Old Enough to Forget

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...

When I found this album back in '83 it had a remainder cut out on the cover. Makes one wonder what Capital records thought was going to happen with a three song vanity project from Brian May. Me, I loved this from the moment I saw it ... I just knew, KNEW it was going to be awesome. I was determined to love this no matter what. How hard could it be to love something that had Brian May and Eddie Van Halen on the same album? Apparently not hard at all ... but harder than I first thought ... but it didn't matter. Rounding out the friends, was drummer Alan Gratzer (REO Speedwagon), bassist Phil Chen (Rod Steward, Jeff Beck, Joan Armatrading) and Fred Mandel (Alice Cooper, Domenic Troiano, Queen and Pink Floyd) on keyboards. These boys could play. As Brian writes on the back cover essay this was just supposed to be a hang and jam with some people he had wanted to play with. You can practically hear the songs coming together. The three songs on the MINI LP are essentially an audible ...

Little Image, or little image, or my favourite and most aesthetically pleasing littleimage. is an alternative pop band from Dallas Texas. The band features the talents of Jackson Simmons (vocals, guitar), Troy Bruner (drums) and Brandon Walters (bass, synth). This is what passes for alternative nowadays. Yeah, I am old. Well, oldish, but it's all relative. Still, gotta give these kids props. They're a band, and band's are not the flavour of the day. Hollywood Records may or may not have the cachet they once had when they were the home of Queen and Fastball. They're still a major label in an age when I have no idea what labels are supposed to do for an artist. I suppose if I had the time I could write a letter to Ashton Ulrich and Mike Daly the dynamic duo who are the band's A&R team and ask them. Self Titled  is another one of those Marco Polo Platters I shelled out less than ten bucks for. I don't know why I just don't take a picture of the album and ...