A Streaming Pile of Hit: Ric Cua

A Streaming Pile of Hit: Ric Cua - Koo'-ah

Time for another edition of A Streaming Pile of Hit - where you put the "s" in hit is up to you.

Not sure why I've been going back to the old CCM stuff that I was particularly enamoured with back in the bay. Rick Cua had been playing bass in The Outlaws, most notably on a coupe of their later albums: Ghost Riders (1980) and Los Hombres Malo (1982) and when he dropped Koo'-ah in 1982 I was really looking forward to hearing it. It's weird that this is listed as being from 1985 ... I can't make heads or tails out of where the dates come from.

After all both Hughie Thomasson, Billy Jones as well as Freddie Salem from The Outlaws were playing guitar on the album (and killing it by the way), and former Wings drummer Joe English was featured on several tracks. If nothing else there was some pedigree on the album.

The songs though were mostly middle of the road, with a little extra punch here and there. I remember wanting to like this more than I did. The songs were decent for all that and lyrically a little heavy handed and trite at the same time. Considering this was 1982 it was weird that he felt the need to write a song like "You Can Still Rock 'N Roll" that was essentially a weaker reworking of Larry Norman's "Why Should the Devil Have all the Good Music" from a decade earlier. This was still a thing?

Oh well, while I'd pick up the occasional CD later by Rick I was never really that big a fan. Going back to the beginning with Koo'-ah was an interesting trip down memory lane, but aside from the tracks that featured members from The Outlaws on guitar there really wasn't a lot here I feel any need to revisit anytime soon.

It's hard to put my finger on this one. You can tell that there was a decent rock record here waiting to be unleashed with some southern rock overtones, but it's like Rick was trying to be all things to all people and please everyone, and oddly enough despite saying he could still rock n' roll he wasn't really allowed to rock and roll after all.

Oddly after this I did try to find some of Joe English's early stuff as I had his debut but it was nowhere to be found. Maybe it's better that way.

Comments

6 Cylinder

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...

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...

Old Enough to Forget

Search This Blog