fans of contemporary Brazilian music than for jazz collectors".
Personnel
*Sarah Vaughan - vocals
*Novelli - electric bass
*Dori Caymmi - guitar, vocals
*Dorival Caymmi - vocals
*Wilson DasNeves - drums
*Robertinho Silva
*Paulo Jobim - flute
*Nelson Ângelo - electric guitar
*Ariovaldo - percussion
*Chico Batera
*Luna
*Armando Marçal
*Ariovaldo Luna
*Marçal
*Edson Frederico - arranger, orchestration, piano
*Sergio Barroso - bass, acoustic bass
*Claudio Bertrami
*Milton Nascimento - guitar, acoustic guitar, vocals
*Danilo Caymmi - flute, vocals
*Antonio Carlos Jobim - piano
*Hélio Delmiro - guitar, electric guitar
*Mauricio Einhorn - harmonica, harmonica arrangements
*José Roberto Bertrami - arranger, fender rhodes, organ, electric piano
;Production
*Durval Ferreira - creative director
*Sheldon Marks - design, layout design
*Norman Granz - design, layout design, liner notes
*Mário Jorge Bruno - engineer
*Tamaki Beck - mastering
*Aloysio de Oliveira - producer
References
Category:Pablo Records albums
Category:Sarah Vaughan albums
Category:Bossa nova albums
Category:1977 albums
This text has been derived from Back to the Drive on Wikipedia and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License 3.0Artist/Band Information
Susan Kay "Suzi" QuatroUnzipped (Autobiography) (born June 3, 1950) is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and actress.
She scored a string of hit singles in the 1970s that found greater success in Europe than in her homeland, and had a recurring role on the popular American sitcom Happy Days.
Early life
Quatro was born into a Catholic musical family, in Detroit, Michigan. Her father, Art, a part-time jazz musician, was of Italian descent, while her mother, Helen Sanislay, was Hungarian. Quatro stated in her autobiography that her paternal grandfather, whose last name was Quattrocchi, shortened the family name to "Quatro" before she was born. She is the aunt of actress Sherilyn Fenn, whose mother is Quatro's sister Arlene. Quatro began her musical career at the age of fourteen.Uncredited, liner notes to The Best Of... (1984) She played the bass guitar in the all-female band Pleasure Seekers and Cradle with her sisters Patti, Nancy, and Arlene. Her first bass guitar was a 1957 Fender Precision, given to her by her father. Patti Quatro later joined the band Fanny, one of the earliest all-female rock bands to gain national attention. She has a brother, Michael Quatro, who is also a musician.
Quatro moved to the United Kingdom in 1971 after being discovered in Detroit by the record producer Mickie Most, who produced The Animals, Jeff Beck, Lulu, and Donovan. By this time he had started his own label RAK Records, which made stars of Hot Chocolate and Mud.
Career
Music
Quatro's first single "Rolling Stone" did not achieve popularity except in Portugal, where it hit number one on the charts. Most introduced Quatro to the songwriting and production team Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman. Her second single "Can the Can" (1973) was a number one hit throughout Europe and in Australia. It was followed up by three further hits: "48 Crash" (1973), "Daytona Demon" (1973), and "Devil Gate Drive" (1974) on RAK Records. "Can the Can", "48 Crash" and "Devil Gate Drive" each sold over one million copies, and were each awarded gold discs.
These recordings, a hybrid of glam rock and bubblegum pop, met little success in her native United States, despite tours in the mid-1970s supporting Alice Cooper. With the exception of Australia, from 1975 onwards, glam rock's popularity declined. In the interim, she did enjoy some success as a session player.
Quatro's fortunes did not change until 1978, when "If You Can't Give Me Love" became a hit in the United Kingdom and Australia. This did nothing to prompt Stateside success, but "Stumblin' In", a duet recorded that same year for RSO Records with Chris Norman of the band Smokie reached a #4 peak in the U.S. Both tracks featured on the If You Knew Suzi album. A year later, Quatro released Suzi... And Other Four Letter Words, which she called her favourite album. This featured singles, such as "She's In Love With You", which made number 11 in Britain, "Mama's Boy" (34), and "I've Never Been In Love" (56). In 1980, her song "Rock Hard" was featured on the soundtrack of the cult film Times Square, along with some punk and new wave bands like Talking Heads, Ramones, XTC, and The Pretenders. 1980 also saw the release of Suzi Quatro's Greatest Hits. This record was promoted with TV and radio promotions from the record label. This was her highest charting album in the UK, peaking at #4 in the UK Albums Chart. This success period proved brief however, and her last UK hit was "Heart of Stone" in late 1982. In 1985, Quatro collaborated with Bronski Beat and members of The Kinks, Eddie and the Hot Rods, and Dr. Feelgood on the Mark Cunningham produced version of David Bowie's "Heroes", released the following year as the 1986 BBC "Children In Need" single.
In December 2005, a documentary chronicling Quatro's life, Naked Under Leather, directed by former member of The Runaways Victory Tischler Blue, appeared. In February 2006, Quatro released "Back To the Drive", produced by Sweet guitarist Andy Scott. The album's title track was written by her former collaborator Mike Chapman.
