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ACTION by Steve Archer (1985)
Home Sweet Home - WR 8311 |
Producers:
Chris Christian, Skip Konte, Keith Thomas
File Under: CCM/Pop, 80s Synth-Pop
Time Capsule-Worthy Track:
It seems like we’ve known Steve Archer forever.
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That's Steve over on the left
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“It all started back in 1968 and even before then,” Steve said in a 2014 online interview. “I think I was probably 12 or 13 the first time we got up and sang in church. We would sing along with records at the house and, naturally, we would just go into harmony parts.”
As Steve and his older brother Tim began to harmonize together at home, their Dad, who was also their pastor, took notice. Steve explains: “Yeah, Dad just kind of started the whole thing by saying, ‘Hey, that sounds good. Why don’t you guys sing that in church on Sunday morning?’ And we were like, ‘Uh...okay.’ But we loved music and we loved to sing and there was just a natural blend there, and we would just naturally go into the harmony stuff, and that led to us singing a Bill Gaither song in our denomination's talent contest, and apparently it went pretty well. I was 13 and Tim was 16. We went all the way to the Nationals and took second place in the country with that song.”
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Tim & Steve Archer...with their 2nd-in-the-nation trophy
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[Now, the way my mind works...I want to know who in the world took home the first place prize? It would be very interesting to see how their career/ministry stacked up beside that of The Archers. And I know what some of you are thinking...How dare you! Ministry is not a competition! And that is true. But my brother and I also had a little experience with “Teen Talent” and the downside of that program is that it was - literally - a competition! I’m just saying it would be very interesting to see who was able to best The Archer Brothers. But I digress.]
Even without taking the top prize, Tim and Steve were very encouraged by the whole process. “Yeah, it inspired us,” Steve remembers. “We came home from that trip and we wanted to put a band together. We ended up singing with our older brother Gary.
Then when Gary became a pastor, Tim and I continued in Palmdale, California to try and put a band together. People like Freddie Satterfield and Billy Masters and Nancye Short joined us to form the original Archers.”
Most of you know the story from that point. The group was befriended by Andrae Crouch, scored a live slot at a huge cultural touchstone for the Jesus Movement known as Explo ‘72, and also scored some radio hits with songs like Jesus is the Answer, Little Flowers and It Wouldn’t Be Enough.
In 1977 they became even more of a family group when little sister Janice joined up and instantaneously became the hoped-for love interest of 95% of Christian teen males in the United States. [The other 5% of guys were either gay or visually impaired. I’m kidding!]
The group recorded a string of well-received albums that contained excellently written, God-focused songs and musical performances by some of the very best session players available. As always, the trio’s family vocal blend and impressive solo vocal performances were front and center.
They sang at the White House, on live Grammy Award telecasts, and at several other iconic venues. Records like Fresh Surrender, Stand Up!, Spreading Like Wildfire and All Systems Are Go are still loved today.
Beginning in 1982, Steve Archer began to record what would turn out to be a string of solo albums. The Archers eventually went on hiatus for a while, allowing the siblings to focus on their personal lives and other opportunities, but the group remained an entity well into the 1990s.
Steve’s first solo album had a catchy title - Solo - and the second one contained the huge hit Through His Eyes of Love. So the stage was set for Action, Steve Archer’s third solo recording, and one that included another monster hit, this time a duet with Marilyn McCoo. Much more about that a little later.
I had a chance recently to speak with Steve Archer and I asked him about the team of producers involved in creating Action. “It was a lot of fun making the Action album,” Steve said, “because we employed two different production approaches - one with my producer on my first two albums, Chris Christian, and then an additional producer, Skip Konte. Skip was the keyboardist for Three Dog Night back in the mid-70s. His nickname was The Wizard as he was always surrounded by keyboards, and he put on quite a show.”
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Skip Konte in the 70s
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“Skip Konte also produced our TBN television show that ran for thirteen episodes,” Steve offered.
According to Steve, the difference in production styles can be easily observed as we listen to the title track versus the album’s biggest hit, Safe.
The keyboard work is varied and dizzying on the punchy title track, a song that says we have to put feet to our faith (You need action to catch your faith on fire). It does indeed have a different sound than what we had become accustomed to from Christian. Not better or worse, but different. Action also contains a very tasteful electric guitar solo that serves the song perfectly.
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Chris Christian with Steve Archer
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Safe was much more, um...safe. From a production standpoint, this was the kind of CCM power ballad that was right in Chris Christian’s wheelhouse. Musically, it broke no new ground...didn’t do anything crazy...but it didn’t have to. Safe had "hit" written all over it. I asked Steve how he ended up recording with Fifth Dimension and Solid Gold star Marilyn McCoo. He laughed and said, “Well, it’s been 35 years since we recorded Safe, so forgive me if I don’t remember all the details!
