''The Big Heat'' is the debut solo album by American musician

Stan Ridgway Stanard "Stan" Ridgway (born April 5, 1954) is an American singer-songwriter, and film and television composer known for his distinctive voice, dramatic lyrical narratives, and eclectic solo albums. He was the original lead singer and a founding ...

(former

Wall of Voodoo Wall of Voodoo was an American rock band from Los Angeles, California who were active from 1977 until disbanding in 1989. Though largely an underground act for the majority of its existence, the band came to prominence when its 1982 single " ...

vocalist), released in 1986 by

I.R.S. Records I.R.S. Records was a major American record label founded by Miles Copeland III and Jay Boberg in 1979. I.R.S. produced some of the most popular bands of the 1980s, and was particularly known for issuing records by college rock, new wave and a ...

. Named after the

1953 Events January * January 6 – The Asian Socialist Conference opens in Rangoon, Burma. * January 12 – Estonian émigrés found a Estonian government-in-exile, government-in-exile in Oslo. * January 14 ** Marshal Josip Broz Tito ...

film noir Film noir (; ) is a style of Cinema of the United States, Hollywood Crime film, crime dramas that emphasizes cynicism (contemporary), cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of Ameri ...

of the same name, the original release consisted of nine songs, including the No. 4 UK hit "

Camouflage Camouflage is the use of any combination of materials, coloration, or illumination for concealment, either by making animals or objects hard to see, or by disguising them as something else. Examples include the leopard's spotted coat, the b ...

". In 1986, the album reached No. 131 on the ''Billboard'' 200. The album was re-released in 1993 with six additional tracks and again re-released in 2007.

Recording

Ridgway said of the album, "I wanted to bring a lot of influences to the surface. In Voodoo, we would take the influences and hide them. I wanted to move along and be able to do a jazz song. My heroes are people like

Miles Davis Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926September 28, 1991) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th century music, 20th-century music. Davis ado ...

who go through different musical stages and don't get stagnant."

Reception

''Spin'' said, "A man of few words, he makes every line count for something — either an image that evokes a scene or a line of dialogue that evokes a character. His decision to build and record in his own studio has paid off with a well-balanced sound that has lots of space for odd acoustic instruments to dart in and out of his synth-based arrangements."

Track listing

* Before the album's release, the track "Pick It Up (And Put It in Your Pocket)" was used in a 1985 episode of ''

Miami Vice ''Miami Vice'' is an American crime drama television series created by Anthony Yerkovich and produced by Michael Mann for NBC. The series stars Don Johnson as James "Sonny" Crockett and Philip Michael Thomas as Ricardo Tubbs, Ricardo "Rico" Tub ...

''.

Accolades

Chart positions

;Album ;Singles

Personnel

Adapted from ''The Big Heat'' liner notes. *

–

lead vocals The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of the ...

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

(A3, A5, B1, B2, B4), keyboards (A1, A4, B2-B4),

harmonica The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica incl ...

(A1, B1),

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and in modern forms is usually made of plastic, where early membranes were made of animal skin. ...

(A2),

bass guitar The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...

(B3),

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stat ...

(A3-A5),

engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...

(A3-A5) ;Musicians *

K. K. Barrett Keith "K. K." Barrett (born 1952)Michael Smith ''Tulsa World'', February 28, 2014 . is an American production designer known for his work on feature films by Spike Jonze and Sofia Coppola, among others. Early life Barrett was born in Omaha, Neb ...

–

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

(B1) *Chris Becerra – drums (B4) *Joe Berardi – drums (A5) *

Hugo Burnham Hugo Hamilton Mark Burnham (born 25 March 1956) is an English musician, and drummer for the rock group Gang of Four. The band formed in 1977 at the University of Leeds, where Burnham was studying English Literature. Before the band signed wit ...

–

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

(A2) *Luis Cabaza –

(B2) *Mr. Christopher –

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

(A1),

cello The violoncello ( , ), commonly abbreviated as cello ( ), is a middle pitched bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), tuned i ...

