Out in the Rain
(Go Out Dancing, Part III)
t-toons
Planet P Project, aka Tony Carey, finalizes the “Go Out Dancing” trilogy and retires the moniker forever with “Out in the Rain” (the first and second parts being “1931” and “Levittown,” respectively).
And in typical fashion, the keyboardist-singer-songwriter has been busy with other matters as well since the last installment: two collections of odds and ends (“The New Machine” and “Roundup”), a live album (“Live in Sweden 2006, Volume 2”), a reunion tour with members of Rainbow (billed as Over the Rainbow) – and in March of last year, a diagnosis of cancer, which fortunately he says he’s fully recovered from.
“Stage IIB bladder cancer, the kind where if you show symptoms it’s generally too late,” he told Good New Music by e-mail from Germany, where he’s lived and recorded for virtually the last three decades. “I think if I’d waited another two weeks for the operation, I wouldn’t be here now.”
G.O.D. Part III was completed more quickly than Part I, which was roughly 10 years in the making, and Part II, which took another five years. “(Finishing Part III) was the first thing I did after six surgeries,” Carey explained, adding that “it was mostly written (in my head) in the hospital. I needed two or three key songs and wrote ‘Hallelujah’ the day I got home. That wrapped it up for me.”
Part I took so long because originally the trilogy was intended to be just one album. But a record label released the demos without authorization, leading Carey to leave the label and expand it to three albums, finally releasing the first in 2003 – 19 years after the only two other Planet P albums (1983’s eponymous debut and 1984’s double-disc “Pink World”).
“I figured out that I’d just as soon commit commercial suicide over three records than with just the one … and fleshed out the original thoughts,” he recalled. The first volume is about fascism and racism in the ’30s and ’40s; the second deals with baby-boomer America in the ’50s; and the third, set in the present, elaborates on the disgraceful state of the world’s unfortunates.
Why not stick to the tried-and-true format of earlier PPP albums? “Planet P started out as sci-fi … but the real world is a lot scarier,” Carey said. He also declared, “I’m very lucky to be alive. … I thought it fitting that the trilogy ends with some redemption, at least. The first two installments were very bleak and cynical.”
“Rain” continues the artist’s ability to demonstrate a knack for melodic composition, emotional vocals and masterful playing. The thought-provoking subject matter, which PPP was created as a vehicle for in the first place, makes it even more engaging.
Take, for example, “What I Did.” It’s about people doing things they abhor out of love, and having to live with the consequences, told in first-person narrative by someone posthumously addressing the loved one he took off life support after being injured by an under-the-influence driver. Or the semiautobiographical “Ransom Me,” about a young rock-and-roller taken advantage of by a girl he falls for and marries, only to yearn for his freedom back.
Other songs deal with people living in their cars; prejudice toward illegal immigrants; superpowers seeking peace through war; people ready to put the past behind them and take another shot at life; and so on.
“Rain” is a fitting end to a complex work that took a long and winding road to completion. It says, “We, as the human race, must learn to get along. We’re all in this together.” And it puts Planet P Project out to pasture on a high note.
Thanks, Mr. Carey, and stay well.
Tracks
1. Hallelujah (I’m Alive)
2. Out In The Rain
3. The Border Town
4. Peace In The Valley
5. This Is Your Life
6. A New Country
7. Rainmaker
8. Who Would Have Thought
9. Ransom Me
10. What I Did
11. We Will Be With You
12. Down On Me
Total time: 52:28
External links
artist’s website
