Old Enough to Forget

All Dressed Up is one of the best albums you've never heard. Released in 1982 David Roberts was poised to be a big deal. At least here at home in Canada ... before the conquering the rest of the world. The album was slick with enough rough edges to appeal to the rock guy in me. It didn't hurt that the album contained a who's who of the best session players on the friggin' planet. This came out the same year TOTO IV and musically All Dressed Up borrows more from the late '70s light funk and jazz grooves than the harder West coast AOR that was starting to percolate to the top of the charts. It was really good. So what happened? I remember watching David perform "Boys of Autumn" on the Juno Awards, and he was up for Most Promising Male Vocalist in '83 but lost out to Kim Mitchell, who was so far removed from being considered a "new" talent that it is mind boggling to me the guy was even nominated. Oh well.  I don't know how well the album...

I've never really watched Law and Order , or any of the endless spin offs, but I know the opening sequence. Which got me to thinking, wouldn't it be cool if I could get Steven Zirnkilton (I looked him up to give him credit) to narrate an opening segment to one of my blog posts. Actually, this post would be good. Close your eyes and read it while thinking of Steven's dulcet tones. Oh, right, maybe open your eyes so you can see. You'll have to figure out how to imagine his voice on your own.   "In a criminally competitive musical landscape, many albums are lost to time - forgotten, out of print, absent from streaming - these are considered especially elusive. One such album is Midnight Fire by Randall Waller.” Yes that's right I finally found a copy of Midnight Fire to replace the one I lost many years ago. Talk about a blast from the past. This is Randall Waller's lone entry into my personal discography. The date on the label says it was from 1980, but I di...

I found this one still in the original shrinkwrap and the cover looked interesting. It was on Capitol Records and it didn't hurt that I recognized producer Marshall Crenshaw's name on the back cover. I always love a good hype sticker, and the implication here was that this was full of hits. Three of them. Score! When I dropped the needle I was stoked to hear the opening notes to see what this was going to be ... I had cranked it a little louder than normal and I stood there looking down at the needle waiting ... then it hit. This is my favourite part of a new record. The anticipation. The opening guitar riff hit me in my happy place (the best feeling ever), and after a few licks of guitar tastiness, Gwil's voice came in and he's got his own thing going on. Part Americana Roots Rock, mixed with good old fashioned Southern Rock. I actually thought he sounded a bit like Pat MacDonald from Timbuk 3 mixed with Dan Baird from Georgia Satellites, and a dash of Steve Earle when...

For a dollar I'll buy pretty much anything if it strikes my fancy. Olivia Newton-John had a remarkable career, first with her country era, then her silver screen turns. She played Sandy Black Tights in Grease which was a hit, although I hated it on principal at the time. But dagnabbit, those pants. Then there was the movie no one saw, Xanadu but everyone heard songs from the soundtrack on the radio. Then came the sweaty headband and the song radio would ... not ... stop ... playing. "Physical" I mean it was everywhere, and it was everywhere for what seemed like FOREVER. I'm sure this was the evil origin story of The Leg Warmer Invasion. Jane Fonda entered the fray, and then suddenly we were glued to the TV watching The 20 Minute Workout,  where the women were all able to place their palms on the floor and look directly at you while they had their backsides facing the camera. Yeah, the '80s. Raise your glass, they were the best of times ... they were the best of ti...

Tim Finn, founding father of Split Enz, occasional member of Crowded House and half of The Finn Brothers with little brother Neil and a fairly odd but incredibly cool album by ALT (with Andy White and Liam O Maonlai) back in '95. It's weird, not a bad weird, just weird that I came to Tim Finn's solo work backassward through his association with little brother Neil. Of course I knew of Split Enz, and dang it I loved "Shark Attack" and thought "Six Months in a Leaky Boat" were awesome, but on balance I liked Neil's songs better. Those first two Crowded House records only cemented that opinion for me. When Neil and Tim turned what was to be a Finn Brothers record into Woodface I was still drawn to Neil, but I had to admit Tim was pretty cool ... maybe I was missing out. Me being me, which is to say a borderline compulsive, I started looking for Tim's solo work. I found his debut from '83 which was okay, and I kept going and going. Of his solo wo...

Okay, this one might be a little more pissy than usual. Mainly because I think enough water has passed under the bridge now, and frankly no one reading this will think, "Oh my, thank you. I can save myself the time and skip the album, I'll just stream 'It's in the Way that You Use It.'" Look this is going to be a meanderamble and likely veer wildly of course before it eventually ends. I can save you some time. Here's the score: 4 killers, 6 fillers. Although I only mention three songs in a positive light. Two of them are memorable, the others are good in the moment. Let's call it 4 good songs for the sake of brevity. That's not necessarily bad, if Mister Clapton was a baseball player he'd be the goat.*  August followed a year after Behind the Sun reintroduced Mr. Clapton to the world as a commercially viable artist. The album went platinum primarily on the strength of "Forever Man" a song Phil Collins did not play drums on. Th...