Stephen Bishop, Walking on Air (1989)
Most of us know him from two songs , On and On and Tootsie’s It Might Be You (which, ironically, he didn’t write).
In truth, he is a shadowy and very, very prolific songwriter with an inscrutable body of work that has popped up in many other artists’ recordings. And that roster is no small beer: Sting, Art Garfunkel, Barbra Streisand, Eric Clapton, the list goes on and on (see what I did just there?). Add to that films and solo albums released in various parts of the world, and you have a formidable oeuvre.
But his own recording career was baffled with long silences, and though he had a solid voice, he was a positively miserable performer. So when he did enter our musical conscience, he didn’t stay long.
Then, in 1989, he released his strongest collection, Bowling in Paris, which mostly sounds like a dead ringer for Mike + The Mechanics.
The present song is – for him at least – an astonishing work. All the safety of conjunct melodies, predictable chord shifts, silky meters and primary-colour harmony is out the window and over the fence. It’s a careless romp with jolting key changes, jagged melodies and tripping segues. Phil Collins adds a great vocal and his distinct drums.
It’s as fresh today as it was thirty years ago… curious to hear the feedback.
