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 see where this goes, it's the last Sunday of the month,if you can possibly manage the time, please read all five at one meeting.
Five for Fighting
- Kansas - Monolith
- Larry Norman - So Long Ago the Garden (Almost)
- Mark Heard - Appalachian Melody
- Randy Stonehill - Equator
- The Stampeders - Rubes, Dudes & Rowdies
Kansas - Monolith (1979) the indelible memory from this one is "People of the South Wind" mainly because my friend Jim seemed to like this song a lot, and he sang the chorus one day in art class, and because Jim couldn't sing for shit, but he was a hell of a basketball player, it stuck with me. I didn't get this album until the early '80s, and it was an album I really liked, and aside from the truly horrific cheesy sci-fi keyboard introduction to "A Glimpse of Home" that could have been the soundtrack to an old radio show (and also seemed to foreshadow a lot of the instrumental work Kerry would release over the years - that I happily bought) the album is an often overlooked gem in the Kansas catalogue. The band hit their commercial peak with
Leftoverture back in 1976 and while
Monolith was still a platinum selling album, this would be their last million selling record.
Larry Norman - So Long Ago the Garden (Almost) (1973 / 1980) To say I have a lot of Larry Norman albums is like saying Imelda Marcos' had a lot of shoes. Of the "trilogy" albums this is the one I used to overlook, which was my loss as it's also the one with some of his best work. As a kid I tried to find his records in the record stores but I never found them. I suppose by that time they were out of print. Then I discovered Christian bookstores carried records by "Christian" artists and their own parallel universe with all sorts of weird and wonderful stuff. When Phydeaux re-issued a lot of his early work I sent in my cashiers money order and bought stuff directly from Larry. This version contained the so called MGM singles, and songs like "Up in Canada" were a lot of fun. I always liked the guitar work by Mickey Keen, who many years ago before he passed, sent me a little note on my old webpage thanking me for my reviews and calling out his playing. This is likely his best work, and his most misunderstood. I'll stand this up against anything else out there at the time and this would still be excellent. Of all the songs though it is still "Nightmare" that I get the biggest kick out of:
"Last night I had that same old dream it rocked me in my sleep and left
me the impression that the sandman plays for keeps. I dreamed I was in
concert in the middle of a cloud, John Wayne and Billy Graham were
giving breath mints to the crowd..."
Yeah, it was awesome, and the CD re-issue a number of years ago is an absolute delight with the restored running order, singles and all the liner notes that were missing from this release.
Mark Heard - Appalachian Melody (1979) this is another in the direct line of sight stuff I bought because of the association with Solid Rock Records and Larry Norman. This was my introduction to Mark Heard, and I absolutely loved it at the time. Then he went on a creative tear and released a bunch of brilliant album's on Home Sweet Home Records, run by Chris Christian. Each album was better than the last. Apparently despite showing up on the "CCM Charts" (it was a thing, I used to get the magazine) the albums were artistically successful but commercial failures. Mark was in the midst of a spectacular second act when he died suddenly at the age of 40. It's unbelievable the amount of great work he released in such a short time. Going back and listening to Appalachian Melody now feels a little like looking at your kids refrigerator art. I mean, it was really good art, but he was just getting started.
Randy Stonehill - Equator (1983) was produced by Terry Scott Taylor and featured most of the guys from Daniel Amos, as well as a young Derri Daugherty, who was still a couple of years away from releasing the debut album by The Choir (then The Youth Choir). Randy was a pretty big deal to me, and his two albums on Solid Rock, before the falling out with Larry Norman, are woven into my musical DNA. Equator was just enough goofball Randy married with the serious Randy to make this a lot of fun, even if at times it feels like he's trying too hard to be quirky. The album was very much in the new wave vein and the acoustic guitar songs while there were fewer and generally farther back in the mix. This was a rock record with a sense of humour. The inexplicably catchy earworm "Shut De Do" with Randy's oddly affected Jamaican accent and the big gospel choir is kind of cringey now, but good lord it was catchy. Besides, if nothing else the musical crescendo on "American Fast Food" that culminates in a pretty decent belch is really all I ever needed in a pop song to make it stick with me. There were a number of songs here that never really did much for me, but the ones that were good were so good I still think of this as a classic Randy Album. Did I mention the burp?
This is an album I got from my in-laws and I absolutely loved the back cover shot. This is what a rock band used to look like. When I was young I didn't have any of their albums, but I had the radio and liked what I heard. After pulling off two gold albums in Canada in 1971, this 1973 release is a bit of kitschy mess. The boys were cranking the handle on the sausage machine through the early '70s releasing six albums between 1971 and 1974, so there was bound to be some filler here and there. The boys and their odd Cowboy Glam was something pretty unusual and the music on this one sat kind of between middle of the road and easy listening, with the exception of "Johnny Lightning" which is more fun than I expected it to be honest.
The ballad "Oh My Lady" is perfectly fitted into the early '70s and despite myself this is likely my favourite song on the album. There are some other catchy tunes too, it's not like this isn't a decent listen -
it's just not the one I reach for when I think of the band.
The ballad "Oh My Lady" is perfectly fitted into the early '70s and despite myself this is likely my favourite song on the album. There are some other catchy tunes too, it's not like this isn't a decent listen -
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