Whisper Tames The Lion

Whisper Tames the Lion was Sullivan’s first professional studio album for Island Records. The band traveled to New York City to record at RPM Studios under the direction of producer Anton Fier, the drummer and bandleader of the avant-garde group The Golden Palominos. Fier’s approach to production was notably interventionist; sharing the drumming duties with Sullivan. Fier’s vision supplemented the trio’s raw live energy with layered studio textures, including organ fills and additional session musicians. Funk keyboardist Bernie Worrell (Parliament-Funkadelic) contributed keyboards on “Can't Promise You the World” in addition to other tracks.

Sullivan is credited as a full band member and co-writer on all tracks, reflecting his integral role in the band’s creative process. The album showcased the band’s eclectic range—from the tense, R.E.M.-influenced title track to the punk-rock “Livin' By The Book” and the delicate, acoustic “On a Clear Daze.” Frontman Kevn Kinney later admitted he had mixed feelings about the album at the time, feeling Fier’s studio polish obscured the band’s raw live sound, though he came to appreciate the producer’s vision decades later.

The album peaked at No. 130 on the Billboard 200, earned significant college radio airplay, and sold more than 70,000 copies in its first year. It marked Sullivan’s first appearance on the national album charts and established the pattern—a polystylistic mix of folk, punk, country, and hard rock—that would define the band’s output for the next decade.