Toto - Toto (Yeah, they probably don't like you either)

Toto, the band people love to shit on. For me, I've been a fan since first hearing "Hold the Line" and I make no apologies for loving these guys. Heck I remember when Hydra was released and I eagerly went to the record store to get it. The store used to copy reviews and place them with albums as a sales tool. I guess clipping out a scathing review and taping it to the record seemed like a good idea to someone. Anyways, I getting ahead of myself.

I can't remember if this is the same "review" but it's pretty close in tone:

Max Bell, New Musical Express, 17 March 1979

WILL THESE people never learn? In the time-honoured Hollywood tradition of foisting ambitious super-sessioners upon that large portion of the American public bereft of a brain, taste or the ability to decide for itself comes Toto, a six piece composed of former Boz Scaggs and Steely Dan (you know the rest) side men.

Admittedly I'm not a big Boz fan, but those Steely Dan dudes had some awesome stuff. I was hooked.

Their debut album dropped in the fall of 1978. I've probably purchased it at least four times, but the last time it was only a buck. The time before it was a part of their 2019 box set where all of the Columbia releases were remastered and the CDs packaged to look like mini records. Yeah, it was expensive, but so, so good. I mean, I really don't know why I wanted to get another pops and clicks LP when I have a sonically unbelievable copy in the other room that can melt faces. Oh right ... I found it for a dollar. How can you say no to that?

I actually didn't get this one right away when it was released. I liked the songs on the radio, and I really liked songs I'd heard from Hydra but I was still a kid with limited resources. It was the summer of 1981 and I was playing baseball and from a nearby house someone had cranked up their stereo and was blaring out "Georgy Porgy" (a song I never really liked) and then suddenly "Manuela Run" is echoing across the field. I don't know what it was about the song, but it got me in the feels.

Shortly after I went out and bought the album. Now at the time Toto was viewed as these studio musicians who wanted to be in a band, and the grief they got was unbelievable. You forget when you look at these guys that they were just kids. Steve Lukather was in his early 20s and some of the other guys weren't that much older. Good lord, the level of maturity in their arrangements and playing was and remains mind boggling.

There was a brief moment where they got their due, and then almost right after their being moment, here in North America they were sort of swept to the back burner. However, a good chunk of the world never fell off the band wagon.

I suppose I'll have to dig out Turn Back next ... now THAT album really was something special.

Look at that, I went all the way to the end and didn't make any we're not in Kansas or toilet jokes, and didn't mention "Africa" - even in passing, unless you count this one, but really it shouldn't count. I'm kind of proud of myself.

6 Cylinder

As a kid we had one radio station, not counting CBC, and generally there was very little that was worth listening to, although there were times something would come on that would make you pay attention. It was 1979 and on a couple of occasions I heard "There Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens" and it cracked me up, and I always wanted to get a copy for myself. A few years ago when my niece was dancing, they did a performance to this song, and now I can't separate my niece from a bunch of dancing chicks in chicken suits. Such is life. When I found this in the dollar bin I actually let out a little chirp, my goodness could it be? It was, and it was in great shape - including the inner sleeve. Score. I had no idea what to expect, for all I knew there was only one song worth listening to, and if that was the case it was still a dollar well spent. If I could buy an album by Showdown and enjoy it, odds are I'll find something to enjoy here to. Before I put this on I...

Meat Loaf - Bat Out of Hell

File under: TLDR Note to the reader. First sorry, second not really, but I am sorry I don't have the ability to edit. Oh happy Valentine's day. To celebrate let's take a gander at Meat Loaf's 1977 Bat Out of Hell. Over forty three million people disagree with me but for decades I thought this album was, and continues to be, one giant disappointment. I'll be the first to admit that despite decades of baggage the overwhelming power of nostalgia managed to erode even the hardest of convictions and I found that Bat Out of Hell was one of those albums I wanted to have in my collection, but I wasn't looking all that hard. It was an album I knew more about than I actually knew about. So at this moment in time I'm still holding firm on my long held opinion. But before I get into things, it's time for some meanderambling blurbage ... I remember seeing the cover when I was a kid and thinking it was the single greatest cover I had ever seen. What wonders were to b...

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...

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