The BusBoys were a most unusual occurance in the music business in the early days of 1980. They were a working class black band who played what they called "minimum wage rock'n' roll." They wrote songs like "There Goes the Neighborhood," and the L.A. reviewers went crazy. They played in clubs all over town, the buzz became deafening, and I persuaded Arista Records' A&R whiz Bud Scoppa, a man of uncompromisingly good taste, to come down to see them. After much wrangling about what to do with this hybrid, Arista signed them. By that time, stories on them had broken in Time, The Wall Street Journal, L.A. Times Calendar and many other national publications. They went into the studio, and their first album, "Minimum Wage Rock & Roll" was released, only to be rejected by FM radio for being too black, and R&B Radio for being too rock'n roll. MTV, which had just gone on the air in late 1980, had the good sense to air the BusBoys' video, but not in heavy rotation.
Meanwhile, the heat we had generated resulted in Eddie Murphy, who had just signed to do his first feature film "48 Hrs." coming after The BusBoys for his movie. Who would have thought the thing would take off into the stratosphere! The movie was a monster, the BusBoys appeared on "Saturday Night Live," and opened a tour with Linda Ronstadt. Their performance of the "The Boys Are Back" made them known throughout the world. The song, which was never released as a single, eventually became the theme for the Dallas Cowboys, later for Fox Sports network and the BusBoys, despite the fact that they never had a hit record, has had a run of about 20 years.
Also during that time, I became aligned with top New York publicist Howard Bloom, who needed a West Coast office to represent his many clients. Together, we signed the group Earth, Wind & Fire, who were preparing to record a new album for CBS. Their management company also represented a very short, but talented young man who called himself Prince. Prince, with his "Dirty Mind" album and his androgynous attitude, quickly became the darling of the rock press, and we had another success on our hands.
-Bobbi Cowan (Bobbi Cowan & Assoiciates - PR)
