In the early ‘70s, there was a migration of musicians to Colorado, including Cleveland’s Michael Stanley, who passed away in 2021, and Jonah Koslen. During that time, Stanley released two solo albums until he and Koslen returned to Cleveland and became the singer-songwriter, guitarist nucleus of the Michael Stanley Band (MSB), joined by fellow Ohioans Dan Pecchio, from Glass Harp, on bass, and Tommy Dobeck, from Circus, on drums. The quartet was signed to Epic, at the time when another Clevelander, Steve Popovich, was a vice president for the label. The band released You Break It…You Bought It! in 1975 and Ladies’ Choice in 1976. The group had a strong concert following, with Stanley having four albums of music under his name to draw from, the same number that Peter Frampton had leading to his multi-platinum breakthrough double-live album Frampton Comes Alive. Popovich hoped for a similar fate for MSB in 1977, with a double-live album called Stage Pass, including a fifth member, Bob Pelander on keyboards. This meant that Koslen would abandon a few songs he had written for the next studio album, which fans would not hear until now with Unreleased Tracks from the Stage Pass Era. When Stage Pass did not achieve the success of Frampton Comes Alive, Koslen left the band in early 1978, released a solo album of recordings called Back Tracks, performed a Coffee Break Concert on WMMS, a few months later formed the band Breathless, and performed in the summertime entourage the Euclid Beach Band.
Unreleased Tracks from the Stage Pass Era is a limited-edition vinyl album release with three unreleased tracks from the Stage Pass era on side one and the Coffee Break concert filling side two. Koslen spoke with Goldmine about songs from both sides of the album.
JONAH KOSLEN
Unreleased Tracks from the Stage Pass Era
JAKK’D UP Records (limited edition autographed vinyl release)
The beautiful “Waste a Little Time on Me” from You Break It…You Bought It! was selected for the Coffee Break Concert. Koslen told Goldmine, “I wrote ‘Waste a Little Time on Me’ when I moved back to Cleveland from Colorado in 1974. The title came to me first, thinking about going out and meeting people at a club, and it seemed like a perfect pick-up line. It seemed to have worked. I have had a lot of people tell me that they have had a lot of success using that line over the years.”
Koslen’s “Ladies Choice,” with its catchy chorus, became the title song for the quartet’s second album, and was another song performed in the WMMS studio. Koslen continued, “Michael and I were talking about song titles, and I told him I was working on one called ‘Ladies’ Choice’ which refers to a traditional dance, like a square dance, where the lady would make the choice of a dancing partner, rather than the man choosing the dance partner. The main character in the song is a woman making her choice about what is going to happen next in her life.”
When it came time for the double-live album Stage Pass, even though there were prior studio albums to draw from, there was also new material, including Koslen’s “Nothing’s Gonna Change My Mind,” which was released as the single from the album and was frequently on the radio in Cleveland in 1977 through early 1978.
Koslen shared, “In addition to Cleveland and other Ohio cities, ‘Nothing’s Gonna Change My Mind’ was popular in St. Louis, Phoenix, parts of Florida, and a few other places, and charted in the Top 100 songs for Cash Box. It became a standard in the shows when I was in the band. On Stage Pass, it had live energy, and I recorded it again in 1979 for Breathless’ debut album with a smoother sound.”
The three songs truly from the Stage Pass era on side one are a pair of rockers, “Savage Love” and “In Trouble,” followed by the ballad “The Pride,” with a pre-“Tears in Heaven” sound. Koslen revealed, “When I heard ‘Tears in Heaven’ on the radio in 1992, I thought the melody sounded familiar. I couldn’t place it at first and then one day in the car it struck me that it was a similar melody as ‘The Pride.’ I thought, nuts! I wrote it all those years before Eric Clapton, and now I can’t record it, but I decided that I could for this special album. I played all the instruments on this recording, except for drums which were played by Tommy Dobeck.”
“When I heard ‘Tears in Heaven’ on the radio in 1992, I thought the melody sounded familiar. I couldn’t place it at first and then one day in the car it struck me that it was a similar melody as ‘The Pride.’ I thought, nuts! I wrote it all those years before Eric Clapton, and now I can’t record it, but I decided that I could for this special album.” – Jonah Koslen
Koslen’s Back Tracks album, including his song “Meantime Man,” was released just a year after James Taylor’s version of “Handy Man” and the Eagles’ “New Kid in Town” left the Top 40. Koslen concluded, “I was a fan of James Taylor at the time, and I loved what he had done on his version of ‘Handy Man.’ As a songwriter, it is fun to apply oneself to a style of music that someone else might do with your song. I did that with ‘Meantime Man,’ imagining a James Taylor delivery. When the title came to me, I thought it would be perfect to capture that relaxed style. A song title is often the starting point for me, with the lyrics following, and driving the style of what would fit with the words. At the end of my song, I was inspired by the Eagles’ ‘New Kid in Town,’ where at the end Glenn Frey went up an octave, which is common vocal trick to do, adding a crescendo, bringing the sound to a peak.”
MSB L to R: Bob Pelander, Daniel Pecchio, Michael Stanley, Tommy Dobeck, and, out front, Jonah Koslen, photo by Janet Macoska
Other Cleveland ‘70s music news – the 50th anniversary of Eric Carmen’s solo debut:
On November 25, EC50, A Celebration of Eric Carmen’s Musical Legacy will take place in the Cleveland suburb of Lakewood, at the Lakewood Civic Auditorium, featuring Eric Carmen’s band members, the Lakewood Project, the Lakewood High School Orchestra and alumni, with special guest vocalists.
Related Links:
Goldmine In Memoriam: Michael Stanley’s 10 Albums That Changed My Life
Goldmine 2025: Eric Carmen solo debut 50th anniversary concert
Get ‘70s music and more in our Goldmine store (see below):
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.goldminemag.com ’
