Thirty years ago, I was a senior in high school. I had bad hair, terrible skin, and three (sometimes four) friends. Honestly, I wouldn’t have had it any other way. Every day at the lunch table was like a discussion panel on the music we were listening to. We would debate the best Iron Maiden album, who the best Black Sabbath vocalist was, the parallels between Kiss and Poison, and other intriguing, important shit.
Like most kids at the time, we were broke as fuck, but we had a system for sharing music. Each of us would take a turn buying an album and then record it to cassette for the other two. Yeah, the earliest form of music piracy, I guess. When I was up for making the next purchase, I made my way to the record store. I browsed through the new releases to see what might catch my eye. We liked to aim for the obscure and seldom talked about bands because, well, that’s what music dorks do.
I found myself drawn to an album called When the Blackbird Sings by a band called Saraya. “Why do I know this name?” I asked myself. Then I saw their debut album and immediately remembered them for this semi-hit song/video for a song called “Love Has Taken Its Toll.” I remember liking the song, but I didn’t like it enough to buy the album. As I contemplated buying this album, I was nervous, but I was mesmerized by this band.
Why was I mesmerized by Saraya? Well, the debut album had a photo of the whole band with vocalist Sandi Saraya in the shadows with the other guys and When the Blackbird Sings had a very organic-looking cover with a kind of haunting Blackbird on it. This wasn’t the typical “look at the beautiful female singer with band members blurred out in the background” kind of band. This struck me as a band that wanted the music to do the talking, which impacted me.
I flipped the CD over and read some of the song titles. “Queen of Sheeba,” “The Lion’s Den,” “White Highway,” “When the Blackbird Sings.” Keep in mind that this was long before one could go on YouTube or any other streaming media platform to sample an album. Back then, it was Russian roulette, and I was intrigued enough to pull the trigger. I gave record store dude my hard-earned $11.99 and took it home with me.
I got home with When the Blackbird Sings, and I did my usual ritual. I ripped off the shrinkwrap, I put the CD in the player, I put my headphones in, and I settled in for the ride. I remember listening in disbelief to the first song, “Queen of Sheba.” Was this the same band that put out “Love Has Taken Its Toll” and another semi-hit song, “Back to the Bullet?”
I was impressed with every aspect of When the Blackbird Sings. It had everything that I loved about hard rock music at that time. It had spectacular musicianship, great songs, and an amazing vocalist named Sandi Saraya, who had one of the most amazing voices I had ever heard. As much as I loved this album, it got buried and lost in the wake of other bands I was getting into, and it was eventually forgotten.
Thirty years later, in 2021, my buddy James and I were making playlists for each other as we always do. Again, this is what music dorks do. I decided to make a playlist of songs by artists I dig in high school, so I titled the playlist Class of ’99-’92. As I picked my brain to remember some of these songs and bands, Saraya popped into my head for the first time since 1991 or ’92. I immediately pulled up Spotify, and to my delight, there were the two Saraya albums. I felt a sense of excitement that I hadn’t had in a while when re-discovering a band. I went right for When the Blackbird Sings, and I had to hear it.
I was hesitant at first because I wasn’t sure how to hear this album some three decades after I had last listened to it. I clicked on the first song, and “Queen of Sheba” kicked it off, and when I heard that opening bass line and percussive shaker, I got goosebumps. It all came back to me, and I could almost smell the stale cigarette smoke on my clothes as I laid in bed listening. The song, the production, the vocals, everything about this song wasn’t as good as I remembered. It was better, and it just continued to get better.
The maturity and growth from the eponymous debut to the 2nd and final album When the Blackbird Sings hit me. Since re-discovering Saraya, I did go back and listen to the first album, and I really liked it a lot, but When the Blackbird Sings is a giant leap forward, I can only compare to the growth between the debut Skid Row album and their follow-up Slave to the Grind. It was such a forward move for Saraya, and it was a move that created a timeless piece of hard rock.
As a band, Saraya was far beyond many of their peers as players. This wasn’t just a five-chord crunch rock band. Lead guitarist Tony Bruno, bassist Barry Dunaway, and drummer Chuck Bonfante were a top-notch combo and combined with the powerful vocals of Sandi Saraya, and they were a hard rock machine. Saraya and Rey took things to a whole new level and proved to me what a sadly underrated songwriting team they were. The songs themselves each seemed to be thematic in a sense, and I found myself listening to these songs much more attentively than I ever did back in the day.
In addition to having more hooks than a fisherman’s tacklebox, the lyrics’ ambiguity is what I found myself loving the most. While none of the lyrics are hard to grasp or understand, they did have me creating narratives in my mind about what these songs were each about. I love that in songwriting because it piqued my interest.
Songs like “Bring Back the Light,” “When You See Me Again,” and “Tear Down the Wall” are kind of broken-hearted songs that have a sense of desperation and optimism. I even wondered if any of these particular songs. “Seducer” and “White Highway” I sensed dealt with addiction, and the album closer “New World” was like the slowdown after an emotional rollercoaster of feelings and emotion. Sadly the lyrics are relevant to this day. It’s a plea for a better world that remains a massive wish for so many of us. The song had me tearing up a bit because I, too, have a “hope for a new world.”
Re-discovering Saraya and When the Blackbird Sings has been one of the highlights of the last decade or so. It’s an album that I have connected with on a deep and personal level, more so than I did when I first laid ears on it 30 years ago. It sounds fantastic, and the songs remind of a band’s ability to churn out songs of substance while being catchy. Saraya may not have had the success that their peers experienced, but Saraya was one of the best and continues to be so in my book.
Saraya has been a much-spoken about band the last couple of years. I have seen more about Saraya than I ever have. Since the band parted ways, guitarist Tony Rey did a stint with Joan Jett & The Blackhearts, went on to become an award-winning producer/songwriter, and worked as the music director for Enrique Iglesias In 2017, Tesla bassist (and ex-husband) Brian Wheat and mentioned something about working with Saraya on a third album and Sandi herself did an interview with The Hussle Podcast back in 2019. There has also been talk about Sandi working with Bulletboys guitarist Mick Sweda on a project. I would love to hear some of this new music come to fruition.
Saraya should have been every bit as big as Warrant, Skid Row, Poison, or any number of their peers. Saraya had the songs, the energy, and the drive to be 3x more significant than they were, but they didn’t play the industry game. Sandi refused to play the “sex symbol” role and demanded that her band be treated as equals and as a legit band. Unfortunately, this lost them their backing from the label, and they eventually disbanded. Saraya went out on a huge high note with When the Blackbird Sings, and I’m glad that I finally caught up with it after all these years.
Why did I forget about this album? Everything about this album is pure magic, lightning in a bottle. While it is a trip of nostalgia for me, it’s also exciting to re-discover this album. It was like unearthing a precious gem that has just grown more beautiful and survived all of the time elements. When the Blackbird Sings is the new old album that I needed at this time in my life, I cannot even begin to say how happy this has made me. Thanks, Sandi & Co!
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