Skip to main content

SAGA - Behaviour

SAGA - Behaviour
I remember seeing a SAGA button on some cool kids jean jacket when I was in high school, I didn't know what kind of music it was but I assumed it was heavy metal or something, as I figured that's what all the jean jacket wearing cool kids were listening to back then.

Apparently it wasn't metal - but it was cool. Real cool. I did eventually find that button too, it's in a box in the basement, I need to find it.

Back in the early '80s, premium movie channels were starting to be a thing, and where I lived I think it was called First Choice or something, it doesn't matter, but I was trying to remember because I thought it might enhance the story - sadly it was just more meandering rambling gibberish. Anyway, on the channel guide I saw a listing for a music special by SAGA - live in Montreal - or something very close to that. I had a large ghetto blaster I could hook up the TV connection to for stereo sound, and I got some tapes ready. I was going to record this (to the band, I know home taping was killing music, but I really wanted to have this, and I didn't know any other way to have a copy, sorry, it did lead to me spending a lot of money on SAGA over the years).

It was a mind blowing concert. Who were these guys? I was immediately hooked by songs like "Wind Him Up" and the sing along songs and how the singer could sing, play keyboards, play bass, and take part in a drum battle on "A Brief Case". The bass player would play synth bass, and the keyboard player and guitar player were mind blowing when they traded solo runs. It was mesmerizing, all of it. I played the shit out of that tape. I didn't know most of the song names at the time, I just played it over and over.

From there I started looking for their albums, and In Transit was close to that concert and it blew my mind (I'd find out later when I bought it). However the first album I picked up was Heads or Tales as those were the new songs and it seemed like the band was on the cusp of breaking big in North America, or at the very least getting the respect they deserved at home. Then in 1985 the band dropped Behaviour, and I got it as soon as I heard "What Do I Know" on the radio. I remember playing this loud, very loud and all the time. I still get chills when I hear "Take a Chance" which to me is still a perfect song, and Steve Negus the drummer was all over that one. Of course "You and the Night" was amazing. I loved the album, and I still love the album. As far as I was concerned Ian Crichton's brilliant guitar playing secured his place in the pantheon of rock's best six string heroes. It hardly seems fair to just single out the guitar player when the whole band is comprised of master musicians. It's just that I'm a sucker for awesome guitar.

What I didn't know at the time was the troubled birth this album would have and the internal pressures the band must have been under while writing the album. The musical direction the songs were to take apparently were a cause of tension, the end result was a far more straight ahead rock record than even their previous release. The production felt fat, wet and very 80s. In short, it was everything I loved about music at the time. By the time the band would regroup for 1987s Wildest Dreams Jim Gilmour and Steve Negus would be gone. The two of them would release one album as GNP that despite my best efforts to be a fan boy never did much for me other than a couple of decent songs, but boy did I try. Michael Sadler and the brothers Crichton would release a pair of albums as a trio. The band would get back together again on The Security of Illusion and have a pretty solid second act.

Behaviour may be a divisive record to many fans who jumped on the wagon before I did. I was really close to pulling out In Transit because it was such a great record and closest to what my first experience was like. However I started my journey with the band with Heads or Tales, which I loved, but it was Behaviour that truly hooked me. I've since been along for the ride since. 

I still have to find that button, I know it's around here somewhere.



Labels:

Comments

  1. AnonymousFebruary 11, 2023 at 11:16 PM

    Good memories. Like a lot of kids in the states, I only heard songs from Worlds Apart on the radio. I loved the singles, but the band didn’t travel my way and I lost touch for a long time. A friend’s band in college played a great version of On the Loose, and reminded me now and then. I caught up ages later, once the band released Trust. I’m so glad I got that album. It’s brilliant, and it sent me looking backward and kept me along for the ride with every ensuing album. I finally got to see the band when they made a very rare incursion to Illinois a few years ago. I hope they’ll return.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. AnonymousApril 8, 2023 at 9:52 PM

      SAGA is awesome. Period. Some albums are better than others, but a SAGA album is still a SAGA album and something to celebrate. - JMC

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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...
5 comments
Read more

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...
3 comments
Read more

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...
2 comments
Read more