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Prism - See Forever Eyes

Continuing my trip through 1978, here's Prism's second album, See Forever Eyes. I remember going with my cousin to a hole-in-the-wall record store to pick up an 8-track copy he'd special ordered. Yeah, it was like that once upon a time in smaller towns and suburbs.

Like any good Canadian kid, I thought "Spaceship Superstar" was as close to a perfect song as there ever was. Here was the follow-up, and I was finally going to hear more than one song. After ejecting the ever-present Double Live Gonzo! from the truck's player, this one got a fair amount of play over the summer, and I liked what I heard - especially the rockers where Lindsay tore it up.

The early Prism albums were driven as much by the interplay between guitar and keyboards as they were by Ron Tabak's soaring vocals - a pattern some of my favourite bands employ, much to my delight (Saga, I'm looking at you).

When the album launches into "Flyin'," arguably one of its best tracks, it's easy to draw comparisons to Styx, mainly because both bands had gotten their hands on the German Oberheim synthesizer and seemed to be using the same preset (I'm guessing it was a preset - did they have patches back then?).

At the time I didn't know who was in the band. I was just a 15-year-old, shy, lanky kid who loved music. A year or so later, when I picked up this album, I also bought their debut, and both albums were played constantly. Looking back, it's a bit of a blur as to what goes where.

Of course, being the '70s, there were sucky songs (opinion courtesy of 15-year-old me), and Prism would become pretty proficient at the power ballad. Listening now to "You're Like the Wind" and "You're My Reason," I can imagine there were a lot of burnt thumbs at their concerts from all the waving flames.

See Forever Eyes likely contains the only bowling strike ever captured in a rock song (I'm just guessing, but really, name another one). "N-N-N-No!" is played in such a high register and at such a blistering pace it's amazing Ron was able to hit the notes. Apparently the guys used to joke about how high a key they could write their songs in. I love this song. N-N-N-No kidding (don't you roll your eyes at me).

At the time I was (and still am) enthralled by Lindsay Mitchell's guitar playing, but over the years what has really emerged on the first couple of albums, in particular, is John Hall's keyboard wizardry, all accomplished before MIDI and sequencers. What he achieved is kind of mind-boggling in its complexity.

Even now, this album is a lot of fun, and not just for the nostalgia that takes me back to my youth. These were solid songs.

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