For anyone outside the Los Angeles area who were familiar with the band Lone Justice in the mid-80s, the band more than likely has U2 to thank for that, by way of producer Jimmy Iovine.
With the release of The Unforgettable Fire and the smash hit single "Pride (In The Name Of Love", U2 had successfully transitioned from one of many guitar bands from over yonder vying for America's attention to "the most important band in America" despite being Irish.
And we were open to anything the band had to say. If they thought a band was cool enough to open their shows, we were willing to listen.
Therefore, there was no sweeter opening slot in all of rock & roll than U2's and it just so happened that Lone Justice's manager/cheerleader, Jimmy Iovine, might've just known a guy or four who could make that happen.
At around this same time, the opportunity to open for other Iovine associates such as Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers and Stevie Nicks had also presented itself.
What up-and-coming band in the mid-80s wouldn't have loved the opportunity to tour with even just one of those acts?
When one considers that the rough-and-tumble L.A. roots rock scene consisting of The Rave-Ups, Long Ryders, Green On Red, True West, and others was already pulling in large crowds and the label sharks were beginning to circle and suddenly, out of nowhere, it seemed as if Lone Justice had swooped in out of nowhere and cut to the front of the line.
Then, after inking with Geffen, it seemed the band were now helping themselves to the choicest opening slots to be had.
While this led to a bit of an unspoken backlash against the band for being the subject of so much local hype, the truth was that McKee and her band had the goods.
Meanwhile, helping the movement along was R.E.M., whose sound, beginning with 1985's Lifes Rich Pageant, had been growing both harder-edged and folkier by the album, chatter on both sides of the pond predicted a wave of great American roots bands.
So, long story short, Lone Justice's timing could not have been better, yet, when their Jimmy Iovine-produced debut album was issued, the indifference from radio and MTV was staggering as the rock gatekeepers felt the album was too country and the country stations thought the album was too rock for their listeners.
Even the band's Tom Petty-penned first single "Ways To Be Wicked" could generate little action despite the fact that Petty, himself, was enjoying the Top 20 success of "Don't Come Around here No More", from his own country-themed album Southern Accents.
Wait, Petty gave them a song, too, you say?
Yes, indeed.
So, the band not only had impeccable timing, a world-class producer Jimmy Iovine behind the boards, and a Tom Petty song as first single and the best the label could do is #62 on the Billboard charts?!
Undaunted, Jimmy Iovine assumed a management role with the band while also still expected to produce their second album, but, due to his involvement in so many other projects at the time (Simple Minds, U2, and the aforementioned Petty hit "Don't Come Around Here No More"), Iovine brought in co-producer Little Steven to be his point-man on the project.
Of course, after co-producing Born In The U.S.A. in '84, Little Steven was also quite in-demand as a producer and guitarist, himself, for the obvious reason that the man simply exudes soul, but comes from a pop sensibility, therefore making him a perfect fit for what Iovine and the band - what was left of 'em, anyway - were after.
One of the unfortunate side effects of the debut album's lack of commercial success was that people other than the band themselves began making personnel moves and, by the time sessions began for the band's second album, Shelter, only McKee and guitarist Ryan Hedgecock remained.
In their places were rock-solid hired guns Bruce Brody and Shane Fontayne, who actually became official members of Lone Justice for the duration of the band's existence, which, sadly, wasn't long after the release of Shelter.
While it can be argued that the ceaseless hype that attached itself to this band even before they'd cut a record must have made Geffen feel as if they'd won the lottery by simply signing the band. What other explanation can there be, then, for the label's halfhearted attempts to promote the band in light of all the heavyweight talent involved and the fact that the man himself, David Geffen, had signed the band?
Call this writer crazy, but if you or I worked at a label and knew that the band we'd been tasked with promoting had been signed to the label by the very man whose name was on the freakin' label of every album, we'd have made damn sure it was a hit.
Or died trying.
Thing is, the Shelter album was quite capable of selling itself.
As this record store clerk realized at the time, anytime we played the album in our N. Clark St. store, we'd move a minimum of five copies in the time it took for the album to play all the way through.
That doesn't happen often so the fact that the album wasn't all over MTV and radio immediately upon release can only be the result of complete negligence, which, again, when you consider that this was brought to the label by Geffen, had Iovine and Little Steven's radio-ready handiwork all over it, and still nothing.
By nothing, of course, I mean "nothing", because when I decided to take matters into my own hands and call a few rock stations around town to see if they'd play "I Found Love", their response was, "We don't have it."
Maybe they were blowing smoke up my ass, but maybe, in fact, they didn't even get a copy, in which case, somebody's head needed to roll and, no, not by firing another member of the fucking band.
I wish I could say that when Maria McKee finally went solo, the music world came to their senses and finally got behind the last surviving member of a band that, quite definitely deserved better than they got.
McKee's self-titled solo debut, also on Geffen, came in 1989 and, like both Lone Justice albums before it, met with a cruel commercial fate, as if McKee herself had somehow insulted every radio station and video channel with her spirited performances, great songs, and, of course, shiver-inducing vocals.
Whether tearing the proverbial roof off on the textured "I've Forgotten What It Was In You (That Put The Need In Me)" or baring her soul on "Am I The Only One (Who's Ever Felt This Way)?", one had to wonder aloud, "What else does Maria McKee have to do to make it in this business?!"
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there is no justice