Old Enough to Forget

David Cassidy was striking while the iron was cooling. Rock Me Baby followed a few months after his previous album Cherish went  gold domestically.  Rock Me Baby  would stall just outside the top 40 at 41. His solo career would fare better in the UK and Australia but in North America but it certainly seemed like the gold run for The Partridge Family and David's solo career had come to an end in the first half of '72.  It must have been incredibly perplexing for a young 22-year-old David, who seemed to be trying to step out of the bubblegum pin-up world he was confined to. Like a lot of people who grew up in the '70s The Partridge Family was essential television, but actually listening to the music outside the confines of the show was a lot to ask. I liked The Osmonds, but I wouldn't be caught dead listening to Donny. Icky ... germs. When I found a copy of Rock Me Baby I snapped it up. Why not? The album cover looked cool, although the back cover was goofy. My ...

I remember seeing the cover for Shabooh Shoobah  in the early '80s and trying to work out how to say the band's name. Without radio or video I just assumed it was pronounced inks . The band would slowly start to build here in Canada and "Original Sin" got quite a bit of airplay, and then came "What You Need" which was a pretty big song. I thought they were good, but there were a lot of good bands and I only had so much money.  Kick was one of those albums that managed to connect with people in a big way. Fronted by Michael Hutchence who was simply mesmerizing and backed by an incredibly tight band INXS delivered a near perfect album. The timing could not have been better and the album would go on to move over 20,000,000 copies, almost ten times more than their previous record and it would be the band's high-water mark. At the time I had no idea this was as big as it was. I knew who the band was before Kick came out, and while I knew it was a popular albu...

1985 was a hell of a year for cool music. Dire Straits was right there in the mix with some of the best songs of the year. Dire Straits was still Dire Straits flitting on the periphery of what was in vogue while somehow managing to be at the centre of things. A year that saw albums by The Cult, Talking Heads, Tears for Fears, John Cougar Mellencamp along with a host of others that are too numerous to mention without taking up most of this post. This album was huge - it would move over a million copies in Canada, nine in the States topping out at over thirty worldwide. Of course to twenty two year old me, it was "Money for Nothing" that floated my boat. Much like "Industrial Disease" did from Love Over Gold . I was at best "a sort of fan" but didn't have their records. My roommate had the band's live album Alchemy (which I heard after Brothers in Arms ) and "Telegraph Road" remains to this day one of my favourite songs by Dire Straits. I...

A while back I snagged a bunch of new albums in an auction. I didn't think I'd win them, I just thought it would be cool if I won, so I put in a low ball and forgot about it until I got a message telling me to come and get them. Among them was Robin Trower's Bridge of Sighs . I knew about Robin Trower but really hadn't heard anything. The closest I got was a cover version of "Bridge of Sighs" by Steve Lukather from his 2021 album I Found the Sun Again .  Robin Trower was essentially a power trio comprised of Robin on guitar, with Reg Isidore on drums and James Dewar on bass and lead vocals. The guys weren't messing around with pretty pop songs, they were a rocking blues combo. Robin's blistering and tasteful guitar work was right up front, as was James' powerful voice. He sounded to me at least like a wicked blend of Paul Rodgers and David Clayton Thomas ... more Paul than Dave to be honest. All of this was enveloped by Reg's drumming ...  incl...

"Eyes of a Stranger" is a remarkable song. It put Payola$ on the musical map, and even after over four decades the song is still awesome. The band may have garnered some fans with it's debut and "China Boys" a song that got some sporadic play back in the day ... but I never really liked it all that much. This was the album that was supposed to allow the guys in the band to quit their day jobs, except for Bob Rock who balanced his house duties at Little Mountain Sound and being in the band. A wise choice as history would show. The band was centred on the core of Bob Rock (guitars) and Paul Hyde (Vocals) along with Chris Taylor on drums, and Laurence Wilkins on bass. Lawrence would depart after this album. The band's sound was born out of the British punk scene from the late '70s and their fuck you attitude was on full display with the band's name: Payola$. Yeah, that's a name that'll open doors to radio. I wonder how many conversations took pl...

Crack the Sky. I have no idea why I picked this up. The cover looked intriguing, and the logo was embossed as was the doodad looking thing in the centre. The band looked cool and I figured it was hard rock or glam ... both were appealing. I bought it a couple of years ago and it's been sitting on a shelf waiting to be played. I just kept adding albums to the pile and frankly this one got buried.  I was flipping through my inbox shelf to see what might catch my eye and paused on this one. The heaven's opened up and it was time to crack the sky (it's okay, you can roll your eyes, I did). I dropped the needle and the opening chords to "Hold On" immediately caught my attention. It called to mind Rush for a moment ... only a moment until John Palumbo started to sing, which was of talking narration that gave way to an infectious chorus. The guitar solo was an honest to goodness face melter. Not that it was a blistering flurry of notes, the opposite in fact, but dagnabbi...