Ambrosia - Ambrosia

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 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 heaping teaspoon of salt ... okay, maybe not heaping, I'm not looking to have anyone puke up lunch because of this. A grain, a grain of salt is okay. Stick with that ... or maybe two or three.

Anyway, I am no expert on all things Ambrosia, which by the way isn't a girl drink or a flower ... it's the food (or drink ... but still no umbrellas) of the gods. I still find it odd I associated the band name as being stupid but would die on a hill defending April Wine as being cool.

I can see why Ambrosia was a support act for Kansas in the '70s - they would have been a hell of an opening act and very complementary musically. If anything Ambrosia was a tad more straight ahead rock and roll with progressive trappings.

Regardless this is a really strong debut and I've enjoyed this far more than I expected. Musically this seemed to blend pop with progressive. You can actually hear the seeds of change* that would germinate on One Eighty. The band featured two strong lead vocalists who also wrote together along with the other members of the band. Joe Puerta sang and played bass, with David Pack also taking turns singing and playing guitar. David's voice is smooth while Joe's voice has more of a quirky edge. They work well together. Christopher North was on keyboards and backing vocals and Burleigh Drummond was behind the kit and also provided backing vocals. As an aside I didn't know Burleigh was in Ambrosia, but I did know he drummed on a couple of Lost Dogs records.

The album was recorded at the legendary Mama Jo's ... well legendary because I first saw it listed on the credits of a Larry Norman album. Larry was legendary so by association Mama Jo's was too, and this just adds a little icing to the cupcake.

The first side was really strong and closes out with one of my favourite songs from the album. "World Leave Me Alone" was written and sung by David Pack. The song caught me right off, and the acoustic guitar riff reminded me of a pretzelled interpolation of the opening to "Mrs. Robinson." That's not a shot, it's a really good song. The other song by David Pack that was really good was the ballad "Lover Arrive."

Not to be left out, the quirkiest song on the album "Mama Frog" written by the band was sung by Joe Puerta and it's a long almost jazzy song that contains a truly bizarre narrative section that then gives way to a cacophonous musical movement that then segues back to the song's opening and abruptly ends. It's awesome, even if it doesn't hold up to repeat plays.

"Beware the Jabberwocky, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch?
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"

The album was a real surprise and it's always really cool to discover something that was always there. Ambrosia may not sound as cool as April Wine, but I no longer think of the band as a bunch of guys who got pigeon holed as Yacht Rock wannabes because they had a song that sounded like The Doobie Brothers.

oh look at me trying to be clever referencing Kerry Livgren's brilliant solo album that David sang on. Well, not really all that clever since I said it in the opening paragraph and was merely repeating 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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