The Fray’s debut record, “How to Save a Life,” crossed the 2 million-sold mark more than a year ago — an impressive feat for any band, local to Colorado or not. While another group of Colorado musicians is proud of the Fray, its members also would like their own legacy to be remembered. And that’s part of the reasoning behind the Firefall partial-reunion concert Wednesday at the Boulder Theater.
Many will remember that before there was the Fray — even before there was Big Head Todd & the Monsters — there was Firefall, the smooth country-rockers who scored numerous hits in the late ’70s to become the biggest-selling band out of Colorado.
“I’m honored and humbled to even be considered one of the top acts to ever come out of Colorado,” said Jock Bartley, 57, the only founding member of Firefall still playing in the band. “We never got on Leno or Letterman. Even though the Fray did all that, I’m proud of them as they prepare to make their second record.”
Bartley’s resume tells the story of his musical inspirations that led to Firefall. After leaving the art program at the University of Colorado at Boulder to follow a career in music, he replaced Tommy Bolin in Zephyr until that band broke up. Bartley was then asked to join Gram Parsons’ touring band for a stint — a gig that later introduced him to Rick Roberts of the Flying Burrito Brothers.
Bartley and Roberts met at famed rock club Max’s Kansas City in New York, and it wasn’t long before they formed Firefall in 1975 with four of their buddies.
In its brief existence, Firefall created a catalog that was Boulder’s own light-rock version of what the Eagles were doing on the West Coast. “You Are the Woman” was its most ubiquitous hit, but other songs also charted and made waves, including “Strange Way,” “Just Remember I Love You,” “Livin’ Ain’t Livin’ ” and “Staying With It.”
At the peak of its career, Firefall opened for Fleetwood Mac for six months on the latter’s “Rumours” tour.
“Firefall songs are so good to this day,” Bartley said. “People want to hear them still, and continuing the Firefall legacy was something I wanted to do.”
The band broke up amid the recording and touring of its fourth album, 1980’s underwhelming “Undertow.” But Bartley has been keeping the music alive at fairs, festivals and other soft-ticket events with the help of a completely different Firefall lineup.
Reunion show
Wednesday’s reunion show will see founding members Larry Burnett and Mark Andes joining Bartley and his current lineup of Steven Weinmeister, Bil Hopkins and Sandy Ficca. Other special guests and former Firefall players on Wednesday’s bill are David Muse, who joined the band in 1977 with his sax, flute and keyboards, and Joe Lala, the band’s studio/touring percussionist from the ’70s.
Founding member Michael Clarke, who was best known for his work in the Byrds, died in 1993 of liver failure, the result of alcohol addiction that plagued his career. And so the most obvious no-show for this reunion is Roberts, the group’s singer and, with Burnett, primary songwriter.
“Rick’s health is still very fragile,” said Bartley, the brain behind the reunion. “It’s been fragile for about 10 or 12 years. We’ve invited him to come to the show and participate in the interviews that we’re taping for the DVD, and if he feels comfortable enough to sing backup and come up with us on the stage, we’d love to have him up there. But chances are good he won’t do that. He has told me, though, that he wants to come to the show.”
There are multiple reasons for the reunion, all centered on the release of a live CD and DVD, something that will give the current band more merchandise to sell at its shows and will give the members closure on a bitter breakup so many years ago.
“Firefall, like most bands of the day, totally got (ripped off),” Bartley said. “The songwriters, Rick and Larry, got rich. When it came to Atlantic Records, we were always in debt. I saw this show as an opportunity to be a righteous and honorable sharing of the pie. We’ll record this CD and DVD, and whether we sell 50 or 5,000 or 50,000 copies, it’s better than the fact that Firefall never made a dime from royalties back in the day, from 4 million-plus in sales.
“There’s also the fact that the original band broke up under less-than-desirable emotional circumstances. If we can pull this off, it could be a healing event that would bring everyone together.”
How Bartley ended up as the sole owner of the name Firefall is one of those odd, only-in- the-music-industry stories that leaves fans (and ex-bandmates) scratching their heads. The band started dissolving while touring “Elan” in 1978. Some bandmates weren’t talking with each other, and eventually Clarke and Andes left the band.
