Firefall
(With excerpts from the liner notes of "Firefall's Greatest Hits" on Rhino Records by Stephen K. Peeples)
As dusk enveloped the spectacular vistas of Yosemite Valley in Yosemite National Park, California, a huge pile of wood lay stacked at the edge of a high cliff. Nature lovers from far corners of the world gathered on the valley floor, waiting till dark when the woodpile was torched and slowly pushed off the cliff, the burning logs forming a blazing cascade down the mountain's stony face. The image of the primitive light show, staged at Yosemite for tourists, stuck in Florida-born Rick Roberts' mind for a long time. Then in l973, as he and his new Colorado based band were about to play their first gig but still needed a name, the image flashed back: Firefall. That seems an especially dead-on handle for the country flavored rock'n'roll band that carried the torch of musical forebears such as The Byrds, Poco, Buffalo Springfield, and The Flying Burrito Brothers into the mid-'70s and beyond.
For the better part of the next decade, Firefall burned brightly it at both ends, musically and personally, and then appeared to flame out, at least on record. By 1982, they'd cut eight albums (scoring gold for the first three, with the third going on to platinum-plus), and put 11 singles on the charts. FIREFALL GREATEST HITS satisfied many fans who'd been asking for a collection of the band's best known songs - all their hit 45s and a handful of the choicest LP tracks, plus a new, previously unreleased Firefall recording penned by co-founder Jock Bartley --"Run Run Away." By the early '70s, RICK ROBERTS moved to Colorado and signed with one of Stills' song publishing companies, celebrating his post-Burritos freedom by recording a solo album on A&M Records, "Windmills" in 1972. That May, a song he'd written with Stills and Hillman, 'It Doesn't Matter,' became a #61 solo 45 for Stephen. Earlier that year, Chris Hillman and Rick had seen the phenomenal undiscovered singer, Emmy Lou Harris, perform in a tiny club near Washington D.C. Knowing he was looking for a female singer partner, Chris called Gram. Soon Gram, Emmy Lou and a number players from Elvis' backup band went into a studio in L.A. to make his brilliant solo album, "G.P." on Warner Bros. They hit the road with a new band, The Fallen Angels. After their first show in Boulder, they realized the guitarist originally hired for the tour, wasn't cutting it. Kansas-born JOCK BARTLEY auditioned and was hired as lead guitarist for The Fallen Angels. Jock was the local hot guitarist who'd just come from a stint with the Boulder band, Zephyr, having replaced Tommy Bolin as lead guitarist on the album "Sunset Ride" on Warner Bros. (Bolin would go on to play with the James Gang, replacing Joe Walsh, and then join Deep Purple before his untimely death in 1977). During the second concert after Bartley joined the Fallen Angels at Houston’s Liberty Hall, Neil Young and Linda Ronstadt made a surprise appearance on stage (it was the first time Emmy Lou and Linda had met and sang together); in the crowd for that show was Jimmy Page and Robert Plant. As fate would have it, coincidentally, Gram and the Fallen Angels played two nights in New York City at the infamous venue, Max's Kansas City, followed a night later by a solo performance of Rick Roberts, his Burrito replacement. It was there Rick and Jock first met. Like Parsons, Roberts was impressed by Bartley's lead and slide work. In mid September 1973, a few days after finishing his 2nd solo LP, "Grievous Angel," (months before it was released), Gram Parsons died in a motel out the Joshua Tree desert, supposedly of heart failure. The circumstances remain shrouded in mystery.
Back in Boulder, Bartley ran into Roberts, who by then had cut another solo album, "She Is A Song" on A&M. The duo began practicing and performing together. Jock's innovative guitar style added a rock edge to Rick's melodic folky tunes. Encouraged by their audiences and peers - and vowing to avoid the mistakes made with their previous outfits - the two decided to build a better rock'n'roll band. Roberts and Bartley rounded up Philadelphia- born bassist/singer MARK ANDES, who'd been a major figure on the SoCal (Topanga Canyon) rock scene during the late '60s and early '70s with the bands Spirit ('I Got A Line On You' and 'Natures Way') and Jo Jo Gunne. Andes had plugged out and was living in the mountains outside Boulder, but was coaxed out of semi-retirement. He brought jazz as well as progressive rock elements to the new band's sound.
