Old Enough to Forget

Book of Dreams from 1977 was essentially the second half of The Steve Miller Band’s Greatest Hits 1974–78 . Steve Miller released one of rock’s great one-two punch combinations: Fly Like an Eagle in 1976 and Book of Dreams in 1977, records that cemented him as one of the defining artists of the ’70s. The bed tracks for these watershed albums were essentially recorded at the same time, which is part of what makes them feel so cohesive. I remember a friend once calling Book of Dreams the best collection of leftover material ever recorded. I’m not sure how much water that comment holds, and I suspect Mister Miller was more concerned with pulling together the songs that best fit together stylistically. Besides, the answer to the question, “What if all the great songs were released as one album?” was already answered in 1978 with Greatest Hits 1974–78 . Does one really need to hear Book of Dreams ? Kind of depends. Here’s my conundrum: I don’t have the greatest hits collection, so ye...

As a kid I most vividly remember Steely Dan as an inconvenience on the radio. There was a special place in hell reserved for "Rikki Don't Lose That Number" a song that would pop up at the most inconvenient times ... like when I was listening to the radio. Whatever they were was not rock and roll - how did this weird stuff even count as music? The only other song that bugged me more as a kid was "Midnight at the Oasis" by Maria Muldaur. They both seemed to be on at the same time, although that's probably not right but it's how I remember it. As I got older I begrudgingly started to give Steely Dan their due. I was learning to reconcile how these nerdy jazz guys were welcomed with open arms into the fraternity of rock and roll. It was because they were so good. Yes, even "Rikki Don't Lose That Number" started to get under my skin ... Maria, not so much. Steely Dan records were technical marvels, they sounded almost perfect. The best musicians...

Boniface is another of my Marco Polo Platters . The cover was intriguing and pretty much screamed nostalgia to me. It doesn't get much cooler than an '80s Fiero on a prairie back road. I had never heard of Boniface before, but considering the kid sitting on the hood of that Fiero probably wasn't even alive when the car rolled off the assembly line, it's safe to say I'm not exactly keeping up with what's new. Then again, I don't really pretend to be in tune with the latest trends. I like music, and if the music likes me, we'll get along. It's hard to tell whether Boniface is a band, or a musical identity. A glance through the credits and I get the sense the core musicians are Micah Visser, vocals, keyboard, guitars, Joseph Visser, guitars and Michael Dunn, drums. The songs were all written by Micah, with a couple being co-written by Eg White (best name ever) and one by Steph Marsiano. I suspect this is Micah's vehicle. I was looking forward to hea...

You ever sit and wonder what were you thinking as a kid? Maybe not even as a kid, but as a young adult who thought they knew shit , but it turns out they knew shit? Case in point: The Alarm's 1985 release Strength . It's no secret that I am drawn to shiny things. I'm often a musical crow who looks for the object that stands out and then ignore everything else around it. I bought a lot of records and later CDs for one track. Sometimes I'd get more than I bargained for, generally though I was buying so much stuff that I seldom took the time to really let an album percolate. Not always, but often enough that my memory pertaining to a lot of great stuff is full of blanks. The Alarm suffered from this fate not once, but twice. The first time was when I heard "Strength" for the first time, and my little brain (yes, little - I have a big head but I'm not efficiently using all that extra space) melted. I bought the album, and I don't know what I was expecting,...

I still have a fairly big pile of Marco Polo Platters waiting for their turn on the record player. I have to say the little store, which I may as well plug, since who knows how long they’ll keep doing it, has not been great at repopulating its small section of clearance items. Sunrise Records is probably the last of the mall record stores still standing in Canada. Oh well, I’ll keep checking, as I still manage to find myself lost and abandoned with frightening regularity. I almost didn't pick this up as it was Vol. 2 , and the obsessive completest in me could not handle getting an album out of sequence. In the end, as you can tell, it didn't stop me. I persevered, I overcame, I willed myself to push forward ... in the end, I am here victorious, and am listening to, and writing about Vol 2. before I've even heard Vol. 1 . Way to go me. Now, to be fair, this isn't the first time I'm hearing the band, I just don't really remember what I've heard. They've ...

Disclaimer : This post is mostly centred on the vinyl release of the latest 77s record. The record contains seven songs but the download, streaming and CD have more. Which bugged me then and bugs me now. I have tried though to stay focused on what matters, and what matters is the band have a new record, and that it is worth celebrating. However, it didn't stop me from taking the odd potshot. 7 has been waiting patiently on my shelf for months. When the band announced their intentions to record a new album, I was excited - and a bit anxious too. Could the guys actually deliver an album worth listening to after all this time? I jumped in relatively early as Kickstarter backer 266, glad to have a hand in bringing the project to life. These kinds of endeavours demand patience, but that’s part of their charm, and it ends up making the final product all the more rewarding. I wasn’t alone in my anticipation; with 1,373 backers and over $100,000 raised, the band received an impressive sho...