Paper Lace - Paper Lace

Paper Lace, oh man. "The Night Chicago Died" and "Billy Don't Be a Hero" (although I don't think it was their version I remember. That honour went to The Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods in North America) were ear worms of the highest order when I was a little kid. There was something decidedly infectious about the songs and while as I got older I developed a certain disdain for the songs that moved me in my youth there was always a spot in my heart for this stuff. It's why I still like to listen to "Seasons in the Sun" and "Last Kiss" and am not ashamed to admit this was my jam.

Of course Paper Lace was never a band who seemed to rise above their early success and have been more or less relegated to the pile of other AM gold singles that bombarded the airwaves in the '70s.

This particular Polydor release appears to be a repackaging of ...And Other Bits Of Material the band put out in 1974. As to whether it was available here I don't know, I figure this was put together and the embedded sticker with the "hits" was no doubt supposed to help give the album a push.

The album was produced by Mitch Murray and Peter Callander, who also wrote the majority of the songs on the record. The songs were more of less straight ahead pop songs, with a little bit of the emerging glam sound, but frankly there wasn't enough bite to give the songs the requisite edge required to qualify as rock and roll.

The first side kicks off with "The Night Chicago Died" and frankly this was why I bought the album. "Billy Don't Be a Hero" is as maudlin as ever, and frankly I have no idea why this wasn't a hit here, as I can't really tell the difference between their original version and the Bo Donaldson cover. I suspect they're different, and I don't have the ability or desire to do an A&B comparison. The song I was curious to hear was "Hitchin' a Ride" as this was a song I absolutely adored as a kid. My aunt had the 45 of Vanity Fare's version and I played that over and over and over on her old suitcase record player. Considering those were all written by Murray - Callander I had hoped Paper Lace would kill the song. They did, but not in the good way. I suppose if I wasn't aware of the other version this would have been cool ... and it may grow on me ... but that assumes I'm going to play with record more than a few times.

Oddly enough this would more or less mark the end of the band's recorded output which kind of surprised me. After all, it wasn't unusually for so called "One Hit Wonders" to actually have a pretty deep catalogue that flew under the radar after their initial brush with success. Considering they had a couple of huge songs in the U.K. it's odd they didn't get another kick at the can. Then again, based on the strength of the album it actually sort of makes sense. The album is enjoyable for what it is, and frankly this was more a late echo of the '60s bleeding into the '70s.

Oh well, this was a fun album and full of nostalgic goodness, and frankly that opening one two punch of "The Night Chicago Died" and "Billy Don't Be a Hero" and the album's closing track " Cheek to Cheek" was worth what I paid for the album.

It was a dollar.

A buck's a buck.

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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