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April Wine - LIVE!

The first time I bought this, I found it at a second-hand store. Over the years, I'd end up buying it a few times in different formats. It was the same place I got my comics and Robert A. Heinlein paperbacks. It was an awesome place.

LIVE! is an overlooked gem from April Wine's early albums, just before the band really broke wide open in Canada. They were already a pretty big deal, about to become even bigger. I think I got this just before First Glance came out (which is another story for another day) and I played it pretty much to death, or at least to the irritation of my parents.

There are so many killer songs here, and these versions were my introduction to the band. Of course, being the '70s, there's a blistery (yes, I chose that word on purpose) guitar solo to start off "The Band Has Just Begun" that my best friend thought was me with my fingers stuck in the strings. I thought that was a little harsh, but listening to it now, I can't say I don't hear it. At the time, though, I wanted to be able to play like that.

Then there's a drum solo that drones on for over four minutes before a referee's whistle calls a time out and the band kicks into "Just Like That," which is a great song. The album closes out with a wicked version of "Could've Been a Lady," which was probably their big hit up to that point.

For a time, Myles Goodwin and Jim Clench were like a Canadian version of Lennon / McCartney ... except Myles wrote most of the songs, and after a while Jim left the band. Decades later, here I am sitting in my basement, listening to yet another "new to me" copy of LIVE!, and I'm just as enthralled as I was back then. The difference being that now, when I play it loud, I irritate my kids.

This was just the start of my love affair with one of Canada's greatest rock bands.

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