You know Michael Bolton. He's "The one who sucks". Over the years he managed to pass through numerous phases of sellout animosity to memetic hatred to ironic reinvention thanks to "Office Space" mention and Lonely Island collaborations. But he is not taken seriously. But at one point Michael Bolton was legitimately and unironically great. It happened back when he was starting in the late 70s. He was in the band called Blackjack together with future Kiss guitarist Bruce Kulick. The band lasted only two albums, failed to make any significant impact but helped to put performers on the map. In a grand scheme of things Blackjack is merely a footnote in a storied careers of all involved. And that is not fair.
Case in point - this song.
"Heart of Stone" is a song by Blackjack released in 1979 on their eponymous debut album. Stylistically it is ordinary but stomping soft rock love song with a streak of blue-eyed soul - classic wacky-tacky AOR thingie. On a surface "Heart of Stone" tells a story about "longing" for "real" "connection" and inability to sustain it due to lack of acceptance of significance of the other part and general ego-centrism "nuisance". Something any human being can be familiar with to a certain degree. Curiously "Heart of Stone" also manages to subvert that theme in a very unexpected way.
There is very interesting thing going on with the lyrics. Due to its traditional structure - the lyrics present very fragmented, scattered narrative. It never really gels, never comes together in anything resembling coherence. It is too boiled down. It twists and turns too much. Images are throwing itself in every direction. It is intentionally a mess that fails to make much sense. It is too manic and unfocused. The phrasing is telling - it is opaque, vague and non-specific. Lack of details condemn the protagonist as the root of the problem he talks about. It's a neat trick.
The arrangement of "Heart of Stone" is built around piano riff which seems to be half-finished - always ending up stumbling and constantly repeating itself. Bruce Kulick's sweeps add nice touches to the arrangement serving as swipes to the next episode which is all the same - it is almost "I have no mouth but i must scream" kind of repetition. Drummer Sandy Gennaro adds very backwards sounding drum lines to a relatively straightforward groove. It is as if the song and the drums were moving in opposite directions. It gives a lot of texture and makes every part of the song distinctive. "Heart of Stone" goes round and round and round sowing seeds of feelings with that particular sentimental flavor. By that it tells the real story of the song. "Heart of Stone" fails to progress but really wants to while not willing to do a thing. That is contrasted with Bolton's performance.
Michael Bolton sounds too big for the song. Because of that he feels helpless. His voice is confined, incarcerated into the constraints of the song - trying to break free, get away. Every time he amps the drama - it is a desperate escape attempt. He goes like that for two rounds. Dissonance between the lyrics and delivery cue to the fact that the whole thing is self-imposed and does not really matters. Then things culminate in the middle section - Bolton goes all guns blazing. He gives up, spills it all out and gets over the cause. But not before taking one final chorus where the whole arrangement elevates and finally makes a step forward to oblivion with some fancy guitar soloing.
The song is designed around Michael Bolton vocal skills. Without him the song would be wacky kitsch. Bolton shows off but it never winds down to throwing every trick in the book and overplaying it to overkill. Bolton gets the right balance. And that gives the song a punch. It is a nice illustration of doing traditional sounding song with rather bawdy twist hidden inside.
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