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Billy Rankin - Growin' Up Too Fast

Growin' Up Too Fast was never widely released on CD (if at all), and it was one of the albums I really wanted to get back after a basement flood wiped out my vinyl collection in the '90s (when no one really gave a shit about records, and my insurance gave me a couple hundred bucks for an appraised $10,000 collection).

Way back in 1984, my (dearly departed and greatly missed) buddy Dave let me borrow his cassette copy, which included a bonus track of "Get It On (Bang A Gong)." When I eventually bought the album, I didn't know it was a bonus track, or even what a bonus track was. If that sentence was hard to read, just go back and skim it. I'm sure you'll get the gist.

I'd find out later Billy was an off-and-on-again member of Nazareth and wrote some absolutely killer songs for them. At the time, though, all I knew was this guy laid it out cold with the opening cut, "Baby Come Back," then proceeded to lay down one killer tune after another before closing 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 capsule and, in places, is smothered in exactly the kind of cheese you'd expect from an early '80s release. It's really good cheese.

Then I waited for a follow-up ...

... and I waited, and nothing ever came.

A few months ago I bought a pristine copy (for more than a dollar) and brought it home. To say I love this album is an understatement. I played it constantly for days, sitting on the couch, reading comics, and reliving my youth.

Then I found Billy's website, billyrankin.com, and it is probably one of the greatest rock and roll archives ever. Billy essentially lays it all out there, from the heady days with A&M to his management fiascos, his admittedly bad business decisions, and his time in Nazareth. All of it makes for great reading.

On top of that, 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 get the sense that here's a guy who loved music, loved playing, loves his family, and has no regrets.

I do miss the naivete of my youth, when I thought that if you released an album you were automatically a rock star, residing in the upper pantheon of rock gods. The reality was far more mundane, and realizing your heroes are human and live regular lives is just the by-product of growin' up... even if you're a little slower to do it.

Slàinte mhath, Mister Rankin. Thank you.

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