Robbie Dupree - Robbie Dupree

Back in 1980 rock and roll was all over the place. The strange adult contemporary soft rock was right alongside the real rock and roll, and frankly it didn't seem out of place. The Doobie Brothers were probably to blame for much of this music taking over ... but honestly this was always around in some shape or form. Heck Player was mining the same vein back in '77 with "Baby Come Back" and it was Christopher Cross who really cracked it wide open showing there was gold in them there grooves.

The derogatory term "Yacht Rock" hadn't been invented yet. This was just soft rock, or commercial rock, or radio friendly rock, or whatever. Now Yacht Rock is a beloved genre. Who'd a thunk it, and frankly a lot of acts who are on the boat shouldn't be ... that's the problem with labels, everybody ends up with one whether they need it or not.

The album kicks off with one of the two songs I remembered from back in the day. Actually I thought there was a third ... but I was mistaken. More on that later. "Steal Away" is a slick radio friendly song that still sounds great ... yeah, it conjures up The Doobie's "What a Fool Believes" but I'd have to do an A/B to see how close they are. It's still a good song though. The rest of the first side was enjoyable, if a tad generic and forgettable but it does close out on a high note as I always liked "Hot Rod Hearts" a song I'll freely admit to mixing up with Paul Davis' "'65 Love Affair" ... I know (now) that they aren't the same, and they were a couple of years apart. Oh well, so it wasn't the third hit on the album ... I should have let you know that was the "more on that later" segue that was to tie up that weird loose end.

The second side was the "here be dragons" part of my listening experience. Opening with "Nobody Else" that hearkens back to 1979 and is pretty much a disco song. Weird how quickly that era was nailed shut with the arrival of the new decade. I wasn't complaining, and I'm not complaining. Still it's almost jarring as it was unexpected. The rest of the second side, which was only four songs, was actually hit and miss. I'm not sure why I suddenly turned into a hostile witness for the prosecution but I didn't really enjoy this side. The big ballad "We Both Tried" was borderline terrible, and the vocals sounded out of tune. It was like they hired a high school choir to sing backup. Oh well, the second side was short. It's weird how this turned ... at least it ended on a relatively high note as "Lonely Runner" closes out the album, and it's a mid tempo song that has more than a little bit of Doobie juice squirted all over it. It's the best song on this side, and frankly is one of the best songs on the album aside from the two nostalgic hits.

The album was slick, and the production team of Rick Chudacoff and Peter Bunetta also served as the rhythm section on the album with Rick on bass, and Peter on drums. It was a pretty solid foundation and the songs sound great (except for "We Both Tried" but I'm trying to give him a mulligan on that one). It was cool to see Robert Palmer listed as the guitar player ... but I'm going out on a limb here and am assuming it's a different Mr. Palmer. Still, how cool would that have been?

I wouldn't call this yacht rock ... maybe a skiff or a dinghy. It was enough to hold two, maybe three good songs. Thankfully the rest of the material didn't capsize the whole thing.

For me my journey started and ended with the two big songs on this album. It was a solid listen, and "Steal Away" and "Hot Rod Hearts" were really good ... still really good. This scratched that itch, and while I wouldn't pass up getting other albums if they were cheap, I won't necessarily seek them out.

Although I'm now on the lookout for that album by Paul Davis.

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...

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