Old Enough to Forget

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 'Stayin' 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 dus...

Just about everyone's heard "Dream Weaver" - I suppose Wayne's World can take credit for that (although it is a different version, he did like to re-record this song). Still, when I found this album I was pretty stoked, as I happen to like that song, but I really liked "Love Is Alive" and I'll be honest, I'd forgotten about that one until I dropped the needle. Then it was, "Holy mackerel. I love this song." While my dollar-bin copy didn't have an insert, there were decent credits on the back cover, and it was cool to see names like David Foster, drummers Andy Newmark and Jim Keltner, and even a guitar cameo by Ronnie Montrose on "Power of Love." It's the only guitar on the album, and it comes at the close of the first side. After setting the tone with the various keyboards and special effects on the first four songs, I actually didn't even notice the guitar the first time through. Dang, even on the second pass it was t...

Over the last year and a bit I've been accumulating more dollar store treasures than I have time to actually process. It doesn't mean I'm not giving them a proper listen and consideration, it's just that not everything has a story that can meanderamble for a while and still say nothing at the end. Also, there are a lot of bands where there are numerous albums in their discography that are sitting on my shelf (more than one, as my wife reminds me) and they deserve a shout out. I figured since no one really reads this nonsense anyway and this is all about me fuelling my own inflated sense of hubris, I'd start a new segment I'd slot in maybe once a week, or once a month, or perhaps quarterly, or as an annual thing. I'm hedging my bets, as I generally have a lot of ideas and poor follow-through. Not everything is a dollar store treasure. Some of these I've had a long time, some not so long, and some were more than a buck. However, let's be optimistic and...

I suppose I really should have started with In Another Land , as that was my first Larry Norman album, and one that was a really big deal to me - but it was also the foundation upon which my love for this particular album was built. An album I felt at the time was the best thing he'd ever done - of course, with the benefit of hindsight I can unequivocally say that isn't true. Besides, I'll get to that one and probably others in due time. I'll start here because it's where I am and I wanted to listen to Something New Under the Son . So I am. Larry Norman is a polarizing figure to a lot of people, but I only knew him from his music and first-hand accounts from my dear, dead friend Dave, who went on tour with him doing live sound many years ago. Dave had nothing bad to say about Larry, and to quote good ol' Forrest Gump, "And that's all I've got to say about that." To me, Larry was as big a deal as there was, and for many years I eagerly bought ev...

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 BTO's 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) - so 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 toward the progressive, but with a pop bent. Oddly enough, the vocals rem...

I have a soft spot for this album. Back in '84 I got this solely based on "Love Will Show Us How" - a mini master class in pop perfection. When I lost my records, I replaced this with a CD, and then recently, for whatever reason, a near-perfect record showed up in the dollar bin - so I had to drop the buck. I know this is probably not the popular opinion, but of the solo efforts from the Fleetwood Mac camp, this is the album I like best. Oh sure, Lindsey Buckingham released Go Insane in '84 as well, and I really liked the title track, and I appreciated how weird he got, but it wasn't something I pulled out very often - and of course I no longer have it. (You never know, that could change one day.) Then there was the witchy woman herself, Stevie Nicks, who I will admit had some great songs, but mostly I found her voice irritating. So here we have Christine, who must have figured it was time to do a solo effort as well - and no doubt this cost a boatload of money t...

Slipstream was a complete unknown for me when I found it in the bin. It looked interesting, and the back cover was one of those weirdly ubiquitous band shots with floating bust shots of the band looking off into space that were supposed to give a sense of mystery - or something. How would I know? I was 13 when this came out. The album cleaned up amazingly well. I didn't initially recognize any of the names on the back cover. I had assumed, based on the names, that The Sutherland Brothers were Iain and Gavin, two Scottish lads (yeah, I went back and rewrote some of my initial meanderings after I looked the band up), and Quiver were drummer Willie Wilson and guitarist Tim Renwick. This is really tight soft rock and feels like a lot of other stuff from 1976, and it was pretty enjoyable. As good as any of their contemporaries, in my opinion. First time through nothing really rose above the rest in terms of standout tracks - that isn't meant to be a shot. The whole album is full of...

