The Call formed in 1980 in Santa Cruz, CA, after Michael Been (lead vocals, bass, guitar) and Scott Musick (drums), who had played together in previous bands, hooked up with Greg Freeman (bass) and Tom Ferrier (guitar). A veteran of both the secular and Christian music scenes of the 1970s, Been’s lyrics balanced tales of suffering and injustice with calls to action, introspection and redemption.
The self-titled debut sees the Call bouncing around different styles within an edgy, new wave vein. The most recognizable element of their sound, however, is Been’s voice, which can jump from contemplative to soaring intensity at a moment’s notice. The band swaggers in the first track, “War Weary World,” and Been breaks into his trademark wailing to its fullest on the second, “There’s a Heart in Here.” “Fulham Blues” mixes rockabilly guitar and some real grit and fire with dynamic pauses. Side one (back in the vinyl days) closes with “Who’s That Man,” which employs a driving ska beat. Side 2 kicks up the tempo, but it all feels a bit samey until the moody closer, “Waiting for the End.” There is no true standout, but every song is solid. Garth Hudson of The Band lends a hand, but you wouldn’t notice (unless he’s responsible for the tacky keyboard sounds on “Flesh and Steel”). All in all, a promising debut.
Modern Romans is not a significant improvement over the debut but neither is it a step back. It’s more stylistically cohesive and rocks harder, but the uptick in passion and intensity did not yield better songs, with one notable exception: the incredible “Turn a Blind Eye” is an intense tune about willfully ignoring the things in this world that make us uncomfortable. Been matches the urgency of the music with an amazing vocal delivery, resulting in the Call’s first truly great song, but MTV played the uptempo single “The Walls Came Down” instead. “Violent Times” is a moody slow burn, and “All About You” ends the album on a poignant note. The highs are higher than the debut, but it’s weighed down by a few clunkers (rockers “Back From the Front” and “Time of Your Life”). Garth Hudson is present again, somewhere in the mix.
The Call took a real step forward on Scene Beyond Dreams. Joe Read replaced Freeman on bass, and Steve Huddleston (a guest on the previous album) joined on synthesizers. Production, especially on the synths, is cleaner, and the music sounds bigger in every way. “Tremble” has a good groove and tasty guitar work. “Delivered,” which closes Side 1, is another about-face, moving into Ultravox territory with pulsing synth and angular guitar work. After a couple of lighter-weight tunes to open Side 2, the weighty “One Life Leads to Another” blends evocative keyboards with pointed guitar lines. Put Adrian Borland in on vocals and this could pass for the Sound. “Apocalypse” is a brief but beautiful acoustic take on a Moby Grape tune. The Call sounds confident here, moving into new stylistic territory while still sounding like itself.
Read and Huddleston exited after Scene Beyond Dreams; Been shifted to bass duties. Keyboardist Jim Goodwin joined, resulting in the lineup that would last the rest of the band’s career. The self-produced Reconciled is a strong album with more mature songwriting. It takes fewer risks, but is focused and allows the band’s strengths to shine. Garth Hudson, Robbie Robertson, Peter Gabriel and Jim Kerr all contribute to the record, though none of them does much of note. Side 1 is especially strong, leading off with “Everywhere I Go” and the anthemic “I Still Believe (Great Design).” “Blood Red (America)” features strutting synths, propulsive drums and a great vocal. Been’s ode to his home state, the rocking “Oklahoma,” kicks off Side 2. The relatively straightforward number portends the bluesy rock sound of subsequent albums. “Sanctuary” is another strong number featuring Kerr (sounding more like Bono than himself) on backing vocals. “Even Now” ends the album on a strong, emotional note. The haunting music matches Been’s faith-affirming lyrics.
The band ditched the big name guests for Into the Woods and delivered their best album. In a nice bit of continuity, the album title quotes a line from “Even Now,” the closing song on Reconciled. “I Don’t Wanna” kicks things off with a simple synth refrain and Been’s voice sounding a bit like mid-’70s Springsteen before the band kicks in. The gospel-tinged “In the River” follows, distinct for the vocal duet between Been and drummer Musick. “It Could Have Been Me,” which is the inverse of “Turn a Blind Eye” from the second album, is more musically sophisticated and hits even harder; Musick’s drumming really stands out. “The Woods” features Ferrier’s sustained guitars over a driving beat that builds in intensity as the song progresses. Been’s delivery is gentle until he begins to ratchet it up, finally exploding with his final line of “Guilty man, freedom is yours!” Four songs in, and three are contenders for the band’s best.
Side 2 doesn’t reach the same heights. The first three songs are solid, especially the ballad “Memory,” but it isn’t until the penultimate track, “Expecting,” that the instrumentation, lead and backing vocals and emotion blend to perfection. Ferrier shines again. The closer “Walk Walk” is a bouncy, bluesy number that seems out of place.