As dusk enveloped the spectacular vistas of Yosemite Valley in Yosemite National Park, California, a huge pile of wood lay stacked at the edge of a high cliff. Nature lovers from far corners of the world gathered on the valley floor, waiting till dark when the woodpile was torched and slowly pushed off the cliff, the burning logs forming a blazing cascade down the mountain's stony face. The image of the primitive light show, staged at Yosemite for tourists, stuck in Florida-born Rick Roberts' mind for a long time. Then in l973, as he and his new Colorado based band were about to play their first gig but still needed a name, the image flashed back: Firefall. That seems an especially dead-on handle for the country flavored rock'n'roll band that carried the torch of musical forebears such as The Byrds, Poco, Buffalo Springfield, and The Flying Burrito Brothers into the mid-'70s and beyond.
For the better part of the next decade, Firefall burned brightly it at both ends, musically and personally, and then appeared to flame out, at least on record. By 1982, they'd cut eight albums (scoring gold for the first three, with the third going on to platinum-plus), and put 11 singles on the charts. FIREFALL GREATEST HITS satisfied many fans who'd been asking for a collection of the band's best known songs - all their hit 45s and a handful of the choicest LP tracks, plus a new, previously unreleased Firefall recording penned by co-founder Jock Bartley --"Run Run Away." By the early '70s, RICK ROBERTS moved to Colorado and signed with one of Stills' song publishing companies, celebrating his post-Burritos freedom by recording a solo album on A&M Records, "Windmills" in 1972. That May, a song he'd written with Stills and Hillman, 'It Doesn't Matter,' became a #61 solo 45 for Stephen. Earlier that year, Chris Hillman and Rick had seen the phenomenal undiscovered singer, Emmy Lou Harris, perform in a tiny club near Washington D.C. Knowing he was looking for a female singer partner, Chris called Gram. Soon Gram, Emmy Lou and a number players from Elvis' backup band went into a studio in L.A. to make his brilliant solo album, "G.P." on Warner Bros. They hit the road with a new band, The Fallen Angels. After their first show in Boulder, they realized the guitarist originally hired for the tour, wasn't cutting it. Kansas-born JOCK BARTLEY auditioned and was hired as lead guitarist for The Fallen Angels. Jock was the local hot guitarist who'd just come from a stint with the Boulder band, Zephyr, having replaced Tommy Bolin as lead guitarist on the album "Sunset Ride" on Warner Bros. (Bolin would go on to play with the James Gang, replacing Joe Walsh, and then join Deep Purple before his untimely death in 1977). During the second concert after Bartley joined the Fallen Angels at Houston’s Liberty Hall, Neil Young and Linda Ronstadt made a surprise appearance on stage (it was the first time Emmy Lou and Linda had met and sang together); in the crowd for that show was Jimmy Page and Robert Plant. As fate would have it, coincidentally, Gram and the Fallen Angels played two nights in New York City at the infamous venue, Max's Kansas City, followed a night later by a solo performance of Rick Roberts, his Burrito replacement. It was there Rick and Jock first met. Like Parsons, Roberts was impressed by Bartley's lead and slide work. In mid September 1973, a few days after finishing his 2nd solo LP, "Grievous Angel," (months before it was released), Gram Parsons died in a motel out the Joshua Tree desert, supposedly of heart failure. The circumstances remain shrouded in mystery.
Back in Boulder, Bartley ran into Roberts, who by then had cut another solo album, "She Is A Song" on A&M. The duo began practicing and performing together. Jock's innovative guitar style added a rock edge to Rick's melodic folky tunes. Encouraged by their audiences and peers - and vowing to avoid the mistakes made with their previous outfits - the two decided to build a better rock'n'roll band. Roberts and Bartley rounded up Philadelphia- born bassist/singer MARK ANDES, who'd been a major figure on the SoCal (Topanga Canyon) rock scene during the late '60s and early '70s with the bands Spirit ('I Got A Line On You' and 'Natures Way') and Jo Jo Gunne. Andes had plugged out and was living in the mountains outside Boulder, but was coaxed out of semi-retirement. He brought jazz as well as progressive rock elements to the new band's sound.
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