Old Enough to Forget

Boy howdy, this was more than a bit surprising - in a good way. Not long ago I'd found The Light of Smiles , Gary's follow up to The Dream Weaver , and while I enjoyed the album it really didn't have legs or stick with me after I'd put it back on the shelf. That's not a shot, I listen to a lot of stuff that frankly doesn't have a lot of object permanence - I attribute this more to me than the music. I'm old now, and I don't process things the same way. I either like it, or I don't. Sometimes I'll really like it, and sometimes things stick. When I first saw the cover of Headin' Home when I was poking around Gary's discography I was pretty dismissive. I mean really, who needed to see a deeply tanned and permed Gary sitting bare chested (okay not bare, it was covered in curly hair) and man spreading his red pants. Thankfully the image was cropped. So yeah, there wasn't a lot of appeal. I already knew there weren't any hits here, and...

Cutting Crew were one of those bands whose career trajectory followed Newton's third law - one that has been corrupted and over simplified to: what goes up, must come down. It's not like I'm singling Cutting Crew out for a sophomoric drubbing with cheap innuendo.  The band was in good company for all that. Heck a couple of years earlier Mr. Mister's Welcome to the Real World (1985) had a couple of absolutely huge radio singles. After all that "success" that band just disappeared. Now the difference between Mr. Mister and Cutting Crew for me is that I had the Mr. Mister album. All I knew of Cutting Crew was the big single, and it was big: "(I Just) Died in Your Arms" and to a lesser extent (because I'd forgotten about it until I listened to the record) the obligatory power ballad (not a lot of power, but a lot of ballad) "I've Been in Love Before" which was pretty good. Who knows why I didn't get the album back in the day, I mea...

Union Jacks fell in between the trio of albums I had by the band back in the day. My buddy Andew who I'd jam with back in high school introduced me to some cool bands, notably Harlequin because he made me learn the guitar parts (as a fifteen year old I thought I got pretty close) to "You are the Light" and then we were farting around one afternoon and he was playing the lead riff to "Head First" by a band called The Babys. I thought it was really cool. It was probably not long after I picked up the album, and then when they dropped I'd snag Union Jacks and the band's last album On the Edge that came out in the fall of 1980. It's been a while since I've listened to The Babys and it's a bit weird listening now. Jonathan Cain would join Journey and John Waite would manage to carve out a pretty decent solo career. Then in the late '80s while Journey was in limbo Jonathan Cain, John Waite and Ricky Phillips would team up with Neil Schon and...

Gary Wright followed up his double platinum release The Dreamweaver in 1977 with The Light of Smiles . It must have been a surprise and a bit of a disappointment when the album didn't perform as well as hoped. It did chart as high as 23 on the Billboard top LP and Tape chart according to what I read on the wiki, but it must have been more of a spike than anything. As the album didn't seem to attain any certifications that I could see. Not that it matters, I've said it before, and I'll likely say it again (more than once) most of my favourite albums never really attained any significant commercial success.  I'd seen this album over the years, but that was about it. Gary Wright was Mr. Dreamweaver and I'm sure somehow it was worked into his epitaph when he passed away a couple of years ago. For me I was really curious about this one, lately I've been a sucker for finding albums that follow a big release. For Gary Wright he was flying high after The Dreamweave...

Henry Lee Summer hit it big in '88 with "I Wish I had a Girl" from his third album and first major label release. Of course I knew none of this back in the day. I just knew the song, and for whatever reason I associate this with summertime and rolled down windows with the radio blaring. This was an album I almost bought more than once, but never did.  Over the years the song and Mister Summer faded from memory but when I saw the album in the four dollar bin I couldn't resist. This is a bit of a conundrum as my initial reaction was pretty negative. All I could hear were the inevitable comparisons to other artists, the lack of solid bottom end to the recording and some questionable drum sounds that seemed to belong on a different album. The most irritating moment coming on side two when "Wing Tip Shoes" tries to infuse some energy into the album as Henry repeatedly yells, "Git it goin'" as the band borrows from John Lee Hooker and ZZ Top and some...

I snatched this up when I found it. Up and Down was released in '84 the same year "Live is Life" was a worldwide hit. Polydor repackaged the album, dropped a couple of songs from the European release and tacked on "Live is Life" which for those of us over here was a pretty good idea. I also suspect they subbed out the studio version of "Flyin' High" as well. Despite their success much of the band's catalogue was never released in North America, and even now the band has a surprisingly small digital footprint on the streaming platforms. The album is really good, and the title track "Up and Down" that opens the album is really strong with Herwig's soaring vocals and Ewald's tasty fretwork. The whole album is full of pleasant soft rock with hints of AOR and some progressive overtones. Knowing there are songs out there that were left off it makes me wonder what they were like. The nine songs here, seven studio tracks and two live ...

As a thirteen year old hormonal kid there was something about a red eyed devil woman wearing polka dot underpants that made my tummy feel funny ... okay it was lower than my tummy but really no one needs to know that. 1976 was a weird year. I was still big into BTO and rock and roll was king. However, there was an earworm that seemed to be everywhere and on all the time, "From New York to L.A." that was deliciously infectious and who cares if it was disco or that the song seemed to play at double time leaving Patsy Gallant singing her little heart out trying to keep up with the music. I can still sing along with the chorus, and this one song is why I picked up the album when I found it in a discount bin. I'd not thought of her or the song in decades, however, I saw the album in a bin and there she was red eyes and polka dots and while my tummy didn't tingle I did him under my breath, "I'm a star in New York ..." and almost expected someone to do the call...

