A solid mixture of AOR rock with an underpinning of power pop and vintage ‘60s pop, I Paralyze was perhaps Cher’s most cohesive LP since Stars. “We didn’t want to make a dumb pop record,” Wolfert commented. He handled eight of the nine sides, leaving Farrar to pilot the sensuous, sci-fi groove of the title piece.
The framework of I Paralyze drew its contemporary feel from a polite touch of new wave. Combining that with the “classic rock” curiosity that had threaded through Cher’s sound previously, “Say What’s On Your Mind” and “Back on the Street Again” were compelling entries. “Walk With Me,” a feisty midtempo, worked well alongside some of the LP’s cooler sides, like “Games.” “We worked long and hard [on “Games”], especially the vocals,” recalls Wolfert.
“She had extraordinarily high standards for her work and I’m sure was disappointed by [the album’s performance]. We all felt that record was under promoted,” Wolfert stated soberly. However, just as quickly he said with a smile, “I don’t know if you’ve met Cher, no one tells Cher what to do, that’s not how it works.” The statement functions as playful a rebuke to those assuming that Cher’s ambition behind the record was solely commercial; it was not. If anything, I Paralyze encapsulates Cher’s adventurous ethos as a woman and an artist.
Vibe On was granted exclusive access to Sony Legacy’s Cher recordings and unleashed all available material, including two previously-unheard versions of the album’s lead single “Rudy”: the original demo recording and a long-running version crafted during the album’s final sessions. Also included on our 16-track expanded edition are full instrumental versions of all of the Wolfert-produced tracks, many of which were edited down for the final vocal mixes.
Cher’s reach has extended into both music and acting, forming a two pronged approach to her legacy. However, spotlighting her music career can be a frustrating task.
David Wolfert, one of two principal producers on Cher’s 17th LP, I Paralyze remarked to Vibe On Records, “In most people’s minds she occupies the celebrity space instead of the recording artist space, so people tend to see her only through her most successful records.”
Cher is often confined to “Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves,” “If I Could Turn Back Time” and “Believe.” Great songs to be sure, but they’re only snapshots of a more complex musical story rarely discussed. Cher’s own reticence to anthologize herself has created “pockets” of lost music within her catalog, which unquestionably includes I Paralyze.
Cher signed to Columbia Records in 1981 to record with Wolfert and Olivia Newton-John hitmaker Phil Farrar. Wolfert recalled, “I was a very young guy, untested, though I’d had a few hits. I wasn’t at the level of most of the guys she was used to working with. I think she liked that because there was something youthful about it.”
I Paralyze’s birth ran in tandem with Cher’s New York City residency for continued honing of her acting skills. Said skills landed her on Broadway with “Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean” which preceded a hit streak of films between 1982 and 1987 that saw her temporarily break from music.
