Tom Peterson and Another Language

Tom Peterson and another language

In 1984 the ‘Tom Peterson and Another Language’ eponymous 5-song LP was released by Enigma Records. For this band, Tom dropped an ‘s’ from ‘Petersson’ and used the more common spelling of his surname.

Despite the album credits on the back cover that state Tom played “12 & 18 String Bass”, no multi-string basses were actually used in the recordings. This was undoubtedly a carryover from Petersson’s Cheap Trick days when he was often listed in album liner notes as playing a 12 but didn’t actually use one in the studio. Tom did possess a Modulus 18-string bass for a short time but after the sessions for this album were completed it was left at the recording studio; eventually the studio returned it to Modulus and then that bass was subsequently sold to Allen Woody.

The reviews of the album were caustic and negative, and album sales were extremely low. The band broke up not long after the album was released.

The music video for the song “Lose Your Mind” from this album includes Petersson playing a Hamer Double-Cutaway 12-string bass. The video was included in “Playboy’s Girls Of Rock & Roll” music video compilation, released in 1985 and shown here in the Laserdisc version. It includes 12 videos from bands that featured female vocalists, most of whom were either scantily clad or briefly topless.

The back cover of the Laserdisc includes an image of Petersson’s Hamer Double-Cutaway 12-string bass.

A VHS version of this compilation includes a different image of the 12-string bass on the back.

Model Citizen

A footnote to the ‘Another Language’ story: The original name of the band was going to be ‘Model Citizen’; Why the band name was later changed to ‘Another Language’ is unknown. This article from early 1983 relates how Petersson had finally resolved his legal battle with Cheap Trick and was getting ready to start recording. Petersson is listed as playing 18-string bass although it was never used on the album, and Dagmar is credited with playing guitar, keyboards, and percussion although when the album was released, she was only credited with performing the vocals.

In the photo for this interview Petersson is holding a Hamer 8-string Cruisebass that has a custom Flying Tiger finish, complete with 13 bombs. That bass was later acquired by Ben Orr of The Cars.

Hamer Cruisebass with the Flying Tiger finish that is being held by Tom Petersson.

Spuyten Dyval

A second footnote to the ‘Another Language’ story: After ‘Another Language’ disbanded, Tom Petersson got together with Jon Brant in a resurrected version of the band ‘Sick Man Of Europe’. That band lasted for only a short time, possibly because Brant was still touring with Cheap Trick. Petersson then enlisted Pete Comita to play guitar and the band’s name was changed to ‘Spuyten Dyval’, however Petersson never mentioned that name in interviews, preferring instead to continue calling the band ‘Sick Man of Europe’.

In an interview published in Yeah Yeah Yeah magazine in 1997, Petersson was asked, “What was the deal when you left the band after Dream Police? Did you have an idea for a solo project or something?” Petersson: “Well, I really wasn't planning on going solo. You know, it's really something I'm not interested in. It just so happened that I did a record. But that wasn't really what I wanted to do. I wanted to get into another band. After doing that LP in LA I left because it just wasn't working out at all. It wasn't a band. It really wasn't anything. So I went to NYC and formed a band and started playing there at CB’s and started building up a following. It was called Sick Man of Europe. And that was cool. That was a lot of fun.”

Petersson was then asked, “Was that with Pete Comita? (The guy who replaced him after Dream Police.)” Petersson: “Pete played guitar and Jana Allen was the lead singer and Blonde Monroe was our drummer. That was great I thought. Then, just as we started building up momentum the Cheap Trick thing happened again and they asked me to rejoin and I did it.”

Besides the fact that the band name was not mentioned, we find Spuyten Dyval interesting for several reasons: Petersson has gone back to using the two “s” spelling of his surname, Pete Comita is referred to as “Peter”, and the band name translates roughly as “Spewing Devil”.