Loggins And Messina – Loggins And Messina

As a kid I remember "Your Mamma Don't Dance" as one of those really cool songs, and I always got a kick (and still do) when the song got to the "Outta the car longhair." As for the Poison remake, that goes in the trash alongside the Motley Crue version of "Smokin' in the Boy's Room" neither band had any idea what to do with the source material other than try and rock it up and suck the life out of the song. Anyway ... it was the original that rings true, and it was the reason I picked up the album when I found a pretty decent copy in the dollar bin a while back.

I always knew they were a successful band, but I really didn't know anything other than the one song. Kenny Loggins to me was always just the guy who managed to carve out a niche as king of the soundtrack singles, starting with "I'm Alright" from Caddyshack, and then again with "Footloose" and "Danger Zone" I mean to say those were huge is an understatement.

As for Jim Messina, he had pedigree, but I mean aside from being a member of Buffalo Springfield, and was in Poco I didn't know what his contributions were. As far as Loggins and Messina the duo was an accident or sorts as Jim was mentoring a young Ken Loggins and producing what was to be his debut solo album and over the course of recording the album it became Sittin' In which was a nod to Jim Messina's involvement during the sessions. Regardless of how it started, between 1971 and 1976 they would release six studio albums and of one live record and garner four platinum and two gold records. 

Pretty cool.

As for their 1972 release in many ways this was really their debut as a duo and while the majority of the songs were written individually, they did write a couple together, most notably, "Your Mamma Don't Dance" and the album's closer "Angry Eyes." "Angry Eyes" is a killer song, and honestly to me is the best song on the album with both Jim and Ken taking turns singing and countering each other. It's also the longest song on the album at just over six minutes that goes by too fast. The whole album is really solid. The songs were cohesive though, and I attribute this to the musical arrangements and the musicians who played on the record. 

I was actually a little surprised at how well Jim and Ken played off each other. Their voices were different, but remarkably similar in tone. It made for a really nice combination. I found myself checking the back of the jackets to see who had written what and assumed who wrote it sang it.

Musically, this was a still on that country rock vein, but it was definitely more rock (okay, soft rock) oriented and the record sounds thick and full. Yeah, one could argue this is dated, but then again the album is over fifty years old ... so, yeah duh, it's going to sound dated, but man it sounds so good.

I honestly just got this because it had one song I recognized, and while it's a killer song, it's the odd duck here. Not out of place it's just different than the others, and not in a bad way. I don't know what I was expecting but as I listened to this a couple of times I found I got a lot more than I expected.