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Missing Persons Fans?


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Growing up in Lynyrd Skynyrd / Bob Seger / Blackfoot / Molly Hatchet / you-get-the-idea-ville, my move to college in 1982 was, among other things, a musical revelation.  After years of guitar-driven Southern and 70's rock the new wave of synth-driven and just plain different music was like a breath of fresh air.  One of my favorite bands of the MTV era was Missing Persons. 

On 23 March (2020) Dale "dropped" (as the kids say these days) an album of mostly covers in the name of Missing Persons.  I haven't been able to find a list of personnel, so I don't know if this is Dale as Missing Persons or a true MP album, but the tones and textures are to my liking and hopefully yours.  Dale's trademark squeaks and such are missing - her voice having aged well into a surprising alto that suits the darker mood of the album.  The synths are killing (IMO) as are the arrangements (again, IMO).

Anyone else into this?

Oh, on the personnel bit, I was able to find this, "Produced by the multi-talented Adam Hamilton (David Hasselhoff / William Shatner)."  Say WHAT?

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I dig 'em, I have "Words" and "Walking In LA" on my itunes.

Quick listen to the new stuff link above, obviously no Terry Bozzio, sounds all programmed. Vocals do fit well.

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They have been in german music shows a few times, so I knew some of their songs. When I got into the music of Zappa, I gave them a second listen. I bought the "Color in your life" album and listened to it a lot, because I liked what Warren Cuccurullo did on guitar. I thought it was a bit similar to what Steve Stevens did. Terry Bozzio's drumming was fantastic, I followed his other works too, UK, Group 87, Andy Taylor, Brecker Brothers... I also haven't thought about them in long time. While fellow guitarists, that started around the same time as me, got into more rock and metal stuff, I branched out a bit to other music styles, including pop, classical, r'n'b, funky stuff, fusion, jazz, big band music, 70's prog, new wave. Often I followed the work of bass players, keyboard players and especially  drummers, not so much guitarists.

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4 hours ago, Ed Rechts said:

Many people think that Lady Gaga borrowed heavily from Dale Bozzio, and you can see why:

Gwen Stefani stole a fair amount of her schtick from Dale as well.

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Apparently current members-

  • Dale Bozzio - vocals (1980–1986, 2001–2003, 2009, 2011–present)
  • Paul Vargas - keyboard, synthesizers (2019–present)
  • Karl D'Amico - guitar (2015–present)
  • Prescott Niles - bass (2011–present)
  • Andy Sanesi - drums (2011–present)

Prescott Niles was in one of my faves, The Knack...

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4 hours ago, Ed Rechts said:

Many people think that Lady Gaga borrowed heavily from Dale Bozzio, and you can see why:

The first time my (then teen-aged) daughter showed me Lady Gaga, I said, "that's Dale Bozzio."  She, of course asked, "who?"  I googled Dale Bozzio (hadn't thought about Missing Persons in years) and yep, there was Dale looking very similar to the picture she had of Lady Gaga. 

I really dig the new album.  The Numanesque synths coupled with her voice seems to work very nicely.  I really enjoyed the "Just What I Needed" cover, especially.

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8 hours ago, Ed Rechts said:

 

Many people think that Lady Gaga borrowed heavily from Dale Bozzio, and you can see why 

 

4 hours ago, MCChris said:

Gwen Stefani stole a fair amount of her schtick from Dale as well.

Madonna too. 
 

 

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Terry Bozzio,  Warren Cuccurullo and Patrick O'Hearn perfomed together on the Zappanale two years ago. But they did play mostly Zappa songs. The 80's were different times, they got older, got into different stuff. Just look at Bozzio's drumset...

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Oh wow. Thanks for sharing. I'm a big fan of Missing Persons. The song I always wanted to play in the 80s, but could never convince my friends to try was Destination Unknown. I may have to dust that one off.

The Lady Gaga parallel is strong in this video:

I like the dark mood of the songs on the new album.

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Huge Missing Persons fan back in the day.  My college frat-parties-and-bars band covered Words, Walking In LA and Mental Hopscotch. Sadly, I'm the only one who wants to revive them at our occasional reunion shows. Heck, I'd love to add Noticeable One to the list. 

Their US Festival appearance is up on YouTube.  It's an hour well worth watching; they did a pretty good job of pulling their songs off live.

I dunno, the new stuff doesn't do anything for me.

There a a couple interesting chapters in Ken Scott's memoir about Missing Persons.  They marked his (somewhat less-than-completely-succesful) move from engineering and producing into full-on artist management.

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I saw missing persons at Six Flags on a hot Texas night in the early 80s. The OG line up, tons of keyboards on stage.  Warren had the guitar with U shaped neck.  Terry was playing a totally electronic kit, all custom built.  By the end of their set, parts of it were coming apart. At one point, a bee starts flying around Dale's head.  She's going crazy eventually the poor bee ends up lodged in warrens guitar stings.  Terry comes up, deals with the bee then they get back to their set.  

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