Rick Springfield - Living in Oz

I make no apologies for liking Rick Springfield. I had to flip a coin to pick whether to play Working Class Dog, or go with 1983's Living in Oz. Tales you lose, if you want to read about "Jessie's Girl" it'll be another day on a different post. From 1981 through 1984 Rick Springfield put out an album a year, each going platinum in the States. Oddly enough in Canada Living in Oz sold less than Success Hasn't Spoiled Me Yet and that one sold less than Working Class Dog - he was trending down.

Which was a shame as Living in Oz was pure power pop driven by the guitar wizardry of the incomparable Tim Pierce. Funny if you read the reviews that were out at the time Rick was a bit of a conundrum as he was supposed to be the pretty boy pop star who wasn't supposed to have actual musical chops. He was also an (gasp) actor on a soap opera, the man had no shame. Since I didn't watch daytime TV I never saw him with a stethoscope draped over his white coat.

The biggest criticisms seemed to be around his inability to pick a lane - was he a teen idol, or a rocker, it was too confusing. Besides he was too good looking to be this good. (His follow up Hard to Hold didn't help with this assessment either). It didn't matter to me, I liked him, and the album charges right out of the gate with "Human Touch" and the first side didn't let up. I still get a buzz from the guitar riff from the title track. The first side was all killer and no filler.

It's been a long time since I've actually sat and listened to this all the way through, this is really good. The second side, leads off with "Motel Eyes" a song that for me never really clicked, I can't put my finger on why - it should have worked, and even now as it's playing I really like parts of it. Goodness Tim Pierce is killing it, but it's not one of my favourites on the album. "Tiger by the Tail" was a harbinger of things to come, and would have been right at home on his 1985 release Tao - an album I really wanted to like but never got into. So yeah, this song didn't make it onto any of my mix tapes.

Rick salvages the second side with a one two combination in "Souls" and "I Can't Stop Hurting You" that are great songs. Heck the guitar to "Souls" still ranks as one of the best pop solos I've ever heard - although the rabbit Mr. Pierce pulls out of his hat on "I Can't Stop Hurting You" is just as mind blowing. I know I keep going on about Tim Pierce, but my goodness the man has incredible chops and his work throughout this album is mind blowing. The 80s really were the best of times.

The album closes with "Like Father, Like Son" that's an odd duck. It's an orchestrated lament that doesn't really fit with the rest of the album but as a closer feels right. Some times I really like it, some times I don't but I always let it play through.

Rick Springfield is one of those guys who doesn't seem to age or slow down and has never really gone away. If you want to feel old, the guy is in his 70s now and he's still killing it - bastard.

I was pretty happy finding this for a couple of bucks. Other than a pop or two at the start of side one, it was a very clean copy. Score. I think my favourite part was seeing how someone had cut out Rick's picture with a pair of scissors. At least whoever had the crush on Mr. Springfield, left me the side with the lyrics and credits.

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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