MICHAEL STANLEY - st LP 72 w Friends And Legends LP 73 w MICHAEL STANLEY BAND - You Break It...You Bought It LP 75 w Ladies Choice LP 76 w Stage Pass 2LP 77 w Cabin Fever LP 78 w Greatest Hints LP 79 w Heartland LP 80 w North Coast LP 81 w MSB LP 82 w You Can't Fight Fashion LP 83 w Fourth And Ten LP 84

REPOST Request:   I used a couple of comments last time so here go's:  

S.D. Joe says: I recall that MSB was strangely popular across the country, admittedly to a largish cult audience who were quite receptive to blue-collar bands from the Midwest. This lasted only until Springsteen hit big - after which it was sayonara to rock'n'rollers from Cleveland and Detroit. The other nails in the Midwest's coffin were REO Speedwagon and Styx making the Big Time, for all the wrong reasons. But up until 1977 or so, so help me, your buddy pulling out the new Michael Stanley Band album was an occasion meriting Thai sticks and a couple of ice-cold six packs. (By 1979, however, Stanley became better known as "who?")

kingpossum said...Bold and insightful writeup, thank you. While Springsteen chronicles the distance between the American Dream and then American reality, Michael Stanley doesn't go quite as grittily and brutally deep in my opinion. He mostly surveys the mundanity of working class life in the Midwest, rather than the bleak futility that Springsteen typically does. They both find joys too, usually in the simple, everyday things we often take for granted.

Perhaps Stanley doesn't cut quite so deep because of his comparatively comfortable upbringing in a middle class suburb of Cleveland. For any interested parties, Stanley has continued to release new albums since the dissolution of the MSB, doing so independently and making them available on his website and CDBaby.com.   Thanks for everything you do here man.

Viacomcmd:  I remember 'My Town' was a cool song!

LINK REPOSTED 2-26-25:  https://bestfile.io/en/orZCQz2OrroIkJJ/file