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| Also a little conflicted... |
The Hit
The more I listen to The Ides of March’s “Vehicle,” the more convinced I am that I’ve heard it. On the other hand, it didn’t ring a bell of any kind the first time I heard it.
Assuming you haven’t heard it, it packs a big sound - lots of horns, a Chicago-funk bass line, the rhythm churns, some really solid call-response - the whole thing just screams “ANTHEM.” This is the sound of kicking ass, chewing bubblegum and naming names…which only makes the song’s origin more notable. The songwriter, Jim Peterik, had an ex-girlfriend who called him for rides after the break-up and he obliged often for it to inspire a song; as he phrased the concept in an (always) undated interview with Best Classic Bands, “all I am to you is your vehicle.” In an ending that’s both fitting and that gets at how relationships really work, they reconciled some time after and eventually got married. I’ve found that people who aren’t sure they want to be together have a way of finding excuses to bump into one another…
The Rest of the Story
Before digging in, I need to get something out of the way: I did not like The Ides of March. I made it through their catalog just four times before tapping out and walking away. There’s nothing wrong with having a bias; the real crime is hiding them for ulterior motives. The importance of that idea will come up later, but also in daily life. Moving on…
The Ides of March came up - and I mean that literally - in (or near) Chicago, Illinois (Berwyn, Illinois). The best way I can think to explain that is to note that, 1) when they dropped the name “The Shon-Dels,” they found inspiration from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, which they were reading at the time for high school, and 2) the band’s first hit, “You Wouldn’t Listen to Me” (No. 42 on The Billboard and No. 7 regionally, so not bad) was written during an all-nighter at Peterik’s 15th birthday party. Also, one of their moms, Ann Millas, was the one who arranged their break-trhough meeting with Mercury Records. (For reference, I found most of the finer anecdotes in this post in MusicTAP’s 2020 interview with Peterik.)
The original band members included Peterik, Larry Millas (backing vocals/guitar/Ann’s son), Bob Bergland (backing vocals/bass) and Mike Borch (vocalist/drummer). As you’ll hear if you listen to “You Wouldn’t Listen to Me,” they didn’t have the horns back then, which means they added a few members. A trumpeter named Steve Daniels joined first who - and here’s where it gets fuzzy - was either joined or succeeded by (Wikipedia's entry says “succeeded,” but…) two other “horn players,” John Larsen and Chuck Soumar. (And, since they mention it, I will too: Bergland apparently swaps to tenor saxophone now and again.)
That was the line-up that Ann Millas passed on to Mercury (probably), and they passed on a demo with at least four tracks on it, with “Vehicle” being the fourth. The industry execs who heard it didn’t think much of the first three - “The Sky Is Falling,” “Lead Me Home Gently, Father,” and “Something Coming On” (which I can’t find) - but they heard a hit in “Vehicle.” This surprised the band, who lined up the demos with intent, but the execs got it right: it hit No. 2 on the Billboard as, at the time, the fastest-selling single in…I hate when this happens, Warner Bros.(?) history (what happened to Mercury? I’m not looking, man…).
Outside the fact they broke up from 1973 and, as I’ve learned to expect from doing this project, somewhat predictably got back together in 1990 and still continued to play right up to COVID, there’s not much to add The Ides of March. They released a second album - Common Bond, which, as hinted at above, didn’t work for me either - and that was anchored by “L.A. Goodbye” (closer, honestly, but still not there) and moved some units, and, from what I read and watched, they’ve played with some big acts over the years - e.g., Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Bryan Adams, and REO Speedwagon…see what I did there?
The fun reveal on Ides of March is that Peterik had a fucking massive second act. As he relates in a 2018 interview with Australian Musician, his first inkling he could write a sellable song came when Johnny Rivers offered to buy something Peterik played for him during a spell when The Ides of March opened for him. It took an unsolicited phone call from Sylvester Stallone to turn that inkling into belief. Stallone somehow got wind of Survivor, Peterik’s second band, and he wanted their sound for a movie he was in the process of wrapping up. However it happened, he heard them, liked their sound, decided they’d be a great fit to record a song for Rocky III, so he sent them a Betamax tape of the movie (piece-by-piece, apparently), and he and Survivor's guitarist, Frankie Sullivan, wrote “Eye of the Tiger,” timed that famous guitar lick to the punches, and even lifted the title from a line in the movie (Peterik is the guy on the piano in the video). That’s a famous song - pretty sticky in the culture, etc. - but Peterik also collaborated with (and genuinely admires) .38 Special on two of their more famous hits - “Hold on Loosely” (the story behind that one is…just nice; also, it’s Peterik dwelling on his own relationships again), “Wild Eyed Southern Boys,” and “Caught Up in You.” Full disclosure, I really liked .38 Special as a kid. Ohio, man…
To conclude with the obvious Peterik has an incredible ear for his audience. That audience happens to…lean pretty damn white. I understand that word/concept is very loaded, but that’s the phrasing I grew up with to describe a specific sub-genre of rock - 80s rock, in particular. It’s neither fair nor usefully descriptive; in fact, it’s a paraphrase of the old line about porn - i.e., you just sort of know it when you hear it. Peterik clearly has talent - several of the same songs I can’t bear sounded better when he loosely played them in that interview with Australian Music - but there’s just a quality in their studio material that rubs me the wrong way, even if I can’t quite place it…a combination of plodding and over-produced? Maybe?
About the Sampler
As implied in all the above, generating enthusiasm for a sampler didn’t come easy. I’ve already linked to three of the six songs I moved to the sampler. The other three are: “Wooden Ships/Dharma for One,” “Friends of Feeling” and “Superman.” If you like any or all of those songs, it doesn’t do me any harm. Enjoy!
