Stylus over Substance (Volume 3) - Alice Cooper, Visions: Mission Andromeda, The Records, Trooper & Eddie Schwartz

A few nuggets here. The Alice Cooper record has seen better days, but I've found some really cool stuff too. Besides it's all for a good cause.

• Alice Cooper - Love it to Death (1971)
• Visions: Mission Andromeda (1987)
• The Records - The Records (1979)
• Trooper - Money Talks (1982)
• Eddie Schwartz - No Refuge (1981)
  

Alice Cooper - Love it to Death (1971) While Billion Dollar Babies was my jam, and I love that album, it never really spurred me to become an obsessive fan. I mean don't get me wrong, when I heard his stuff I never turned it off, and when in the mid '80s he had a career resurgence I was there. 

A while back I walked into a shop, and out front was a box that was full of records with a sign saying FREE. Well, it was worth a look. There sandwiched in between an old Irish Rovers record (that I had already. Don't judge me) and some obscure soundtrack was a pretty beat up copy of Love it to Death. "Well what have we here?" I slip the record out, and it looks like it had been used to buff out scratches on bumper. "Yeah, that'll clean right up." I so I brought it home, and sure enough it cleaned up ... I could really see the wear and tear now that all the dust, grime and fingerprints were gone. It played okay for all that, although it did sound like it was on fire with all the snap crackle and pop. No matter. 

The only song I'd heard was the classic "I'm Eighteen" and that song never disappoints. The rest of the album was wander between the psychedelic, straight ahead rock, and several points in between. This was a band that was still figuring out what it wanted to be, despite this being their third album. Many of the genres that solidified through the '70s could no doubt trace their roots to this album. Even if they don't it's cool to think that they could.

Visions: Mission Andromeda (1987) I had no idea this even existed. The record has no date, but there is an insert with a coupon to the Sony store (long, long gone) for ten bucks that expired August 31, 1987 so I'm going out on a limb and assuming this was released earlier that same year. To add to the confusion it's not clear if the band was Visions and the album was Mission Andromeda or if this was intended as a soundtrack to a non-existent film. I don't think it really matters at this point. What drew me to the album were two names: Rocket Norton and John Hall. Two former members of PRISM. John Hall has long been one of my favourite keyboard players ... ever, and it was a surprise when I discovered he was only a co-writer on most of the songs and doesn't appear on the album. It was John Webster who handled the keyboards. Make no mistake Mr. Webster is no slouch and has impeccable credentials, but I was kind of hoping for Mr. Hall.

This was a pretty ambitious effort for an independent release, as it featured members of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. Musicians included Rocket Norton on drums, Skip Prest on guitar, with vocals by David Steele (who is now the voice of Trooper now that Ra McGuire has retired). Dave Taylor, Bryan Adams longtime bassist appears on a track.

I read the lyrics and followed along, and I'm still not quite clear on the core conceit here, but it's epic in scope.  I'm pretty happy to have found this, and there are some really interesting moments, but honestly it won't see daylight too often.

The Records - The Records (1979) "Starry Eyes" is a masterclass in power pop. It's why I initially bought the album. I remember hearing this once on the radio as a kid, and I never forgot it. In the early '80s I had the record and I added "Affection Rejected" and "Teenarama" to a lot of mix tapes. I always found it strange that the band never really garnered much attention. Then not many of their contemporaries were able to hang on so I suppose it's all a matter of perspective. 

At the time I didn't know Robert John Lange from a hole in the ground, and back in '79 but that same year he'd also produce Highway to Hell and it wouldn't be long before "Mutt" would be synonymous with hard rock. Here he was still cutting his teeth so to speak, and the three songs he produced on the first side were all keepers. Tim Friese-Greene was the other producer on the album and he'd be later known for his work with Talk Talk. "Starry Eyes" though was produced by drummer Will Birch and Dennis Weinreich.

I still really like this album, a lot - I have no idea if it ever came out on CD I never found a copy. Sadly though like so many bands you can't stream their albums. Although their best of collection is out there, as are some later efforts by the late John Wicks and The Records. Worth a listen. Still it would be so cool to have the albums available. This is really good stuff and is worth a listen.

Trooper - Money Talks (1982) I don't recall any of the songs on this one. My friend Gerry had a copy, and I asked him about it, and he more of less rolled his eyes. Not a ringing endorsement, then again we were teenagers, and we generally didn't really communicate in full sentences anyway so it was enough. 

Well here I am over forty years later spinning a copy of Money Talks I found last summer while on vacation. By 1982 Trooper's star was fading fast and after years on MCA the band would release a lone album on RCA. The record was produced by Mike Flicker, who had worked his magic on the early Heart albums, and Trooper was right in his wheelhouse.

Oddly, this isn't the hot mess I was expecting, and the band had definitely cranked things up and the songs were rocking- although they would still throw in a ballad or two - come on, they killed on the slow songs. Ra was still in fine voice, and Brian Smith could still lay claim to being one of the great underrated guitar slingers in Canadian music. While there are no real stand out tracks here (that's not entirely true, but there were no big hits), the album is enjoyable and it is definitely a Trooper record. 

Of course the band would have the last laugh as their best of collection Hot Shots would continues to sell and sell, keeping the band's songs alive. Trooper would then find a great second act as a classic rock band, and then an even more improbable third act when Ra McGuire and Brian Smith retired, and Trooper continued along with David Steele fronting the band. That's a band whose songs are bigger than the musicians who recorded them. That's pretty cool.

Eddie Schwartz - No Refuge (1981) This was a really fun find. I know in later years Mr. Schwartz would be known more for his songwriting than his own recording career. No Refuge was Eddie's second album, and was a collection of wonderfully polished and impeccably delivered rock songs that weren't too hard, and weren't too soft. They were just right. He cracked the top 40 with "All Our Tomorrows" a song that would later be huge for Joe Cocker, but there's something about Eddie's delivery I really like. I've listened to a lot of stuff from the early '80s lately and while everything was moving into power pop and new wave, No Refuge was pure pop magic. 

The production by Eddie and Dave Tyson is really
crisp and still sounds great. Everything from the drums to the guitar tones are tasty. There's a timelessness to this era of pop. Oh I know it's not timeless, but things sound organic. The album I found was autographed but is wearing off, but inside was a signed promo pic that I thought was pretty cool. Too bad his solo work never really caught on, he was pretty great.