38 Special - Tour de Force

I was thinking about bands with two drummers (mainly because I'd just finished listening to Dickey Betts & Great Southern) and 38 Special popped to mind. It was that or Adam Ant, and at the moment (because, well, you never know) I don't have any Adam Ant. So it was 38 Special, and as I'd recently found a mint copy of Tour de Force I figured this was worth a spin and a reminisce.

My first introduction to the band was through a cassette copy of Wild-Eyed Southern Boys my little sister was given by someone she babysat for ... I think that's where it came from. As she didn't have a cassette player and I did, I "borrowed" it - forever (until I lost it). I seldom made it past the first song - "Hold on Loosely" blew my mind, and it didn't take long for me to get the triptych of releases from 1981 through 1983. Each album had something special, but honestly trying to remember any of the deeper album cuts eludes me, but when they were good they were spectacular - all of these albums were produced and engineered by Rodney Mills. The man had the golden touch.

38 Special also had a (not so) secret sauce and that was the guitar prowess of Jeff Carlisi who would structure mini songs within the songs. They would act as a counterpoint to the more straight ahead AOR that was born out of a southern rock tradition.

Tour de Force is somewhat misnamed, but it is a decent album with a few really bright spots. The band's two vocalists, Don Barnes and Donnie Van Zant worked really well together, although it was Don Barnes who fronted the big hits here, ""If I'd Been the One" and "Back Where You Belong" they are also the first two songs on the album and lead things off and after this it's pretty much standard fare - good songs but nothing that really stands out to that same level of awesomeness. Although I will say that "Twentieth Century Fox" gets close, as does "One of the Lonely Ones" that was written by Barnes, Van Zant and Larry Steele - it's a very good tune. The only real dud on the album is the odd "I Oughta Let Go" which is a strange. I'd forgotten how strange - not necessarily terrible, just out of place.

Gary O'Connor (Gary O') wrote "Back Where You Belong" and "One Time for Old Times" that was sung by Donnie. It's a nice song for all that, and would have been right at home on his 1984 release Strange Behaviour.

As to the two drummers, honestly I still can't figure out what this added to the band's sound - perhaps in a live environment it was the spectacle of having two drummers on stage. I can say from having seen The Grateful Dead years ago watching the interplay between Mikey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann was pretty dang cool so I guess the pairing of Jack Grondin and Steve Brookins was a something they wanted to have, rather than something they needed.

After this album the band take a few years before releasing Strength in Numbers in 1986, and that would be the last album I'd get of theirs back in the day. They're still kicking around but the sole remaining member if Don Barnes.

6 Cylinder

As a kid we had one radio station, not counting CBC, and generally there was very little that was worth listening to, although there were times something would come on that would make you pay attention. It was 1979 and on a couple of occasions I heard "There Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens" and it cracked me up, and I always wanted to get a copy for myself. A few years ago when my niece was dancing, they did a performance to this song, and now I can't separate my niece from a bunch of dancing chicks in chicken suits. Such is life. When I found this in the dollar bin I actually let out a little chirp, my goodness could it be? It was, and it was in great shape - including the inner sleeve. Score. I had no idea what to expect, for all I knew there was only one song worth listening to, and if that was the case it was still a dollar well spent. If I could buy an album by Showdown and enjoy it, odds are I'll find something to enjoy here to. Before I put this on I...

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...

Old Enough to Forget

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