Sanford & Townsend

Sanford & Townsend - Duo-Glide

I was feeling adventurous the other day, and when I found a still sealed copy of Duo-Glide I figured, "Why not, it could be good." Looking closer the top right corner of the cellophane had been removed. Flipping the cover over I saw a small inscription on the back top corner of the jacket. Apparently this was a gift for Denis from his friends Bruce and Sally back in December of '82. Apparently Denis must not have been impressed as it was never opened.

The cover sported a goofy duo flying (I resisted saying gliding, you're welcome) through the air on a touring bike with a sidecar. The guys looked like they had a sense of humour. This didn't scream rock and roll, especially given the somewhat matching Hawaiian shirts. This could be disco (please, don't be disco) or more likely a pop album in the vein of Player, Little River Band, or Hall & Oates.

Well, it wasn't disco. Thank goodness.

This era of mid '70s soft rock wasn't my forte, but I will admit this was more akin to the blue eyed soul and pop rock that would eventually morph into yacht rock. In short it was pretty darned enjoyable. The duo of John Townsend and Ed Sanford wrote all of the songs and were credited as vocalists on all of the songs, except for the ballad "Sometimes the Wind Blows" that was credited to John Townsend. It's a pretty stock song, but he does have a really good voice, and it is a good song - it's just that over the years this type of song has become more or less generic. Maybe it wasn't in '77 and I'm just looking through the wrong end of the telescope.

Most of the songs featured keyboards by Ed Sanford, and a host of crack studio musicians. Jeff Porcaro and David Hungate appeared on most of the tracks, and even David Paich shows up on the Fender Rhodes. Those guys were still a year out from the first Toto album. Otis Hale played guitar on most of the tracks on the album, and from what I can see out there, he was a member of the band when they would waffle between Sandford & Townsend, and Sanford Townsend Band ... he was also a hell of woodwind player. His sax solos were pretty awesome.

While there weren't any obvious killer tracks that jumped out at me ... yeah, here I am pretending that I'm a retrospective genius who can magically pick out singles from a album that came out forty-five years ago. Having said that, this was actually pretty enjoyable, and there weren't any songs where I wanted to get up and move the needle. I don't know how often this will get pulled down and played, but it was pretty good for all that. I can't help but wonder why Denis never opened his present. His loss, my gain. I may not play it a lot, but I got to play it first.

They don't have the deepest discography, and Duo-Glide was coming on the heals of their only charting single, "Smoke From a Distant Fire" that cracked the top ten in the US and it helped them earn a spot opening for some pretty big acts - notably Fleetwood Mac on their Rumours tour. While Duo-Glide would crack the top 100 and peak at 92 their final album Nail Me to the Wall in 1979 didn't make any ripples.

My copy of is stamped 1977 on the jacket and the vinyl, but when you look up the album on discogs or the band's wiki they say it was released in 1978. Allmusic says 1977 ... I'm going with '77 ... not that it matters.

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

Search This Blog