 UNDER-APPRECIATED ROCK BAND OF THE MONTH FOR OCTOBER 2012: TRILLION  Although Wikipedia has zip-a-dee-doo-dah on TRILLION itself, there are numerous connections to well-known bands, and some of the individual members of the band have articles in Wikipedia. In fact, there are so many of them this time that, just for fun, I will mark all of the connecting bands, previous bandmembers and others that have a Wikipedia article with a “(W)”. If I also marked the albums and songs that have individual Wikipedia articles, all you would see in this article is (W). There is a long article on Trillion in Allmusic (by Eduardo Rivadavia) that starts off: “For every American progressive rock band that found increasing success on commercial radio during the second half of the ’70s – Journey, Styx, Kansas, etc. -- there were additional dozens possessing the same sonic recipe for infectious bombast but which, for some reason or other, just never made the grade, including Trillion.” It is hard to know why some albums grab listeners and others do not, but clearly, no one has the formula figured out yet. Inspired by Boston, the first album by Boston in 1976 – one of the fastest selling debut albums in rock history, and one which reinvigorated the progressive rock scene into what became known as arena rock – Trillion was founded by Chicago musicians Patrick Leonard (W) (keyboards) and Bill Wilkins (drums); they initially went by the name of Whisper. Joined by alumni from Chicago area bands – Dennis “Fergie” Frederiksen (W) (vocals), Frank Barbalace (guitar), and Ron Anaman (bass/vocals) – Trillion was quickly signed by Epic Records and went to work on their first album. Their producer, Gary Lyons had just put together Foreigner’s first album, Foreigner. Trillion also had the good fortune to land some co-billings with major bands of the day, such as Styx, Heart and Aerosmith; and they had a striking cover as well, with what appears to be a three-headed snow leopard coming out of the top of a mountain. However, their 1978 debut album, Trillion sold only modestly.  For the second album, Trillion went back to the drawing board. First, lead singer Fergie Frederiksen was sacked in favor of Thom Griffin; evidently before the second album was released, bandleader Patrick Leonard left as well, though he did contribute to the music on the album. To produce the album, the band even lined up John Boylan (W), the producer of Boston’s debut album (which had inspired the formation of Trillion in the first place) as well as one of Linda Ronstadt’s albums (Linda Ronstadt) and a few tracks on a second (Don’t Cry Now). Although Trillion’s debut album earned a four-star rating (out of five) from Allmusic, they didn’t deign to even review the second album from 1980, Clear Approach. Interest in the band has remained strong over the years though; and the Trillion albums have been reissued on CD several times, most recently in 2009. An interesting thing about progressive rock bands is that most of them did not hit the ball out of the park with their first album, the way that King Crimson and Boston did. As I noted in my last post, the first hit songs for Yes came on their third album, The Yes Album. Journey didn’t make any real noise on the music scene until vocalist Steve Perry joined up for the fourth album, Infinity. The breakthrough album for Styx, The Grand Illusion was their seventh album. Leftoverture was the album that put Kansas on the map, their fourth album. Even progressive rock bands whose albums sold well from the beginning often didn’t reach their creative peak for awhile. The magnum opus for Emerson, Lake and Palmer, “Karn Evil 9” was on their fifth album, Brain Salad Surgery. Jethro Tull’s classic album Aqualung was their fourth album. This also applies for several rock bands of the same time period that do not truly fit the progressive rock category. It was Queen’s fourth album, A Night at the Opera that included their unforgettable “Bohemian Rhapsody”. Canadian hard rockers Rush came up with 2112 as their fourth album (that title is exactly 100 years from now, as it happens). The Dark Side of the Moon – Pink Floyd’s space-rock masterpiece that took up near permanent residency on the Billboard album charts – was the band’s eighth album. With Trillion though, the band was never given the opportunity to develop an audience or to refine their sound. Following the break-up of Trillion, the bandmembers all went on to other musical projects. Guitarist Frank Barbalace was a member of Jinx that later became the UARB of June 2012, Wild Blue, where I have more info about him. Without question, Patrick Leonard is the most prominent ex-bandmember