The more I listen to The Ides of March’s “Vehicle,” the more convinced I am that I’ve heard it. On the other hand, it didn’t ring a bell of any kind the first time I heard it.
Assuming you haven’t heard it, it packs a big sound - lots of horns, a Chicago-funk bass line, the rhythm churns, some really solid call-response - the whole thing just screams “ANTHEM.” This is the sound of kicking ass, chewing bubblegum and naming names…which only makes the song’s origin more notable. The songwriter, Jim Peterik, had an ex-girlfriend who called him for rides after the break-up and he obliged often for it to inspire a song; as he phrased the concept in an (always) undated interview with Best Classic Bands, “all I am to you is your vehicle.” In an ending that’s both fitting and that gets at how relationships really work, they reconciled some time after and eventually got married. I’ve found that people who aren’t sure they want to be together have a way of finding excuses to bump into one another…
The Rest of the Story
Before digging in, I need to get something out of the way: I did not like The Ides of March. I made it through their catalog just four times before tapping out and walking away. There’s nothing wrong with having a bias; the real crime is hiding them for ulterior motives. The importance of that idea will come up later, but also in daily life. Moving on…
The Ides of March came up - and I mean that literally - in (or near) Chicago, Illinois (Berwyn, Illinois). The best way I can think to explain that is to note that, 1) when they dropped the name “The Shon-Dels,” they found inspiration from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, which they were reading at the time for high school, and 2) the band’s first hit, “You Wouldn’t Listen to Me” (No. 42 on The Billboard and No. 7 regionally, so not bad) was written during an all-nighter at Peterik’s 15th birthday party. Also, one of their moms, Ann Millas, was the one who arranged their break-trhough meeting with Mercury Records. (For reference, I found most of the finer anecdotes in this post in MusicTAP’s 2020 interview with Peterik.)
The original band members included Peterik, Larry Millas (backing vocals/guitar/Ann’s son), Bob Bergland (backing vocals/bass) and Mike Borch (vocalist/drummer). As you’ll hear if you listen to “You Wouldn’t Listen to Me,” they didn’t have the horns back then, which means they added a few members. A trumpeter named Steve Daniels joined first who - and here’s where it gets fuzzy - was either joined or succeeded by (Wikipedia's entry says “succeeded,” but…) two other “horn players,” John Larsen and Chuck Soumar. (And, since they mention it, I will too: Bergland apparently swaps to tenor saxophone now and again.)
That was the line-up that Ann Millas passed on to Mercury (probably), and they passed on a demo with at least four tracks on it, with “Vehicle” being the fourth. The industry execs who heard it didn’t think much of the first three - “The Sky Is Falling,” “Lead Me Home Gently, Father,” and “Something Coming On” (which I can’t find) - but they heard a hit in “Vehicle.” This surprised the band, who lined up the demos with intent, but the execs got it right: it hit No. 2 on the Billboard as, at the time, the fastest-selling single in…I hate when this happens, Warner Bros.(?) history (what happened to Mercury? I’m not looking, man…).
Outside the fact they broke up from 1973 and, as I’ve learned to expect from doing this project, somewhat predictably got back together in 1990 and still continued to play right up to COVID, there’s not much to add The Ides of March. They released a second album - Common Bond, which, as hinted at above, didn’t work for me either - and that was anchored by “L.A. Goodbye” (closer, honestly, but still not there) and moved some units, and, from what I read and watched, they’ve played with some big acts over the years - e.g., Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Bryan Adams, and REO Speedwagon…see what I did there?
The fun reveal on Ides of March is that Peterik had a fucking massive second act. As he relates in a 2018 interview with Australian Musician, his first inkling he could write a sellable song came when Johnny Rivers offered to buy something Peterik played for him during a spell when The Ides of March opened for him. It took an unsolicited phone call from Sylvester Stallone to turn that inkling into belief. Stallone somehow got wind of Survivor, Peterik’s second band, and he wanted their sound for a movie he was in the process of wrapping up. However it happened, he heard them, liked their sound, decided they’d be a great fit to record a song for Rocky III, so he sent them a Betamax tape of the movie (piece-by-piece, apparently), and he and Survivor's guitarist, Frankie Sullivan, wrote “Eye of the Tiger,” timed that famous guitar lick to the punches, and even lifted the title from a line in the movie (Peterik is the guy on the piano in the video). That’s a famous song - pretty sticky in the culture, etc. - but Peterik also collaborated with (and genuinely admires) .38 Special on two of their more famous hits - “Hold on Loosely” (the story behind that one is…just nice; also, it’s Peterik dwelling on his own relationships again), “Wild Eyed Southern Boys,” and “Caught Up in You.” Full disclosure, I really liked .38 Special as a kid. Ohio, man…
To conclude with the obvious Peterik has an incredible ear for his audience. That audience happens to…lean pretty damn white. I understand that word/concept is very loaded, but that’s the phrasing I grew up with to describe a specific sub-genre of rock - 80s rock, in particular. It’s neither fair nor usefully descriptive; in fact, it’s a paraphrase of the old line about porn - i.e., you just sort of know it when you hear it. Peterik clearly has talent - several of the same songs I can’t bear sounded better when he loosely played them in that interview with Australian Music - but there’s just a quality in their studio material that rubs me the wrong way, even if I can’t quite place it…a combination of plodding and over-produced? Maybe?
About the Sampler
As implied in all the above, generating enthusiasm for a sampler didn’t come easy. I’ve already linked to three of the six songs I moved to the sampler. The other three are: “Wooden Ships/Dharma for One,” “Friends of Feeling” and “Superman.” If you like any or all of those songs, it doesn’t do me any harm. Enjoy!
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