April Wine - Stand Back

Stand Back is one of those infamous albums from my childhood. I only had a couple of records as a little kid. One of them was Bill Cosby's 1964 release I Started Out as a Child, that I was gifted when I was 10 (the other one was The Tale of Jemima-Puddle Duck by Vivien Leigh - yes I still have it). I played that album near to death. I remember when I was in grade 7 and one Friday we were allowed to bring in records to listen to. I brought in my record and played "The Lone Ranger" expecting the class to erupt in spontaneous laughter ... only to have the needle unceremoniously lifted before it ended. "That's not music!"

One of the cool kids brought in a copy of Stand Back. "THIS IS MUSIC!" There was a lot of kerfuffle as someone thought he heard Myles say the "C" word ... not cancer, on "Highway Hard Run" so they spent several minutes lifting the needle and trying to hear the offending word. I find it weird that this is still such an indelible memory ... and yes I did pick up the needle when the song came on. I'm pretty sure she says, "Kiss my gut." But it's not a hard "G" - he may have been right. I think that same kid stole a fire bell from school. A lot of fire bells went missing after this album came out.

Stand Back was a watershed moments for April Wine. The band had released three studio albums, and a killer live album and they were already a pretty big deal in Canada. However, With Stand Back the band levelled up. Album charts and sales figures have always been a wonky thing here, mainly because it's hard to search for anything. However according to the band's wiki site, the Canadian Encyclopedia states that Stand Back was the first album by a Canadian rock band to go platinum in, well, Canada. It would be their first of many to do so. 

Pause to slow clap for the band. I'll wait if you want to pour a wee dram of Wisers.

My own history with this album is more retrospective. My love affair with the band really started when I found a used copy of LIVE! When First Glance came out it was "Roller" that melted my ears. However, it was after their '79 release Harder ... Faster that I was able to buy their albums in real time as they came out. Then I worked my way backwards. Every album had at least one classic song. Stand Back having more than one.

Stand Back is one of those albums that is a bit of a conundrum. I used to have a hard time listening to this objectively. Even if the rest of the album blew chunks "Oowatanite" would be enough to put the album into the plus column. Jim Clench contributed a couple songs on this one, and with "Oowatanite" he knocked it out of the park. I'm not suggesting the rest of the album sucks. Far from it.

The issue for me this is more a time capsule than a record. Allow me to try and explain. For those who cut their teeth on April Wine will already know the band was all over the place stylistically. Stand Back is not an easy album to define. The album starts with "Oowatanite" one of the band's best known rockers, and closes with "Tonite is a Wonderful Time to Fall in Love" is one of their best slow songs. 

The filling in the middle was more rock, more ballads ... each song sounding just different enough to avoid being a sonic clone of the song before. One would think trying to carve out a musical identity when you're flitting all over would be impossible ... except it wasn't. April Wine songs are easily identifiable as April Wine songs ... even when they cover another artist the result is all April Wine.

Decades ago I was pretty hard on this one. It was too inconsistent, and I wanted more rock and less sucky songs. Heck even the first play through after I cleaned this one was sort of his and miss but when I played it again there were fewer misses. I've had this cranked most of the morning and I can't remember where the misses are. I started thinking this was a conundrum, but really all I needed was a refresher. Of course if you're a casual you may be thinking I'm being overly effusive ... that's fine, there's no denying that this album has some killer songs.

Even the somewhat goofy "Slow Poke" with Myles altered vocals in cool. "Cum Hear the Band" now feels like the first part of a story that was finished a few years later on "Rock n' Roll is a Vicious Game" from First Glance. 

Stand Back, I'm going to flip this one over and run it again. "Oowatamornin"