Reaction Records – Ft. Lauderdale (1981)
Nights on End
Marianne
I Can’t Help It
Rebel Rousers
Tony Suppa -vocals
Issac Baruch – guitar
Johnny Salton – bass
Joey Maya – drums
The Reactions shoulda been huge. America could have really used a good rough-around the edges power pop band around 1980. Exceptional songwriting, vocals and playing - halfway between punk & power pop. But, alas, they were from Florida and I believe they didn’t tour (I could be wrong). There’s a blurb on the back cover about the Reactions breaking up so the singer could join the family business due to lack of success in the rock world – oh well. The other Reactions bounced around in other bands, most famously, bassist Johnny Salton switched to guitar and became the Keith Richards/Johnny Thunders of S. Fla. Joey Maya was even in an early version of Roach Motel for about 2 days.
Love You is near perfect – but not as good as their first record. They rerecorded Marianne for some reason & Rebel Rousers is their weakest song on record. They had a dozen or so other excellent songs at the time that can currently be found on the internet. Two songs from around this time showed up on Rick Lennick’s Florida Explosion tape in 1985. Besides RR, every song on this record could have been a hit. The production’s a little thin, but with songs this good – who cares?
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