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Showing posts from June, 2024

The Cars - The Cars

1978 was an unbelievably cool year for music. From hard rock to new wave, and yes (unfortunately) disco (for those who liked that sort of thing) music was alive and well and it was a heady time. The Cars seemed to come out of nowhere, and while they wore their rock credentials on their collective sleeves they were also very different. They were living in the future and bringing it to the present. Yeah, that's as confusing as it sounds. The band enlisted the legendary Roy Thomas Baker to produce the album, who certainly knew a thing or two about getting the most out of a band. The guy's list of credits is unbelievable.  It's kind of weird and fun sitting here listening to an album I actually never had as a kid. I mean, it's not like I didn't know the songs but for whatever reason I wouldn't pick up the album, and all the others, until the early '80s. Before Heartbeat City , I might add, and that was because the rock station here played "Since You're ...

Timbuk 3 - Greetings from TIMBUK3

I bought this when it came out for one song, "The Future's So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades" and by golly it was a dang good song. There was something really cool about the song with the sterile drum programming and the wicked harmonica. I always thought this was a huge hit, and the one time I watched Head of the Class , the song was featured on the episode. Apparently it was a moderate hit, but it certainly stuck with me. Oddly this album has been joined at the hip with Georgia Satellites debut album as I remember picking them both up the same day, and I remember being disappointed with both albums after harvesting the shiny songs for my mix tapes. I was probably harder on this one though. The album charged out with the two best songs on the album the aforementioned sunglasses song, and "Life is Hard" ( a song that felt to me like a companion piece to David & David's "Boomtown") and after that I just ran out of steam. I just didn't put the e...

Country Joe and The Fish – I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die

All I knew about Country Joe and The Fish was what I'd heard on the Woodstock album I'd checked out from the library when I was still in high school. Of course watching The Omega Man on TV as a kid was a riveting experience, and seeing Charlton Heston sitting in a dark theatre watching Woodstock sort of stuck with me. That triple live Woodstock album was another beast altogether, although at the time I really didn't think all that much of the '60s stuff. It was hit and miss, but it was an interesting experience. There was some cool stuff on those platters, and some stuff that made my ears hurt. Then there was the absolutely mind blowing "The 'Fish' Cheer" by Country Joe McDonald. I'd never really paid attention to protest songs, but this ... this was something special. It was probably the first time I'd heard the word fuck in a song, and it was used so artistically that it stuck with me. It's really the only song I truly liked on that albu...

Stylus over Substance (Volume 12) - Howard Jones, Martha and The Muffins, Terry Jacks, Barney Bigard & "The Pelican Trio", The Alpha Band

Oh boy here we are with the twelfth instalment of Stylus Over Substance. What was supposed to be the short bite sized impressions of stuff I didn't feel like waxing all nonsensical over and wasting too many words.  I've not always been successful, or coherent. Does it really matter? Probably not, you're either in, or you're out. It's all good. Sometimes it's better. I'm still working my through the piles of records I got for Christmas, and the additional pile I just got for Father's Day will eventually get my attention. Sit back, put your feet up, let's celebrate the fifty five other entries that came before, and get to the next five. Howard Jones - Action Replay (1986) Martha and The Muffins - Trance and Dance (1980) Terry Jacks - Y'Don't Fight the Sea (1975) Barney Bigard & "The Pelican Trio" - Barney Bigard & "The Pelican Trio" (1978) The Alpha Band - Spark in the Dark (1977) Howard Jones - Action Replay (19...

Screams - Screams

Screams is a band who came to my attention through my buddy Jeff. I've mentioned Jeff a few times, often in a derogatory manner as he is one of those jacks of all trades and master of all, types who despite his protestations that he is in fact just a normal guy , is in fact not normal. In short I'm more than a little jealous and proud of my friend ... A while back I found an Elvis Brothers album and I had just written up. Jeff casually brokered an introduction to Brad Elvis (Brad Steakley) and we traded a couple of really pleasant notes. Brad has a pretty active Facebook which is fun to keep up with. Anyway (yeah, I may have to edit this for clarity at some point) I found out Brad had been in a band called Screams, and that Jeff had been looking for the album for a long time. I decided I'd look for it, and I found not one, but two copies in a little second hand record store close to where I live so I sent Jeff one, and kept the other. When Brad and I were trading notes he...

Stray Cats – Built For Speed

Over here in Canada, well all of North America, Built for Speed was the "debut" album by Stray Cats. Back in England the band had released two fairly successful albums in 1981, and they generated enough interest to warrant a release over here. Cobbling together a eleven tracks from Stray Cats and Gonna Ball along with the title track Build for Speed hit at just the right time, and the band's raw rockabilly and '50s vibe caught on like wildfire.  Propelled by Brian Setzer's jaw dropping guitar work along with the one two punch of Slim Jim Phantom on his stand up kits, and Lee Rocker on the giant double bass, the band channelled the raw unbridled energy of a punk band with their old fashioned rock and roll. For most people, me included, this was where things started and stopped with respect to Stray Cats. While this didn't fit the definition of being a novelty act, the shtick wore thin pretty quick when they dropped the follow up in the summer of '83 it ma...

