New Zoot song: That Was Then

I just heard the new Zoot song, “That was Then” and wow, such an incredibly powerful song. It’s like a soundtrack for the last post about Rick Springfield’s fame in the 1980s, “40th anniversary of ‘fan army’ mall shutdown.”

But that was then, and this is now, I know we were breaking hearts back when we were blessed somehow
If I could hear them call my name again, young hearts beat loud and strong but this is now and that was then

For those who are not familiar with Zoot, it’s the Australian band where Rick Springfield was a guitarist in Australia before he came to the U.S. (Read more here.) and they were supposed to go on a reunion tour – their first time performing in Australia in 50 years – in fall 2020, which got postponed to 2021 and now 2022. Sadly, the band’s lead singer, Darryl Cotton died in 2012, shortly after the band performed together for the first time since the ’70s (the performance was on a Rick Springfield and Friends cruise). His voice is featured in the intro of this new song.

Here’s a press release about the new song (and the postponement of the tour) on a Zoot Facebook page:

“That Was Then” was written by Beeb Birtles, Rick Springfield and Russell Morris and features all three, plus ZOOT drummer Rick Brewer. Even the sadly departed Darryl Cotton makes a posthumous appearance in the intro to the song.

Beeb Birtles gives us some insight into the genesis of the song:

“That Was Then” is a song that takes us back to the heydays of ZOOT, as well as Russell Morris’s solo career. When the idea for writing a new ZOOT song was presented to Rick Springfield, Russell Morris and myself, I sent a chord progression that I’d been playing to Rick in Los Angeles. Rick ran with it and came up with a fantastic melody and chorus. Then it was sent to Russell in Australia who wrote the bridge for the song. So, it is truly a collaboration between all of us, and it turned out to be a really great new ZOOT song! Check it out!”

Insight from Rick Springfield:

Beeb’s acoustic track started me just vocally riffing around it and I realized after I’d come up with some lyrics and the chorus that this song was about Darryl and our (relatively) carefree days as young Zooties touring with Russell. Everyone knew each other and we were all friends. We had our disagreements but when we got on stage we were united. I’d look over at Dazza and Beeb and Malc and feel like it was us against them. I miss being young Ricky Springthorpe living at my parent’s house in Melbourne and thinking I had all the time in the world. Life moves on and we are here 50 years later with a song to celebrate Zoot and Russ’s early days when we were young and fearless.