Finding this was a great surprise, and for a dollar I wasn't going to pass this one up. This is the Goldfish Records version (not sure if there is a difference between the Bell Records pressing) and is dated 1973 and produced by Terry Jacks for Poppy Family Productions Ltd. "Seasons in the Sun" was huge, and preteen me was a huge fan. Funny how time can turn on some songs. Mention this song now and you're more likely to get a roll of the eyes and a groan. I guess there are songs that just have an expiration date. Kind of like trying to listen to Bobby Goldsboro sing "Honey," or around Christmas trying not to throw up in your mouth when "Christmas Shoes" comes on the radio. Still, "Seasons in the Sun" deserves a better fate. But more on that later. I was more excited to hear the rest of the album. Was it full of cheese? The first thing that stood out was the production and how crisp and intimate the recording is. The songs are forward, and...

Behind Closed Doors was one of those records that managed to have enough crossover appeal to spill over onto the AM radio I listened to as a kid. Between singing along to "Cover of the Rolling Stone" (yeah, tell 'em who we are) and wondering who Stealers Wheel was stuck in the middle with, there was a big silky voice asking if I'd seen "The Most Beautiful Girl?" I don't remember if I liked it or not back then, but it was played a lot. That Charlie Rich guy was no Brownsville Station, that's for sure. However, here we are practically fifty years after the fact, and I'm listening to Behind Closed Doors, and this is a well-crafted effort that falls more into the country camp than the pop arena - but a good album is a good album (most of the time). This was an album my wife grew up with, and when I started playing records again, she "borrowed" the beat-up and scratched copy (she claims to have no knowledge of how it came to be in such bad...

There was a period of time (it was actually pretty short when you look back on it - but at the time it seemed like forever) when Mister Collins was pretty much everywhere. Either with Genesis, or solo, or behind the kit just being a drummer. I saw him with Robert Plant, and there was little fanfare made about it. He first started making inroads with his early solo career - come on, who hasn't played air drums to "In the Air Tonight"? But when Genesis took the world in 1983 with their self-titled monster, it seemed like everyone needed a little more Phil in their lives, and we got our Phil until we were all filled up. No Jacket Required is the album where he and Hugh Padgham fitted all the sonic pieces together and where Phil's now-patented gated-reverb drum-splat sound would practically define the '80s. The song where all of this sonic mayhem manifested itself on a grand scale was the earworm "Sussudio," a song that elicits a pretty strong reaction, bot...

It's not often a classic pops up in the dollar bin. The last surprise this big was Tattoo You by the Stones, and that album was in amazing shape, including the insert. Part of me wasn't too concerned so long as the big songs were playable. Besides, I have the 2003 deluxe edition, and that is almost two and a half hours of material - much of which I've maybe heard once while it played in the background. Yeah, sad. Anyway, here was the 1980 MCA reissue. At first this confused me because I thought it was an old record - I mean, it is old, but older than the date suggested. Someone must have been having a bad day and dragged the needle across the first side. I could feel it with my fingernail, so I figured the best-case scenario was a repeating pop for a few songs. Thankfully, "Baba O'Riley" was fairly clean, and frankly, on the first side that's all that mattered to me. The songs still sound fresh while also being very much of their time. When I think of son...

While it's unfair to call them a one-hit wonder, as I'm sure the band's fans will be quick to point out other songs that got radio play, to most people, myself included, that big "hit" was as deep as I ever got into the band. As for their other charting songs, I don't recall hearing anything other than the "hit" on the radio. Let's be clear though, "Walking on Sunshine" is as close to a perfect summer song as there ever was. It's funny - I remember that song from its earlier iteration here in Canada, but not well enough to call out the differences between the original version released in 1983 and the one that became a worldwide hit in 1985. Not too long ago I was in the clearance section and came across a couple of their albums. I figured I could be missing out. Or there could be a reason I'd never heard anything else. Which makes sense on one level, but not on so many others, as most of the bands I love never had a hit, let alo...

Happy Valentine's Day. "Love Stinks" was probably the first time I remember hearing The J. Geils Band. There was a video I saw once that was so goofy I wasn't sure how to process what I was seeing - was it terrible or awesome? It. Was. Awesome. I was hanging out at a buddy's house for the weekend around the time the album came out and Gerry says, "Hey, check this out." He plays "No Anchovies, Please" and I'm enthralled. Over the last forty-plus years, I hadn't heard that song until I put the record on for the first time in the basement. But, I'm getting ahead of myself ... I need a preamblemeanderamble first. I never had a copy of Love Stinks , and when I found one in a clearance bin I snapped it up. The cover was really dirty, so I got my microfiber cloth and a dab of water and cleaned off what I hoped was just dirt. The insert was there and the vinyl was in excellent shape. The J. Geils Band broke wide open to the masses after a ...