Riggs: Southern Rock That Rocks, er, Rocked

One of the things I've noticed is that there are bands at the major label level that "make it", others that come close, and then there are those who never seem to get out of the starting gate. Neither of these, of course, has anything to do with how great a band may actually be and has everything to do with luck, timing, and persistence.

Take Cheap Trick, for example. As great as their first three albums may have been, they didn't exactly set the charts on fire. If not for the absolute fluke success of "At Budokan", "Dream Police" (which was darn-near completed by then) could very well have been their last shot.

Cheap Trick, of course, is how I came to be aware of Riggs, as I had purchased the "Heavy metal" motion picture soundtrack album for the two new Cheap Trick songs ("I Must be Dreamin'" and the stellar "Reach Out") and ended up discovering that the two songs by a band called Riggs ("Radar Rider" and "Heartbeat") were also quite enjoyable. Like the Cheap Trick songs that appeared on the album, the two Riggs cuts were also produced by Roy Thomas Baker (Queen, The Cars, etc.). Some months later, I was perusing the bins at my local Record Land and discovered their album, entitled simply "Riggs".



While the production elements of the two songs from "Heavy Metal" created an atmospheric rock sound that fit well within the context of a futuristic fantasy film, the production of the "Riggs" album by Andy Johns and Marty Cohn was no-nonsense - as if recorded with little thought to creating a bigger-than-life aura as Roy Thomas Baker had done.

I've always been of the mindset that if a major label sends you into a state-of-the-art recording studio and you don't make the most of the resources available to you in creating not just a rock record, but a ROCK RECORD, then, really, what's the point?

The no-frills approach employed by Johns and Cohn actually allows the band to strut their stuff as I presume they must have done on the Knoxville, TN circuit prior to signing with Molly Hatchet manager Pat Armstrong and then with Irving Azoff's Full Moon/Warner imprint.

For as long as I've been paying attention, I've always been somewhat dismayed by the continued willingness on the part of major labels to sign band after band with little thought as to how they will actually position the band in the marketplace. Thus, in listening to this album, it's easy to see why Riggs may have fallen between the cracks. Album opener "Ready or Not" is a sly rocker that wouldn't have sounded out of place on A Nugent record. The song that follows, "One Night Affairs", begins with an elegiac guitar/piano intro that would seem to indicate Jonathan Cain's might appear in the writing credits. The chorus, of course, seems tailor-made for early 80's radio formats...so why wasn't it all over the radio?



Alas, a lack of promotion, radio play, and, ultimately, sales led to the demise of Riggs soon after this album's release. Band leader Jerry Riggs was later aligned with Pat Travers at a time when Travers' career was on a decidedly downward slope and then became a part of Florida rocker Bobby Friss.

That a guy with Riggs' talent as both a singer and guitarist has been forced to play second fiddle to Travers and Friss is just a damn shame.

Ready or Not
One Night Affairs
Over & Over
Take It Off
Writing On The Wall
Depending On Love
Girls On The Loose
Christine
Don't Walk Away
Too Strong