Five for Fighting No.8 - The Edgar Winter Group, Wishbone Ash, Paul Janz, The J. Geils Band, SAGA

Eight miles high and still going. If I had a Byrds album this is where I'd have put it. Mainly so I could shit on that song and it's horrid 12 string guitar work that everyone else thinks is spectacular. It's the same sound my kids made when they'd get their hand stuck under the strings when they'd mess around in my music room.

Anyway, before I drift too far off point. This month is mostly familiar names this time around. Funny I was pulling stuff from the to be filed pile and although bands like The Edgar Winter Group and Wishbone Ash were relatively new experiences for me, it was fun to revisit the Paul Janz album and finally get a chance to go through the final and much maligned J. Geils release. Then of course there's SAGA - man I love SAGA. 

Five For Fighting No. 8

• The Edgar Winter Group - Shock Treatment (1974)
• Wishbone Ash - Locked In (1976)
• Paul Janz - High Strung (1985)
• The J. Geils Band - You're Gettin' Even While I'm Gettin' Odd (1984)
• SAGA - Heads or Tales (1983)
  

The Edgar Winter Group - Shock Treatment (1974) Man oh man another Edgar Winter release. I'm finding the band's album out of order. Shock Treatment was the follow up to their monstrous They Only Come Out at Night and Ronnie Montrose was out and Rick Derringer was playing guitar as well as producing. Dan Hartman and Chuck Ruff were still on board. The album starts off with the Dan Hartman penned "Some Kind of Animal" and it's a really solid song - I have no idea why this isn't part of the classic rock pantheon - it's a smokin' tune. Dan is all over this record as he wrote seven of the album's eleven tracks, co-wrote another with Edgar. He also sang half the songs on the album. If nothing else Edgar was generous in sharing the limelight as he was more than capable as a vocalist. This is one of the things I've really enjoyed about the band's albums. It's still really cool hearing their album's for the first time. This doesn't sound like 1974 to me. This is as much pop as it is rock. The band would comfortably move from pop to elements of soul and funk, and then pull off a killer ballad in "Someone Take My Heart Away" and immediately pivot to a scorcher like "Queen of My Dreams" where Dan Hartman unleashes his inner rocker and plays all the guitar parts and then tones it down and smooths out his vocals and delivers a pop nugget "Maybe Some Day You'll Call My Name" which should have been a single. The album closes with a bookend re-imagined interpretation of the opening track with "Animal" written by Winter. It's the rock funk groove Edgar seems to excel at when he's off leash. This is a really great album. However, coming on the heels of their previous album it fell short commercially which is a shame - it's not like the material was shitty. It did go gold but from here the band would release new efforts to diminishing returns at least as far as commercial success went.

Wishbone Ash - Locked In (1976) Wishbone Ash dropped Locked In in the spring of 1976. Featuring the same line up that was on their previous release There's the Rub. The album was produced by the legendary Tom Dowd who was behind a slew of classic artists. It should have been a great combination. Right from the first cut "Rest in Peace" the band seemed quiet and restrained. It was an enjoyable track, for all that but it just felt like someone had put a governor on the band's engine. Even a song like "Moonshine" that starts off with some great riffs just felt restrained. So I looked up the album to see what the reviews were like for this one, and I wasn't the only one to feel this was devoid of energy. The band themselves seemed to place the blame on the producer. When one of the labels applied to an album by a guitar driven rock band is "Soft Rock" you know there was something amiss. Now the funny thing is, if I hadn't picked up There's the Rub first I'd probably have enjoyed this for what it was. After all, I don't have any prior baggage with the band and whatever I got was what I got. So in than vein I tried to listen to this for what it was. It was decent, and there was a rock album buried in there somewhere. I know I've found various ways of calling the album limp and lifeless, but those boys sure could play although some of the vocals were a bit weak. While there was nothing that really jumped out at me, it was enjoyable while it was on. I'll no doubt give it a couple more spins. I can't really be that tough on this one, as I was just thinking back to their previous release that I really enjoyed and found myself unable to recall any of the songs. Admittedly I do have object permanence issues and with so many new things to listen to I'm finding myself in a bit of a quandary as I'm not able to spend as much time as I'd like with the albums I'm finding. 