“I just remember that my manager, David Bendette, who had managed pop acts like John Sebastian, Bonnie Raitt and even Tony Bennett for a while, called me and told me that he had gotten in touch with Marilyn McCoo’s manager about her recording Safe as a duet with me. Marilyn and her husband Billy Davis, Jr. knew of The Archers because of our Grammy performances and the word we got was that Marilyn was interested and wanted to hear the song. So when she heard the song she loved it, and she asked David and me to come to her home so she and I could do a little singing together to see how well we would blend.”
Steve continues: “It turned out that Marilyn was very happy with our blend and she said, ‘Let’s do this!’ So into the studio we went with Chris Christian producing, Jack Joseph Puig engineering, and some wonderful A-list musicians in Los Angeles, including Nathan East on bass. I think Robbie Buchanan was on keyboards. They were incredible musicians and great guys to work with.”
Safe turned out to be one of the CCM’s most enduring ballads in the eighties, and a song that did a wonderful job of expressing the amazing peace and safety that is found in the love that God has for each of us.
Lord, surround me on all sides
I need a place to hide
Hold me the way You do
'Cause here above the raging storm
You keep me safe and warm
Hidden away with You
And I'm safe
Safe inside Your love
I'm harbored in Your hand
Where You keep me anchored
And I'm safe
Safe inside Your love
And there's nothing I can't face
Safe inside Your hiding place
Safe was the kind of song Christian radio loved; it rose to #1 in the nation and was later voted the #4 Song of the Year by CCM Magazine. “Chris Christian has said that of the more than 60 #1 songs that he’s been a part of, Safe is one of his favorites,” Steve told me.
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Chris Christian (L), and Jeremy Dalton
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Interestingly, Action, Safe and five other songs on this album were all written by the same man. “Yes, Jeremy Dalton!” Steve recalls. “Jeremy and I were good friends and he had been writing pop songs and performing in clubs. But God got a hold of him and turned his heart toward writing songs like Safe, I’ll Do My Best, Through His Eyes of Love, Action, and many more.”
A few more songs to mention...but can we talk about that album cover? Art Director Rhonda Jesson and photographer David Brandt made a few corny choices with the movie set props on the cover (“Action!”...get it?) Not nearly subtle enough, I’m afraid. But let’s face it, Steve’s movie star good looks were enough to overcome that. And that trendy red top with those acid wash jeans remind us that we were right smack dab in the middle of the 80s.
The album actually kicked off with a HUGE polyphonic, 80s synth-pop sound on I Can Do All Things. It’s an upbeat musical celebration of Philippians 4:13. More great keyboard sounds are featured on a positive pop testimony song titled Everything I Am. Rounding out Side One was Love’s Finest Hour, the kind of ballad Steve Archer could sing in his sleep, and still his vocals are tremendously impressive.
Steve Archer’s singing has been described as blue-eyed soul...but to leave it at that would sell him short. There’s a sound...a quality...a richness to his voice that allows him to be extremely versatile. From Jesus Music to rock to gospel hymns to pop ballads to soul and even disco (back in the 70s). Whenever The Archers recorded a song with a high funk quotient, it’s a safe bet that Steve sang lead on it. I grew up a devoted Atlanta Braves fan, and everybody knew what a great hitter Hank Aaron was. But the baseball people would say that he never got enough credit for being a great fielder as well...because he made it look too easy. I think a similar thing could be said of Steve Archer as a singer: he often performs vocal gymnastics with a very high degree of difficulty, but he makes it all seem effortless. He makes it sound too easy.
Side Two kicked off with a bonafide rock anthem titled Run, this one penned by Keith Thomas and Glen Allen Green. Eighties instrumentation abounds...and this gives you an idea of what Steve Archer would’ve sounded like if he had ever fronted an actual rock and roll band.
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Looks like Skip's & Keith's producer credits were removed when Home Sweet Home released Action on CD. An oversight, I'm sure...
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For my money, Holy, Holy was the record’s only misstep. An island-inspired, reggae worship song with weird keyboard sounds that remind you of a UFO landing? It must’ve seemed like a good idea at the time…
Who Will Own Your Heart was written by husband/wife duo Buddy & Julie Miller. Again, keys steal the show on this mid-tempo pop song with a good bit of swagger. Then the record wraps with Make A Joyful Noise, a synth-pop praise song based on the Psalms.
Action found Steve Archer at the height of his powers (so to speak) and at the top of his game, performing 200 dates a year. The Archers, as a group, would retire (for the most part) in the early 90s and life would eventually settle down for Steve and his musically-gifted siblings and their families.
But Steve would continue to minister and, in fact, still sings in churches, conferences, and various other meetings quite often. He, brother Tim and sister Janice are universally held in high regard and loved by all who know them...and even by those who just remember them. No less an authority than Terry Blackwood recently wrote, "Steve is one of the truly great contemporary Christian music singers of all time. He is also a solid man of God."
Yes, it does seem like we’ve known Steve Archer forever. And that’s a good thing.
