Firefall is an American soft rock band that formed in Boulder, Colorado, in 1974. It was founded by Rick Roberts, former member of the Flying Burrito Brothers, and Jock Bartley, who had been Tommy Bolin's replacement in Zephyr. Other members have included Mark Andes, Larry Burnett, David Muse, and Michael Clarke, the latter also formerly of the Flying Burrito Brothers and an original member of the Byrds.
The band's biggest hit single, "You Are the Woman", peaked at No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1976. Other hits included "Just Remember I Love You" (#11 in 1977), "Strange Way" (#11 in 1978), "Cinderella" (#34 in 1977), "Headed for a Fall" (#35 in 1980), and "Staying with It" (#37 in 1981).
History In 1973 Rick Roberts and Jock Bartley met when Bartley was on tour with Gram Parsons as a member of his backing band, the Fallen Angels. Both the Fallen Angels and Roberts were performing in New York City at the same venue on consecutive nights. After the two were reunited in Boulder, Colorado, Roberts was impressed by Bartley's guitar work, and the duo soon began practicing together. Encouraged to form a band, they contacted bassist Mark Andes (a former member of the California bands Spirit and Jo Jo Gunne) who had temporarily retired to the mountains outside Boulder, and singer/ guitarist/ composer Larry Burnett (whom Roberts had met in his travels earlier that year). After Andes and Burnett joined in 1974, the band was called Firefall.
Roberts got the name from the Yosemite Firefall at Yosemite National Park in California. The owners of a hotel threw burning logs off a mountain in a cascade as an annual event to entertain the guests.
Guitarist/keyboardist Mark Hallman was another musician considered for Firefall, but Hallman rejected the offer and remained with his band Navarro. The drummer was Michael Clarke, who had been a member of The Byrds and The Flying Burrito Brothers.
Breakthrough and success
In 1975 Firefall recorded a demo tape consisting of three songs produced by Chris Hillman. Andes, Bartley and Roberts were then brought into Hillman's band. Before scheduled performances at The Other End in New York City in June 1975, Hillman became ill and was unable to play all the shows. Burnett and Clarke were then flown in to complete the commitments as Firefall. A&R representatives from Atlantic Records, who had already heard the band's demo tape, saw the Other End shows and signed Firefall to a multi-album contract. During the summer, when the contract was signed, Roberts was playing as a member of Stephen Stills's band, so work on the band's first album was delayed until late 1975. Roberts' high school friend David Muse was brought in before recording at Criteria Studios in Miami. The producer was Jim Mason, who had worked with the band Poco.
The album Firefall was recorded in one month and released in April 1976. The group's first single, "Livin' Ain't Livin'", stopped short of the Top 40 on the Billboard Hot 100. And during the following months, the band toured with Leon Russell, the Doobie Brothers, Tom Waits, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Roy Buchanan, Electric Light Orchestra and The Band, and were also on a bill that included Willie Nelson, Jerry Jeff Walker, and Asleep at the Wheel.
The band's next single, "You Are the Woman", reached the Top 10, and the band toured with Fleetwood Mac, who were at the beginning of their commercial peak. Another single, "Cinderella", was played extensively on FM radio but did not fare as well on AM, barely reaching the Top 40.
Firefall returned to Criteria Studios to record their second album, which was to be titled Tropical Nights. They were joined by the Memphis Horns and percussionist Joe Lala, a member of Manassas who had played on Firefall's debut album. But after hearing the final mix, Atlantic Records decided that the album needed to be reworked. With Jim Mason producing again, Firefall worked on the album that was renamed Luna Sea, a pun on "lunacy", and released in July 1977. The album peaked at No. 27 on the Billboard chart and was certified gold two months after its release. The single "Just Remember I Love You", with backing vocals by Timothy B. Schmit, reached No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100.
