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| Before... |
The Hit
Until this past week, I had never heard of Roger Voudouris (pronounced “Vi-DOR-us,” per the first half of this fascinating little internet gem posted by a guy who seems to be a longtime session musician, Leland Sklar), and I had never heard his hit, “Get Used to It.” From his recollections about recording the Voudouris’ hit:
“It was really fun when we did this, really such tight arrangements, just groove, lots of fun little parts to them. It wasn’t just plowing through a song. It had some thoughtfulness went into the arrangement and Michael was really just great at that.”
The “Michael” referenced in that quote is (or was) Michael Omartian, a producer who churned out hits for Donna Summer, the song Christopher Cross recorded for the Dudley Moore vehicle, Arthur (“Arthur’s Theme (Best You Can Do),” and a couple more. Sklar’s video is the opposite of tight - e.g., he talks about the “mow-and-blow service” he pays to take care of his lawn once a week and, because he shot it in 2020, his first tentative steps out his COVID bubble - but it’s a cool little artifact…still, I only agree on one thing with him about “Get Used to It”:
“It really kind of defines that period in the late 70s, into the 80s musically.”
Omartian/Voudouis built his hit around a loping bass line with a fairly reserved snare tempo-wise and synths (so much synth) one that plays a “rhythm melody” that prances around the bass, with a rising melody coming in ahead of Voudouris’ vocals, and piano helping fill out the bottom. He has a decent singing voice, for what it’s worth, but it’s a little stiff; call it a case of quality over character. If there’s a jumping off point for what will be a very short post, that’s it.
The Rest of the Story
“I got tired of playing everyone else’s album. I decided to sing and make my own record.”
Roger Voudouris, born 1954, Sacramento, California, stood up his first band while still in high school. He called it Roger Voudouris’ Loud as Hell Rockers, which gives a fair sense of where he saw himself within a band. That band had enough heat to land regular shows at a place called the Elegant Barn Nightclub and the same outfit became an opening band for acts as well-known as John Mayall, Stephen Stills, and the Doobie Brothers (when they came through Sacramento, I'm guessing?). Voudouris played for a time with a guy named David Kahne in the exciting named Voudouris/Kahne, but all that must have run dry because, as he noted in a quick-hit interview on an Australian show called Countdown (Part 1 and Part 2), which is where I saw the quote above, he spent some time as a session player.
Until this past week, I had never heard of Roger Voudouris (pronounced “Vi-DOR-us,” per the first half of this fascinating little internet gem posted by a guy who seems to be a longtime session musician, Leland Sklar), and I had never heard his hit, “Get Used to It.” From his recollections about recording the Voudouris’ hit:
“It was really fun when we did this, really such tight arrangements, just groove, lots of fun little parts to them. It wasn’t just plowing through a song. It had some thoughtfulness went into the arrangement and Michael was really just great at that.”
The “Michael” referenced in that quote is (or was) Michael Omartian, a producer who churned out hits for Donna Summer, the song Christopher Cross recorded for the Dudley Moore vehicle, Arthur (“Arthur’s Theme (Best You Can Do),” and a couple more. Sklar’s video is the opposite of tight - e.g., he talks about the “mow-and-blow service” he pays to take care of his lawn once a week and, because he shot it in 2020, his first tentative steps out his COVID bubble - but it’s a cool little artifact…still, I only agree on one thing with him about “Get Used to It”:
“It really kind of defines that period in the late 70s, into the 80s musically.”
Omartian/Voudouis built his hit around a loping bass line with a fairly reserved snare tempo-wise and synths (so much synth) one that plays a “rhythm melody” that prances around the bass, with a rising melody coming in ahead of Voudouris’ vocals, and piano helping fill out the bottom. He has a decent singing voice, for what it’s worth, but it’s a little stiff; call it a case of quality over character. If there’s a jumping off point for what will be a very short post, that’s it.
The Rest of the Story
“I got tired of playing everyone else’s album. I decided to sing and make my own record.”
Roger Voudouris, born 1954, Sacramento, California, stood up his first band while still in high school. He called it Roger Voudouris’ Loud as Hell Rockers, which gives a fair sense of where he saw himself within a band. That band had enough heat to land regular shows at a place called the Elegant Barn Nightclub and the same outfit became an opening band for acts as well-known as John Mayall, Stephen Stills, and the Doobie Brothers (when they came through Sacramento, I'm guessing?). Voudouris played for a time with a guy named David Kahne in the exciting named Voudouris/Kahne, but all that must have run dry because, as he noted in a quick-hit interview on an Australian show called Countdown (Part 1 and Part 2), which is where I saw the quote above, he spent some time as a session player.
