Sweeney Todd - If Wishes Were Horses

When Nick Gilder and James McCulloch left Sweeney Todd, the remaining members were left in the lurch. They did have an ace up their sleeve: their deal with London records but they'd need to find a worthy replacement for not only their vocalist, but they needed to find a guitar player. To complicate things they'd have to come up material now on their own as Gilder / McCulloch were the primary writers on the band's debut. The band would try out a new vocalist Clark Perry who would re-record the vocals to "Roxy Roller" and it would be released as a single and even managed to crack the top 100 in the US before Chrysalis records, Nick Gilder's label managed to cease and desist the single. Not long after Mr. Perry would exit the band. The search was on once again for a replacement.

If Wishes Were Horses is an album that is more infamous for being the starting point for a very young Bryan Adams who took over lead vocals, and managed to pull of a very credible Nick Gilder impersonation. Frankly if you were listening to this cold and didn't know you'd be hard pressed to tell this was the same guy who would later torture the world with "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You" when Kevin Costner decided he'd make a good Robin Hood and needed a love song.

Rather than shit on this, you have to listen to it for what it was. This was the tail end of glam, and by 1977 the genre was running out of steam. The band here is game, and Skip Prest who took over the guitar spot, seemed to step into the role seamlessly. I'm guessing the band prior to the departure of Gilder and McCulloch must have been working on material, as the band included "Tantalize" that was written by the duo, and it's a great song, but not the best song on the album.

Like the band's debut, this album was produced, directed and conceived by Martin Shaer. The album was recorded at Little Mountain Sound and a young Bob Rock was one of the assistant engineers. The album really did sound pretty good. Martin also wrote the title track to the album, and it is a really good song, and was the obvious single, but it was no "Roxy Roller." Frankly none of the songs on the debut measured up either. A two year lay off was a long time in the '70s and with the high profile departure of the band's lead singer and guitar player, who were also the main songwriters any buzz for the band seemed to go with them. For many years there was a lot of local backlash directed against Nick Gilder for his role in torpedoing the band.

Which was a shame as the other guys stepped up, and even young Mister Adams co-wrote three of the songs on the album. One of the highlights was the instrumental "All of Sudden" written by keyboardist Dan Gaudin that features a killer solo by Skip Prest.

The album is more than a footnote or a weird guilty pleasure. This is a really solid album, and part of the problem was timing and a changing landscape more than anything. Glam's brief heyday was pretty much over and more than anything If Wishes Were Horses was a victim of the times more than a deficiency in the source material on the album.

It's too bad that both of the band's albums have been exiled to the Island of Misfit Toys where only those who can find an old vinyl record can listen to the band. Maybe one day someone at London Records, or whoever holds the licensing will decide to make the band's album available for a new generation.

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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