In a 2012 interview, Roberts recalled what was going on at this time: "Our business managers at that time were Dottie Ross and Mick Schneider, who operated as D&M Management. Although we didn't know it, it would appear that Mick Schneider had his own designs on managing the band. I can't really prove that, but he had been filling the gap as our de facto manager ever since we had parted company with our last official guy and he was getting pretty comfortable calling the shots. Mick Fleetwood got interested in taking over after we had been touring as an opening act for Fleetwood Mac on their Rumours tour. We entered into a spoken agreement with him and he went to work restructuring our recording contract with Atlantic Records. Things happened during that time that made it an unworkable arrangement. The first thing probably went a good way towards undermining any chance of a healthy working relationship with Mick. The band went to his house in Bel Air, California one day to try and hash out a written agreement. It was summertime, so we all went out and sat down around the pool. Present were all the members of the band as well as Mick, his road manager and confidant John Courage and his lawyer, Nick Shapiro. As we started to go through the proposed contract, the band started to function in their usual fashion; disputing every second word and generally being impossible to deal with. We had a very bad habit of that in almost all our business dealings. We also seemed to find a way to make the very worst possible decision at every opportunity. It took us about two hours of haggling to get through the first seven or so paragraphs. Mick's lawyer was obviously getting frustrated by the nit picking and we were all getting a little short tempered. The second thing that happened was a lot more serious and probably dealt the killing blow. After Mick had gotten Atlantic to agree to restructure our contract with a sizable cash advance ($500,000 I think) and an increase in the percentage points, Mick Schneider rejected it as not being satisfactory! At that point, Mick (Fleetwood) decided that maybe managing Firefall was not in his best interests. As a result, we went for about another year and a half without an official manager and Mick Schneider stayed in nominal control. We were not the easiest band to work with at any time and considering the fatigue factor, we were probably raging jerks and for all the chart success we had achieved, we were hardly making a decent living. We were mostly serving as an opening act on a lot of 'A' list tours, and as such, we weren't being paid like a band with an unbroken string of gold and platinum albums and more than a half dozen straight top fifty singles. It was nice to be doing shows in sold-out arenas every night, but going home after the tour was over with hardly anything in your pocket dulled the thrill a little. That only increased the tension in the band."
In 1978 the band brought in Tom Dowd to produce their third album, Élan, recording at Criteria and at the Record Plant in Los Angeles. The band and Dowd got along well but they had conflicting musical visions. The differences were apparently noticeable enough that the band's management, with help from their friend Mick Fleetwood, pressured the record label into letting them rework the album. It put the group in debt with the label, and within the year they parted ways with their management. The production team of Ron and Howard Albert were brought in to finish the record. Élan, released in October 1978, became their first album to reach platinum status. The hit single "Strange Way" continued the band's commercial hot streak.
Decline After two years of non-stop recording and touring, the band was burned out and their financial situation was unstable. During a tour of Japan in August 1979, Michael Clarke, because of his excessive drinking, missed gigs or showed up in no condition to play. The band resorted to hiring a German drummer, Dan Holsten, whose playing technique was similar to Clarke's, to sub. Holsten, who even looked a lot like Clarke, had played in several other bands in the Colorado area and caught the eye of Jock and Larry one night at a Colorado Springs bar. He became known as a reliable back-up drummer for tours and some studio work.
Despite it all, Atlantic Records still expected a new album. The band recorded the album sporadically over a year. The Alberts were again brought in to produce the album. But the work once again required a second effort, which was produced by Kyle Lehning. The result, titled Undertow, was released in March 1980. It would be the last album with the original lineup. Upon completion of the album, Clarke and Mark Andes both left the band. Thirteen years later, in December 1993, Clarke died of alcoholism at his home in Treasure Island, Florida.
Andes and Clarke were replaced by Kenny Loggins' former rhythm section, consisting of bassist George Hawkins and drummer Tris Imboden. With the two new players, the band recorded Clouds Across the Sun, which was released in December 1980, and spawned the early 1981 hit "Staying with It", which was done as a duet with singer Lisa Nemzo. Clouds saw Jock emerging more as a writer and singer and had the band moving more away from their "country rock" direction.
Hawkins resigned from the group in late 1980 to join up with Mick Fleetwood's The Visitor, a side project the Fleetwood Mac drummer was recording in Africa. After Andes returned to guest for the group's February 1981 appearance on American Bandstand, Kim Stone came in to take over bass.
Larry Burnett suddenly disappeared from the group, after playing a show at Miami Baseball Stadium with Heart, Blue Öyster Cult, Motörhead and Freewheel on April 19, 1981, to return to his hometown of Washington, D.C. to enter rehab. (Burnett eventually kicked a serious drug habit and after working in radio in the late 80s/early 90s, began pursuing a solo career in 2004.) The group continued on to play their next show in Las Vegas without him. But after playing a concert with the band in Lahaina, Hawaii with Pure Prairie League in August, Rick Roberts announced that he also was leaving for a solo career. With the band lacking personnel and increasing in financial debt, Atlantic dropped Firefall from their roster in 1981 and released Best of Firefall at the close of the year.
Since his departure from Firefall, Roberts has continued to tour on occasion. In the fall of 1981, he played dates in tandem with fellow former Burrito Brother Chris Hillman. In 1985 he was in a Twentieth Anniversary Byrds Tribute band with former Byrds Gene Clark and Michael Clarke. In 1987–89, Roberts teamed up with ex-Eagle Randy Meisner in the short lived Roberts Meisner Band, and after a return spell in Firefall (1989–1992), he was sidelined for health reasons for a number of years before returning to the road as a solo act. In the summer and fall of 2019, he toured together with fellow Firefaller Larry Burnett.
Resumption and later work