Old Enough to Forget

Hey look at this, it's the last Sunday in April and I'm three months in and so far so good.  If I stop now I have a trilogy. However, I am really going for a decalogy, mainly to help wash the taste of L. Ron Hubbard's Mission Earth dekalogy (should have been spelled drek-alogy) that I actually read. ALL TEN BOOKS.  This time around I've got four treasures I found for a buck, and a Toto album I've bought three times now. I'd never heard of Patrick Juvet before, and I'd not heard the Grand Fund Railroad album so it was fun being able to expose myself to new things. Yeah, I just wanted to say expose myself in a sentence. Sorry. Look, I'm not proud of myself, but I also accept the things I cannot change. Although the ability to proof read and edit are things I should work on.  Five for Fighting No.3 ZZ Top - Afterburner (1985) Patrick Juvet - Got a Feeling (1978) Grand Funk Railroad - Survival (1971) Chilliwack - Segue (1983) Toto - Isolation (1984) ZZ ...

This was indeed a New Day , as right out of the gate the Stampeders were plugged in, turned up, and ready to rock. Right off the bat the guys were killing it. "Ramona" is a great track, and one I always liked as a kid. Ronnie, Rich and Kim were by this time a pretty well oiled machine with New Day being their fifth release in a few short years.   There were a few power trios in the '70s worth noting, Grand Funk being one, ZZ Top another. A lot of the others that pop to mind like Triumph, and Rush were later, and Cream was earlier. Stampeders were good, really good and by any yardstick (this was before metric) should be considered one of the best of their era. Kim Berly was a master on a small kit, Ronnie looked like a little like Elvis and even had the jumpsuit, and Rich played a wicked double neck FrankenFender. I mean these guys were cool. The cherry on top was all the guys could sing and write - how cool is that? New Day , as with all of their releases, was produce...

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...

Don Felder is a hell of a guitar player, and a passable singer when he stayed in his lane. By 1983 Mr. Henley and Mr. Frey were getting some traction with their solo careers, and Joe Walsh was doing his thing and seemed to be chugging along to his own little drummer (although things weren't as chipper as they appeared but that's another story, and one I frankly am not qualified to tell), so it seemed like it was Don's turn to try out a solo album. A couple years earlier Don Felder had provided the killer title track to the Heavy Metal soundtrack, and a year after that contributed "Never Surrender" to Fast Times at Ridgemont High and it was a decent song - I was eager to hear more from him. In 1983 he released Airborne and I ate it up. I thought this was an awesome record. The album opens with "Bad Girls" which always felt a bit like a reworked "Life in the Fast Lane" but I didn't care - it's a song I still really like. Vocally, Don ...

After leaving Kansas, Steve Walsh formed the band Streets. The band was comprised of ace fretman Mike Slamer, bassist Billy Greer, and drummer Tim Gehrt. Their debut album, 1st was released in October 1983, a few months after his former band Kansas dropped Drastic Measures. Coincidentally, Neil Kernon engineered and produced both albums. Whereas the Kansas album felt dark and murky, 1st was bright and crackling - not brittle, but everything felt forward in the mix. Much of the energy came from Mike Slamer's guitar work, which was pretty awesome. Musically, this is much more early '80s rock than I expected. If Steve wanted to shed the progressive baggage he'd packed with Kansas, Streets was a solid run at commercial rock - even if the near six-minute rocker "Lonely Woman's Cry" flirts with some prog elements, it's a rock song at its core. Here's the thing, I had no idea this album even existed back in '83. It would literally be a couple of decades...

When MuchMusic launched in 1984 it was a weird and wonderful time. More often than not you just got to see what you were hearing on the radio, and the videos would run the gamut from rock to pop and then that first odd bunch of video jockeys would share some banter and introduce the next song with more witty banter. Every so often though there'd be something weird and wonderful you didn't get to hear on the radio. "Fish Heads" was one of those. Dang, I didn't mean to open that can of worms ... now I'm singing it in my head, "Fish heads, fish heads roly-poly fish heads, eat them up, yum." If you know what I'm talking about, good luck getting that out of your head. You're welcome. Fudge, this has messed with my continuity ... Where was I before I went off into the weeds? Right, videos that weren't on the radio. Aside from the unnamed song about the aquatic swimmy thing's eyeball holder there was a strange and quirky song called "Mi...

The song that broke, and then broke the band was a monster: "The Politics of Dancing" was a near perfect new wave pop song. I really liked it, but oddly didn't get the album for a couple of years. There were some really good songs here, and it really was everything that was awesome about the early '80s, and despite what seemed like the massive success of the title track, the band would release one album (okay, that's not exactly true, but close enough). Then I lost my record collection and over time all I had left of the album was on various '80s collections and it was only one song. It was only relatively recently that I managed to find a deluxe copy of The Politics of Dancing on CD, a two disc nearly two hour sonic feast for the ears. Then the follow up album showed up on iTunes, and Spotify and while it's better late than never it's too little too late to help the band. Then despite myself when I saw the record for under five bucks, I just could...

