ON TOUR WITH DEBBIE GIBSON

WHO LOVES YA BABY?: The capacity crowd at the 4,300 seat Fraze Pavilion in Kettering, Ohio most assuredly did, when the legendary DEBBIE GIBSON appeared there on Sunday 21 July 2024 as part of her EY35 tour. Blitz Magazine's Editor/Publisher Michael McDowell celebrates below. Photo by Michael McDowell. C&P 2024 Blitz Magazine - The Rock And Roll Magazine For Thinking People. All rights reserved. (Click on above image to enlarge).

I SING THE BODY ELECTRIC:

DEBBIE GIBSON CELEBRATES-

25 YEARS OF ELECTRIC YOUTH

By Michael McDowell

The late, great Solomon Burke must have been blessed with a touch of the prophetic.

In his 1971 The Electronic Magnetism single for MGM, Burke sang primarily of a one on one attraction that drew him to someone like a magnet. However, Burke also made a pair of passing references therein of a more universal nature: "You're the star in my life" and "Whatever that is, I know you've got for sure, 'cause it keeps me running back for more".

Eighteen years after the fact, beloved composer, vocalist, producer, arranger and multi-instrumentalist Deborah Ann "Debbie" Gibson duly acknowledged the power of electricity in song. In part, it served as the inspiration for the title track of her January 1989 Atlantic album, Electric Youth. 

Initially hailed as a generational anthem, Electric Youth actually embraces the notion of celebrating one's potential and living life to the fullest, irrespective of chronology. Having sold more than four million copies to date, the Electric Youth album (which remains in print in several configurations, including a 2021 deluxe edition on Cherry Red's affiliate Cherry Pop label) also features the hits No More Rhyme, Lost In Your Eyes and Gibson's monster classic signature single, We Could Be Together.

In the years following its release, Gibson amassed a substanial legacy in a wide variety of disciplines. In addition to releasing  a series of acclaimed independent albums, she also starred in a variety of stage productions and motion pictures, including the much loved Summer Of Dreams and Wedding Of Dreams for Hallmark with Robert Gant and Pascale Hutton. Gibson has also released two of the most acclaimed albums of the decade of the 2020s to date with The Body Remembers and Winterlicious on her Stargirl label.

Consistently endeavoring to take her art to next level, Gibson has rarely embraced past triumphs on a grand scale. Instead, she opts for the most part to celebrate the  anniversaries of touchstone moments on her social media pages. 

However, in light of its enduring impact and the anthemic nature of the album's title track, Gibson opted to take Electric Youth on tour in honor of the album's thirty-fifth anniversary.

Blitz Magazine - The Rock And Roll Magazine For Thinking People caught up with Gibson at the Kettering, Ohio stop of the tour on Sunday the twenty-first of July. Despite a myriad of logistical challenges over the previous week that were brought about primarily by the CrowdStrike software failure, Gibson and her entourage (including choreographers Buddy Casimano and Eddie Bennett, backing vocalist Keeth "Stepp" Stewart and guitarist Ariel Bellvalaire) nonetheless took to the stage at the 4,300 seat Fraze Pavilion for soundcheck that afternoon with her trademark relentless optimism in full force. 

True to form, a gathering of the Gibson faithul (affectionately dubbed Debheads and Diamonds) were on hand hours before showtime. Following a scheduled meet and greet, Gibson then gathered with both Debheads and Diamonds to offer a benediction, as well as to lead an ad hoc sing along of Happy Birthday in honor of several within the group who were celebrating birthdays during the month.

And when Gibson took to the stage that evening, the wildly appreciative capacity crowd was reminded just how well she could still conduct electricity. 

Opening with one of the album's standout tracks, Who Loves Ya Baby?, Gibson was visibly moved on multiple occasions as the crowd rose to its feet, remained as such and roared its approval for the duration of her set. 

In keeping with the celebration at hand, much of Gibson's set revisited material from the Electric Youth album. That of course included the title track and her usual closer, We Could Be Together, as well as Lost In Your Eyes, No More Rhyme and her courageous Over The Wall. In 1989, Over The Wall alluded to the closing days of the Berlin Wall saga in much the same manner that Toni Fisher sang of its beginnings in her West Of The Wall single for Big Top in 1962.

Nonetheless, the celebration that evening ran the gamut of her sizeable recorded legacy. Only In My Dreams, Shake Your Love and Out Of The Blue from her debut Atlantic album were augmented by her mandatory (for the moment) ABBA medley (in honor of her 2023 appearance on The Masked Singer television series), followed by the inspiringly defiant One Step Closer from The Body Remembers. That single and album each took top honors from Blitz Magazine - The Rock And Roll Magazine For Thinking People in their respective categories in 2021 in the annual Blitz Awards. Gibson and Stewart also treated the faithful to a rendition of their Love Under My Pillow duet, which was a highlight of the original Electric Youth tour.

The Fraze Pavilion stop was a bit of an anomaly, in that it was a rare double bill for Gibson. Sharing the stage that evening was the veteran vocal trio, Wilson Phillips. Comprised of sisters Carnie and Wendy Wilson (the daughters of Honeys co-founder Marilyn Wilson and Beach Boys bassist Brian Wilson) and the highly charismatic Chynna Phillips (daughter of Michelle and John Phillips of the Mamas And Papas), the trio brought a diverse mix of material into their hour-long set, from their 1990 Release Me and Hold On singles for SBK to their just released cover of Harry Styles' Boyfriend. The group also paid lavish tribute to their families' legacies with spot on renditions of the Beach Boys' God Only Knows and the Mamas And Papas' California Dreamin', Monday Monday and their definitive cover of the "5"  Royales / Shirelles classic, Dedicated To The One I Love. Wilson Phillips also beckoned Gibson to the stage during their encore to join them in their own ABBA tribute.

The EY35 tour continues into August with shows in New York City, Waterloo and Pittsburgh. After a brief hiatus, it will resume in October as the Acoustic Youth tour, in which Gibson will revisit much of that material in a more intimate setting. Acoustic Youth stops include selected locations in Texas, California, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Virginia, New Jersey, Connecticut, Indiana and Illinois. 

Indeed, whether enjoyed with a full band setting or via the acoustic alternative, there is one common thread that makes this thirty-fifth anniversary gala essential:

It's electric.