I'd find out later Billy was an off and on again member of Nazareth and wrote some absolutely killer songs for them. However, at the time all I knew was this guy laid it out cold with the first cut "Baby Come Back" and proceeded to lay down one killer tune after another and closed out the album (sans any bonus material) with "Burning Down" a song Meat Loaf would one day cover, smother, and butcher. The album is a time piece, and in places is smothered in the cheese you'd expect for an early 80s release. It's really good cheese.
Then I waited for a follow up ...
... and I waited, and nothing ever came.
On top of it all, he has his music there too. Not for sale. Just there to be heard. His unreleased follow up, live tracks. It's a feast.
Through it all you just get the sense that here's a guy who loved music. Loved playing and loves his family and has no regrets.
I do miss the naivete of my youth, where I thought if you released an album you were a rock star and resided in the upper pantheon of rock gods. The reality was more mundane, and the realization your heroes are human
and have regular lives is just the by product of growin' up ... even if you're slower to do it.
Slà inte mhath Mister Rankin. Thank you.
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