Stylus over Substance (Volume 9) - Ted Nugent, Gerry Rafferty, Visage,Greg Kihn Band, Johnny Winter

Good Lord, here we go. Hang on, Strap in, and put in your mouth guard.

• Ted Nugent - Weekend Warriors (1978)
• Gerry Rafferty - North & South (1988)
• Visage - Visage (EP) (1981)
• Greg Kihn Band - Kihnspiracy (1983)
• Johnny Winter - Captured Live! (1976)
  

Ted Nugent - Weekend Warriors (1978) This was long one of the albums I wanted, but never bought. The cover was vintage ted, and the cover was absolutely captivating. This was Ted in a single frame. Sitting here listening this is all new to me. The first pass through I didn't have any credits other than what was on the back cover. I still tend to lean on Double Live Gonzo! as Ted's high water mark, and while over the years I've filled in some of his earlier studio albums, I really never became a true blue fan. I was a pretty solid casual, and still consider myself a fan of his music. Considering Weekend Warriors came hot on the heals of Double Live Gonzo in the fall of '78 I sort of expected more of the same. Which is what I got. The songs did have a familiar feel, and from the opening track "Need You Bad" felt like a reworked version of "Just What the Doctor Ordered" and it didn't help that "One Woman" recycled the riff from "Cat Scratch Fever" it sort of made the album feel derivative. Reading up on the album Derek St. Holmes was out, and  Charlie Huhn was in. To be honest they sound remarkably similar. Charlie is a solid vocalist though, and while Ted has over the years assumed more of the lead vocals, he really did benefit from a strong front-man. While this is an album I was looking forward to, it just didn't grab me by the short hairs and tug. There are some growers here to be sure, but it's not likely I'll play this as much as I would have when I was a kid. It was too distracting hearing bits and pieces of older songs Ted cannibalized to create his reworked tunes. I don't know why it bugged me with Ted as I'll listen to ZZ Top and not bat an eye. Still, the cover art is absolutely killer.

Gerry Rafferty - North & South (1988) Half a decade removed from his previous album Sleepwalking, Gerry returned in a big way for me. Back in the fold was Hugh Murphy who had co-produced City to City, Night Owl, and the criminally underrate Snakes and Ladders. Gerry was surrounded by a cast of stellar musicians, from Jerry Donahue on guitar, Mo Foster on bass, with Bryn Haworth on slide guitar and Alan Clark on keyboards just to name a few. For me the album was centred on "Shipyard Town" a song I heard on the radio a couple of times, and it should have been huge. It was, it huge for me and in a year with so much great music this was one of the albums I had in steady rotation for a long time. Gerry was one of those artists who always resonated with me, and I still put him near the top of my favourite vocalists ever. His ability to convey emotion while delivering a buttery smooth performance shouldn't have worked - but it did. The songs on North & South were consistently excellent, and his use of traditional instruments, something he had been doing from the beginning was nothing short of brilliant. This was '88 and everywhere was big hair, big sing along choruses all stuffed into tight spandex pants, and here was Gerry who was now an elder statesmen at the ripe age of 41 (or so) and he was staying in his lane crafting pop music that sounds as awesome today as it did back when I was a young man. It's been fun listening to this on vinyl, as I had this on CD when it came out. I'm not going to sit and extol the virtues of one versus the other but it was a great find, and I couldn't help but pick it up. Every Gerry Rafferty album needs a home.

Visage - Visage (EP) (1981) A goofy little EP I couldn't help but pick up. Containing a few dance mixes and a couple of B sides that weren't on the band's 1980 self titled release this is still worth a listen. The opening cut "We Move" is remarkably crisp and fresh, and I have to remind myself this was still the very early '80s as I keep thinking of these guys as being from later in the decade than they were. Now, to be fair I am not generally a big fan of extended mixes that just seem like the engineer pressed the on button on a drum machine and left the room for eleven minutes to take a dump or have a cigarette while taking a dump. Although there was enough time during the extended parts of "Frequency 7" I could have brushed my teeth. Still, thinking to the other music I was listening to at the time, this was pretty out there. A song I've always liked was "Fade to Grey" and getting an extended cut didn't necessarily add to the song, but it certainly added to the song if you know what I mean. I would never recommend an extended collection as a first introduction to a band. I'm still on the look out for Anvil, and who knows one day I'll find it. This EP I could have done without, but it's an interesting listen for all that. The rest of the world missed out on this one as it was only released in North America. Lucky us.

Greg Kihn Band - Kihnspiracy (1983) Greg Kihn was always a bit of an odd duck. He was on the indie label Beserkley that was home to Jonathan Richman and a slew of lesser known acts. Greg would end up being the biggest name on the label. He'd being around since 1976 and would toil away for a few years before catching his big break with "The Breakup Song (They Don't Write 'Em)" back in '81, and then a couple of years later he'd release his best selling album and also his highest charting single with "Jeopardy" a song that has held up remarkably well. Over the years I would pick up quite a few Greg Kihn Band albums, and there was always something worth listening to. Kihnspiracy is a decent power pop album, albeit a bit wishy washy (I don't want to say generic, but it's often just sort of nondescript) at times and frankly kind of underwhelming, but when he was good, like on "Jeopardy" he was next level good. That song is so good. It's always a shame when there's something so good it overshadows the rest of the songs. However, the album does bear repeated plays, there's something strangely appealing to this stuff. Even the seemingly out of place cover of the old Patsy Cline classic "I Fall to Pieces" is okay in the context of the rest of the songs. The other song I'd pull out as a real gem is "How Long" a song that bore more than a passing resemblance to "Remember" from his 1978 album Next of Kihn. I don't remember anything else from that album. One could dismiss this as a case of killer and filler, but I still enjoy listening to this stuff.

Johnny Winter - Captured Live! (1976) The cover features Johnny in all his glory, soloing away at the 12th fret on his reverse headstock Gibson Firebird, his superfluous pinky tucked out of the way. At the time blues infused jam boogie woogie rock and roll was alive and well, and live audiences ate this stuff up. It was the era of the guitar hero and Johnny was right there at the vanguard of six string assassins. Unlike his brother Edgar, I don't think Johnny ever really had much in the way of commercial success, although an earlier live album from 1971 would be his only album to be certified Gold.

Captured Live! is not so much a collection of songs as it is a collection of extended guitar gymnastics. There are only six songs on the album, and only one written by Johnny, and that's the album's closing composition "Sweet Papa John" that clocks in at over twelve minutes. It's a hell of a song. Johnny also puts a hell of a spin on The Rolling Stone's "All Over Now" that is really quite something. This was the era of pure rock and roll and it was all about the performance. Four guys, and a stage and the rest was up to you. You either had the goods or you didn't. You couldn't hide behind a stage show. It was about the music, but this was music that looked back more than it seemed to look forward and in a few short years this would all be out of favour.