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.

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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