Stylus over Substance (Volume 16) - Rick Wakeman, The Knack, Foreigner

Obladi obla dah. This month has a double shot of The Knack a band I've gotten into lately. They were so much more than a one hit wonder. I also figured four was enough this time.

• Rick Wakeman - Journey to the Centre of the Earth (1974)
• The Knack -  ... But the Little Girls Understand (1980)
• The Knack - Round Trip (1981)
• Foreigner - Inside Information (1987)
  

Rick Wakeman - Journey to the Centre of the Earth (1974) I bought this as a curiosity, and it was a curiosity I got. I'd seen so many copies in the dollar bin it just seemed too interesting to pass up. I'll be the first to admit this would have been an astounding show to see live; however, hearing it as a stand alone experience is a little more disconnected. While there were parts that were certainly engaging, and I was particularly enamoured with the narration by David Hennings, there there were quite a few sections where in the cold light of day you hear the imperfections evident in the performance. While it can be endearing to hear the human side of a performance those "bum" notes as Rick refers to them were distracting.  I'll give credit where credit is due, this was an ambitious effort and judging by the audience reaction it was well received. I'm not sorry I got it and the copy I'd found was remarkably clean but this isn't a journey I'll take very often.

The Knack - ... But the Little Girls Understand (1980) This was released less than a year after their debut, and I'm guessing the band really thought they were striking while the iron was hot. Heck, even Mike Chapman thought The Knack were the future of rock and roll, because he said it on the back of the album cover. The band was able to marry puerile lyrics and polished pop and make it seem impishly clever as it was delivered with a wink and a nod. The album opened with the unfortunately structured "Baby Talks Dirty" that felt like a deliberate attempt to recycle "My Sharona" except it had none of the innate charm. Oh, it's okay for all that but it seemed desperate. The rest of the album seemed to fare better and frankly it's still a lot of fun. It's a strange album in someways, with many of the songs, especially those on side two reaching into the past and sounding like they were trying to capture Phil Spector's Wall of Sound.  It's not unpleasant, just a little strange given the band's wheelhouse seemed to be in crafting crisp power pop.

Considering the number of people who bought the band's debut I'm guessing the band was really expecting to keep the momentum going, and while the album quickly went gold that's as far as it would go. In Canada it fared a lot better, but it was still well off what the debut sold. Of course album sales aren't always correlated to an album being good but I'm pretty sure this was a kick in the balls, especially when only a few months earlier the band was on the top of the world. Who knows why some stuff clicks ... maybe it really was up to the little girls.

The Knack - Round Trip (1981) You know you're feeling a bit of pressure when you go out of your way to thank your label for their help, care, and support. After a couple of albums with Mike Chapman in the producer's chair, the band tapped Jack Douglas (Aerosmith, John Lennon, Cheap Trick, Harlequin) to helm the band's third album in three years. Round Trip was the do or die record and we all know it was the end of the line, but at the time I'm sure the band really must have thought they'd put Humpty together again as the album was a collection of strong rock songs. They should have known if all the kings horses and all the king's men couldn't do it, why did they think they'd fare any better? Because it was really good, that's why.

It's too bad I'm so late to the party. Why were they so hated? In the moment I guess it was easy to take pot shots at the guys who wrote and unleashed "My Sharona" on the world as a bunch of guys who got lucky and didn't have the wherewithal to keep it up. Round Trip was the band's last kick at the can to keep themselves relevant in a quickly changing musical landscape. This wasn't skinny tie pop, but it was classic power pop and the Jack Douglas helped the band record a solid punchy record that holds up remarkably well. However at the time, it was a swing and a miss. It would crack the top 100 but it would quickly disappear ... and in short order Capitol would drop the band and after a trio of albums the band would break up.

History has been much kinder to The Knack and the band is now considered to be one of the very best power pop band to ever do it. Too little too late. It's a nice bit of revisionist history and I suspect cold comfort to a band who is still widely viewed as a one hit wonder.

Foreigner - Inside Information (1987) By '87 the wheels were coming off the wagon but the band was still a force to be reckoned with. While the album would go platinum it was well under the triple platinum mark set by Agent Provocateur, an impressive number but was less than half of what 4 had done. This would mark the end of an era. At the time I didn't know any of this, all I knew was it had been a few years since I'd heard the band on the radio and when I heard "Say You Will" it was like hearing an old friend. Foreigner was still at the top of their game, incorporating slick rock with all the trimmings Mick could add in the studio.

The songs were still solid, and Lou was still had the best set of pipes out there, and every now and again Mick would show off some guitar chops, but mostly he relied on keyboards ... lots, and lots of keyboards. Considering we were in the thick of the big hair and shredders Foreigner still had enough rock credibility to be part of the scene without actually being part of the hair metal and glam era. It was a nifty trick, but the reality was people had seen it before and fewer were coming back to see it again. Which was a shame, but it was the same with every other band I had grown up with by the mid '80s. At some point you reach critical mass and then things contract.