Innuendos, a hit single that Blue Oyster Cult turned down, and the best birthday gift a young man of 25 could give him self. Just what went in to making the multi-platinum Reckless?
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00:00It was the summer of 84.
00:08Ryan Adams was in New York City working on the follow-up to his breakthrough album, Cuts
00:12Like a Knife, which had sold a million copies in the US.
00:16I mentioned the fact that you go into the studio, is it true you record live, I mean
00:20you put it right down?
00:21Well basically it's the band in the studio, all the guys, and we go in there and we just
00:25put it down and open it up afterwards, but basically it's the live band.
00:28The new songs he recorded were good, he was sure of that, and he had what he considered
00:32the perfect title for a rock and roll album, Reckless.
00:36But still, he had this feeling that something wasn't quite right.
00:40He invited his manager Bruce Allen to New York and played him the album.
00:44Allen's verdict was straight to the point, where's the rock?
00:49Those three words changed everything.
00:54Ryan called his co-songwriter Jim Valance.
00:56Basically what happens with Jim Valance and myself, the guy I write my songs with, is
01:00that we get into a groove where things start to really connect.
01:05They wrote a new song from scratch, a song designed to answer Bruce Allen's question.
01:11It's title, Kids Wanna Rock.
01:19With his third album, Reckless, Adams plugged into that mainstream audience dominated by
01:24Bruce Springsteen, John Cougar Mellencamp, and Don Henley.
01:27But Adams was of a different generation to those established big hitters.
01:31He turned 25 on the day Reckless was released, November 5th, 1984.
01:36His hard rock sensibility, explicit in Kids Wanna Rock, was something that spoke to fans
01:41of Van Halen and ZZ Top.
01:44And the way he sang, bellowing it out like a young Rod Stewart, gave him that extra edge.
01:57With Reckless, Ryan Adams created an album of hits that still resonates to this day.
02:03But it was no overnight success.
02:05Born in 1959, Ryan Adams was performing on the Vancouver music scene by the age of 15.
02:10He joined Canadian glam rockers Sweeney Todd, and in 1979, released an album, If Wishes
02:16Were Horses.
02:17In 1978, he met Jim Vallance, formerly of Canadian rock band Prism, and the two began
02:21writing songs together.
02:29Later that same year, Adams signed to A&M Records for $1.
02:33His first minor hit was a remix of a demo of his, turned into a disco track called Let
02:37Me Take You Dancing, with sped up vocals.
02:41Adams hated it so much, you can't hear it online to this day.
02:45Stung by the experience, he threw himself into making it on his own terms.
02:49He wrote songs and toured relentlessly.
03:03Run To You had originally been written for Blue Oyster Cult.
03:06With an opening guitar riff that echoed their classic 1976 hit, Don't Fear The Reaper.
03:12When that band turned it down, Adams decided to use it.
03:15It was the lead single off the album, and topped the Billboard rock charts.
03:20Summer of 69 was originally inspired by Bob Seger's Nightmoves, a nostalgic song about
03:25adolescent rites of passage, with images of cars, girls, and long hot summers.
03:31To begin with, Ryan was a little bit coy as to what the Summer of 69 was about.
03:36The thing about the Summer of 69 is it's a metaphor.
03:38It's not actually about the summer of 69.
03:42I mean, it could be about the summer of 85.
03:44Later, he came clean.
03:46I never said 1969.
03:48Oh, it's a metaphor for that.
03:51It's a metaphor for a great summer.
03:54Of love?
03:55Summer of love, exactly.
03:56Thank you very much.
03:57I'm going to just move on to a different topic here, Brian.
04:01Another song that came together quickly was one that Jim Valance had brought to the table.
04:05It's Only Love wasn't written with a vocal duet in mind, but Adams felt it needed another
04:10voice to make it special, and he had only one person in mind, Tina Turner.
04:14I met Tina Turner probably about six years ago when she came to town and played a little
04:20club here in town.
04:23Power Ballad Heaven was written for cheesy 80s movie One Night in Heaven.
04:29The movie stiffed, but the single became the biggest hit from Reckless, going to number
04:33one in Billboard's Hot 100.
04:36There were more singles.
04:37One Night Love Affair went top 20 in the US and Canada.
04:44And Somebody was an instant sing-along classic.
04:47Reckless had more hits on it than most artists have on their actual greatest hits album.
04:52It sold more than 12 million copies worldwide and transported Brian Adams into rock's A-lists.
04:59And the secret of its success?
05:01Great songs performed with heart.
05:04Because even at the height of synth pop in the new wave 80s, the kids wanted something
05:08less pretentious, and Brian knew it.
05:11They didn't just want to rock, they wanted songs they could sing along with for the rest
05:15of their lives.