In March 2007, Quatro released a version of the Eagles song "Desperado", followed by the publication of her autobiography, Unzipped.
Quatro has sold nearly 50 million records.
Legacy
Quatro proved it was possible for a woman of small stature to proudly and raunchily wear leather, sing and play bass. She had a direct influence on The Runaways and Joan Jett. A number of music history revisionists have credited her with being a precursor to the 1990s riot grrrl movement. This has been disputed by Allmusic who noted her "innocuous" lyrics and that many of her songs were written for her by professional writers.
A Spanish rock band called Suzy & los Quattros released two albums on No Tomorrow in 2006 and 2008; in the tradition of Ramones and the Donnas, all of the bandmembers except for Suzy Chain list their last name as Quattro.
Acting and radio hosting
She is known in the United States for her role as Leather Tuscadero on the TV show Happy Days. Show producer Garry Marshall offered the role without an audition after seeing her on his daughter's bedroom wall. Leather was the younger sister of Fonzie's girlfriend, hot-rod driver Pinky Tuscadero. Leather fronted an all-girl rock band joined by principal character Joanie Cunningham. The character returned in other cameo roles, including once for a date to a fraternity formal with Ralph Malph. Marshall offered Quatro a Leather Tuscadero spin-off, but she refused, saying she did not want to be typecast. The indie rock band, Tuscadero, was named after her character.
Other acting roles include a 1982 episode of British comedy-drama series Minder called "Dead Men Do Tell Tales", as the singer girlfriend of Terry's (Dennis Waterman). In 1985, she starred as a mentally disturbed ex-MI5 operative in Dempsey and Makepeace - "Love you to Death". In 1986, Quatro appeared as Annie Oakley in a London production of Annie Get Your Gun.
In 1991, Quatro wrote and performed in a musical about the life of actress Tallulah Bankhead. Entitled "Tallulah who?" it was adapted from a book by Willie Rushton and ran from 15 February – 19 March at the Queen's Theatre, Hornchurch (Greater London - Essex). Suzi co-wrote the music and adapted the book with Shirlie Roden.
In 1994, she made a cameo appearance in an episode of the comedy Absolutely Fabulous. She also was filmed in the 1990 Clive Barker horror film Nightbreed, but the studio cut out her character.
In 2006, Quatro performed the voice of Rio in the Bob the Builder film Built To Be Wild, and appeared in an episode of the second season of Rock School, in Lowestoft. She also appeared in the episode "The Axeman Cometh" of Midsomer Murders alongside Phil Grainger in the role of Mimi Clifton.
In October 2006, Quatro was a contestant on the British reality television show Trust Me – I'm a Beauty Therapist'.
In addition to touring, Quatro has hosted weekly rock and roll programmes on BBC Radio 2. The first one was Rockin' with Suzi Q. Her second programme called "Wake Up Little Suzi". It aired on Thursdays.
Personal life
Quatro married her longtime guitarist Len Tuckey in 1976. They had two children together (Laura in 1982 and Richard Leonard in 1984) and divorced in 1992. Before 1993, Quatro lived in a manor house in Essex that she and Tuckey bought in 1980, with her two children and grandchild. She married German concert promoter Rainer Haas in 1993. Toward the end of 2008, Quatro's children moved out of the house, and she put it up for sale, but later she decided to remain in England. She explained that she had empty nest syndrome. Quatro continues to live in Essex, England. She continues to perform live around the world, doing an average of about 60 concerts per year.
Discography
Studio albums
*Suzi Quatro (1973, Can the Can in Australia)
*Quatro (1974)
*Your Mamma Won't Like Me (1975)
*Aggro-Phobia (1976)
*If You Knew Suzi (1978)
*Suzi... And Other Four Letter Words (1979)
*Rock Hard (1980)
*Main Attraction (1982)
*Oh Suzi Q. (1990)
*What Goes Around (1996)
*Unreleased Emotion (1998)
*Back to the Drive (2006)
Live albums
*Live and Kickin (1977, Japan & Australia only live album; re-released as double CD in 1990 in Australia)
Compilation albums
*Suzi Quatro's Greatest Hits (1980)
*The Best of... (1984, limited to RSO years)
*The Wild One - The Greatest Hits (1990)
*The Gold Collection (1996)
Singles
† Suzi Quatro and Chris Norman
Filmography
Television
*Disco (eleven episodes plus one retrospection, 1973–1980)
*Happy Days (seven episodes, 1977–1979)
*Minder (one episode, 1982)
*Rod and Emu's Saturday Special (one episode, 1983)
*The Krankies Klub (one episode, 1983)
*Dempsey & Makepeace (one episode, 1985)
*Absolutely Fabulous (one episode, 1994)
*Countdown (six episodes, 1997)
*Gene Simmons' Rock School (one episode on series two, 2006)
*Bob the Builder - Built to be wild (voice of Rio, 2006)
*Midsomer Murders (one episode, 2007)
*Australian Idol (one episode as guest judge, 2009)
See also
* Pleasure Seekers
References
This text has been derived from Suzi Quatro on Wikipedia and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License 3.0