The former six-piece powerhouse was dying, and as each member called it quits, Bartley saw his future with Firefall crumbling before him.
“After the breakup, I was the only guy who didn’t quit,” Bartley said. “If you quit, you give up your title to the name — that’s the way our contract was structured. One day I woke up and realized that I then had control of the name.”
Bartley quietly reformed the band and began playing as Firefall again, releasing “Break of Dawn” in 1982. Most of the original band members didn’t blink an eye at the new grouping, Bartley said.
Now that Bartley has been touring Firefall version 2.0 for more than 20 years, he’s all too familiar with its place in the rock ‘n’ roll spectrum.
“We play a lot of fairs and festivals, and maybe a few clubs here or there,” Bartley said. “Out on the road, we might open for REO Speedwagon, Journey, the Doobie Brothers, America. We sold out the BB King’s blues club in New York, co-headlining with Poco.
“I don’t have any big illusions that people are dying to hear our new material. We’re a great soft-ticket band, and we draw thousands of people to a free concert. We’re big in places like Kansas City, St. Louis and Orlando. In the last 10 years, we’ve done Europe twice and Japan three times. Are we really visible around here in Colorado? Not really, but we still play around at the Louisville Street Fair and places like that.”
Bartley knows that Firefall made a sizable impact in the late ’70s, adding to what was being done by the Eagles; Buffalo Springfield; Dan Fogelberg; Crosby, Stills and Nash; and others. But he also knows that that was a long time ago.
“When we play, we might change some things up,” Bartley said. “But it’s important that the Firefall songs sound like they’re supposed to. I play the same solo in ‘You Are the Woman’ every night because that’s what people want.
“I’ve made a very good living off these songs, and now I’d like to share some of that with some of the people who were there in the early days.”
Ricardo Baca: 303-954-1394 or rbaca@denverpost.com
Firefall
’70s country-rock. Boulder Theater, reunion show with original members Mark Andes and Larry Burnett joining in. Wednesday. 7 p.m. $29.50. .
Top-selling artists at home in Colorado
Firefall is one of the biggest-selling bands to ever call Colorado home. Who are some of the other Colorado stars? Here’s the shortlist. Add your own at .
John Denver. Gold records: “Farewell Andromeda,” “Aerie,” “Rocky Mountain High,” “John Denver’s Greatest Hits Vol. III,” “Seasons of the Heart,” “Some Days Are Diamonds” and “John Denver.” Platinum: “Spirit,” “I Want to Live,” “Rocky Mountain Collection,” “A Christmas Together” (with The Muppets), “Rocky Mountain High: The Best of John Denver,” “Poems, Prayers and Promises” and “The Very Best of John Denver.” Multiplatinum: “John Denver’s Greatest Hits” (9X), “Back Home Again” (3X), “An Evening With John Denver” (3X), “John Denver’s Greatest Hits Vol. II” (2X), “Rocky Mountain Christmas” (2X) and “Windsong” (2X),
Dan Fogelberg. Gold: “High Country Snows” and “Windows and Walls.” Platinum: “Captured Angel,” “Twin Sons of Different Mothers (with Tim Weisberg) and “Home Free.” Multiplatinum: “Dan Fogelberg: Greatest Hits” (3X), “The Innocent Age” (2X), “Phoenix” (2X), “Netherlands” (2X) and “Souvenirs” (2X).
Firefall. Platinum: “Elan” and “Firefall.” Gold: “Luna Sea.”
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. Gold: “More Great Dirt: The Best of, Vol. 2.” Platinum: “Will the Circle Be Unbroken, Vols. 1 & 2” and “20 Years of Dirt: Best of Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.”
Joe Walsh. Gold: “The Smoker You Drink, The Player You Get” and “So What.” Platinum: “But Seriously, Folks.”
The Fray. Multiplatinum: “How to Save a Life” (2X).
Stephen Stills. Gold: “Stephen Stills,” “Stephen Stills 2” and “Manassas.”
Big Head Todd & the Monsters. Platinum: “Sister Sweetly.”
Poco. Gold: “Legend” and “Legacy.”
Source: . A gold album is more than 500,000 sold, platinum is more than 1 million sold. — Ricardo Baca