Boy in the Box was huge. To say otherwise is silly. Corey Hart to me was a bit of an enigma. He was a poster boy which meant he had no credibility, and was right up there with Platinum Blonde (another band I begrudgingly liked when no one was looking). Fields of Fire was Corey Hart's third album and people were expecting big things ... and others were waiting for him to fall flat on his face. I can't imagine the pressure he must have been under. He was still in his early '20s and was already a seasoned artist by 1986. For a pretty poster boy Corey Hart was the real deal, writing his own material and co-producing his own albums. The songs on Fields of Fire seem to pick up where he left off with Boy in the Box. There was a consistency to the songs that made them feel familiar, but it never felt like he was just flogging a dead horse and recycling himself. The band was again comprised of Russell Boswell on bass, Gary Breit on keys, Andy Hamilton on saxophone, the incredibl...

I picked this up because it looked like an interesting album. The back credits caught my attention: Produced by Gary Lyons, mastered by George Marino and recorded at the legendary Caribou Ranch in Colorado. I figured the album would lean one of two ways - a sucky late '70s Dan Fogelberg type album, or a straight ahead boogie woogie rock and roll album with a bit of twang. Guitarist Geoff Whitehorn was credited with playing "fiddle" so I figured that plaid jacket was appropriate. The anticipation of dropping the needle and those first moments of dead space are so good ... "Sail On" opens the album and the brief harmonic and sliding bass note is quickly followed by thick crunchy power chords that then give way to an infectious groove that has a lot of bounce and swing - in short swagger. The vocal harmonies are great and the interplay between the guitars and keyboards is simply awesome. I haven't had a truly great holy shit moment for a while. This was so good...

I had no idea Ambrosia were THIS GOOD! Holy snot balls, rub tiger balm in my eyes I did not expect this. I mean, I knew of David Pack was from Ambrosia mainly because I'd seen his name on Kerry Livgren's solo album Seeds of Change . I couldn't place the band though, as the only song I could recall was "Biggest Part of Me" that honestly sounded like a cheap knock off of The Doobie Brothers. Heck even the name, Ambrosia sounded wimpy. I thought it was a flower or the kind of drink that came with cherries and a wee tiny umbrella.  The album opens with "Nice, Nice, Very Nice" and it's a killer song that has soaring keyboards and a great groove. Heck Kurt Vonnegut gets a writing credit so you just know it's going to be something ... nice. From the opening song I could not reconcile this as Ambrosia ... this was cool. Turns out the sucky stuff started on their appropriately named album One Eighty from 1980. However, take anything I write with a heapin...

Before Danny Elfman became synonymous with soundtrack work, he was one of the creative forces behind Oingo Boingo. It's still a surprise to me that Danny is credited as the sole composer as the contributions of the band were so important to the sound. Then again, what do I know? It was early '83 that I bought the Fast Times at Ridgemont High soundtrack and discovered the song, "Goodbye, Goodbye" and I was blown away. I then started looking for the band's albums and I really got a kick out of how dark and bouncy the band was. I still get a wicked grin when I think of "Only a Lad" and although I didn't really think the movie was that funny, I thought the song "Weird Science" was good, but "Dead Man's Party" was better - but I'm getting ahead of myself. For whatever reason the quirky lads just couldn't seem to catch a break with their first few albums and A&M dropped the band, and things seemed to be over. Then in th...

"A Good Heart" was a big song in Canada back in '85. The single would sell 50,000 copies here, and the album itself would crack the top 20, but I don't think it sold enough to be certified. For me this would be the one and only time I heard the warbling Irishman on the radio.  After making his splash in the pool, there was no follow-up and in time Mr. Sharkey would be firmly relegated to the bin of one-hit wonders. It was an okay song, but honestly not one that resonated with me. Feargal was out of sight and out of mind, and he remained there. So it was a surprise when decades later it popped into my brain and I got curious. As it happened I found the album in a cheap bin and couldn't help myself.  Which is the only way you can hear the album. His streaming footprint is surprisingly thin. The album was produced by Dave Stewart who had co-produced Southern Accents with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, and his own band's (The Eurythmics) Be Yourself Tonight. He...

I couldn't help myself, this was three bucks, and looked to be in decent shape. Nothing a little bath wouldn't clean up. A few weeks ago I had a hankering for Crystal Ball and it was on repeat in the truck for several days. This was around the time I'd spent a few days spinning Equinox the last album to feature the original line-up. Crystal Ball was one hell of a transition album as it was the one to introduce Tommy Shaw into the mix. His impact was huge and immediate, it still sounded like Styx but more better. A year later Styx returned with The Grand Illusion and the band was a cohesive unit where everything was fitted together. The album opens with the title track and this just felt different. Dennis and Tommy were both front and centre with "JY" offering up the blistering riff monster that anchored "Miss America" to start side two. This was the start of the big run for the band, and while there are some killers on Pieces of Eight , and the band...