Savatage — Fight For The Rock

𝐅𝐑𝐎𝐌 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐂𝐑𝐘𝐏𝐓𝐒 - 𝐂𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐁𝐑𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐏𝐀𝐒𝐓 𝐀𝐋𝐁𝐔𝐌 𝐑𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐄𝐒 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐇𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐘 𝐨𝐟 𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐃 𝐑𝐎𝐂𝐊 & 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐕𝐘 𝐌𝐄𝐓𝐀𝐋…

37 years ago today, Savatage released the album that they (themselves) have referred to as “Fight for the Nightmare”!

On this day (June 30) in 1986, Savatage released their third full-length studio album, “Fight for the Rock” via Atlantic Records.

During this time, original bassist Keith Collins left the band, and Johnny Lee Middleton joined the band. Since 1987, Johnny has been the only consistent member of Savatage, performing on every album (except Handful of Rain).

Background:

With a new album in a major label, Savatage joined the international music industry, attorneys, booking agents, managers and the Monsters of the Universe Tour, all of them leading to 1986 and the period of the Fight for the Rock album. Savatage had an international record deal and Johnny Lee Middleton was still playing covers in bars but the second time he was asked, he decided to join Savatage and after a few weeks' rehearsals, the band flew to England to record the new album.

“Fight for the Rock” is largely regarded as the band's worst release by both fans and band members, with the band referring to it as "Fight for the Nightmare". Jon Oliva said in October 1994, "I've never really been fond of that album. WE'VE never been fond of that album". The band said that they were driven to make the record by their label, Atlantic Records; particularly, Jon Oliva had been retained to write Pop-Rock songs for other artists on the label such as John Waite. However, the band felt in a difficult spot and Atlantic had a different idea wanting the Sava-boys to follow a commercial path, leading to an artistic disaster. The label had turned around and told the band to record the music that he (Jon) had written for other artists themselves.

The band were also pressured by the label to include two cover songs on the album, "Wishing Well" of The Free and Badfinger's "Day After Day", the children of the metal movement felt in a trap where the supposed heavy metal songs didn't sound metal at all and the commercial tracks sounded like a different band. This destroyed the band's credibility in the eyes of the press and reviews were not kind to the band. It not only destroyed the band's image, but the negative critical reaction has been cited as a cause of Jon's bout of drug and alcohol depression which eventually drove him from the fore of the band.

Atlantic Records also wanted the band to have photographs taken, since none of their previous releases had included any. The band hired a friend to do the photography work, with one of the photos featuring the band recreating the famous photo “Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima”. The band agreed this was a good idea at the time, but look back with the same feelings on the photos taken as they do the album.

When initially released, the album featured a Parental Advisory label on the front cover, despite having no "nasty words", as Jon Oliva puts it, featured anywhere on the record. This was largely done to please the label, as they felt that putting the sticker on the record would drive up record sales. Although it did chart, the band have been extremely reluctant to perform any of the songs live, and haven't done so since the early 1990s. Even on the tour in support of the album, the band only performed "Hyde", "The Edge of Midnight" and few others.

Jon recently admitted however the album did have strong points, including the band's cover of Badfinger's "Day After Day".

Fight For The Rock Tour:

The tour that followed the album's release and the post Chernobyl disaster wasn’t disastrous at all, since they joined Ted Nugent and Motörhead on the road and their performance was always on the edge.

Savatage also toured with Metallica and KISS in support of “Fight for the Rock”.

Album sales though, were poor and the band was somehow dropped by Atlantic. They almost broke up and thought the end was near... fortunately us, they didn't!

Noteworthy:

When Atlantic technically dropped Savatage because of the poor sales of Fight for the Rock, Jon Oliva had the chance to claim the position of Black Sabbath's lead singer. There were many rumors over the years but we have the answers and the truth directly from Jon Oliva himself;

"It was somebody from the management office for Black Sabbath that approached me".

On the songs he was supposed to learn for that audition, Jon stated:

"I did have a set list of songs that I would have to sing at the audition, "War Pigs", "Paranoid", "Sweet Leaf", "Symptom of the Universe", "Iron Man" and the"Black Sabbath" song."

However, that audition never happened and I don't think there would ever be a possibility that Jon Oliva would end as the singer of Black Sabbath during 1986-1987, no matter how interesting that could be. Having Jon Oliva on board for this article, we asked a few more things.

"I would have loved to do an album with Black Sabbath. I think my voice would have fit them very well and it wouldn't bother me that Tony Iommi was in charge because he is the riff master. What you're going to say... I would have just sang my ass off but again, you know, the '80s were very weird for me. I did have a lot of problems but it is what it is and I'm glad that Savatage was able to continue." — Jon Oliva

Links to Artists, Albums, and Music Videos:

Click this link to listen to “Fight for the Rock” via Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/album/fight-for-the-rock/906588290

Click this link to listen to the Henry Fries & Friends demo’s “Fight for the Rock” via Spotify: Fight For The Rock https://open.spotify.com/album/1jKevVsn1Z1NqplGevM8Sj

Click this link to follow Savatage on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/savatage/

Note: The reviews shared here are for historical reference. The views and opinions expressed within are not always supported (in full or in part) by Into the Wells. — E.N. Wells

Savatage — Fight For The Rock

Background:

Fight For The Rock Tour:

Noteworthy:

Links to Artists, Albums, and Music Videos:

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