of Trillion and is primarily known as a keyboard player, producer and songwriter in the early part of Madonna’s (W) career. He began working with the Material Girl as the musical director for the 1985 tour for her second album, Like a Virgin. Unlike her first two albums, Madonna wrote or co-wrote all of the songs on her third album, True Blue. Five of these songs were co-written by Madonna and Leonard – including “Open Your Heart”, “Live to Tell” and “La Isla Bonita” – and a sixth song, “Where’s the Party” was co-written by Madonna, Leonard and Stephen Bray (W), the other producer on the album. Patrick Leonard continued working with Madonna on her next studio album, Like a Prayer – Leonard co-wrote more than one-half of the songs on this album as well, including “Cherish”, “Oh Father” and the title song “Like a Prayer” (which formed the basis of one of Madonna’s most controversial music videos). He was also heavily involved with two soundtrack albums for Who’s That Girl and Dick Tracy that were released in the same time period, Who’s That Girl and I’m Breathless: Music from and Inspired by the Film Dick Tracy. Patrick Leonard also produced the late-period Elton John (W) album, Songs from the West Coast (2001) and produced the soundtrack album, The Road to El Dorado from the 2000 animated film, The Road to El Dorado that included co-writing one song with Elton and Tim Rice (W), “Someday Out Of The Blue (Theme From El Dorado)”. He also produced or co-produced albums by former Pink Floyd front man Roger Waters (W), Amused to Death (1992); Bon Jovi (W), This Left Feels Right (2003), that features new versions of classic Bon Jovi songs; Train front man Pat Monahan (W), Last of Seven (2007); and Jewel (W), Spirit (1998). Leonard also co-wrote the song “Hands” from the latter album; although it was not released as a single, the music video for the song – which shows Jewel helping to pick through the rubble of a destroyed apartment building – gained wide exposure in the wake of the 9/11 tragedy. Patrick Leonard also co-wrote – with David Gilmour (W) – one of the songs from the Pink Floyd (W) album (their first without Roger Waters), A Momentary Lapse of Reason (1987). Further, Patrick Leonard has released a new-age/jazz solo album called Rivers (1997). Other rock artists that Patrick Leonard has worked with over the years literally reads like a Who’s Who: Rod Stewart (W), Michael Jackson (W), Ted Nugent (W), Bryan Adams (W), Kenny Loggins (W), Peter Cetera (W), Jody Watley (W), Natalie Imbruglia (W), and Natasha Bedingfield (W). Showing his flexibility, he also co-wrote and produced two of the songs (including the title song, and both in Greek) for an album for Cypriot Greek pop musician Anna Vissi (W), Apagorevmeno (2008); and co-wrote a song for new age musician David Darling (W), “96 Years”. Fergie Frederiksen has also enjoyed a long, prosperous and highly varied career in music; Tom Demalon of Allmusic has written of him: “If a music fan was desiring to create a game similar to the one based upon actor Kevin Bacon and his seemingly endless ties to other actors, singer Fergie Frederiksen might find himself to be a suitable candidate.” Frederiksen was in a band called the Common People at age 15 that played in the Grand Rapids, MI area. In 1975, while still in college, Frederiksen was asked by his friend Tommy Shaw (W) to replace him as lead singer in a band called MSFunk (W), the final permutation of the Smoke Ring that had formed from the combination of two earlier bands from Norfolk, Nebraska dating back to as early as 1959, Little Joe & the Ramrods and the Strollers. Tommy Shaw had been asked to join Styx (W), where he became one of their key bandmembers up to the present day. After he left Trillion, Fergie Frederiksen was involved with a disco movie called Can’t Stop the Music, featuring Village People (W). Can’t Stop the Music is notorious as the first recipient of the Golden Raspberry Award (“Razzie”) for Worst Picture of the Year; in fact, Razzies founder John J. B. Wilson got the idea for the Razzies after reading of a double billing of that movie with Xanadu, a film of the same time period that featured Olivia Newton-John. The soundtrack album Can’t Stop the Music, however, fared better and reached the Top 50 in the Billboard album charts. Under the pseudonym “David London” (in order to keep his rock image separate), Frederiksen had two songs on the soundtrack album. He also released a solo album in 1981, David London. While working on Can’t Stop the Music at Casablanca Records, Fergie Frederiksen met Gregg Giuffria (W), whose heavy metal band Angel (W) (another Casablanca artist) had recently broken