MARTIN BRILEY / マーティン・ブライリー / MERCURY YEARS(2CD) / CD

MANDRAKE/MANDRAKE PADDLE STEAMERからキャリアをスタートしたギタリスト/SSWのソロ・クロニクル!

In a perfect world, which this clearly isn’t, Martin Briley would be a household name, putting his album out every 18 months or so to the delight of his several hundred thousand fans (we would have said millions, but we didn’t want to be greedy). Instead, he practices his songwriting craft in a tiny home studio on behalf of others, and most of the recordings he makes these days are demos heard only by other artists and their managers. Now that’s not exactly digging ditches, so don’t cry for him, Argentina. But in the early Eighties, there was a perfect moment when public taste intersected with a tasteful musician for an MTV-driven Top Fifteen hit called “Salt In My Tears.”

Mind you, Briley had already had a decent career by the time “Salt” hit the video screens. Starting off in a band called Mandrake Paddle Steamer, Briley segued into Dave Greenslade’s eponymous prog-rock outfit for what was arguably their best album, Time and Tide. Following that, he moved to New York City and ultimately lined up a gig playing bass with Ian Hunter’s band, contributing bass and vocals on the Short Back And Sides album as well as touring.

In 1981, opportunity, in the form of Mercury Records, knocked: Martin issued his first solo album, Fear Of The Unknown. Looking not unlike a British Jackson Browne on the back cover, Briley’s arch sense of humor rocketed over the heads of the American public. Nonetheless, he made a second album. 1983’s One Night With A Stranger contained what every successful artist in 1983 needed: an MTV hit. The song, “Salt In My Tears,” was a middle finger in the rear view mirror of a failed relationship, and Briley, for his part in the video, played it with laconic ease, most of it supine on a couch. It wasn’t that he had intended it that way, but food poisoning had overcome him on the day of shooting, so the director was forced to improvise around Briley’s wooziness. The mother of invention spawned a beautiful child, and the single climbed the chart in tandem with its rotation on the tube. The single peaked at 15, the album at 55.

As you might expect, the anticipation for Dangerous Moments, Briley’s third album, was extra-high. Producer Phil Ramone, known for his work with Paul Simon and Billy Joel, was brought on board. It was a marriage made on Jerry Springer’s stage. Briley, ever the gentleman, obliquely suggests that they had different musical visions, but it’s clear that the magic of One Night With A Stranger was not in evidence. The album peaked at 85, and while the title track grazed the top forty of the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, the ride was over, and Briley left Mercury.

Only the last two of Martin’s albums have ever had a legitimate CD release, and they routinely fetch upwards of $150 on eBay (when you can get them). Our release contains every track from all three of his albums, PLUS six previously unreleased tracks unavailable anywhere else! All of them were painstakingly remastered in 2004, so they sound as clear and crisp as the day they were first laid down. Add to that extensive notes by noted rock critic Scott Schinder and complete lyrics by Briley Himself, and you have a deluxe snapshot of a very brief and fruitful period of a long and successful career.

Martin is currently working as one of two hand-selected staff writers at MPL Communications, Sir Paul McCartney’s publishing house. Briley is considered by many to be one of the most prominent songwriters in America today, writing for such artists as Celine Dion, N'SYNC, Jessica Andrews, 5-Star, Willy Nile, Michael Bolton, Pat Benatar, Gregg Allman, Kenny Loggins and Barry Manilow, to name just a few. In fact, he was recently presented with an RIAA award for Celine Dion's "A New Day Has Come" for worldwide sales of 8 million.


Disc 01
1. Slipping Away
2. The Man I Feel
3. I Feel Like A Milkshake
4. First To Know
5. Heart Of Life
6. A Little Knowledge Is A Dangerous Thing
7. I Don’t Feel Better
8. More Of The Same
9. One Step Behind
10. Fear Of The Unknown
11. The Salt In My Tears
12. Just A Mile Away From Here
13. Put Your Hands On The Screen
14. Maybe I’ve Waited Too Long
15. She’s So Flexible
16. A Rainy Day in New York City
17. I Wonder What She Thinks Of Me
18. Dumb Love
19. One Night With A Stranger

Disc 02
1. Dangerous Moments
2. Think Of Me
3. Ghost
4. It Shouldn’t Have To Hurt That Much
5. Alone At Last
6. Before The Party Ends
7. If This Is What It Means
8. Dirty Windows
9. School For Dogs
10. Underwater
11. Rich Women
12. Midnight Cruise
13. All The Right Moves
14. Spit It Out
15. This Ain’t The First Time
16. Mama