Kihntinued is the album that followed RocKihnRoll with the Breakup Song on it as the big hit. Of course, what happens when you try to duplicate your initial musical success? Right. You blow it. We all thought that HAPPY MAN was the single because it was a catchy tune with a positive message (at a time when everybody was claiming to be miserable.)
Eventually everybody agreed with us because they gave us a decent video budget and we made the first of our “concept videos” with a story line. HAPPY MAN told the story of a working class guy who works in a wood shop and makes a guitar (which his boss cuts in half!) It starred the talented Cara Mastry in the lead female roll and she was very exotic. Too bad her boyfriend at the time watched her like a hawk! I couldn’t get a minute alone with her! But she was exceptionally beautiful and I enjoyed our incidental body contact (only when called for by the script!) Joe Dea was once again the directory and he did another excellent job.
I thought the single would turn out to be EVERY LOVE SONG which was a strong contender because of its funky beat and clever lyrics. Jose Hernandez played sax on that track and I remember he showed up at a gig (it might have been Great America) and blew his sax solo like nobody’s business. The man was possessed to get in front of all those pretty girls and perform. We used to open the show with EVERYDAY SATURDAY because it really got the place jumpin’ with a semi-Motown groove.
TESTIFY had only two chords in it! It was an improvement over the old three chord rock tunes. It eliminated one whole chord! That means you could only be wrong half the time. I remember writing it fast, like in about ten minutes. All the good ones are like that.
Gary Phillips was a full time member of the band at this point and he came up with the catchy reggae riff on SOUND SYSTEM. I also tried to write a reggae song TELL ME LIES. The last song on the album was a bittersweet jazzy ballad which still touches me called FAMILY. I don’t remember what I was going through at the time but I must have had some emotional ups and downs because the songs are all over the place. Steve Wright used his fretless Gibson Jazz Bass on FAMILY and double tracked it with a hint to phasing. What we got was a totally unique sound.
Also Larry Lynch made his vocal debut on HIGHER AND HIGHER. I have to say the band was extremely creative during this period. Remember, this was only the second album after our first big hit THE BREAKUP SONG and we were still one album away from JEOPARDY. This was the eye of the hurricane and I remember recording it in Fantasy studios in Berkeley. Journey was across the hall spending millions on their album, we were still re-using the multi track take to save money!
Looking back, Kihntinued was one of our all time best albums!
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