If it’s true that Aerosmith invented the “power ballad” in 1973 with their prom-rock classic, “Dream On,” then let history take note that Cincinnati teen rockers – Max & the Bluegills – would enter a sound studio eight years later to record their own aching power ballad about unrequited love’s endless torment.
Zero to 180 would thus like to celebrate its 3rd birthday in nepotistic (and bittersweet) fashion with what proved to be the swansong of its founder’s high school rock group:
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*Pssst! Click on the link above to play “I Think I Love You” by Max & the Bluegills from 1981
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Guitar & vocals: Michael Andrew Frank
2nd guitar & piano: Rick Mosher
Drums: Keith Bortz
Bass: Chris Richardson
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“I Think I Love You” is a personal plea written just a couple short years before the singer’s departure to Boston’s Berklee School of Music, where his art would explode into a dazzling multitude of vectors (as celebrated in this Zero to 180 piece from July, 2015).
Michael Andrew Frank (left) sharing vocals with David Stallings
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By this point, the band, whose name had been shortened to simply The Max (to save time), would find its original power trio — Michael Frank, Keith Bortz & Chris Richardson — augmented by second guitarist, Rick Mosher. But alas, 1981 would see Bortz and Mosher take their final high school exam — and the band their final bow by year’s end.
Formerly Max & the Bluegills –
Keith Bortz, Mike Frank, Rick Mosher & (kneeling) Chris Richardson
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Encore Max and the Bluegills piece!
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Zero to 180 Milestones to Date
- Inaugural Zero to 180 post that establishes a bona fide cross-cultural link between Cincinnati (via James Brown‘s music recorded and distributed by King Records) and Kingston, Jamaica (i.e., Prince Buster‘s rocksteady salute to Soul Brother Number One).
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- 1st anniversary piece that features an exclusive “Howard Dean” remix of a delightful Sesame Street song about anger management (with a special rant about how WordPress’s peculiarities made me homicidal the moment I launched this blog).
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- 2nd anniversary piece that refuses to acknowledge the milestone but instead celebrates the under-sung legacy of songwriter and session musician, Joe South – with a link to South’s first 45, a novelty tune that playfully laments Texas’s change in status as the nation’s largest state upon Alaska’s entry into the Union.
