Rocky Sullivan
Catalyst
St. Cruz, CA
1979-07-21
unknown analog audience recording
01 Back Up Girl 3:39
02 Bigelow 65000 3:59
03 Love Me Just A Little 4:15
04 Roxy 6:00
05 Hearts On Fire 3:02
06 Jacknife Lover 4:15
07 Are You Still My Girl? 4:20
08 Crowd Pleaser 5:08
09 hake Your Shake 3:59
Encore
10 ...band intro > Shake Your Shake con't 4:43
Total 43:24
Band:
Rocky Sullivan - Vocals
Greg Douglass - Guitars
Marc Nielsen - Drums
Mario Cipollina - Bass
John Cipollina - Guitars
? - backing vocals
Notes:
- encore fades in
- seems the band returned for a 2nd performance of "Shake Your Shake", this time with introducing the band members.
NB John Cipollina recordings can be found in various collections within the Live Music Archive ( https://archive.org/details/etree ):
John Cipollina - 199 - http://www.archive.org/details/JohnCipollina
Dinosaurs - 65 - http://www.archive.org/details/Dinosaurs
Barry Melton Band - 55 (many without Cipollina) - http://www.archive.org/details/BarryMeltonBand
Zero - 554 (with Cipollina [84 - 7/88]) - http://www.archive.org/details/Zero
from http://www.bay-area-bands.com
San Francisco rock singer/songwriter - who should have done way better. Catchy tunes with a rockin' feeling - that might describe his music. The voice reminding of Bruce Springsteen at times. All that talent must have been the reason why many famous Bay Area artists joined Rocky Sullivan on his albums.
Rocky Sullivan was born as Anthony Galante in New York in 1948 and that's also the place where he joined his first bands. He started with the doo wop group 'The Visuals' and then went on to play with 'The Braid'. Further information regarding these bands can be found in an interview with Rocky (link underneath) and the discography. When Rocky came to San Francisco he had not only changed his name but also started his solo career and recorded several albums.
"Illegal Entry" (1980), a nice enough album which includes the tasty "Everybodies Got A Price", features among others, Nicky Hopkins, Greg Douglass, John Cipollina and Mario Cipollina. The songs on this album were recorded even before Rocky had a record deal during several sessions in 1978 (March, July and October) at the Automat, San Francisco. Except two songs, which were written by John Cipollina, Rocky wrote all songs himself.
"Back Up Girl" and "Roxy" had already been released before on San Fransico's Jupiter Records compilation City Lights in 1979. Which also featured the first appearance by Tommy Tutone.
In 1982 Rocky released his second album "Internal Affairs" - once again with Mario and John Cipollina plus ex-Clover drummer Micky Shine. Compared to his first record Rocky's second album is full of songs with hit approach. Possibly the best songs he ever recorded. Unfortunately the album didn't get the reception it deserved. All songs on this album were written by Rocky.
On his 1986 album "Caught In The Crossfire", which was produced by Barry Flast, Rocky Sullivan used a differen't band including his wife Ilona who provided backing vocals. The album was released on the German label Line Records and all songs were composed by Rocky himself.
Although Rocky's musical talent led to believe that he might become somewhat more famous this never happened. This can also be attributed to an auto-immune disease which kept Rocky from making music for a long time.
Around 2002 Rocky, who had been writing novels once he stopped making music at the end of the 80s, started to write songs again and sang a few songs at the 13th John Cipollina Memorial, May 29, 2002.
Rocky Sullivan passed away at the age of 59 on November 25, 2007. He will be missed by fans, friends and family.