Babylon

Zoo Freaks, the Zoo Crew has Tom Keifer’s “Babylon” from the album The Way Life Goes rolling out right here on THE ZOO. This track closes out that 2013 debut solo record, a hard-rocking shuffle driven by a blistering rhythm section that locks into the whole idea of temptation and knowing better but going there anyway. It carries the gritty blues-rock foundation Keifer built with Cinderella and stretches it into something more personal and reflective. The words paint a picture of chasing a taste of heaven only to land back in Babylon, where the fall feels good on the way down and the last temptation sits right inside the walls. Co-written with Savannah Keifer and Doug Gordon, the song sits as the final statement on an album that took nearly a decade to finish, running from around 2003 through its release on Merovee Records. It is the kind of closer that leaves the needle in the groove and the story hanging in the air.

In interviews Keifer has described “Babylon” as a let-your-hair-down kind of song where anything goes, almost like a photograph of the wild things that happened backstage during the eighties with Cinderella. He has pointed to it as one of those snapshots of the road life, the highs and the chaos that came with the territory. The chorus moves between asking what’s wrong and telling you to get it on in the same breath, which sums up the pull without turning into a lecture. That approach matches the rest of The Way Life Goes, a collection that looks at life’s surprises, the covers that never quite reveal the book, and the way things turn out differently than anyone expects. The album marked the first new studio material from Keifer since Cinderella’s Still Climbing in 1994. He has talked about how the long stretch of writing and recording let the songs settle into their own shapes, with Savannah helping produce and shape the material along the way. Tracks such as Solid Ground, Cold Day in Hell with its harmonica edge, and The Flower Song show the range, from dirty blues rockers to more intimate moments, and Babylon brings it all home with attitude and that signature rasp.

The road to that record included a serious test. In the early nineties Keifer was diagnosed with partial paralysis of his left vocal cord. Doctors told him he might never sing again, that there was no simple medical fix and the only path forward would be long retraining with vocal coaches and pathologists. He has spoken about the uncertainty of those years, the times when the voice would not cooperate at all, and the determination it took to keep going. By the time The Way Life Goes arrived in April 2013 the voice was back, weathered and full of the same grit that carried the Cinderella records. The album moved about 5,400 copies in its first week and debuted at number 78 on the Billboard 200. Savannah’s support through the writing and production was a big part of getting it finished, turning what started as a solo idea into a shared project. The deluxe edition that followed later added a few bonus cuts, but the original fourteen tracks stand as the core statement of someone who had been through the highs of multi-platinum success and the lows of nearly losing the ability to do what he loves.

All of that later work grew out of a start that was pretty ordinary until the music took over. Tom Keifer was born in 1961 in Springfield, Pennsylvania, into a musical family. He began playing guitar around age eight after watching the Monkees on television and hearing the Beatles. Lessons at the house taught him chords and singing, and he worked through songbooks until he could pick things up by ear. The blues pulled him in deeper once he heard records by B.B. King and realized the rock players he admired were drawing from that same well. By high school he was in garage bands and then out on the cover circuit around Philadelphia and New Jersey, working through songs by Deep Purple, the Eagles, Skynyrd, Zeppelin, and Aerosmith in the clubs. His mother Adrienne wanted him to finish school, so she promised him a Gibson Les Paul if he graduated. He stayed, got the guitar, and kept playing even while dealing with the usual early struggles that come with the lifestyle.

After school the gigs continued in cover bands, including one called Saints in Hell that featured some over-the-top stage antics. Keifer also took day jobs to keep things moving, walking race horses at the tracks and running film for development at places like Fotomat. One night at a gig he crossed paths with bassist Eric Brittingham in a bathroom stall, they started talking, and the next day they were jamming. That connection grew into Cinderella in the early eighties. The band name came when the guys were flipping through the cable guide and landed on an adult version of the Cinderella movie; they figured the lighthearted title fit the hard-rock sound they were building. Keifer has said he never felt comfortable singing without a guitar in his hands, that he felt naked standing there with just the microphone, yet he ended up out front because they could not find another singer who worked. The early years were spent writing originals, playing the Philly scene, and grinding it out in the bars before anyone outside the area paid attention.

Gene Simmons took notice at one point and offered some guidance, though that did not lead to a deal. The real break arrived when Jon Bon Jovi caught the band at the Empire Rock Club in Philadelphia and pointed them toward Mercury Records. A developmental deal followed, more songs got written, and in 1986 Night Songs arrived and went multi-platinum behind tracks like Nobody’s Fool. Long Cold Winter and Heartbreak Station kept the momentum, with the band leaning harder into the blues and roots side that had always been there underneath the image. Keifer has talked about how the eighties visual world of MTV pushed everything further out, yet the core remained the songwriting and the guitar. Those years of covers and club work came first, and nothing about it was overnight. By the time the solo album arrived all of that history fed into the songs, giving The Way Life Goes its mix of hard rock, blues, and the perspective that comes from living through the peaks and the setbacks.

The story keeps rolling with the same energy that started in those early clubs. Fans who want more of the music and the updates can head to the official site at tomkeifer.com, where the album details and tour information sit alongside the rest of the catalog. The official Facebook page is at Facebook, the Instagram account is at Instagram, and the X account is at X. There are active fan communities as well, including the Cinderella World Fan Club group at Cinderella World Fan Club and the Tom Keifer and Cinderella group at Tom Keifer & Cinderella, where people share concert memories, photos, and the ongoing love for the records. From the Les Paul that got him through high school to the long road back from the vocal diagnosis, the path shows in every note of a song like Babylon. The Zoo Crew is happy to keep spinning it for the Zoo Freaks who know a good rock and roll story when they hear one.