The Moody Blues With The London Festival Orchestra – Days Of Future Passed

While this was not the first album by The Moody Blues, it was the first album to feature Justin Hayward, and John Lodge, and it was the one that put them on the map. It was also an album that was more or less commissioned by the band's label to showcase the Deram Sound System and it's ability to record in stereo. Yeah, that was a thing once upon a time. Released in 1967 this was a heady time for musicians and new and emerging technology. Earlier in the year The Beatles released Sgt. Pepper and suddenly there was a new way to craft an album under the guise of threading the songs into a cohesive ... concept. Thus, the concept album was conceived. Working in this newly discovered vein, The Moody Blues went big with their second release. Collaborating with The London Festival Orchestra the band was able to craft pop songs that were intricate and lush and still contemporary, at least contemporary as it was in 1967. Truth be told, some of the arrangements sounded like they were arra...

Jimmy Buffett - Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes

To the "Parrotheads" and the youngsters known as a "Parakeets" I offer no offence and have nothing but respect for the departed Mister Buffett. He always seemed like a helluva guy and someone who knew how to keep his head up. He also seemed like the kind of guy you'd want to share a drink and laugh with. For me, as one of the great unwashed, my knowledge of all things Buffett starts and ends with one song. You know the song. Do I have to write it out? Fine I'll write it out, but  I'll have to double check my spelling, but I'm hoping I get this right the first time. "Margaritaville" there, are you happy? I was in my early teens when the song had it's first run on the radio. Then slowly the song just worked it's way into popular culture, and it's sort of stayed there. At least as far as I can tell. I suppose the kids today may not know, but for decades now the song has been a constant in the repertoires of cover bands all over Nor...

The Firm - The Firm

Back in '85 Robert Plant was staging a killer second act, and it must have felt like a kick in the nuts to Jimmy Page, the genius producer, player and arranger from all those classic Led Zeppelin albums, that he was relegated to the remainder bin. Death Wish II hardly counts as a career jump start. Surely there as a way to become a force to be reckoned with, or at least be relevant. First he needed to pull together a band. Paul Rodgers, a singer who was practically the blueprint for how to be a rock vocalist apparently needed a job. Chris Slade a drummer who had played with everyone from Tom Jones to Manfred Mann signed on. Rounding out the band was new kid Tony Franklin on bass who was literally just a kid when the other guys were out slogging it out. There was some really awesome music coming out in '85 and then there were some odd ducks. The Firm was one of those weird anomalies that looked like a duck, quacked like a duck and two of the members used to be on Swan Song rec...

Pete Townshend - Empty Glass

The future had arrived in 1980 and it was dragging the dinosaurs into the light. Suddenly Pete Townshend was standing in the open, looking around like he meant to be there. Perhaps he did. I mean, as a kid I wasn't unaware of who he was. Who he was. Ha, that's good one. I kill myself. Bottom line though, he was old. Woodstock old. That was old. So it was weird to hear and see so much of Pete Townshend at the beginning of the '80s when there were new sounds and new artists that were demanding attention. Okay, when I say so much, it wasn't as much as you'd think but the songs that were generating what seemed like constant rotation was probably over in the space of a couple of months. As a teenager time and physics don't work as closely as they do when you get older. Time is malleable, and those summer months where I first heard "Let My Love Open the Door" were magical times. Full of late nights by the lake, sleeping in a cabin, working in the bush with ...

Stylus over Substance (Volume 11) - Rock and Hyde, Three Dog Night, The Moody Blues, Carl Perkins and NRBQ, The Kinks

Here we go kids. Hope you're ready as well start the slide into the summer months. Junary can be a weird month where it's either too hot, too cold, or too boring. I'm still working my way through the records I bought last December, and while I'm still adding to the pile I'm trying to slow down. Having my favourite record store go tits up was really bad for them, but good for me. Although they do have an auction, and at times that's been a problem but that's my cross to bear. This time out is another mixed bag of nuts. Some of the albums I had back in the day, and others are new to me. It's always fun to sit down, turn on and turn it up. Rock and Hyde - Under the Volcano (1987) Three Dog Night - Naturally (1970) The Moody Blues - This is The Moody Blues (1974) Carl Perkins and NRBQ - Boppin' the Blues (1970) The Kinks - Give the People What They Want (1981) Rock and Hyde - Under the Volcano (1987) A couple years after Payolas tried and failed to gr...

Harry Belafonte – Belafonte At Carnegie Hall - The Complete Concert

My dad loved Harry Belafonte. By extension as a kid and to this day I love Harry Belafonte. He always seemed to be a guest on the variety shows, and there was always something serious and also whimsical about Harry Belafonte's songs. He could be funny and endearing but he was also serious and was an activist for civil rights. All of this was of course alien to me. All I knew was here was a man who knew hold an audience in the palm of his hand and was a master at his craft. In the early '80s I discovered that one of my best friends Tony also loved Harry Belafonte, and his favourite song was "Matilda" which to me was fantastic. We would sing the song in our loudest voices, and it didn't really matter that we both loved rock and roll ... there was still room for Harry. There was always room for Harry. The records my father had I took many years ago, and then subsequently lost to water damage. Still bugs me that I didn't put those bloody boxes up off the concrete ...