Friday, March 30, 2012

Artist: Art Bergmann, Album: Art Bergmann, Song: Faithlessly Yours

"God's got an answer in that jukebox.  I pick the wrong song every time.  I know my song is in that jukebox and I've been suckered for the last time."  Art Bergmann is a singer songwriter from Vancouver, British Columbia.  He is a punk rock icon in this country.  He started his career with the rock band, The Shmorgs (see blog 3/22/11), back in the late seventies before moving on to punk music and forming the band, The Young Canadians (see blog 10/13/11).  He spent most of the eighties playing punk in a number of bands before embarking on a solo career in 1988 with Duke Street Records.  He would release two albums with Duke Street before switching to Polygram for his third self titled release in 1991.  This particular album and the lead single, Faithlessly Yours, brought Art to the mainstream.  Even at his mildest, Art's performance of this love song still made you think that something was going to get smashed at some point.  It's a great tune and it got tons of airplay.  Shockingly though, it was not very commercially successful.  Apparently, Art did have a falling out with his label over the album's budget which would have affected the marketing of the album and Art's ability to tour with a full band.  The album was produced by former Blue Peter (see blog 10/4/11) member, Chris Wardman.  This song also included the talents of Jason Sniderman of Blue Peter on keys and back up vocals care of Paul MacAusland from Haywire as well as Jamey Koch of Rockhead (see blog 12/15/11).  Art would return four years later with the Juno award winning album, What Fresh Hell Is This?, with the Sony label in 1995.  Faithlessly Yours, was re-recorded as an acoustic version on Art's album from 1998 entitled, Design Flaw, with legendary guitarist, Chris Spedding.  You can read about the man at http://artbergmann.com/.  The self titled release is a very rare find these days.  At the time of this blog, I could only find a cassette copy for sale on Ebay for $70.  You can hear the song, Faithlessly Yours, on You Tube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZTEMU4fMyY).  Thanks for reading and enjoy!