Steamer - Look at Me Now

Let's just say it wasn't the cover that caught my eye. Three young men whose pictures were ready to be cut out and put into some young girls locket. "Ooooh that Gordon is dreamy" No, it wasn't the cover, it was the band's name: Steamer. My inner twelve year old started to giggle. Steamer. I was really hoping that at my age I would have started to mature at least a little.

I didn't recognize any of the musicians names: Gordon Henderson, Mike Hilliard or Ed Hilliard. I did find it strange that there were no other musician credits to cover the instruments Steamer didn't play. I did see one name, that was at one time a pretty big deal in the music industry here on the West Coast through the '70s and '80s, Mister Terry David Mulligan who always went by three names.

Steamer was part of the Canadian Talent Agency and the album was distributed by Pickwick Records, a label that seemed to specialize in budget re-issues and Christmas albums - at least that's what I've seen in my collection in the basement. Still it was a label and dagnabbit being signed to a label was still being signed to a label.

The album itself is pretty decent with lush strings intertwined with a lot of fairly aggressive (and tasty) guitar. Musically this falls very much into the solo Burton Cummings meets Little River Band category - a lot of Mister Cummings to be honest. When I first dropped the needle "Don't Say Goodbye" took a few moments to connect, as I wasn't sure where it was going. It was okay, and as the album played through it settled into a steady groove. This was a nice middle of the road collection of soft rock songs that had a little more bite than you'd expect. By the time the album closes with the slightly rockier "Look at Me Now" it was a pretty enjoyable ride. It was worth my time to pick it up and play it again.

This is by no means a lost gem but it is an enjoyable album that likely had some backing. Getting the string arrangements alone that were done by Tom Szczesniak, and Micky Erbe isn't something you just throw in unless you think it's integral to the band's vision. This is a collection of '70s soft rock songs that happened to come out in 1980.

There isn't a lot out there about the band, but from what I could see the band started out in Kamloops, BC which is cool. On the cover Gordon is the one in the middle and played piano and sang. Mike was on the left and had the burgeoning 'stache, great grin and played guitar and also sang. Brother Ed played drums and sang too. I'm going out on a limb and figure the brothers were backing vocals. The songs were written by Gordon, although on the liner notes "Ode to a Housewife" was attributed to Mike. I'm inclined to think the liner notes are correct.

I actually really get a kick out of finding obscure records. Sometimes it's a good surprise, sometimes it's a steamer, where as this one wasn't a steamer but was by Steamer. BIG DIFFERENCE. It's also a little sad too, considering how many steamers are out there to stream it's unfortunate that the one steamer I wanted to listen to wasn't to be found ... if you've followed any of my stuff you just know I had to work in a steamer bit somewhere.

To the boys in the band, Gord, may I call you Gord? Mike and Ed it was nice hearing your record, it wasn't a Steamer (sorry, last one I promise) and I've played it through several times now, and it's more enjoyable with each passing play.

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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