Eric Johnson - Tones. 1986 USA-Texas

Eric Johnson burst onto the scene in 1986, seemingly out of nowhere. He was part of the mid to late 80s guitar fronted band scene along with many others such as Joe Satriani and Steve Vai. Like most folks, my introduction to Tones was the fine instrumental 'Zap'. In hearing this album for the first time all the way through, I didn't recollect anything else from the album, though I'm sure others were played on the radio at the time. Even though I enjoyed 'Zap' back then it never occurred to me to pick the album up. By 1986 I was moving fast and furious into the world of obscure European progressive, and underground music in general. I didn't think the guy with the spikey hair was going to give me what I wanted at the time. And in retrospect that would be a true statement. The time for me to hear this album is now, as I can reflect on the era in a more objective manner. Johnson's album is not really a guitar hero album, especially given the number of songs with vocals. It's AOR music for the most part, but with a definite slant towards the time and place. What I now call simply 80s Music. Most of the FM friendly tracks feature some excellent jazz fusion styled breaks, giving the music a fresh sound. Overall Tones is much better than I expected, and I've decided to keep it for now.

From the above, I purposely left out what I knew about Johnson's history. I said "seemingly out of nowhere" and that's exactly what I knew in 1986. But by 1988, as I'm now deep in the rare catalog world, I learn that Johnson was the guitarist for the very obscure - but very good - Austin based psychedelic band Mariani (1970). He was only 16 at the time, but clearly he was head and shoulders above most kids his age here in America. Then a couple of years after that, I learned he was the lead guitarist for Electromagnets, yet another excellent group, this time in the field of jazz rock (1975). So by the time of Tones, Johnson was a grizzled veteran at the age of 32. That experience really comes to fore on the album. Eric Johnson's path to stardom was circuitous, but fascinating. It was also fleeting. Though he enjoys a cult following to this day (especially considering the follow-up Ah Via Musicom, which I've not heard), Tones was to be his 15 minutes of fame. Good for him.

Ownership: LP: 1986 Reprise. Single sleeve with lyric inner. This came from last week's (rather small) haul of thrift shop pickups. I fast tracked this one to the front of the stack as I was most curious of the contents within.