Tom Petty said his life changed when he saw the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show. Lanky teen singer/guitarist Jimmy Booth said his life changed when he saw the Church video for “The Unguarded Moment” on MTV. He knew he had to get a band going and recruited his teen buds, bassist Tim Ferguson and drummer Ian Mills. A guitarist-wanted ad turned up Scott Wilkinson. Enter Jagged Rocks on the Perimeter.
A few years after the MTV moment, things were peachy for this North Phoenix band. In ’84 they self-released an EP, Against a Darkened Sky—a cassette shrink-wrapped to a vinyl jacket; they ran out of money—which, strangely, picked up college radio play in Australia. The recording led to a management deal with big-time career-guider Bruce Patron (Go-Go’s, Chris Whitley, INXS). Major labels MCA and Arista were flying into town to see the band play. They wound up on bills supporting Red Hot Chili Peppers, where snot dripped from the ceiling.
Patron blocked out a week at Cereus Recorders in Scottsdale, AZ, flew producer (and ex–Psychedelic Fur) Vince Ely in from the UK, paid him, and put him up in a hotel for a week. Ely had just come off Ministry’s With Sympathy. He took the Byrdsian ring and chime, Booth’s teardrop melodies and boyhood-wonder lyrics, and pushed it through slick mid-’80s production—huge drums, soaring guitars. They recorded four songs, two of which, “Well Kept Secret” and “Color Me,” should’ve been giants. A lot of their songs should’ve been.
Scott Wilkinson’s guitars are pure sweetness, tinged with melancholia, summoning orchestral textures from deceptively simple, hummable lines. Rich Contidino (who replaced Mills after the debut EP) kicks it straight—pocket-punch drumming with rock ’n’ roll umph. Tim Ferguson’s bass runs hang on notes a microsecond too long, filling out the low end. You couldn’t help but fall for Booth’s vulnerability. None of that is easy in pop music.
In ’86 the band released the self-funded, quickly recorded Soldier and the Painter. Turns out, the natty band—suits and light ornamentation—flew ahead of its time, presaging dreamy jangle bands like the Ocean Blue and the Lightning Seeds, who, a few years later, would’ve killed to have penned Jagged Rocks songs like “The Soldier and the Painter,” “Lana,” “Sunday at Dusk,” “Dream Station,” “Sing a Song,” “Eye to Eye.”
Manager Patron had to leave the States to tend to INXS. Jagged Rocks lacked the self- promotion gene—forget negotiating opportunities, they could barely promote a show. Inertia set in. “We were young and optimistic enough to think it would work out,” Booth says. They debuted in Oct. ’83 supporting Gentlemen Afterdark. Their final show, in Aug. ’87, found them opening for Gene Loves Jezebel. Really, Jagged Rocks were the kind of band whose songs would’ve swimmingly soundtracked an ’80s high-school prom, booked by the one girl on student council who had great taste.
Ferguson relocated to Tennessee and joined the Jetglows. Wilkinson went off to college and seminary school. Rich Contidino later joined Phoenix band Undertow. Booth went to college and landed in Portland, Oregon.
– Liner notes by Brian Jabas Smith