Rather than build on that achievement, the Call stripped things back, settling into a mainly guitar-based, bluesy, rootsy sound on Let the Day Begin. The pronounced synths from the previous album are all but absent. There’s slide guitar and harmonica (played by actor Harry Dean Stanton). The result is the Call’s most rocking album since Modern Romans. Been sings in a lower register at times, particularly in “For Love.” While the the standout here is the upbeat title track, the music takes darker turns elsewhere. “Jealousy” is a downbeat ballad with some aching vocals and one of Ferrier’s best solos. A few songs are completely skippable: the bluesy, “Same Ol’ Story” and the pretty but lightweight “When” and “Closer.” “Uncovered,” which sets Been’s voice against keys and nothing else, ends the album on a dour note.
The move away from edgy new wave continued on Red Moon, wherein the Call, rather than borrowing some of its members, directly attempts to channel The Band. The resulting songs are competent and mature. “What’s Happened to You” features prominent piano and organ and a “la, la, la-la-la-la” refrain reminiscent of “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down.” On the title track, Been trots out a Richard Manuel imitation, which he reprises (with falsetto!) on the very Band-ish “Family.” “You Were There” features saxophones (as do a number of other songs, played by Goodwin) straight out of “It Makes No Difference.” It’s not until the fourth song, “Floating Back,” that we hear something that resembles the Call of old with a bouncing bassline and spiky guitar. But it’s a little too smooth, and Been never lets loose, completely abandoning his trademark urgency and wailing here. The forgettable “Like You’ve Never Been Loved” could have been a Bonnie Raitt or Mary Chapin Carpenter single with a slide guitar solo and lyrics about holding and kissing. Ending the album on a strong note, “The Hand That Feeds You” has dark, biting lyrics and is the closest this album comes to rocking. “What a Day” is a slow burn that picks up in intensity as it moves forward, featuring two nasty solos by Ferrier. Had Been pursued this style on a solo album, it’s likely nobody would have complained; but even for a band unafraid to mix things up, this was a direction few fans likely wanted. This would be their last album for seven years.
With the Call on hiatus, Been focused on a solo career. After contributing two songs to the soundtrack for the 1992 film Light Sleeper, he released On the Verge of a Nervous Breakthrough in 1994. Heavy guitars and loud drums abound on most of the songs. While the Call always could rock, this is an entirely different aesthetic, not too dissimilar to what Catherine Wheel was doing around the same time. Been’s subdued vocals are in a lower register, sounding like an entirely different singer than his younger self. Call alumni Musick and Ferrier are on hand, as are Gang of Four’s Dave Allen and Hugo Burnham on the driving “When You’re With Me.” “This World” could have been a Call track. The guitars are heavier, but it has that Call swagger and unmistakable groove. “This Way” is a standout with its extended instrumental intro and a tasty guitar solo. Been’s clear vocals reflect the sadness and regret of the lyrics. About two-thirds of the way through, the mood begins to shift. “She” is notable for its breezy melody, vocal harmonies, and general lack of heaviness. “Worried” is an emotional ballad featuring Been’s most Been-like vocals to this point. Even a straightforward cover of the Yardbirds’ “For Your Love” adds a fun vibe. “Now I Know High (Part 2)” features Been’s son, Robert, of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, on bass. Two versions of “To Feel This Way,” reclaimed from Light Sleeper, close the album. The uplifting melody, earnest vocals and elegant organ feel like an outlier on this mostly heavy album, but it’s a nice reprieve from all that preceded it.
The Call regrouped after seven years to record To Heaven and Back. Sonically, it has more in common with Been’s solo album than Red Moon (or any other Call album for that matter). “Criminal” and “World on Fire” are heavy numbers, the latter featuring a frenetic Goodwin organ solo. Organ is featured prominently throughout — these dense songs don’t leave much room for the airy synths so common in the band’s earlier work. “Love Is Everywhere,” one of the gentler numbers, mixes in backwards guitar effects and tasteful playing by Ferrier. While, in the past, Been’s lyrics frequently addressed serious topics, the music rarely felt like a drag; the vocals alone could lift an average song to greater heights. On this album, however, the music is rarely inspiring, and Been doesn’t seem to have his heart in it. As a result, numerous songs are a slog to get through. “Confession” closes the album on a dark, foreboding note.
Been, 60, suffered a heart attack and died in 2010 while on tour as a sound engineer for BRMC. In 2013, Musick, Ferrier, and Goodwin — with Robert Been on bass and vocals — performed a pair of tribute concerts, in San Francisco and Los Angeles, that are documented on A Tribute to Michael Been.
The Lost Tapes consists of songs the band never completed, some dating back to before they were known as the Call. All tracks feature Been’s vocals, with music newly recorded by Musick, Ferrier and Goodwin.