Lynyrd Skynyrd Band - Gold & Platinum

This was the only album I ever bought by Lynyrd Skynyrd. It had it all, and all I needed. I played this pretty much to death back in the day, and I have to admit, rather sheepishly, I never thought "Freebird" was that great. It was too long, too meandering, and by the time the guitars let loose it was too little too late and it was too much.

Of course, over the years I have softened and have even brought into my musical fold The Outlaws' "Green Grass and High Tides" and "Highway Song" by Blackfoot. There are a few honourable mentions like "Edge of Sundown" by Danny Joe Brown. They all made their sacrifice to the rock gods at the altar of Skynyrd. However, this is all unrelated and at the time when I had this double album of rock and roll goodness, they were songs I didn't even know existed.

Now, when I found this copy for under ten bucks I was pretty stoked, and then a little disappointed when the liner notes for each album that listed the credits to each song were missing. It was part of my original experience as I would sit and listen to the album and read the lyrics and see who played what on which track. Names like Ed King on guitars, and Artimus Pyle on drums were ingrained in my brain.

Ed mainly for his work on "Sweet Home Alabama" and "Saturday Night Special," then there were Allen Collins and Gary Rossington who were stalwarts, and later when Steve Gaines joined (I would learn this later, but I knew his name from the credits), his impact was immediate and the song "I Know a Little" with his guitar fret wizardry was one of my favourites as a kid. Of course, all of this was wrapped around Ronnie Van Zant's impeccable vocals. The man laid down the blueprint that everyone else seemed to follow.

I am getting ahead of myself.

Each album had a gold and platinum side, although I suspect there was no rhyme or reason to the song placement as to whether it was gold or platinum, and frankly not every song here was a hit. There were a few live songs thrown in to add a little colour and mix things up a bit. This was particularly noticeable on "Freebird" where the song took on an added dimension, and it is this live version that is the definitive version. Period.

The pacing on each record is excellent. I will forever lean into the first record because of the one two punch of "Saturday Night Special" and "Sweet Home Alabama" not to mention "Freebird," even though back in the day it wasn't my favourite song, it got a lot of play regardless. There was no shortage of other excellent songs.

The second album to me was the one that really grew on me. Songs like "That Smell" and "Simple Man" were so good, and then there was the odd duck "I Know a Little" that was so different than anything else on the two records, and a song that blew my young mind, and still to this day will put a goofy lopsided grin on my face. They're all just so good. Count how many times I say good, you know I mean it.

There was something special here, and to me this is the definitive collection of Skynyrd's finest moments. Of course, for those who grew up with the albums will no doubt miss many of their favourite deep cuts, of which I'm sure there are many.

Gold & Platinum still hits me right in the feels, and even after all these years is still all I need. Of course, if I happen to stumble upon any of their old releases I'm not going to say no ... I may not need them, but want is another story altogether.

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 , ...

David Baerwald - Bedtime Stories

The little sticker on the shrinkwrap says, "You may remember David Baerwald from David & David's Boomtown ..." You bet, I remembered David Baerwald. Back in 1986 Boomtown was an album with moments of sheer brilliance. The whole album may not have been as top shelf as the first few tracks, but that didn't matter - it is an excellent album. I waited for a follow-up ... and waited, and then in 1990 it was a solo David, David Baerwald, who dropped Bedtime Stories . I snapped it up. "All For You," the opening cut, is still my favourite song on the album. It was mesmerizing. I'm not sure if the song got any airplay, it may have, but that may have been wishful thinking on my part as it was on a lot of mix tapes at the time and I heard it a lot in the car. The CD had a great booklet with all of the musician credits and lyrics. Oddly, when I found a sealed copy of the record (a great score), it just had a plain paper insert - the picture of David walking wit...

Gary Numan - The Pleasure Principle

"Cars" was really the only song I knew by Gary Numan. I knew the name of the album the song came from. Over the years bits and pieces of trivia are accumulated, but in terms of his music it was still distilled down to one song ... It would be too easy to write Mr. Numan off as a one hit wonder, and I suppose in terms of actual chart hits this was his defining moment as a solo artist. Of course this really means nothing, as Gary Numan would drop an album a year pretty much through to the end of the '80s. He'd then slow down a little but continued to make music. While The Pleasure Principle was Gary Numan's debut solo release in '79, he actually cut his teeth on a couple of albums in a band called Tubeway Army, first with the band's self-titled release in 1978, and then on Replicas that came out in April of '79. By the end of Tubeway Army's run most of the band would follow Gary into his solo career. Paul Gardiner, who had been with Gary from the b...

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