Jack Wagner - All I Need

I honestly figured this was worth the dollar.

Going in I knew that "All I Need" was an earworm - back in 1984 I worked in an office where we had a TV in the break room. Whoever got there first could choose the channel, regardless of how many other people would end up in the room. At least that was my interpretation of the rules. Most afternoons I'd have to sit and suffer through General Hospital. However, there were enough times where I'd get there first and change the channel to watch Looney Tunes that people made a concerted effort to beat me to the break room.

So with respect to General Hospital it provided interim employment to Rick Springfield and like Pernell Roberts got to play a doctor on TV - although Rick got to play another character as well, a rock star named Eli Love (I am not making this shit up). Given my love for his music I can give him a pass. However, there was another young cocky character named Frisco Jones who in the 80s was breaking hearts and also pretending to be a singer on TV. It's funny he was probably only 25 at the time, but there was an irritating quality to his character - I was probably just mad that I wasn't able to watch cartoons. Then a weird thing happened Jack Wagner's "All I Need" started getting airplay and the fictional and real worlds were overlapping. It got a lot of airplay. At least there wasn't a video, but man that song was played all the time for what seemed like FOREVER.

Fast forward nearly four decades, and I stumble upon a copy of All I Need (Full-length 10-cut album, you mean there was a shorter version? Also, am I the only one who thinks he's sniffing his arm pit?) in the unloved dollar bin and subconsciously I start humming "All I Need" as I pick up the album and look at the credits on the back cover. Glen Ballard, who apprenticed under Quincy Jones,co-produced the album - later he would go one to great success with Alanis Morissette. Apparently this was his first production credit.

This was an 80s album in the purest sense of the word. It kicks off with "Premonition" a not so subtle reworking of "Maniac" from Flashdance. I happen to love that song, and I almost bought the album by Michael Sembello, but I didn't. Still, this set the tone for everything that would follow; Jack was aiming to be an AOR pop star. The songs contain all the cheese you can imagine and honestly I'm kind of at a loss for words. Part of me really want to just enjoy it for what it was ... but despite having solid production, that is dated now, but at the time this was a good as it got, and some fantastic musicianship this sometimes seemed to border or parody or dare I say - fairly decent karaoke. "After the Fact" opens with Jack opining, "You know, a man can only take so much..." yeah, Jack I know exactly how you feel.

I know I've been taking shots but Jack Wagner could sing, but there was something in how he was recorded (or processed) that felt off. I will give props to his signature song, "All I Need" as I can no longer claim any objectivity. I like it even it if made fun of it. He does nail that one, and it's a really quite good. However as good as that one is, the album's closer - another ballad "Lady of My Heart" is as irritating a sugary love song as there ever was. Think of the worst shitty show tune you know, and you'll be close, if you want to have the ideal image, pretend Rob Lowe is playing the saxophone in the rain on this one. Yeah - it's that good.

There was a little itty part of me that had kind of secretly hoped he was like an under appreciated Rick Springfield - nope, he just ended up being Eli Love's long lost cousin who was fathered by Dr. Noah Drake's evil twin who was killed in a scuba diving accident, before releasing Jack Frisco upon the unsuspecting citizens of Port Charles.

On the positive side, he was like a less irritating version of Michael Damian.*

*I have to come clean, I only know him from his version of "Rock On" and I just think it's fun to take cheap shots because he was an easy target, but I will say this, if I find one of his albums I will likely pick it up. I owe him that much.

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

Search This Blog