Randy Matthews - Plugged In

There were a couple of years where I was predominantly buying "Christian" albums from a little bookstore that had a small feature wall where they'd display the new music that was coming out. There were some amazing records that I still look back fondly on. There were also more than a few spectacular duds that I tried hard to like, but never quite got there.

I knew who Randy Matthews was as I had been "gifted" a number of albums and in the small pile of records was a double live album called Now Do You Understand, from 1975 that was just Randy and a guitar. It was pretty cool, and he was a great storyteller. It wasn't my favourite album but it was classic early Jesus Music, and when I saw his new album on the wall, it looked like a rock record. Randy no longer looked like a wild hippie. His hair was cut, and his beard was gone, although I'm not sure how comfortable it was standing there plugged into a socket. Conveniently there was a turntable and a bunch of demo records in the store and so I put it on. I got most of the way through the opening cut, ""Plugged In" and it was a decent rock song, and I left with the record under my arm ... after paying of course.

The album actually holds up pretty well. A lot of Christian music suffered from a bad case of "soundslikeshititis" and Plugged In still sounds full and the performances are really solid. The album was recorded at Scruggs Sound Studios in Nashville and was digitally mixed and mastered which was still pretty rare back in 1981. Randy Scruggs is credited on the record for hus guitar work, as was Gene Sisk who provided keyboards. The core band here was Louie Weaver on drums, who would later join Petra, Allen Holmes played guitar and co-wrote most of the songs, and David McCaskell was on bass. Judging by the credits and Randy's note "Al, Dave, Lou - you guys are the best! Long may we run."

I have no idea if the album stiffed, or what. A lot of my friends had this album and we all thought it was pretty cool. Music distribution that depended on little bookstores to move product always seemed like a pretty flawed business model. Apparently he had released an album a year earlier with the same core band, but I never saw it, as I'd have picked it up if I even knew it existed. Although now that I know it's out there, it's on my radar. Who knows, one day I'll find a copy.

I hadn't thought of the album in decades, and then I saw a copy and figured it was worth a shot. Even back in the day some of this felt a little heavy handed, particularly "Loud Shroud" which I suppose was incontrovertible proof of Jesus' existence.

Still I have to admit that this is still a really solid album, and honestly the songs aren't unwieldy musical bludgeons to drive home the message. The songs are all anchored in Randy's faith, and that's just fine with me. Randy himself vocally would venture into Joe Cocker territory on occasion, but the band was playing it down the middle. There was just enough crunch to give the songs a nice punch, but it wasn't hard rock either. It was straddling that sort of no man's land between decades.

It was a pleasant surprise to be honest. I remembered that album as being really good, but I wasn't sure if that was due to my narrow window at the time, or if this was actually good.

It was good.

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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