Sorrows: A Lost Album Resurfaces After Four Decades
Transmission 160: Interview with Sorrows
Sorrows emerged from New York’s late 1970s punk and power pop scene, formed by Arthur Alexander, Joey Cola, Ricky Street, and Jett Harris. Their debut album, Teenage Heartbreak (1980), positioned them alongside bands like The Knack and 20/20, but label interference with their follow-up, Love Too Late, led to frustration and ultimately their split.
Artist: Sorrows
Genres: Indie Rock, New Wave, Pop, Surf Rock
Label: Big Stir Records
Description: Sorrows discuss their long-lost 1981 album, the industry struggles that buried it, and its long-overdue release through Big Stir Records.
In 1981, the band recorded Parting Is Such Sweet Sorrow in a single overnight session at Mediasound Studios. Raw and urgent, the album captures the band at full force, free from the industry interference that plagued their second LP, Love Too Late. Shelved for over 40 years, this collection of high-energy tracks—packed with hooks and relentless momentum—is an instant classic. Now, with its long-overdue release through Big Stir Records, Parting Is Such Sweet Sorrow presents Sorrows’ final chapter as it was meant to be heard. Arthur Alexander reflects on the band’s history, the lost album, and its long-delayed return.
How did your early influences in the late 1970s New York music scene guide your initial direction, and which bands or performers had the strongest impact on your approach?
While I had pretty definite ideas about the sound and direction in which I wanted to take Sorrows, there’s no question that the music scene at that time had an impact and influence on me in terms of me incorporating many elements and melding them into my vision of how I wanted Sorrows to sound. I’d say it was bands like The Ramones, Sex Pistols, Stray Cats, Squeeze and The Hearbreakers that had the biggest, and obviously quite diverse, impact on what I was doing.
What motivated you to transition from The Poppees to forming Sorrows, and how did that shift in lineup and style shape your early work?
The Poppees were a great band and though we might have started as basically a Merseybeat revivalists, we did that extremely well. We had great songwriters, great vocals and a LOT of potential for future growth. Had we stayed the course and stuck to our guns, I think we would have emerged as a music force to recon with. Unfortunately, while people in general clearly recognized we had something to offer (we were one of, if not the first, of the bands on the scene to get a record deal), we apparently weren’t cool enough to be admitted to the scene’s inner sanctum. We were just nice boys from The Bronx, Queens and Brooklyn, didn’t go around in black leather jackets, torn jeans, with safety pins in our faces or needles sticking out from our arms, so we were never hip or cool enough to be the scene darlings or embraced by the rock press of the day. Eventually, it got too much for some in the band, starved for attention and recognition. Instead of building on what we had and following our own path, they decided it was better (quicker? easier?) to became… The Heatbreakers wannabes? For Jett and I that was the end of the line. It was one thing for me to live up to my idols, John Lennon (no, wait, I was George Harrison!), or try to anyway, when we first started; it was quite another to “aspire” to be yet another Johnny Thunders-come-lately. No disrespect to Johnny in any way, but we’re talking about a guy I’d see nightly at CBGB having a beer (if he could stand up!). Jett left first to play with Wayne County’s band and I soon followed. And that was that. By then, Sorrows were on my mind anyway.
Could you describe some of the initial challenges you faced while trying to establish yourselves in the late 1970s music circuit?
My answer to your previous question pretty much covered most of it. Once we hit our stride, The Poppees did quite well on the scene, playing better and better shows, but like I said, we were never a part of the “inner circle”…
The best example of it: we played the first CBGB Rock & Roll Festival. By then, we already had two singles out on Bomp! Records. The festival was recorded and came out as a double album. Not a single track from The Poppees. You can hear those live tracks on The Poppees’ Bomp! release – “Pop Goes The Anthology” – we kicked ass!
I don’t mean to sound like sour grapes, but really, other than a few great bands on that album, like Tuff Darts and Mink Deville, the rest was just crap, or mediocre stuff at best; bands that disappeared without trace, never to be heard from again. And to this day, The Poppees are played regularly on radio stations all over the world.
How did the atmosphere at CBGB, Max’s Kansas City, and similar New York venues contribute to your live performance style and overall energy?
It was great, it was a real scene, very vibrant, musicians hangin’ out, talking shop and supporting each other, and as much as there was definitely competition between bands, there was also a sense of real camaraderie. Same goes for the audiences. Unlike today, they were a part of the scene, the community. People would come down to the show, to see the show, the WHOLE show, to hear the music and support the bands, all the bands, not just come to see their (boy)friend’s band and split after their set, like what I see today.
