Streetheart - Meanwhile Back in Paris

1978 was probably one of the more formative years for me musically. At the time I didn't really think much about it, but looking back on it, holy cow and boy howdy it was a banner year. It was the year "Baker Street" made the saxophone sexy, and the guitar solo in that song still makes me smile. It was also the year my cousin introduced me to Ted Nugent though his incendiary Double Live Gonzo, and Prism's sophomore album See Forever Eyes. The number of bands I waited patiently to hear songs from on the radio or at a friends was just mind boggling. I started making a list of the bands and songs that I could hardly wait to hear, but it got to be so long that it just looked silly listing a page of bands. It's a great list.

I didn't have much in the way of vinyl, so it was up to friends and spotty AM radio to play my favourite songs. One of the coolest songs from my youth was a song called "Action" and it wasn't by The Sweet (although that is an awesome song, and I did actually have the 45 at one time) it was by Streetheart. The song had it all - a big riff, and wicked groove (dare I saw it was discoesque?) a solid bottom end, and a killer vocal.

Of course over the years Streetheart would drop a lot of great songs and would weave themselves into the fabric of Canadian classic rock. I had (and have again) a couple of their albums but never did get the debut. Then one day, there it was in the bin just waiting for someone to rescue it and give it a home. Sadly there was no liner, but the jacket was okay and the vinyl despite the surface rash was fairly clear of clicks and pops after a good cleaning.

That first track is still the one that gets my attention: Drummer Matt Frenette's high hat over Daryll Gutheil's synth and the gut reverberating thump of Spider Sinnaeve's distinctive bass set the tone and to top it off Paul Dean's searing guitar rips it up. It was a pattern Matt and Paul emulate a couple years later when Loverboy dropped "Turn Me Loose" but it's "Action" that has the cocky strut. Behind the scenes there was stuff going on, and Paul would leave the band just as Meanwhile Back in Paris started to take off in Canada. Matt would leave after the next album, and join Paul in Loverboy.

Being able to finally hear this and get to the deep cuts is a lot of fun. I don't know why I assumed this album was one killer and then filler. I actually went into this expecting to have my worst suspicions confirmed and after two sides and a repeated play through to make sure I can quite confidently say that this album is pretty darned good. Although I have to say the big rock ending on "Can You Feel It" has a rushed fade that is rather jarring, and something I don't remember and isn't how the song plays on my best of CD. Oh well, maybe it was an anomaly that was fixed on subsequent pressings, or on the re-issue.

The band released a pretty definitive double CD anthology that covers just about all the high points, but dang revisiting the albums in their entirety has been enlightening. For anyone curious as to what this line up would have sounded like delivering some of Streetheart's other classics I'd recommend searching out One Night One Take that captured the 1993 reunion with Paul and Matt. The sound quality while not great captures an extraordinary performance.

Garfield - Strange Streets

I'd seen this before in the bin, but kept flipping through the stacks. I'd see it a few more times, each time stopping to look at it a little more. There was something kind of cool about the cover where the stylized Celtic knot had the dotted yellow line - it was a strange street for sure. I pulled the record out of the jacket and I was struck by the centre image. There was the familiar Mercury label, the same one I'd seen a thousand times on BTOs Head On album. Well, I'd bought things based on odd associations before - like when I had to buy anything that Solid Rock Records released (this was generally a good thing) who knows maybe this was a hidden gem. There weren't any real scratches or rash, just a lot of dirt and dust - it seemed to clean up okay, but we'll see how it goes. The album opens with the title track, and this wasn't straight ahead pop, or rock. It was leaning to the progressive, but with a pop bent. Oddly enough the vocals reminded me of Mi...

Hoodoo Gurus - Mars Needs Guitars!

The first time I got this album it was a gift from my old roommate Otto. For a goofy little nebbish he would occasionally surprise me with some left of field musical treasures. Although, I still think he was reaching a little when he brought home the new "Led Zeppelin" album by Kingdom Come and forced me to listen to "Get it On" over and over again. I'd not listened to Mars Needs Guitars in a long, long, long time. The first thing that I jumped out at me was how David Faulkner's vocals reminded me of his fellow countryman Peter Garrett from Midnight Oil. I think the reason this never occurred to me was at the time I didn't have any Midnight Oil until Diesel and Dust in 1987. I'm not saying it was all the time, but there were a couple of songs where it stood out. Not a bad thing, just a thing. Even at the time this felt slightly out of step with what was going on in 1985. It seemed like everyone was using drum machines and synthesizers and having t...

Saturday Night Fever - The Original Movie Soundtrack

It was going to happen sooner or later. Nostalgia is a cruel Mistress...she can dull the sharpest edges and over time can even soften the hardest of opinions. I found this in the dollar bin, and frankly at a dollar I was worried about what this would cost me. Not only from a monetary perspective, but my time, and more important my credibility. Fourteen year old me was screaming "Don't you dare. DON'T DO IT! Put it down. Walk away!" Then there was grey bearded me holding it and looking at it, thinking, "How bad could it be? I actually kind of like "Staying Alive" and me buying this record won't bring disco back, and no one will have to know I bought this." I pulled the album out of the bin, and carefully took out the records. They'd seen better days, and there were a couple of decent scratches that would no doubt make their presence known later. The jacket was in decent condition, and both of the albums had the original sleeves. I dusted the...

Old Enough to Forget

Search This Blog