Bryan Adams

Bryan Adams

Robyn Lisa Burn

The much-awaited and duly-anticipated fifth album from Bryan Adams has been received with open arms and open minds. In no uncertain terms did Adams deliver a Reckless Part II. Instead, the Canadian with a pulse that beats strongly on both sides of the border, served up a stunning, emotional album that satisfied his personal and artistic palate. His first single, “Heat Of The Night” has turned out to be more than just a flicker of the moment and scored big by being true to himself and real to the fans.

Into The Fire, arguably the strongest effort from Canada’s premiere rocker, marks a distinct combination of musical styles for Adams who melds together the warmer elements of 1984’s Reckless, with the sonic sound of his full throttle vocal assault.

Only a month after its release, Into The Fire began to outweigh its predecessors by cracking the Top 10 album charts in Billboard while “Heat Of The Night” turned into a Top 10 single.

It took Reckless nearly two months to accomplish such status and Cuts Like A Knife climbed for four long months until it reached the top. But, despite it all, Bryan Adams remains unaffected by success. Just like the guy in the garage band next door, Adams could find his place just as easily sitting in the audience as he could performing in front of one.

“The one thing about me that is appealing to the audience is that I am very approachable. I’m still one of them,” Adams said.

Bryan Adams’s career started the day he met up with writer/drummer Jim Vallance in a music store around 1977. Vallance began as a songwriter with songs recorded by the band Prism. Adams had enjoyed moderate success with the local band Sweeney Todd, but when the two got together it was obvious that bigger things were in store.

When the pair met again the next day for tea and a few hours of jamming, a relationship was clinched and a songwriting team born. The two complimented each other perfectly. Both wanting their music heard, Adams would take his street smart attitude and passion for performing in front of the spotlight while Vallance kept his man-behind-the-scenes lifestyle.

Their collaborative efforts were soon being covered by Bachman Turner Overdrive, Loverboy, Kiss and many others. In ’79, Canada’s A&M Records signed Adams and a year later the self-titled debut was unleashed. The songs on the Bryan Adams album were literally the first 10 songs the team had written together and both feel it showed.

“When I look back on the album, I think of what I was thinking of at that time,” says Adams. “I really believe I didn’t know as much as I do now about making records. I can see my mistakes in it. I can see the potential in the songs, but the first album, especially, was experimental.

“We were new at making records and just assembled a bunch of songs. Jim and I went in and literally recreated the demos again. That’s why I don’t make records with Jim Vallance, I write songs with him.”

The album’s overabundance in variety confused the public with its loss of direction. Was it a rock album? Was it a disco album? The record went virtually untouched prompting Adams to consider naming his second album, Bryan Adams Hasn’t Heard Of You Either.

Settling upon You Want It, You Got It, produced by Adams and Bob Clearmountain, the album gained some attention with the song “Lonely Night” while Adams toured Western Canada with guitarist Keith Scott, bassist Dave Taylor and drummer Mickey Curry.

Spending the first half of 1982 opening for the Kinks, Loverboy and Foreigner, Adams meanwhile concentrated on material for his next album, Cuts Like A Knife, which was released in December of that year.

In 1983, Adams burst into international music circles with the Top 10 single “Straight From The Heart,” a song covered by Ian Lloyd and Bonnie Tyler. Releasing two more singles from the album—the title track and “This Time”—both peaking inside the Top 40, Adams hit the road again opening for Journey and gained more attention and momentum as the album reached platinum.

In the winter of ’84, Vallance and Adams began writing what turned out to be their Born To Run album. Reckless released six singles including “Heaven,” “It’s Only Love,” “Somebody,” “Turn To You,” “Kids Wanna Rock” and “Summer Of ’69.”

The album, recorded just like the three before it—full of intensity, driving rhythms and enduring pride—went on to become the #1 album on the Billboard charts in 1985. A surprise not only to critics who scoffed at Adams as a blue collar rock clone, but to Adams himself.

“Jim and I didn’t exactly sit down and say, ‘OK, let’s write a commercial album.’ I never would have expected to have six singles off that album. I never thought the album would do as well as it did. It was fantastic.”

Not showing any signs of slowing down, Vallance and Adams were approached by producer David Foster to partake in Canada’s version of Band Aid called Northern Lights. The two wrote “Tears Are Not Enough” overnight, with proceeds going to aid famine relief in Ethiopia. They also joined the Live Aid concert line-up in Philadelphia. After sweeping the Juno Awards (Canada’s equivalent to the Grammys) for Best Album, Best Male Vocalist and Composer of the year with Jim Vallance, Adams continued to tour North America.

With the few days off that he had from a string of sold-out dates, Adams went into the studio to lay down a few background vocals for an up-and-coming band Vallance was producing called Glass Tiger. The song was “Don’t Forget Me” which shot up to #1 in Canada and peaked at #2 stateside.

In the meantime, Roger Daltrey, formerly of the Who, entered the charts with an Adams/Vallance tune called “Let Me Down Easy” while Reckless was being celebrated for going diamond (one million copies) in Canada.

Before starting to work on his next album, Adams received two Grammy nominations and performed at the Prince’s Trust charity concert in London. His participation in Amnesty International’s benefits—which was billed as the Conspiracy Of Hope tour—saw Adams rock with some of the finest musicians including Sting, Bono and Peter Gabriel.

While working on Into The Fire, Adams wanted to make sure the songs would be different from Reckless. Knowing that fans expected a Reckless II, Adams says. he “intentionally tried not to do the same writing style. I tried to make things a little less commercial than before. I didn’t want to write the same album; that would be selling myself short.”

Upon its arrival, critics pounced on the album’s emotionally-drenched songs and labeled it moody and depressing. But according to Adams, “I don’t think the album is depressing at all. There is nothing depressing about ‘Heat Of The Night’ or ‘Hearts On Fire’ or ‘Only The Strong Survive.' I mean I could goon. Basically anyone that makes comments like that really hasn’t listened to the album at all.”

With his charitable work and linkage to the benefit concerts, Adams’s album was being reviewed on a political scale which he feels is uncalled for, and he is the first to admit that he makes no political stance.

“Well if you think ‘Hearts On Fire’ is a political song, that’s fine,” Adams laughs. “People obviously don’t listen to the records that much. It’s very unfair to judge an artist on his beliefs before you judge him on his music.

“It seems as though people are making more judgements on me now for my social awareness then they are about the actual musical content. That’s fine if that’s how I have to be perceived, but really the reasons I got involved with these organizations was not from a politcal standpoint but from a social and human standpoint.

“I don’t want to go out and preach because preaching is really boring. All I want to do is get involved. I wrote these songs for me. If people don’t like these songs then there’s really nothing I can do about it. If they do like the songs, then I guess I’ve done something right.”