I don’t know how it was back then in other cities, no internet, so we were all isolated to where you lived, but the NYC scene at that time was pretty much like what I would imagine Liverpool was like back when and when that scene blew up like the NYC one did.
Can you describe the creative impetus that led to recording your newly released album, “Parting Is Such Sweet Sorrow”, and how it reflects the band’s mindset in 1981?
Well, I guess, a few choice words that would describe our mindset at that point would be: rage, heartbreak, fury, and a general “Fuck YOU!” attitude.
Keep in mind, this came on the heels of our “Love Too Late” album fiasco, when it felt like we were at war with the whole fucking world!
For more dirt you and your readers unfamiliar with all that, you can check here:
We just wanted to play, beat the shit out of our guitars and drums and be a rock & roll band again. And you can hear that when you listen to this album. From the opening grooves you can just about feel the middle finger jumping out of the speakers!
What prompted the decision to record all night at Mediasound Studios, and can you detail the environment that fueled that session?
It was kinda of a fluke, of sorts. We got back together with our original producer on “Teenage Heartbreak”, Mark Milchman, who got us some studio time on “downtime”, since we were too broke to pay for it. So we went in one night, just to lay down some songs, make demos. Little, if any, thought was given to making a “record”. We set up our amps, drums and mics as if we were on stage… and just went for the jugular!!!
But as the night wore on we began to realize that something really special was happening. The angst, the rage and the pent up energy we kept inside us after what we recently went through boiled over and it just exploded!!!
Even “Cricket Man” was an afterthought. We had barely started working on that song before the session so we ran through it as a quick reference demo for me to keep working on it. Playing it we were literally flying by the seat of our pants, unsure what was coming up next, another verse?… solo? It had fuckups all over it. When we finished and listened back to it we were flabbergasted! Mark turned to us and said: “guys, this is a monster!”. We tried another take, maybe two, but didn’t even finish, nothing came even close. This IS the only take of that song.
What factors prevented “Parting Is Such Sweet Sorrow” from being released in 1981, and when did you first realize these recordings might still hold value?
Well, after coming back from England and the disastrous sessions for “Love Too Late” we were at total war with our label, so bringing it to them was not an option. We felt totally fucked over and betrayed by them, so going back would be like “gimme some more of that, yes please!”
We shopped the record to other labels, and in Europe, but because of all the legal bullshit going on, we were toxic. No one would touch us.
We knew this record was special the moment we left the studio the next morning. Then life took over. Nothing was happening, everyone was burned out, I dissolved the band and buried myself in recording and production work for my own stuff and other artists.
How did you respond to attempts by the label to steer your sound toward mainstream expectations, and did it alter your songwriting process?
Unfortunately, and with a 20/20 hindsight, I responded in the worst possible way I could have. I was raised to be a gentleman, to always take “the high road.
Standing there, in that London studio, listening to Sorrows’ music being literally hijacked and mutilated right in front of me, watching our “legendary producer” bopping his head and grinning from ear to ear with a self-congratulatory smile at his “achievement”, various thoughts went through my head as I stood right next to the tape machine watching the tape spinning around: hit the RECORD/ERASE button?; grab the tape and roll it down the sidewalk?; tell the producer he was fired, to get the fuck out and never come back?; there was a nice long staircase right outside of the control room… grab him and facilitate his hasty exit down said staircase? All great solutions to my dilemma, to be sure…
Instead, I wrote him a stern but polite note about how indignant I was about all this; requesting that he erase all my tracks, because I wanted nothing to do with this record and I left the sessions never to come back.… and all I got was a shoulder shrug and made into “that asshole who wouldn’t play along.”
Did it alter my songwriting process? Not one bit, I write what I write and I don’t give a shit what anybody thinks. I learned that lesson a long time ago. Still remember shopping various Poppees and Sorrows demos and getting rejection letters from record execs, like the one I still have to this day from CBS Records, telling me the Sorrows songs sound too much like this and not enough like that, too Beatley, not Beatley enough, too eclectic, you name it! Six months later Sorrows were signed to CBS Records, and just like that!… According to them (same people!), I was Lennon-McCartney, rolled into one, and could walk on water!
What ultimately led to the decision for Sorrows to stop making music together, and did it feel like a permanent split at the time?
