Blind Faith - Blind Faith

Blind Faith released one album in 1969, bringing together the talents of Eric Clapton, Steve Winwood, Ginger Baker and Rick Grech. This album was infamous when I was a kid because it had a topless young girl holding what looked like a chrome airplane. The photograph by Bob Seidemann was titled "Blind Faith" and it would end up being the name of the band and the album.

I never knew there was an alternate cover until I found this one in the dollar bin. I have to admit the cover had seen better days, but the lyric insert was still inside the jacket and the album itself ended up cleaning up quite nicely. All in all, a win win.

Now I was just a wee lad when this came out, so my introduction to some of the songs would come many years later on radio when they'd have their '60s themed lunch hours, or the occasional oldie would crop up on rock radio. The song that seemed to get the most play was "Can't Find My Way Home," which is a brilliant song written by Steve Winwood. Of the six songs on the album, Steve wrote half, with Eric Clapton contributing "Presence of the Lord," and Ginger Baker getting the credit for the nearly sixteen minutes of self indulgent musical wanking that is "Do What You Like," which takes up most of the second side.

One of the things that always bugged me about the songs was the quality of the recording. I don't know if this can be laid at the feet of producer Jimmy Miller. There's no engineer listed, so it's hard to tell. It could also be my stereo ... or not. Having just shit on this, I'm listening to this pretty loud and most of the album sounds pretty good. It's really only the mixing on "Presence of the Lord" where the vocals are buried and it sounds like Clapton is at the bottom of a well. The guitar work (is mixed way out front) of course makes up for everything and by the end all is forgiven, but man, the sound could have been even better. As an aside, the version I first heard of this song was by Larry Norman on his Streams Of White Light Into Darkened Corners from 1977. If you've not heard it I suspect it's on YouTube. This is a spectacular version and Jon Linn (probably the best guitar player you've never heard of) absolutely killed the solo and was faithful to the spirit of the song.

This is an album with one listenable side, and a second I suppose was really enjoyable with headphones and a lot of dope. In a way it's too bad the band didn't squeeze "Sea of Joy" onto side one, then the trippy hippy dippy shit would have been its own little mini-adventure and wouldn't derail the album. I suppose if you're in the mood it's fun, and I'll admit that when I play the record I almost always play both sides.

The album is what it is, and frankly when this was good it was extraordinary. Blind Faith was a one and done and it seems like for a while Clapton was stumbling about in the dark, going from one group to the next as if he was searching for the elusive lost chord.

I was trying to work in a Blind Faith zinger, but I got nothing.

It happens.

They can't all be winners, although once in a while a win would be nice. I just need to believe in myself.

Styx - Paradise Theater

Styx was hands down one of my favourite bands as a kid. They were a strange band, even back then. They were a hard rock band, almost progressive at times, who had a penchant for sucky ballads. I know there's a tendency for people to zero in on "Babe" as the song that killed the band's credibility. The roots go way back to almost the beginning when Styx released "Lady" on their second album. It showed a side to the band that needed to be kept in check, and for the most part the band kept things on a pretty tight leash. The band had been setting a gruelling pace, releasing an album a year (two in 1972) and by the time they released Paradise Theater (if I end up writing theatre later it's because that's how we spell it here) in 1981 they'd dropped ten albums in less than a decade. I snapped this up as soon as I saw it, and it became a fixture on my turntable. Like the band had announced on "Borrowed Time" from 1979's Cornerstone , ...

David Baerwald - Bedtime Stories

The little sticker on the shrinkwrap says, "You may remember David Baerwald from David & David's Boomtown ..." You bet, I remembered David Baerwald. Back in 1986 Boomtown was an album with moments of sheer brilliance. The whole album may not have been as top shelf as the first few tracks, but that didn't matter - it is an excellent album. I waited for a follow-up ... and waited, and then in 1990 it was a solo David, David Baerwald, who dropped Bedtime Stories . I snapped it up. "All For You," the opening cut, is still my favourite song on the album. It was mesmerizing. I'm not sure if the song got any airplay, it may have, but that may have been wishful thinking on my part as it was on a lot of mix tapes at the time and I heard it a lot in the car. The CD had a great booklet with all of the musician credits and lyrics. Oddly, when I found a sealed copy of the record (a great score), it just had a plain paper insert - the picture of David walking wit...

Gary Numan - The Pleasure Principle

"Cars" was really the only song I knew by Gary Numan. I knew the name of the album the song came from. Over the years bits and pieces of trivia are accumulated, but in terms of his music it was still distilled down to one song ... It would be too easy to write Mr. Numan off as a one hit wonder, and I suppose in terms of actual chart hits this was his defining moment as a solo artist. Of course this really means nothing, as Gary Numan would drop an album a year pretty much through to the end of the '80s. He'd then slow down a little but continued to make music. While The Pleasure Principle was Gary Numan's debut solo release in '79, he actually cut his teeth on a couple of albums in a band called Tubeway Army, first with the band's self-titled release in 1978, and then on Replicas that came out in April of '79. By the end of Tubeway Army's run most of the band would follow Gary into his solo career. Paul Gardiner, who had been with Gary from the b...

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