David Foster - David Foster

By the mid '80s David Foster was manifesting the Midas touch for just about everything he worked on (except for that Payolas album that was supposed to be gold - those guys couldn't catch a break. I mean really, if guys like Mick Ronson and David Foster can't push a band over the top, the cards are stacked against you). Much of the MOR, highly polished pop and the mushy synthesizer "strings" in the '80s could be laid at Mister Foster's feet. Don't get me wrong, I bought the St. Elmo's soundtrack when it came out, but I also eschewed a lot of what he produced. I mean, there was only so much insipid music I could stomach.

I remember hearing "Who's Gonna Love You Tonight" on the radio - rock radio at that - and thought to myself, "Hey, that's a pretty good song. Who is that?" Don't forget, it was around this time a lot of really cool but somewhat faceless "rock" was huge. Mr. Mister was the poster band of corporate rock for a short time, and I loved a couple of their songs. This was right in there. Then I heard it was by David Foster, and I was kind of stoked. He's back to his rock roots (first off, yes, rock roots. The Tubes, the guys from Toto - they were rock, and I'll stand by that) and he was finally going to take off the governor and rev his engine. Coincidence or not, Richard Page from Mr. Mister contributed backing vocals on one song on Foster's record - guess which one?

As the kid in the Mazda commercials would say, "Zoom zoom." Although to be fair, the kid wasn't born back in '86.

So I bought the album and lo and behold, it was a pastiche of previously released soundtrack themes, and most of the first side was instrumental, including "Flight of the Snowbirds" which I always liked. However, when he launched into "The Best of Me," his duet with Olivia Newton-John, I was like, "Where's the rocking version of David Foster? You know, the guy who produced The Tubes?" It's not like this was a surprise, I mean this was his stock and trade now, but I was hoping for the other David.

The second side opened with yet another instrumental "Tapdance" that seemed to be the weird love child of Herbie Hancock and Harold Faltermeyer. It's actually a pretty interesting piece of music, and frankly considering this was David Foster's kick at the can to launch a solo career it's actually an odd and kind of brave song to include.

Finally, the song I bought the album for is up. "Who's Gonna Love You Tonight" was the near perfect blend of '80s generic pop that would for a brief period hit that sweet spot between rock and schlock. Richard Page (surprise, this was the song he sang on) from Mr. Mister contributed backing vocals to the track, which makes the coincidence a little more amusing. Don't get me wrong, I'm not shitting on this song - I loved this song. I still like this song. It's why I bought the album the first time, and the second time (although this time it was a buck). I just wish the album was more like this - but it wasn't.

The last three songs are more instrumental pieces. "Elizabeth" is a really strong song that features the Chicago horn section. It's a song that really belonged on one of their albums, but I guess David liked it and kept it for himself. Have to admit, it was a good call. Dang, David is wearing me down. Dagnabbit.

Overall this was a weird album. It was impeccably produced and frankly sounded awesome, if not a little sterile. Humberto Gatica was the main engineer, and also co-produced the album, and he was a frequent collaborator with David, and their albums always sounded amazing. Back in '86 the advances in technology were pretty astounding, and David had access to all the cool toys, and despite what I may think of some of the results, the dude knew what he was doing.

David's solo career never really took off, but it didn't need to. I suppose this was as much a vanity project as anything. It was a way I suppose for him to scratch an itch he couldn't reach working with other artists. For all that I still consider myself a fan.

Styx - Paradise Theater

Styx was hands down one of my favourite bands as a kid. They were a strange band, even back then. They were a hard rock band, almost progressive at times, who had a penchant for sucky ballads. I know there's a tendency for people to zero in on "Babe" as the song that killed the band's credibility. The roots go way back to almost the beginning when Styx released "Lady" on their second album. It showed a side to the band that needed to be kept in check, and for the most part the band kept things on a pretty tight leash. The band had been setting a gruelling pace, releasing an album a year (two in 1972) and by the time they released Paradise Theater (if I end up writing theatre later it's because that's how we spell it here) in 1981 they'd dropped ten albums in less than a decade. I snapped this up as soon as I saw it, and it became a fixture on my turntable. Like the band had announced on "Borrowed Time" from 1979's Cornerstone , ...

Billy Rankin - Growin' Up Too Fast

Growin' Up Too Fast was never widely released on CD (if at all), and it was one of the albums I really wanted to get back after a basement flood wiped out my vinyl collection in the '90s (when no one really gave a shit about records, and my insurance gave me a couple hundred bucks for an appraised $10,000 collection). Way back in 1984, my (dearly departed and greatly missed) buddy Dave let me borrow his cassette copy, which included a bonus track of "Get It On (Bang A Gong)." When I eventually bought the album, I didn't know it was a bonus track, or even what a bonus track was. If that sentence was hard to read, just go back and skim it. I'm sure you'll get the gist. I'd find out later Billy was an off-and-on-again member of Nazareth and wrote some absolutely killer songs for them. At the time, though, all I knew was this guy laid it out cold with the opening cut, "Baby Come Back," then proceeded to lay down one killer tune after another bef...

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 BTO's 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) - so 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 toward the progressive, but with a pop bent. Oddly enough, the vocals rem...

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