Well, even though we didn’t see it at the time, the fallout from the whole “Love Too Late” fiasco was far greater than we thought, or as it turned out, we could deal with. All the pressures of the legal crap we got entangled in; general depression that all the hard work we put in all these years was going down the drain; feeling used, betrayed, it all took a toll on us. In a word, total burnout. At some point, not too long after the session that produced this album, I just dissolved the band… and that was that. I don’t think, at the time, anyone was thinking in terms of ‘taking a break’, or ‘permanent’. It was just… over. Not too long after, I moved to Los Angeles and that pretty much made it permanent.
Beyond label complications, were there any other factors—financial or personal—that contributed to these recordings remaining under the radar?
Well, remember it was still the 80s, no internet, no way to distribute it independently, and the band was done… so it kinda felt like: “what’s the point?”. By then, Mark Milchman left the business and gave me the tapes… only I had no financial means, or business connections, to do anything with them, nor personal skills to do it myself, even though I already had my own studio and was getting head deep into recording and record production. Still, it took years for me to learn and actually know what the hell I’m doing. Still not sure I do! LOL
Who discovered the original tapes, and what steps were taken to ensure the audio quality remained intact after decades in storage?
There was really nothing to “discover”. The tapes were here with me all along, in my closet. The biggest issue was that they were basically falling apart! As was common back in those days we (and everybody and their mother) used AMPEX 456 tape. It sounded great, but had one minor flaw… with time, the oxide coating on the tape (where your music lives) would start flaking off and fall apart. If you played that tape as is, the tape deck would come to a grinding halt in a jiffy and your tape heads would be covered in brown mud that used to be your music. The solution – the tape had to be baked, literally, to dry up the coating. Then you’d break out the Bible and pray to the Gods of Audio that the tape was good enough for at least one pass, long enough to transfer the recording to another medium. By the time I could actually do something, these tapes were about 30 yrs old, so I had the tapes baked and transferred to digital… and back into my closet, but at least they were safe, where they hibernated till last year.
When you listened back to the tapes for the first time in years, were you surprised by any elements of the performances or mixes?
OH YEAH!!! There were surprises, alright!… The first thing that hit me from the moment I hit Play for the first time after all these years was the absolute and leathal ferocity that was jumping out from every track! I mean, it sounded like we were definitely out for blood, and you can literally feel it!
The first track I listened to was “Never Mind” and the first thing I heard was Mark, our producer, on the talkback mic, putting down a slate: “Never Mind, Take 2, slower version”… off we went… and I almost fell off the chair, in shock, amazement… and hysterics! SLOWER VERSION!?!?!… My GOD! I’d give anything to hear what the Take 1, deemed “too fast”, must have been like?!?! If that song was a car at the Indy 500, it would have won by 10 laps!!! LOL…
And that’s how that went, song after song, total madness. After feeling like we’ve been neutered, this was a band with a giant chip on our shoulder, with something to prove, and we sure as fuck DID! Sorrows were BACK!
Which technical processes—remixing, remastering—were necessary to make the recordings sound the way you originally intended?
Nothing out of the ordinary. The album pretty much mixed itself and BSR sent me to a great mastering engineer, Carl Saff, who did a bang-up job on this thing!
The biggest issue I had to deal with was the mic leakage, because of the way we were set up. Remember, this wasn’t supposed to be a “record”, just laying down a bunch of tunes to have a demo of the new stuff we’ve been working on. So we really didn’t give a shit about making things “proper”, and to us spending time on that was a waste of precious studio time. Plus, we figured, who cares? How much can you accomplish in one night anyway, right?!
BUT… we were loud as fuck and the leakage was massive; drums in all guitar and vocal mics, guitars all over the drum tracks. When I started to mix and had the drums dialed in, I could barely raise the actual guitar tracks up from ZERO before the guitars were already too loud! But since we were recording in the amazing Studio A – The Church (which it really used to be!) all that noise was just glorious! LOL
Did uncovering this material prompt any discussions of a reunion, even for a limited time, or was the focus on preserving the era-specific sound?
Not really, we’re spread out between the two coasts, and Jett is pretty much retired from the business, and without him, there’s no Sorrows.
Wait!… OK, maybe if someone offered us some obscene money?… say, 100 bucks? OK, ok, I’ll take $20, but that’s my bottom line!
Photos and images courtesy of Sorrows
Matteo Damiani is an Italian photographer and author. Curator of the sites Retrofuturista.com; weirditaly.com; china-underground.com and others
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