STREETS STORIES

From: RockHard, Germany 11/91
Written by: Götz Kühnemund
Translated and HTML'ized by: Ellen Bakvis

" The new album is about life in the streets of New York - Poverty, hunger, prostitution, murder... - about everything you kids like!" is what Savatage -vocalist Jon Oliva sneeringly told us when we visited him for the first RockHard video shoot in Tampa, Florida. But anyone who knows Jon, is aware of the fact that there is more behind his sarcastic wittiness. And in the case of ' Streets ', the new Savatage - Rock opera, Jon's own past provided the theme for it's sad contents more than once...

" It's about a character by the name of D.T. Jesus, who indeed resembles me a little bit", Jon smiles, before he continues in a serious way. " A person, who has success as a musician, but who meets the wrong people, squanders all his money and finally ends up in the gutter. From the big arena's into the filthy clubs, sorta - and the cause of all this are the drugs. When D.T. Jesus realizes the situation he's in, he decides to drastically change his life and start a comeback. But his drug- and alcohol problems are dragging him back down all the time, and he lacks the self confidence he needs. At the end of the story he meets God - whatever one may think that is. God makes it clear to him, that he can only overcome his problems, if he gets rid of his false friends and regains believe in himself. God says to him: " All I ask of you is believe...". that's the story in a nutshell. I could go on for hours , but the bottom line is clear: D.T. Jesus is just an example. The fact that he embodies a musician in our story, is basically of less importance."

Rather philosophical stuff, that Savatage throws in our teeth this time - and specifically the religious allusions certainly would not have been expected from this band. How come ?

" I'm not implicitly religious, but I do believe that there is a higher power. Please don't ask me how to interprete it. I don't understand 'God' - and after this album I'm even more confused than before. But something does exist, and I solemnly believe that I will encounter it some time. That has nothing to do with church or religion; philosophy is the more appropriate word. "

Before we get into the matter too profoundly and lose the leading thread, the question should be asked who originally came up with the idea of constructing such a - definitely untypical - concept album.

" The root idea comes from Paul O'Neill, our producer, who has a huge influence on our music anyway. ' Gutter Ballet ' should originally have been a rock opera, but at the last moment we decided differently, because not all of the songs matched together and besides the album was too short for such a project . Then Paul came up with the story of D.T. Jesus, which of course has a lot to do with me, before the recordings of ' Streets ' .
The story primarely has a depressive ring to it, but when you contemplate the lyrics, you'll end up with a positive result. The world may be bad and full of problems, but with the right self esteem one can make it. The CD booklet contains enough remarks and explanations that will clarify this statement. "

Not only in content, but also musically, 'Streets' distinguishes itself from all previous Savatage-albums, and especially the increased use of ballads is striking.

" We disposed of something like 50 songs when we went into the studio", Jon explains, " We had to select 17 tracks, which was our main problem. We had a lot of heavy songs, but not all of them matched the total concept, so we had to put a lot of the material on ice. We wanted each song to have its own identity and to sound unique. With such a concept story, feeling is the main issue. That's why a lot of slow songs were chosen, but they match the conceptual idea and make the heavy songs stand out even more. My personal favorites off the album are ' Tonight He Grins Again ' and ' Ghost In The Ruins ' - two extremely heavy songs, that set a strong contrast. I think the musical choice matches the story very well. It has not become a half-hearted concept album, but a rock opera in the true sense of the word. "

And one that was well received on top of that. The fact that ' Streets ' evoked such a positive echo amongst us, nevertheless surprises Jon, who normally displays a healthy self criticism .

" To tell you the truth I was a little afraid of the reaction of our fans and the press. Let's not beat around the bush, the album is a risky experiment, 'cause it's not exactly living up to the expectations, and I know the folks in Europe...You can believe me, I was rather nervous, but all the reactions have been positive so far, and that makes me very happy.
It proves, that the European fans are more tolerant than the MTV-spoiled American public. We have yet to find out whether we went too far with ' Streets ', or not, but on the other hand, a compromise would not have been cool either. It's either the whole thing, or nothing at all - and I believe we took the right course. "

An interesting remark in the margin: at the end of the ' Streets '-opera a few passages appear, that we already know from ' Crowds...', thew mega-ballad off the " Gutter Ballet "- album.

"Not bad, so far noone has noticed that ! ", Jon laughs, " You are right, one short line is repeted there. That was by accident, rather than on purpose. In the studio, I plain and simple forgot my lines and out of pure embarassment I sung this passage from 'Crowds'. And Paul liked it so much, that he insisted upon putting it on the record just like that".

If you'd want to accuse Savatage of plagiarism, you could claim that the idea of a concept album came from the European tour together with King Diamond. Jon laughs:

" Of course, king Diamond is well known for his horror stories and I would be a liar if I said tthat I don't like them. King Diamond is a first class musician, even though his voice often wrecks my nerves. But you must give him credit for pulling off his own thing without compromise for years. Besides, he's a real nice guy - whatever others may say. The difference between King Diamond and us is obvious: The 'Streets'-story is based upon reality, King Diamond however tells horror stories ".

Okay then, let's stick to reality. To what extend has 'Streets' become an autobiographical album ?

" I'd say, half of the story is autobiographical. The religious aspects reflect my personal attitude. But also songs like ' Tonight he Grins Again ' have a very personal background. When you've got no real friends and you are in trouble, all that's left is the "monkey on your back"- the drugs, that'll drag you back again and again. This song was written, when I was trying to fight my cocaine and alcohol problems. Without a doubt, that was the hardest time of my life".

Have these problems disappeared into the past, or are you still dragging your monkey along with you ?

" I'm a very normal guy- not an angel, but by far not as trashed as in the past.."Jon resumes, "In the past I used to get up in the morning and the first thing I did was get loaded and stoned, until I dropped. I was uncontrollable, everybody was afraid of me. I had to drink half a bottle of wodka, before I even got out of my bed. Right now, I've regained control of myself. I was severely addicted to alcohol and cocaine. Today, there are parties from time to time, but that's it. It would also be unfair to the rest of the band, if I wouldn't pull myself together"

Sounds nice, but in the RockHard video interview that took place shortly before this conversation, things sounded a bit different. The bottom line was " You are young only once, so have fun in your life..."

" Okay, admitted, it was a lot of fun" , Jon laughs, "but I don't miss the good old days and I realize that I must be carefull. But a little bit of fun is okay though..."

A statement, that strongly reminds me of a certain Dave Mustaine. In the Megadeth department alot of big words can be heard as well, but later on they prove to have been meaningless. First the big regrets, then the (unevitable?) fallback and lame excuses. Can we expect a similar thing in Jon Oliva's case ?

" No, no way man", he holds back. " I'm much too scared of that. I was close to death, and I have an eight year old son, I'm aware of my responsabilities. It will never be the way it was in the past -or it'd be like, you deliver me the shit, Götz...No, scratch that, that was just a dumb joke!"

Now we're both laughing - and we decide to drop the drug theme. Whether Jon Oliva will follow in Mustaines footsteps or not, the future will learn. The first testcase will be the upcoming Europe tour.

"Our first headliner-tour over there - and I can only hope to have less blackouts than I had on the King Diamond- tour! I remember the show in Oberhausen - a complete disaster, that'll be hard to exceed! Such a thing won't happen to me again. We'll take a few show elements with us from America and offer you an extended program. We will play seven or eight songs from the new album . And when we return next year, maybe we'll do the whole rock opera in one piece - that is, if the album sells well enough ".

That really should be the least of your problems...