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.

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