Firefall - Firefall

Coulda Been a Contender

With my fondness for pretty West Coast harmony, this is a band and album I should have known in its time, 1976, but I didn't, only discovering them and this album maybe five or more years ago. And a few weeks ago I picked up a vinyl copy.

Stand-out and famous track is opener It Doesn't Matter, written by Stephen Stills, Chris Hillman and Rick Roberts, so there's your harmony pedigree right there. Rick Roberts, who had been in the Flying Burrito Brothers, formed Firefall in 1974, and his songs on the album probably appeal the most, though all are good. Third track, again by Roberts, is the CS&N/Eaglesesque Livin' Ain't Livin - though that sound reference is naffish, I know. But you understand what I mean about pretty and West Coast and, really, AOR music. Love it. Fifth, Dolfin's Lullaby - Roberts again, is just beautiful.

A Larry Burnett number, Cinderella, is the sixth track - first on side 2 - and this is also superb, having a slightly rockier sound to it, but firmly in that Eagles/Loggins and Messina  frame of reference.This was a popular radio-play, but didn't do as well as it might because of, apparently, female opposition to the  lyrics which are about a man's regret for staying with the girl he got pregnant,

Cinderella couldn't you see
Don't want your company
Shoulda left that mornin' left that day
Took your love and your child away

But hey, he didn't leave her! Give the guy a break ladies of the 70s. Two more Rick Roberts' songs excel on side two of the album: You Are The Woman, and Mexico with some fine guitar work. A great album, and in my possessive proclivity when it comes to music, I am delighted to have this vinyl which I have naturally been listening to whilst typing this post. If I had grown up with this from 1976 I have no doubt it would be a definite Top Fifty, but such is the nature of this selection: I didn't have the extra special nurturing that adds other indelible elements to the music itself.