Paul Janz - High Strung (1985) The world is not a perfect place. If it was, this album would have been huge. HUGE I TELL YA! Paul Janz exploded through my car stereo when I first heard "Go to Pieces" I don't recall if I pulled over to take it in, but it was one of those "What was that?" moments. I listen to a lot of music, so much goes in one ear and out the other. Sort like mental floss. When I'm blown away, I tend to pay attention. The song was pop perfection. Landing in the middle of the decade a lot of the earlier late '70s pop and early '80s techno had settled themselves into the musical landscape, and artists had absorbed bits and pieces into what was now firmly becoming it's own sound: The '80s. High Strung was a near perfect balance of a pop singer with a fantastic grasp of melody, could sing like nobodies business. Paul could write a slow dance song and generate an emotional response (no that is NOT a boner reference ... but now that it's out there ...) but it was his rockers that got the little hairs on my neck to stand up (again unintentional, but since you were thinking it anyway. If you weren't you are now, and now we both feel bad. Paul deserves better). The album was recorded and mixed at the legendary Little Mountain Sound studio in Vancouver, and mastered by George Marino at Sterling Sound. Funny with all this behind the album, as far as I know it was only released in Canada on A&M. Although on discogs it looks like the album got some distribution in Japan, and that other hotbed of international music - Greece (yeah, that was a dis but if you're from Greece and got the album you have good taste!). The showpiece of the album is still "Go to Pieces" with Chris Taylor's driving drums. It's far and away so much better than the mix that appears on Paul's follow up album Electricity. To me there are no weak spots on High Strung. Who knows even if this had been huge it's hard to say what the shelf life would have been for Paul's career. After all, there were a slew of near perfect albums in the '80s. Some of them huge and then the bands were essentially one and done. Yeah, Mr. Mister, you're in that conversation. Still it's fun to think about what should have been. This is an absolutely stellar album.

The J. Geils Band - You're Gettin' Even While I'm Gettin' Odd (1984) Band chemistry is a weird thing. Sometimes you can get away with switching out some of the ingredients, sometimes you can't. The band had been building momentum and the further the band moved away from their rhythm and blues roots to be a more pop oriented rock band (yeah, that's what I meant) they sold more records. I suppose that's what "selling out" means. If that was the case they sold over 3.000,000 copies of their '81 release Freeze Frame in the US. Seth Justman had produced the last few albums, and the songwriting partnership with vocalist Peter Wolf was core to the band's output. The pair wrote everything, then with 1981's Freeze Frame  a number of the songs including "Centerfold" were attributed to Seth. Was Peter being (wait for it) frozen out? We'll never know, but by 1983 the band parted ways with their longtime vocalist and core songwriter. After a three year hiatus between studio albums the band re-emerged with You're Gettin' Even While I'm Gettin' Odd in 1984, a few months after Peter Wolf dropped his solo effort Lights Out beating his old band to the punch. Considering they were label mates on EMI it was interesting they released Peter's record first. Musically the album carries the progression first started on Love Stinks and through Freeze Frame and amps up the musical quirkiness. Wisely the band didn't seek to replace Peter, instead pulling a page out of the Genesis playbook they just reallocated the lead vocalist to another member. Seth Justman, now in addition to writing and playing keyboard was the band's primary singer, with drummer Stephen Jo Bladd picking up a few songs. Honestly, it could have worked. The album is really a lot of fun. The packaging is delightfully playful which I always appreciate. The musical direction was set immediately with the lone single from the album, "Concealed Weapons" a much better song that you think. It received moderate airplay and made it to the top 40 on the Billboard rock tracks peaking at #26 and the album would hit it's peak at #80 on the US Billboard 200. However, it disappeared as quickly as it came. It essentially stiff and this would be the last album by the band. Who knows why some acts can carry on like nothing happened, and honestly this was more fun than I thought it would be. However timing is everything, and people were no longer buying what the band was selling. If you happen to stumble upon this and wonder is it worth it? Yeah, it's worth it. The album truly was the logical successor musically to Freeze Frame. In stead as far as most people are concerned the band ended after their '81 release, and this was nothing more than a post credits scene.

SAGA - Heads or Tales (1983) Like so many things in life timing is everything. SAGA is one of my favourite bands, and I know I've written about them more than once. I can't help it, they're the gift that just keeps giving. That and I had this one in my pile of new to me vinyl that was awaiting a clean and a listen. I know I'm not supposed to be duplicating my collection, but sometimes you can't help it. I figure with a replacement copy on vinyl I have the nice big insert and notes, and if I really want to crank it up I'll play the CD and avoid the odd click, but for shits and giggles I like having to get up and turn it over. It makes me feel like a young man - I can't even count how many times I went through the ritual of getting up and turning this one over. What does all this blathering have to do with timing? SAGA fans are a pretty interesting bunch. They range from those who got on the bus with the first album and then fans like me who got on later. Depending on your port of entry how you view the band can be a matter of discussion. For me, this was really my initiation and for me this was the kind of rock and roll with extra zest I was waiting for. Heads or Tales was the second of the Rupert Hine produced efforts, and in terms of production and sparkle with was exactly the right guy at the right time. I loved, really LOVED the straight ahead full throttle nature of the album and songs like "The Flyer," ""Cat Walk," "Social Orphan" and especially "Scratching the Surface" were amazing. About "Scratching the Surface" there's something about this Jim Gilmour composition that just works for me. I know I've made unflattering comments about his voice when it comes to lead vocals, but on this one he was perfection. This isn't to detract from the rest of the songs - they were all awesome, and Michael Sadler was at his best. Truly. If there as an album that should have broken the band wide open, especially after the inroads made on their last studio effort Worlds Apart this was it. Except that it didn't happen. I'm not sure I have a favourite SAGA album ... it changes a little depending on my mood. If pressed though I'd probably default to where I started, and this one has no flaws and to this day remains one of my favourite records by any band. Timing is everything and you can't simply blame Michael Jackson's Thriller for being the fly in the ointment.