The Call – the California rock band led by the singer, bassist and songwriter Michael Been, who has died of a heart attack aged 60 – never enjoyed the same success as their 1980s peers, but their influence ranged far and wide. Their stridently passionate, literate rock was once hailed by Peter Gabriel as "the future of American music". Bono, Jim Kerr and Robbie Robertson made guest appearances on their albums.
Al Gore chose the Call's rousing Let the Day Begin as the Democrats' signature song for their 2000 US presidential campaign. A pumping celebration of working-class optimism, it was typical of Been's work. Been, who grew up in Oklahoma City, also wrote the 1986 anthem Oklahoma, which made the shortlist in a contest for that state's official rock song.
His unswerving belief in the power of rock'n'roll was forged as a child. He cited Elvis Presley's appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1956 as a personal epiphany. Aged seven, Been performed on a local TV show, Big Red Shindig, billed as "Little Elvis". He moved with his family to Chicago as a teenager.
He briefly played bass in the psychedelic band Aorta and then, at the turn of the 1970s, he joined Lovecraft, a streamlined offshoot of the freak-rockers HP Lovecraft, named after the American author. He moved to California in 1972 and formed Fine Wine, playing with the former Moby Grape members Jerry Miller and Bob Mosley. Been wrote five songs on their eponymous 1976 album, after which he played with Miller in the Original Haze.
It was all useful groundwork for starting his own band, Motion Pictures, in Santa Cruz in 1979, with the guitarist Tom Ferrier, the bassist Greg Freeman and the drummer Scott Musick. They renamed themselves the Call and set about crafting powerful, emotive rock with heart pinned firmly to sleeve. Their self-titled 1982 debut was a solid start, but it was with 1983's Modern Romans that they began to find their range: cloud-scraping choruses, urgent guitars and socially conscious lyrics. The politically charged The Walls Came Down was the breakout hit, its video becoming an MTV staple and prompting Gabriel to offer them a support slot on his tour of the US and Europe.
Gabriel, along with Kerr, sang back-up vocals on Everywhere I Go, from the 1986 album Reconciled. By then the Call had switched from the Mercury label to Elektra and replaced Freeman with Jim Goodwin. The album's big number, the defiant I Still Believe, was covered by Tim Capello as the soundtrack to the film The Lost Boys the following year.
Been was keen to explore other avenues, not least the movies. Martin Scorsese, a fan of the Call, cast him as John the Apostle in The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), a period Been later recalled as "one of the greatest times of my life". An on-set friendship with Harry Dean Stanton led to the actor playing harmonica on the Call's biggest-selling album, the bombastic Let the Day Begin (1989).
But major success remained elusive. Red Moon (1990), despite a cameo by Bono on the gospel-styled What's Happened to You?, was less well received. The Call split in 1990, only to reunite in 1997 for another album, To Heaven and Back. Been released a solo LP, On the Edge of a Nervous Breakthrough, in 1994. In recent years he had worked as a sound engineer and co-producer for his son Robert's band, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club.
He is survived by his wife, Carol, Robert, and a sister, Linda.