Sealed LP: Jay Ferguson: All Alone in the End Zone

$

30

Jay Ferguson

All Alone in the End Zone

FACTORY SEALED LP

Format: Sealed Album

Country: U.S.A.

Record Company & Release Number: Asylum: 7E-163

Original release date: 1976

Bar Code: NONE

Condition of the cover: Mint

Condition of this sealed album: Sealed - Assumed Mint

My inventory number: 209461

Shipping Weight: 1 pounds, 1 ounces

Notes:

This Sealed Album came from a record store in Allentown, Pennsylvania called "Phantasmagoria" which went out of business in 1978. I purchased most of their unsold inventory several years later when I owned "Music Madness" - a new & used record store in Catasauqua, Pennsylvania.

Since this Sealed Album was part of Phantasmagoria's inventory when they closed in 1978, it cannot be any newer than a 1978 pressing. Being a Sealed Album, I cannot tell specifically what pressing it is prior to 1978. In some cases, hype stickers might help to determine if it is a first pressing, but I cannot be any more specific.

Phantasmagoria used round colored stickers to indicate the price of their inventory. They had a sign on the wall with the color sticker combinations for the customers to use so they knew the price of what they were purchasing. Some of the Sealed Albums still have these stickers on them, and in some rare cases, the stickers are written on. Some of the Sealed Albums have prices on them. This is the price you would have paid for this Sealed Album in 1978 if you had bought it at Phantasmagoria. If this Sealed Album has a price on it, please don't confuse the price with the current value for this Sealed Album.

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• Snakes on the Run
• Turn It Up
• Medicated Goo
• Madam Doktor
• All Alone in the End Zone
• Cinnamon City
• To the Island
• Hit and Run
• Everybody Goes from Here
• Time and Time Again

• Ed Mashal: Engineer
• Joey Murcia: Guitar, Guitar (Rhythm)
• George Perry: Bass, Vocals
• Alex Sadkin: Mastering Engineer
• Stan Skipper: Drums
• Bill Szymczyk: Producer, Engineer
• Chocolate Perry: Bass, Vocals
• Norman Seeff: Design
• Glen Christensen: Art Direction
• Matthew Greenwald: Liner Notes
• Jay Ferguson: Guitar, Main Performer, Vocals, Keyboards
• Joe Vitale: Flute, Vibraphone, Vocals, Drums, Percussion
• Gary Henry: Photography
• Bruce Hensal: Engineer
• Joe Lala: Percussion, Conga
• Joe Walsh: Guitar (Acoustic), Guitar, Slide Guitar, Guitar (Rhythm)
• Louis Stewart: Telephone Voice

Album Review for "All Alone in the End Zone"

This is the debut solo effort from ex-Spirit/Jo Jo Gunne vocalist and occasional keyboard player Jay Ferguson. When left to his own devices, Ferguson steps away from the somewhat formulaic hard-rocking boogie of Jo Jo Gunne, developing a more concurrent 197s California-bred sunshine pop and pre-disco vibe. Who better to corral All Alone in the End Zone (1975) than Jo Jo Gunne's former producer, Bill Szymczyk, who gathered some of the mid-'70s most sought-after session performers -- including Joe Walsh (guitar/backing vocals), Joe Vitale (drums), George "Chocolate" Perry (bass), and Joey Murcia (guitar). As an ensemble they give the material a lift as well as provide an added bite to Ferguson's originals and the effort's sole cover of Traffic's "Medicated Goo." Both the opener, "Snakes on the Run," and the title track, "All Alone in the End Zone," are personal and seemingly liberating musical statements. The former is an uptempo four-on-the-floor groover that deals with the hassles and runaround inherent in "the biz," while the latter is a midtempo point-of-view rocker that directly refers back to Ferguson's earlier band(s) throughout the song -- most notably in the opening lines "Uncle Jack he said get on back" as well as "But I jumped the Gunne/Tried to run, run, run." "To the Island" contains definite projections of Ferguson's major hit "Thunder Island," from the prominent acoustic guitar to the tricky syncopation that propels the verses into a tropically flavored shuffle. As he did with the James Gang, Barnstorm, and ultimately the Eagles, Walsh's trademark slide and extended guitar phrasings go a long way in enhancing the strength of the rockers as well as the ballad "Everybody Goes from Here." Although All Alone in the End Zone did not spawn a hit single, it did establish Jay Ferguson away from the name recognition of his previous associations, priming him for the follow-up smash Thunder Island (1978). ~ Lindsay Planer, All Music Guide

Jay Ferguson biography by Steve Huey

Best known as the lead singer of Spirit and Jo Jo Gunne, Jay Ferguson pursued a solo career in the late '70s before eventually moving into film scoring work. Ferguson was born May 10, 1947, in Burbank, CA; tired of piano lessons, he began playing folk music as a teenager, but soon discovered rock & roll through the British Invasion, and played in several garage bands for fun. One of those bands, the Red Roosters, featured several future members of Spirit, the eclectic, jam-oriented psychedelic rock outfit that Ferguson joined in 1967. Spirit released four albums from 1968-1970 and became cult favorites through their exposure on the newly emerging, album-oriented FM radio underground. However, band infighting eventually led to Ferguson's departure; he and Spirit bassist Mark Andes left in 1971 to form Jo Jo Gunne, which played a more straightforward, melodic brand of hard rock, and began to feature Ferguson's piano/keyboard playing. Jo Jo Gunne released four albums before disbanding in 1975 amid a loss of musical direction, and Ferguson went solo, remaining with the Asylum label.

Ferguson's debut album, All Alone in the End Zone, was released in 1976, and showed him moving away from the hard rock that Jo Jo Gunne was best known for. Instead, it had more in common with the slick Southern California pop/rock of the era, the sort that found the middle ground between soft rock and album rock; it featured substantial contributions from then-Eagles guitarist Joe Walsh. So did the slightly more pop-oriented follow-up Thunder Island, whose title track hit the Top Ten in 1977 and helped make the album a commercial success. After a limited-run live album, Ferguson released his official follow-up, Real Life Ain't This Way, in 1979; it produced another Top 40 hit in "Shakedown Cruise." With those successes under his belt, Ferguson jumped to Capitol for his next album, 1980's Terms & Conditions. However, it and the 1982 follow-up White Noise failed to produce any more hits. With his keyboard and MIDI expertise, however, Ferguson was primed to begin a new career as a soundtrack composer for film and television; he worked on The Terminator, Nightmare on Elm Street 5, and the UPN television series Viper, among many others, and remained active into the new millennium.

This sealed album is being sold as a collector's item and cannot be returned due to manufacturer's defects. It may be almost impossible to replace many of the sealed albums I am selling. If I am aware of any defects, I will list it in the notes and pictures above.

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All album reviews, credits and artist biographies are from AllMusic Guide. If you haven't been to their web site, you should check it out. It's one of the most comprehensive music references on the internet. In some cases, credits may include reissue (CD) information. Obviously any credits referenced to CDs might not apply to this release.

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