up. Angel was sort of the anti-KISS, dressing in all white for instance; they never made it big but had a strong following and released several albums. Together with bassist Ricky Philips (W), they discussed the possibility of forming a new Angel line-up and laid down three tracks in late 1981. These songs were later released on a compilation album Angel Rarities. In 1995, Fergie Frederiksen and Ricky Philips released an album in the name, Frederiksen/Philips. Fergie Frederiksen later connected with Jim Peterik (W) and Frankie Sullivan (W) of the band Survivor (W) while their lead singer Dave Bickler (W) was ailing. Although Bickler recovered, and credited only as “Fergie”, Frederiksen wound up contributing background vocals to several tracks on their biggest album, Eye of the Tiger (1982); the title song “Eye of the Tiger” was featured in the film Rocky III. Fergie Frederiksen next became the lead singer for the band Le Roux (W) – formerly known as Louisiana’s LeRoux – and performed on their 1983 album, So Fired Up. The only single from the album, “Carrie’s Gone” reached #81 on the Billboard singles chart; it was co-written by Frederiksen after he broke up with girlfriend Carrie Hamilton (W), the daughter of Carol Burnett (W). For their fifth album Isolation (1984), Toto (W) asked Fergie Frederiksen to join the band as their primary vocalist. While he was with the band only a short time, he also performed on the soundtrack album Dune for the 1984 science-fiction film Dune, Toto’s only soundtrack experience. Frederiksen has said that his time with Toto was the highlight of his career. He even started touring under the name “Toto”, which angered other bandmembers who filed suit to stop him; they reconciled in 2007, and Frederiksen now sometimes appears as a guest star at Toto concerts. More recently, Fergie Frederiksen has released two solo albums, Equilibrium (1999) and Happiness is the Road (2011). In November 2010, Classic Rock magazine named Thom Griffin – the lead vocalist on Trillion’s second album – “one of the top AOR vocalists of all time”. Besides singing background vocals on more than 25 albums and also vocalizing numerous TV commercials, Griffin also has a solo album to his name called Ambition. Drummer Bill Wilkins has done considerable session drumming and was also the drummer for a prominent mega-church for several years. He has also contributed to two new age/jazz compilation albums issued in the name Willow Creek Music, Preludes and A Place To Call Home. Bassist Ron Anaman was later a bandmember in 1980’s Chicago bands Alan Hewitt & 88, China, and the Griff Band. He also has performed regularly as a session musician; among his credits are a 1997 album for independent Chicago singer-songwriter Jennifer Onesto, Twenty Houses; blues musician Glenn Patrik for his album, Nuthin’ but a Thang (2007); and the Sopro Military Music albums. In 2007, Bill Wilkins, Thom Griffin, and Frank Barbalace along with a new keyboard player, CJ Vanston (W) reunited to create some new Trillion music; Patrick Leonard has also contributed to the recordings. To date, perhaps appropriately, Trillion III consists of a 3-song EP, though a full-length album is still promised. Trillion has an official website – http://www.trillion-music.us/indextrill.html – as well as a Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/TRILLION/324906745973?v=info. The newest member of Trillion, CJ Vanston has big shoes to fill, since he is replacing former keyboard player, songwriter and bandleader Patrick Leonard. Vanston has been in music for many years and is probably best known for performing on two of the three “actual” albums by the fictitious heavy-metal band Spinal Tap (W), Break Like the Wind (1992) and Back from the Dead (2009) – under the name “Caucasian” Jeffrey Vanston on the latter album. He has also worked on the soundtrack for numerous films by Christopher Guest (W) – the best known member of Spinal Tap – including A Mighty Wind, Best in Show, Almost Heroes, and For Your Consideration, plus the Reese Witherspoon film, Sweet Home Alabama. Vanston has also performed on the last two albums by Steve Lukather (W) of Toto and the recent tour by Tears For Fears (W), as well as a remarkably varied list of other artists like Joe Cocker (W), Ringo Starr (W), Bob Seger (W), Prince (W), Tina Turner (W), Barbra Streisand (W), Richard Marx (W), Celine Dion (W), and ’NSync (W). Interestingly, CJ Vanston also worked with Patrick Leonard on the Anna Vissi album referenced previously, Apagorevmeno. The mostly unofficial accolades that Trillion inspires are unusual for such an obscure band. A post about the Trillion III album on www.metalminos.com is typical; it begins: “This is a very special post. One of my favorite bands of all time, classic aorsters Trillion, are working on new material”. Comments by the YouTube track “Hand it to the Wind” include: “I still have this vinyl album and it is one of my treasures”; “Best unknown group in the world”; and “One of the best pomp rock albums of the 70’s!!”