Olé

Tonio K | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 23, 1997)
• Original Release Date: September 23, 1997
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Gadfly Records
• ASIN: B00000201C
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #167,491 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #49 in Music > Indie Music > Christian & Gospel > Christian Contemporary Music

Track Listings

1. Stop the Clock

2. Time Steps Aside

3. Maybe There Isn't

4. Stuck

5. That Could Have Been Me

6. Hey Lady

7. Come With Me

8. I'll Remember You

9. What a Way to Live

10. Day and Night

11. Pardon Me for Living

12. We Walk On

Editorial Reviews

Recorded in 1989 and 1990, with a cast of supporting musicians that included Paul Westerberg (The Replacements), David Hidalgo (Los Lobos), Peter Case, Charlie Sexton, Booker T., Bruce Thomas (The Attractions) and producer T Bone Burnett, Olé is the album Entertainment Weekly calls Tonio K.'s best. Harking back at times to the crazed-rock feel of his early classics Life in the Foodchain (1978) and Amerika (1980), Olé runs a gamut of styles and shows Mr. K. at the top of his game.

Despite receiving massive critical praise for Foodchain and Amerika, Tonio K. bounced around from CBS Records, to Arista, to Capitol-EMI (which resulted in the 1983 EP La Bomba), before settling into What?/A&M for his third and fourth albums: Romeo Unchained (1986) and Notes From the Lost Civilization (1988). Since being 'dropped' from A&M, he has been one of the music industry's most successful songwriters, penning the most played song of 1993 (Love Is, recorded by Vanessa Williams and Brian McKnight), and placing songs with Bonnie Raitt, Aaron Neville, Al Green (from the 'Michael' soundtrack), and many others. All four of Tonio K.'s full-length albums are available on CD from Gadfly Records. The Olé booklet includes a history of the album, complete lyrics, and notes about each song, along with other Tonio K.-like stuff...

PRODUCED BY T BONE BURNETT AND DAVID MINER. Key personnel: Tonio K. -- acoustic guitar, vocals
Paul Westerberg -- guitar
David Hidalgo -- guitar, mandolo, background vocals
Peter Case -- harmonica, background vocals
Charlie Sexton -- guitar
Bruce Thomas -- electric bass
Booker T. Jones -- Hammond organ
T Bone Burnett -- acoustic & electric guitars, chamberlin.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The most intelligent rock on the market today!, March 5, 1999

By 

Craig Hansen (Portland, OR USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Olé (Audio CD)

Following the career of Tonio K. is not a pastime for the impatient. His last big release prior to the A&M debacle that scrapped the WHAT? label wasn't even in the '90s...and NOTES FROM A LOST CIVILIZATION, which I think came out around 1988 or so originally, wasn't even his best work. So OLE is a long-overdue treat for those who've been reduced to tracking down obscure soundtracks just to hear something new from the K-man. I hope OLE is a sign of great things to come...like maybe a follow-up record that won't take 10 years to surface, because this is one artist who is way too talented to deserve being silenced for that long by contract hassles. Gadfly, please...keep this man in the studio! Down to the reveiw: OLE is perhaps the best amalgamation of Tonio K's Christian faith and rock sensibilities yet. His pre-faith recordings had humor, street sense, and bite, but little hope. His first post-faith disc, ROMEO UNCHAINED, was wonderful, but as primarily a collection of Christian love songs, lacked the depth of his earlier work. NOTES tried to go deeper but was too serious and not very catchy. OLE, by contrast, is catchy, witty, funny, and poigniant all at once. It's like LIFE IN THE FOODCHAIN with a source of hope. The most immediately likeable tracks are HEY LADY and WHAT A WAY TO LIVE, which capture K at his storytelling balladeer best. His refrain in the latter speaks to, and rebukes, an all-too-common fault in people today, be they people of faith or otherwise: <i>You've never been nice/ And you've never been wrong/ You've never been loved/ You won't let nobody in/ You've been mad at the world too long/ And you never forgive/ And you never forget/ And you'll never know a moment of peace in your life like that/ Man, what a way to live.</i> The main lyrical appeal of Tonio K is that he finds a way to express things we all want to say, and says them more plainly, pointedly, and prolifically than you ever expected. When Tonio K finds a way to say something, there's usually not a way to improve on it. With topics ranging from coping with an ex-girlfriend's slander to military duty to the misconceptions of the slacker generation, Tonio K covers a broad topic range the eludes most of his contemporaries. His fearlessness in topic selection and his creativity in capturing thoughts in the form of lyrics is all-too-rare in the world of pop, and even the brightest minds in the more expressive alt/mod rock genre would have a hard time competing with Tonio K...the most underrated songwriter out there today. If you like your rock catchy, witty, intelligent and thought-provoking, then you'll love Tonio K...whether you're a Christian or not. Here's hoping we hear from him again before 2008.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Followup to Notes of the Lost Civilization has a different tone., February 26, 2009

By 

K. Wilkinson - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Olé (Audio CD)

In this album, originally recorded in 1989, but unreleased until much later, Tonio K. seems more mellow. That is not to say I dislike this album. I like it a lot.
Stylistically, it is not like Romeo Unchained, nor is it like Notes from the Lost Civilization although there are points where it sounds closer to Notes than to his earlier punk stuff or to the 80's synthesizers of Romeo.

His words are always as important as his music. As an artist I link him with T-Bone Burnett (producer of this album) or Mark Heard (one of the recording engineers on this album).

There are 12 songs:
1. Stop the Clock is maybe the weakest song. Not to say that it is bad, but perhaps it is easily forgotten.
2. Time Steps Aside is an upbeat song about a woman living in the past.
3. Maybe There Isn't is a ballad style song.
4. Stuck stands out on this album. Looking at where our grandparents, parents, and now where we are, it is an upbeat take on how it may not be how we would like it, but it is up to us work through it.
5. That Could Have Been Me reminds of the saying "There but for the grace of God go I."
6. Hey Lady is memorable with a simple arrangement and his vocal. I don't think it is for everyone. Hey Lady might be considered a depressing song by some, good social commentary by others.
7. Come With Me is a beautiful song. I enjoy the imagery and the lyrics. The music fits nicely.
8. I'll Remember You is clearly meant to be the hit song. It is memorable, looking back to teenage love.
9. What a Way to Live is reminiscent of his punk years. I like it.
10. Day and Night and Pardon Me are written to the same or very similar music. Both are still quite different from each other for all of that.
11. Pardon Me for Living. See above.
12. We Walk On is a song with good imagery and is a fitting closer to this album.

5.0 out of 5 stars Tonio K Rocks!, December 4, 2011

By 

funker - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Olé (Audio CD)

Stop the Clock, That Could Have Been Me, What a Way to Live, Day and Night, Hey Lady, Pardon Me for Living, and We Walk On, are all awesome songs for anyone who has actually lived for a while and experienced the things life entails. Excellent! I've followed him since about 1980.