(A1) *Mark Cohen –

(A4),

mandolin A mandolin (, ; literally "small mandola") is a Chordophone, stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally Plucked string instrument, plucked with a plectrum, pick. It most commonly has four Course (music), courses of doubled St ...

(A4) *John Dentino – keyboards (A1) *

Bruce Fowler Bruce Lambourne Fowler (born July 10, 1947) is an American trombonist and composer. He played trombone on many Frank Zappa records, as well as with Captain Beefheart and in the Fowler Brothers Band. He composes and arranges music for movies, a ...

–

trombone The trombone (, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the Brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's lips vibrate inside a mouthpiece, causing the Standing wave, air c ...

(A5) *

Richard Gibbs Richard "Ribbs" Gibbs (born December 5, 1955) is an American film composer and music producer whose credits include '' Dr. Dolittle'', '' Big Momma's House'', '' Queen of the Damned'', the television series ''Battlestar Galactica'' and the fir ...

– instruments (B2) *

Richard Greene Richard Marius Joseph Greene (25 August 1918 – 1 June 1985) was a noted English film and television actor. A matinée idol who appeared in more than 40 films, he was perhaps best known for the lead role in the long-running British TV series ...

– violin (A2) *Mark Lewis –

backing vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are us ...

(B4) *Mark Morris – backing vocals (B4) * Bill Noland – keyboards (A1, B1, B2),

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

(A2),

(B2) ;Musicians (cont.) *Joe Ramirez – backing vocals (A4),

drum programming Programming is a form of music production and performance using electronic devices and computer software, such as sequencers and workstations or hardware synthesizers, sampler and sequencers, to generate sounds of musical instruments. These mu ...

(A4),

(B1) *Tom Rechoin – percussion (A2) *

Steve Reid Steve Reid (January 29, 1944 – April 13, 2010) was an American jazz drummer who played with Miles Davis, Ornette Coleman, James Brown, Fela Kuti, Kieran Hebden, and Sun Ra. He worked as a session drummer for Motown. Biography Born in ...

– percussion (B2) *Mark Terlizzi – bass guitar (A3) *Louis van den Berg – keyboards (A3-A5, B3, B4), producer (A3-A5),

(A3-A5) *

Mike Watt Michael David Watt (born December 20, 1957) is an American bassist, vocalist and songwriter. He co-founded and played bass guitar for the rock bands Minutemen (1980–1985), Dos (1985–present), and Firehose (1986–1994). He began a solo ca ...

– bass guitar (A3) *Pietra Wexstun – backing vocals (A3) *Eric Williams –

guitar feedback The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with some exceptions) and typically has six or twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the ...

*Bruce Zelesnik – drums (A1) ;Production and additional personnel *

Joe Chiccarelli Joe Chiccarelli is an American record producer, mixer and engineer, who is a native of Boston, Massachusetts, and has been active since the 1980s. He has produced albums by Julieta Venegas, Jason Mraz, Morrissey, Oingo Boingo, Spoon, Young the Gi ...

–

(B2),

(B2), mixing (B2) *

Mitchell Froom Mitchell Froom (born June 29, 1953) is an American musician and record producer. He was a member of the bands Gamma and Latin Playboys, and is the keyboardist for Crowded House. He has produced albums for several artists, including David LaFl ...

– production (A2), keyboards (A2) *Carl Grasso –

art direction Art director is a title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, live-action and animated film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to super ...

*Jim Hill – engineering (A2) * Hugh Jones – production (A1, B1), engineering (A1, B1), mixing (A1), keyboards (A1) *Scott Lindgren –

photography Photography is the visual arts, art, application, and practice of creating images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is empl ...

cover art Cover art is a type of artwork presented as an illustration or photograph on the outside of a published product, such as a book (often on a dust jacket), magazine, newspaper ( tabloid), comic book, video game ( box art), music album ( album ar ...

*Andy Waterman – mixing (A2-A5, B1)

Release history

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Big Heat, The 1986 debut albums Stan Ridgway albums Albums produced by Mitchell Froom Albums produced by Hugh Jones (producer) Albums produced by Stan Ridgway I.R.S. Records albums Albums produced by Joe Chiccarelli Avant-pop albums