A Case Of Missing Persons

Missing Persons - Spring Session M

Missing Persons - Rhyme & Reason

Missing Persons - Color In Your Life


The cruel irony of Missing Persons is that the band was destined to fail before they even started. That’s what happens when you take a group of very talented musicians…most schooled as Zappa protégés…mix them with an attractive lead singer with limited range and zero musicianship and associate them with a novelty genre (new wave) that has a short shelf life and zero credibility among critics.
It didn’t matter…at least at first…as the band jumped headlong into their vision like they had something to prove and like they had the chops to do it.
Spring Session M contained 2 of the best songs from the band’s self-released 4 song e.p. and matches them with 9 other outstanding entries. Missing Persons never sounded so vital and focused as they did with their debut. The band destroys whatever formula was applied to “new wave” and uses the genre as window dressings to their overt progressive tendencies. Rhythms are impossibly complex, guitar parts are uncharacteristically aggressive and the layers of synthesizers mix some occasional jazz fills underneath their primary purpose of creating tense and eerie atmospheres.
Over all of this is Dale Bozzio, who apparently forgot the memo that she has very little real ability as a lead singer and, on paper, has no business fronting a band filled with such impressive lineage. Ignoring this, Dale dressed herself like hard candy ready to be unwrapped and hiccupped and teased each line like it was penned in the lyric sheet.
Speaking of, words was not only a title of one of the band's best known songs, but also their Achilles heal. Their debut foreshadowed some issues that would later become an even larger liability, but to hear Dale deliver some occasional nonsense with conviction and to hear the band perform with such incredible precision, you quickly overlook any underlying issues that would normally work against the album's overall appeal.
Even without the visual distractions, she manages to carry Spring Session M as a unique entry into the early 80’s arena, but it’s the rest of the band that makes Missing Persons’ debut album so enjoyable over 25 years later. From start to finish, there’s not a dud to be found here, and the re-issue cd contains the 2 remaining cuts from the band’s debut e.p. along with their cover of The Doors “Hello, I Love You.”
Had the band called it a day after their first album, there might have been more devoted fans that lamented their departure and constructed a more mythological legacy. Unfortunately, the band tried to do it themselves with their own abilities. The second album, Rhyme & Reason is cited by many fans as the band’s high point, and that certainly was the intent of the band. In fact, copies of the out-of-print reissue cd are now going for over $100, which had me reaching for my old vinyl copy of the album to see what the fuss was for. My reaction to the album now is similar to the way it was when it first came out.
I bought the album (along with Dead Kennedys’ Give Me Convenience Or Give Me Death and David Gilmour’s About Face) at a record store in Milwaukee shortly after it was released. I had no idea what was in store for me but assumed that if it was half as good as the debut that I would be in fine shape. I quickly learned that the album stood at the bottom of those three purchases and it has remained unlistened to in many many years.
In fact, the album is so unmemorable, that I was only able to identify three songs before playing them: “Give” the first single, “Surrender Your Heart” the second single and quite possibly the band’s crowning achievement and “Right Now”. It’s no reason that these were also the three songs that Capitol chose as singles for the album with “Surrender Your Heart” getting the benefit of a cool video, thanks to artist Peter Max.
Everything else was purged from my memory banks and after a quick revisit, I understood why. Rhyme & Reason builds upon the band’s complexities and finds Dale…like the rest of us…struggling to find any hint of a hook, groove, or reason to get excited. The band is all over the place, incorporating more jazz and progressive directions underneath hopelessly dated production choices. Terry Bozzio, one of rock’s best drummers, decided to abandon a traditional kit and works wonders over a ridiculously primitive electric drum kit. Rhyme & Reason is the sound of a band taking itself too seriously, particularly after the candy drippings and critical dismissals of their first. It’s admirable that they attempted to (again) address any misgivings through the use of their chops, but you can’t make a steak out of ground beef. The debut was a great burger. The second merely a tough flank steak, devoid of flavor, substance, or a groove to remember.
By the time of their third album, Color In Your Life, the band was reduced to a fast-food item. Capitol was tired of allowing a pair of Zappa alumni dictate the musical direction of the band and instead hired former Chic member Bernard Edwards to handle the production duties. The end result was an album that sounds like it was the work of a session band trying to sound like Missing Persons.
The first clue is the drumming. Someone must have advised Terry Bozzio to hold back as his traditional playing. While he would normally fill each cut with impossibly fast fills, Color In Your Life finds him becoming a power drummer. Everything sounds like it was beat out by the dude from The Power Station which, for those of you paying attention, was also a member of Chic.
The bass is also suspect. Patrick O'Hearn usually focused on rhythmic pacing, that is when he didn't have his hands on a synthesizer. One this album, O'Hearn suddenly transformed himself into a funk bassist, leading one to believe that Edwards called up one of his session buddies and had him fill in.
Dale Bozzio actually restrains her novelty hiccup here, and the cold detachment that was her trademark now sounds like she is truly removed from the proceedings here. The one exception is the fantastic title track, obviously groomed to be a single, where all of the phony plastic comes together for an enjoyable moment. Dale gives some added emphasis towards the end, of the song when she pauses after each word of the chorus and emphasizes the last one ("I wanna be the color. In. Your. Life!"). It sounds like she either wanted the kick the entire project in the ass or was merely frustrated an wanted to walk away from it as soon as the track was finished.
Probably the latter, as the band quickly dissolved (as did the Bozzio marriage) after Color In Your Life was released. Dale went on to release a rightfully overlooked solo album on Prince's label a year later, O'Hearn went on to make new age albums, Cuccurullo went on to join Duran Duran, and Terry Bozzio became one of the rock world's most reliable drum spokespersons, passing the time as a session player, lending his name to percussion endorsements and appearing at countless drum workshops.
There were the obligatory reunion shows...none managed to salvage the original classic line-up and even more were merely dubious money-makers for Dale, listing the band in the marquee but only containing her "talents" after looking closely at the actual performers.
This disregard for the band's legacy...as well as their own questionable decisions during their heyday that helped dismantle it...easily explain why the band is overlooked today. But because their debut album is so good, Missing Persons is a case worth reopening.

Here's a clip of the band performing at the U.S. Festival. You get a good idea of how irritating Dale could be and, at about two and a half minutes into the song, how awesome Terry was on drums. "U.S. Drag" is from the first album and is in motherfucking 6/8 time.