Old Enough to Forget

When TOTO released their massive All in In 1978 - 2018 anthology it was as a record and CD collection, and at the time I didn't want the records, but boy oh boy was I interested in getting the remastered discs. Elliot Scheiner by all accounts had worked his magic and the much maligned Turn Back in particular was supposed to sound amazing. I remember following on the band's site and there were questions about when and if the CDs would be offered as a standalone ... Short answer: Yes, and in May of 2019 I picked up the set, and when it arrived it was a good day. The box set included a bunch of stuff like Live in Tokyo 1980 as well as XX and Old is New which were all included in the box set. Of course I now have serious buyers remorse in not getting the records as I'd love to have Kingdom of Desire and Tambu on vinyl ... even though I have the original CD releases and the remastered CDs. I was scrolling on line and saw Old is New on sale and snapped it up. Which is sort o...

The first time I recall seeing Curt Cress' name in the credits was on SAGA's Wildest Dreams back in '87. Who was this guy and where was Steve ... for that matter what happened to Jim? His name would pop up again on SAGA's much maligned (I love it) '89 follow up The Beginner's Guide To Throwing Shapes.  I have a couple of other albums with Chris. Pete Schilling's song "Major Tom (Coming Home)" and Far Corporation, the brainchild of Frank Farian featured Curt on drums. Reading up on Curt he's been on literally thousands and thousands of recordings over the years. He is a monster player who knows what he's doing. Curt Cress - Clan, or CCC, or Curt Cress Clan was released in Germany in 1975 on Atlantic Records when he was twenty three years old. When this was released he was already a seasoned professional who'd been playing professionally since his early teens. I managed to find a wonderfully pristine copy in a small shop in Vernon BC of...

WARNING : The following blog entry is likely a little more disjointed than usual, and let's be honest a lot of my meanderambling is hard to follow at the best of times. Heartbeat City was a really interesting experience as I had somehow convinced myself that this was dated and by default a lesser entry in the band's catalogue as a result of it's commercial success. I had long thought less of this because of the "drum machines" and it more or less became the narrative I started with ... of course as I listened I found a different experience awaited ...  If you're seat is in the upright position let's get going.  When  Hearbeat City  dropped I thought it was hands down the coolest record The Cars had ever released. After years of cool songs they perfected their rather unique blend of technology and rock and roll and the results were spectacular ... except for "You Might Think" a song that while a hit, to me was irritating, except for the killer gui...

I wonder how much of a debt Dave owes to The Honeydrippers 1984 EP Volume One ? That showed there was an audience for this kind of stuff. Since they never dropped a number two, Diamond Dave did that for them. I did buy The Honeydrippers EP, but never did get Crazy from the Heat . I did like the videos and thought his version of "California Girls" was awesome. I did know that Christopher Cross provided backing vocals with Carl Wilson. For whatever reason I thought that was really cool ... mainly because I loved and still love Christopher Cross' music. When this dropped Dave was still in Van Halen and as his little EP took off, eventually going platinum I guess he figured a solo career was to be had and off he went. It is telling, that while Ted Templeman produced, long time engineer Donn Landee wasn't twiddling the nobs. Okay maybe not telling, I'm probably reading into it, but Donn and Ed seemed to be really tight and who knows maybe there's a nugget of truth ...

Back in the mid '80s when I was working downtown I'd often spend my lunch hour rummaging through the racks at A&B Sound, or if I was in the mood to dumpster dive Sam the Record Man had row after row of discount records. I picked up a lot of questionable stuff, like Stephen Still's Thoroughfare Gap  and Dan Fogelberg's Captured Angel ... don't ask why I remember those two in particular. It's not like I remember anything from them. I'm not shitting on the records, I just don't remember them, but I remember buying them. I don't think I played them more than once or twice. I also remember one album I kept seeing and ignoring: Coney Hatch's Outa Hand. Over the years I'd see the Carl Dixon's name pop up. Sort like a Canadian Waldo. Oh look, there he is with April Wine ... oh man, that's cool. Hey Aldo Nova is covering a Coney Hatch song written by Carl, "Hey Operator" nice. Look there's Carl on the Speed Channel doing mu...

Back in 1982 this popped onto my radar when I found the album in my little Christian bookstore. It was this Irish band that steered me in U2's direction and in short order I picked up October , and then quickly snapped up Boy as well, but it all started with this Andy McCarroll album. I pretty much played this to death. It was a strange, quirky, overly preachy but wonderfully endearing album ... and it has not aged well, but it still sounds awesome nonetheless. At the time I had no idea this was actually released in 1980, and it was rebranded from Moral Support to Andy McCarroll and Moral Support and released in North America in 1981. By the summer of '82 this along with my U2 albums Boy and October and Toto IV were in constant rotation. The U2 records are their own story, with each album was recorded onto a 90 minute cassette, and it lived in my car. What this has to do with anything is still to be determined. Think of it as a placeholder to be referenced if necessary.* For s...