Charlie Rich - Behind Closed Doors

Behind Closed Doors was one of those records that managed to have enough cross over 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 was 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 shape) from her parent's house. We listened to it a few times and I tried to be forgiving of the pops and clicks and just let it be part of the experience - but goodness, there's a limit. If it wasn't for the distortion and pops on the big hit, I'd have let it slide, but dang it was so distracting.

I've kept an eye out for a decent copy ever since, and low and behold I found a copy that still had the shrinkwrap and original price sticker. There were no liner notes, but then again the copy my wife brought home just had a plain insert so I wasn't missing anything we didn't already not have. The icing on the cake was this only cost me a buck, and it was in much better shape than the copy I had.

Win, win, and I put her copy in a frame, so wins all around.

Having played this through a few times, I really enjoy it (it does have a pop or two, but nothing too distracting) - and while the production, especially on the strings is very dated (very shrill like a Frank Chacksfield arrangement - what my mum calls "lush"), there's something about a really great singer that just elevates the songs. The big song here is the classic "The Most Beautiful Girl" which is a fantastic track, but also has one of the strangest fades I've heard on a song, let alone a monster hit. The song is still building to a crescendo and it's like the engineer started fading it out as a joke during mixing, and it slipped through the cracks and made it to the master tapes. The other truly outstanding song on the album in the title track, Behind Closed Doors."

Country may not be something I listen to a lot, but you have to give credit where credit is due - and The Silver Fox here delivered a solid one two combination with "Behind Closed Doors" and "The Most Beautiful Girl." It certainly didn't hurt that the rest of the album was good too. The nice thing about having the stereo in the basement is I can play things pretty loud, and I can get away with playing a country record because the neighbours can't really hear it - after all, I'm playing it (don't you roll your eyes at me, I haven't even finished the sentence yet) ... Behind Closed Doors.

Thank you, I'm here all week, try the veal and don't forget to tip your server.

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

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