"Missing You" was a song so big it's probably the only song most people will think of when you mention John Waite. I knew him from a couple albums I had by The Baby's and thought they had a couple of good songs. I didn't know he'd started releasing solo records until I heard that song on the radio - and heard it again, and again. Honestly it never really got old - although it got old. I picked up No Brakes based on the strength of the hit. The album was straight ahead rock without leaning too far into the "new" sounds and production tricks that were going to define the '80s - John mostly kept to the tried and true and as a result the album has aged incredibly well. He also assembled a crack band. Dang if old Curly Smith didn't show up behind the kit. Man, I love seeing familiar names in the credits. However, it was Gary Myrick on guitar who put this album over the top - he also co-wrote 4 of the 9 tracks on the album. At the time I was blown...

Oh my stars and garters, look what the dollar bin coughed up. A 1967 first Canadian pressing of The Beatles Magical Mystery Tour . Yeah, this is a pretty awesome score. Too bad the 24-page full color picture book has been lost to the ravages of time. The vinyl itself though despite looking a little sketchy in a couple of places, particularly on the first side, turned out to play really clean with a few little pops here and there but overall this was a really pleasant surprise. The gatefold itself was obviously well loved by the previous owners, who marked their names under several of the songs. I'm guessing they were siblings who fought over ownership. Somewhere David, John, Ellen and Author ended up with nothing, and here I am 55 years later claiming sole ownership. Let that be a lesson kids. DON'T MARK SHIT UP WITH INK. Anyways, here I am geeking out and listening to the album for the first time in its entirety. Now, like a lot of people too young to have witnessed The Beatle...

When this came out in 1980 I was just around the corner from becoming a big Kansas fan. The first album I actually bought was Audio Visions and I bought that around a year after it came out after hearing "Relentless" on a mix tape my buddy Gord had brought over - it also had "Flirtin' with Disaster" on it too, so it was a memorable tape - I don't know why I can remember this type of thing, but can't for the life of me tell you why I just went into the kitchen. 1980 had been a pretty big year for Kerry Livgren. Writing and recording two albums was a pretty big deal, especially since both albums are really good. I know I got Audio Visions first but Seeds of Change was recorded earlier in the year - I'm not sure when I bought this one, but it was before Vinyl Confessions in 1982. I do know that my copy of Seeds has the Kirshner logo on the label so it wasn't a later pressing - I'm not sure what this has to do with anything, but it's k...

Like a lot of casual fans, I'd heard of Harry Nilsson much like I'd heard of Ernest Hemingway. I knew the name more than anything he's actually written. Over the years I knew of a couple of songs, particularly the beautiful "Without You" and of course "Everybody's Talkin'" from Midnight Cowboy. He had also covered songs by others, most notably Nilsson Sings Newman and others would cover his songs, from the Monkees to Three Dog Night. That was it. As a result of this depth of knowledge (sarcasm alert) I had pigeon-holed him into the '70s pop singer slot where soft rock went to die. One of the albums that was on my radar was Nilsson Schmilsson from late 1971. It was the album that had "Without You" and the truly odd "Coconuts" but as fate would have it the album I found in the dollar bin was his 1972 follow up released while his previous album was still on the charts. It was called Son of Schmilsson so it was probably li...

Strange Behavior is an album I remember fondly and for many years I looked for it on CD - I never did find a copy. When I set up my old system in the basement, this was one of the first records I played (to be fair, it's not like I had a lot of vinyl left to choose from, but what I had left was special, at least to me). I could picture Gary standing there playing his Roland G-707 in a sheepskin collared bomber jacket - he was the epitome of cool. In short I was having a great time reminiscing. I'm playing this now and partway through the first side the little things that irritated me back then, weren't as pronounced now. I'm a sucker for hi-hat work, and a good drummer, sure the Simmons kits in the early 80s had a sound that defined the decade, but in terms of any accentuating hardware was practically non-existent here. The result on Strange Behavior is a driving beat without any accoutrements so to speak, although here and there buried in the mix you can hear a symbo...

By 1986 The Fixx had been on a creative run that would be the envy of a lot of bands. Like a lot of people I jumped on the bandwagon when the band released what is arguably their most well known album Reach the Beach . This was just a stating point, and in short order I had gone and picked up their debut, and then kept up with the band through 1991's Ink . The best song the band ever did was the long version of "Deeper and Deeper" and while it was available on the Streets of Fire Soundtrack it was a much shorter and far less satisfying version. It should have been in Phantoms on its entirety - sigh. By the time Walkabout came out the musical landscape was all over the place. It truly was the best of times, the sheer number of classic songs and albums from this year is sort of mind boggling. It's against this backdrop The Fixx joined the fray. I remember the first time I heard "Secret Separation" and was totally blown away. It was, and still is amazing. If t...

I always meant to pick this up, mainly because "Kiss You (When it's Dangerous)" was so good. For whatever reason, most likely budget - I never bought it. Oddly none of the myriad of '80s anthologies I've collected over the years has the song on it. It sort of faded into obscurity as far as I was concerned. Then  a while back it popped into my mind, I likely heard it on the radio - I don't think it matters, but I jotted it down on my little pad of paper where I have my list of wants. Right next to Riggs, Alpha Band, and Randall Waller I wrote down Eight Seconds, and what I thought was the album title When Seconds Count . You'd think carrying around the internet in my pocket I'd have just looked it up - nope. When Seconds Count was by Survivor, if you're wondering. Eventually I did find it, and the album was titled Almacantar , and this time I did use the internet in my pocket to figure out what the title meant. Well, to save you time it's a sta...