'Rock'n'roll is a vehicle to express the emotions you are not allowed to use in everyday life,' he said. This might have had something to do with Been's everyman physique and his socially conscious lyrics, as well as his reluctance to compromise, but was most likely due to his refusal to appeal to the lowest common denominator. Yet, while The Call became firm college and 'modern rock' radio favourites in the US, they never quite escaped their cult status. 'He felt there was a similarity in what the band was singing about and the purpose of his movies.' 'It was one of the greatest times of my life,' said the singer. In 1987, another admirer, the film director Martin Scorsese, cast Been as the Apostle John in his epic The Last Temptation of Christ. Been's powerful baritone and his passionate belief in the redemptive power of rock shone through on the anthemic singles 'The Walls Came Down', 'I Still Believe (Great Design)' and 'Let The Day Begin', and he was recognised as a kindred spirit by Peter Gabriel, U2's Bono and the Simple Minds frontman Jim Kerr, who guested on The Call's various albums and asked them to open for his band. The lead singer, bassist and primary songwriter of the critically-acclaimed Eighties alternative rock band The Call, Michael Been stood out as one of the few American musicians to attract a dedicated following at a time when groups from the British Isles dominated the airwaves. Michael Been: Frontman of the acclaimed Eighties alternative rock band The CallР”В«y Pierre Perrone (The Independent via London) This may explain why many thought our bands made for a great bill, and with so much in common.

Hope was what the music of The Call was all about. Today that search is fruitless, but I would never give up hope. I look around the current musical landscape in search of those coming through who may be cut from the same cloth as Been was. Michael Been may have departed but I am convinced that his songs will live on and continue to be discovered by the on coming generations. And Michael to be frank was way too authentic to take seriously the falsities needed to play the success game.) For that reason I was not surprised to see him turn up in Martin ScorceseРІР‚в„ўs The Last Temptation Of Christ. (Beards and bellies were not associated with authenticity back then in MTV land. Too American for the Europeans perhaps, and too English sounding for the American mainstream, MichaelРІР‚в„ўs face was more suited to Biblical epics than the once ubiquitous MTV.

That The Call were denied the kind of commercial success that their music merited, is an obvious understatement. As I say, it was a pleasure and an honour to have hung around with Michael Been, and for that reason it is with sadness and with feelings of extreme fondness that I recall this warm and friendly man only hours after his sudden death. For that reason I easily recall the difficulty in picking myself up off the floor numerously after he had acted out one of his genuinely hilarious anecdotes. But even more wonderfully he also had the wickedly spirited comedy of John Belushi draped all around him. To my mind, he had a similar soul that one perceives in true American greats such as Robbie Robertson and even Dylan himself. That said as driven as he was with his beliefs, the very ones that infused his music Michael far from sanctimonious, was always a hoot to be around. A preacher and a teacher no doubt, he was always much more than your usual РІР‚Сљten a pennyРІР‚Сњ careerist РІР‚В80РІР‚в„ўs rock star. Michael in turn had already lived 'an artist's life,' having traveled far and wide both in body and mind from the dusty back roads of Oklahoma. We may have just topped the Billboard charts but we all knew it was Michael who was the 'real deal' especially in comparison to ourselves, who at that time had buckets of chutzpah well enough to disguise for the most part the fact that by enlarge we were still well wet behind the ears. Simple Minds may have been the headliners, however there was no doubt that is was us who looked up to our opening act РІР‚вЂњ The Call - fronted by none other Michael Been.

Words from many who knew and loved MichaelР”Р„ little over two decades ago I had the pleasure and honour to spend a fair amount of time with Michael Been while touring America.

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