. The title track “Clear Approach” from the second album, Clear Approach on YouTube led to these comments: “It’s one of my favorite records of all-time” and “Lost classic tune and album from way under appreciated band; every song on this album is memorable.” Only a handful of the UARB’s that I have written about have so many current and former bandmembers that have individual Wikipedia articles, even though there is none on the band itself. The only ones I can think of are the Rip Chords (July 2011) and the Eyes (July 2010). Wikipedia is loaded with many, many articles on rock bands that are more lightweight than Trillion, and/or have no star power at all, and/or haven’t had their albums released on CD as recently as 2009, and/or aren’t in the process of putting new music together. There is already what amounts to a stub about Trillion in the article on Fergie Frederiksen. I would be very much surprised if there is still no article on Trillion this time next year, based upon what I have found about them so far. So how did this band show up on my “want” list in the first place? I was having dinner at a nice restaurant in Winston-Salem with my parents (and maybe some of my brothers and sisters – not sure, it’s been so long); it had been converted from an old house, and I remember sitting right next to a staircase. There was a band there playing for the patrons, and they were quite good. At one point, they said, this is from one of our albums, and it sort of clicked in my mind: oh, yeah, those guys, I’ve seen their albums. It was a long time before I actually found one, but the name that I remembered from that meal was “Trillion”. Clearly, though, I wasn’t listening to a progressive rock band at dinner that night! For one thing, there was a woman in the band that I saw. I have been puzzling over what I could have heard instead – Trillium maybe? I’ll probably never figure it out, but I sure got onto a good album with that case of mistaken identity. Finally, a little about the number itself. A trillion is a gigantic number by anyone’s standards: one million million. If you live in Great Britain, a trillion is a million times larger still. This being an election year, we seem to hear about trillions in every newscast, but it wasn’t like that in 1978, when the Trillion album first came out. In 1978, the total federal budget was $409 billion; heck, the gross domestic product for the entire country didn’t hit a trillion dollars until 1970. Thus, when Trillion named itself, it was a number that hardly anyone used or thought about except when they were counting down the big numbers like I used to do when I was a kid: million, billion, trillion, quadrillion, quintillion, etc. (October 2012) * * * FLASHBACK: The Under-Appreciated Rock Band of the Month for October 2012 – TRILLION
Three of the four bandmembers in his month’s UARB had their own Wikipedia articles; but Trillion had even more connections – I found Wikipedia articles on more than 50 musicians and bands that are directly related to Trillion. It still amazes me that there is no Wikipedia article on this progressive rock band yet.
The song “Give Me Your Money Honey” that is taken from Trillion’s debut album, Trillion can be heard on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qb2JLZb-NU . The title song “Clear Approach” from the band’s second album, Clear Approach is available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlHJFWZUMF8 . Here is a song called “In My Blood” from the band’s planned third album, Trillion III (the video was uploaded in 2011, but the album apparently remains as yet unreleased): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KTpfIGPUzQ .
Several more Trillion videos are available, though they are all or mostly audio only. There are some practice sessions on YouTube by a band called Trillion, but I am not sure that it is the same group.
(October 2014)
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Items: Trillion * * * Here is a rundown of the past year’s (2011-2012) Under-Appreciated Rock Bands and Rock Artists: April 2012 – 1960’s folk-rock singer-songwriter LINDA PIERRE KING (several songs on two compilation albums) October 2012 – 1980’s progressive rock band TRILLION (2 albums) (Year 3 Review) |
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