Billy Squier's Emotions in Motion

One of the undeniable rock icons of the '80s, Billy Squier's contributions as a singer, songwriter and performer are too often overshadowed by the music media's perceived image of the artist and not the hard rockin' reality. Photogenic in a way that easily lent to video overplay of his signature hits on the fledgling MTV network, Squier seemingly came out of nowhere, sparking brightly during his brief ascent towards the sun, and fading away just as quickly into obscurity.

Here then, is the truth: Billy Squier was no damn "overnight sensation," but rather a seasoned rock & roll veteran that earned his modicum of success, regardless of one's feelings about his music (which seem to run along the lines of a love/hate relationship depending on who you speak with). Squier bought his first guitar at the age of twelve, formed his first band at 16, and played his first gig shortly after his high school graduation at age 18 in 1968.

Throughout the decade of the '70s, Squier kicked around both his hometown of Boston and downstream in New York, performing with bands like Magic Terry & the Universe (with future Dead Kennedys bassist Klaus Floride), the Sidewinders, and Kicks (with soon-to-be New York Dolls drummer Jerry Nolan). Squier attended Berklee School of Music for a while, played with Bruce Kulick (of later Kiss fames) and finally formed the band Piper, signing a major label deal with A&M Records that resulted in a pair of power-pop oriented albums that many aficionados consider to be classics of the genre.

When Piper broke up in 1977, Squier went his own way, taking his next step towards solo stardom. Signing with Capitol Records, Squier scored a minor AOR hit with the song "You Should Be High Love" from 1980's Tale Of The Tape, hitting a pair of fence-clearing homeruns the following year with the hard rock stomp of "The Stroke" and the edgy "My Kinda Lover" from Don't Say No. Squier's third time at bat, 1982's Emotions in Motion, continued the artist's streak, delivering extra-base hits like "Everybody Wants You," "Learn How To Live," and the title track. The album subsequently went triple-platinum and established Squier as a top-tier arena rock star.

Listening to Emotions in Motion today with the benefit of hindsight, Squier's brand of melodic hard rock with power-pop roots stands up reasonably well in the light of contemporary tastes. There are still a few too many keyboards thrown in here without concern for the song structure – a not entirely alien phenomenon considering the era. Because of new wave's persistent influence, record labels often wanted even big rock records drenched in period-specific production follies and random washes of needless keyboard drone. It's evident that much of the major label rock conceived and recorded circa 1980-85 could be remixed without a keyboard presence at all and would suffer little by the act.

The album kicks off with the readily-familiar "Everybody Wants You," the song's opening motorcycle tailpipe roar setting the stage for a strutting, cock-rocking exercise in BIG sound. Everything about "Everybody Wants You" is BIG, from Squier's breathless shouted vocals, to the explosive driving rhythms, to the manic, swaggering guitarwork. The perfect antidote to the turn-of-the-decade doldrums, "Everybody Wants You" shocked rock audiences out of their new wave-fueled complacency. This wasn’t power-pop, it wasn't even Iggy's raw power…this was barely contained, reckless, crackling electricity.

The title track follows a similar tact, with a few more distinct low, slower-paced passages beneath Squier's OTT vocals and a slightly funky beat. Squier's slashing guitarwork, complimented by Jeff Golub's rhythms, is especially interesting here, both supporting the underlying musical soundtrack and working at cross-purpose to the song's groove. It makes for an interesting tension, one assisted in part by Squier's hard-then-soft vocal exchanges. The gentle acoustic opening of "Learn How To Live" quickly gives way to a lesson-in-life lyrical message and a wall-of-sound clashing of guitars, bass and drums that threaten to overwhelm Squier's powerful, sometimes multi-tracked vocals.

"Keep Me Satisfied" is a jive little thumper with a vaguely rockabilly feel, albeit delivered with a semi-metallic arrangement similar to Queen (friends of Squier's at the time). Squier's vocals slip-n-slide across the rollicking instrumentation like a duck across ice, but the scorching guitar solo at the middle of the song should satisfy any hard rock fan. The stadium-strut of "It Keeps You Rockin'" is the sort of designed-for-the-distance live performance favorite that is required by some obscure law to include some random variation of "rock" or "rockin'" in its title. The song lives up to its premise, with big-lunged vocals, a fallback chorus, loud drums and wall-to-wall riffing…probably slayed 'em in Midwestern coliseums.

"She's A Runner" is as close to nerf-metal power-ballad territory as these lunkheads come on Emotions in Motion, the song's romantic wistfulness paired with one of Squier's most affecting and subdued vocal performances, the proper casual use of keyboards and piano for effect, and a stellar six-string solo that evokes the emotions of the lyrics. Squier and the boys hit a rare R&B vibe with greasy rocker "Catch 22," the song's thick groove cemented by sticky riffs and the occasional horn blast. The slightly spacey fretwork of "Listen to the Heartbeat" would provide an electric undercurrent to the song's thoughtful lyrics and thick, crushing instrumentation. Bookending the album's ten songs with a strong performance by everybody involved, "Listen to the Heartbeat" was a lively closer to Emotions in Motion.

Although Squier's follow-up to the multi-Platinum Emotions in Motion, 1984's Signs Of Life, would also sell at million-unit levels, the singer's signature guitar-heavy sound was bogged down by overly-ambitious period production by Jim Steinman, the material awash with synthesizers and keyboards, and Squier's evolution towards a funkier, more R&B-oriented sound. By the end of the decade, Squier's commercial fortunes had plummeted, and his late-80s albums were ignored by young audiences enamored of newly-minted hard rockers like Motley Crue, Poison and Guns 'N' Roses.

Squier's last album was 1998's Happy Blue, after which the singer largely disappeared off the pop culture map. The last we heard of Billy, he was touring as part of Ringo Starr's All Star Band in 2006 along with Richard Marx, Edgar Winter, and other relics of an earlier musical age. As evidenced by the trailblazing melodic hard rock found on Emotions in Motion, however, at one point Billy Squier had his finger on the pulse of the American rock fan, and would become king of the stadium rock world, if only for a short time. (American Beat Records)

(Click on the CD cover to buy Emotions in Motion from Amazon.com)

MP3s:
Billy Squier - "Emotions in Motion"
Billy Squier - "It Keeps You Rockin'"
Billy Squier - "She's A Runner"