This year is not only The Tooners' Rocktasia CD's 20th anniversary, it being released in 1993, but it's also the 30th anniversary of our good friend and auxiliary Tooner Jerry Strull's solo album Medley (1983).
The Tooners started as Newwave band Womanizer and as Womanizer we recorded our first four song demo in 1980 with the late Gary Gladstone, aka the Mix Doctor, at his Hollywood studio. Jerry later used the Mix Doctor to record an album's worth of his original songs that he produced, played all the guitars and had guest vocalists.
My favorite song on the record, Master Of Disguise, a real classic sounding Classic Rock styled hit, was sung by Barry Peterson who was in the Newwave band The Pipers, along with future Womanizer and Tooner front man Greg Piper and future John Lennon clone Tim Piper.
Jerry titled his album Medley and in it he was most interested in showing off his songwriting skills and to show how he could write in multiple styles. Because of this Medley sounds like a compilation or soundtrack album with Rock, Country, R & B and Americana tunes side by side and all with different singers.
I'm not a fan of Country, R & B or Americana so I can appreciate the quality of those songs but I can't vouch for their authenticity. What I like in a Country song might sound too Rock & Roll to an actual Country fan. But the rock stuff like Master Of Disguise I love and Master is one of the great unknown hits of the 1980s.
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