Old Enough to Forget

From the annals of What Could Have Been I present Flesh for Lulu's 1989 release Plastic Fantastic . This wasn't my first exposure to the band. I first heard them on the radio back when CBC Radio in the dark hours would feature Brave New Waves and expose people to indie and alternative music the mainstream eschewed. I'm racking my brain trying to remember the song that caught my interest. It's probably a false memory at this point but I'm inclined to think it was "Baby Hurricane" from Big Fun City / Blue Sisters Swing . At the time when I found the CD I figured it was a collection of two releases, but there was no internet so I was never sure. It was a rough, raw and pretty cool collection. I will also admit that I thought "Laundromat Kat" was awesome ... and yes it is two of their 1985 releases repackaged in 1986. A few years later I stumbled upon Plastic Fantastic , and this time while the songs were still raw there was also a polished sheen to...

Bad Company released Straight Shooter in 1975. The album contained eight songs, and the album's two singles "Good Lovin' Gone Bad" and ""Feel Like Makin' Love" have become classic rock classics. "Shooting Star" has gone on to be an FM standard.  I've always enjoyed Bad Company, and Paul Rodgers is often cited as the penultimate rock singer. It's interesting that renowned critic Robert Christgau who had written for The Village Voice when reviewing Straight Shooter stated that Paul Rodgers wasn't suited for hard rock as he didn't have a strong voice.* I'm not embarrassed but it's sort of telling that the era I started listening to the band was their late '80s and early '90s stuff featuring Brian Howe that gave Bad Company their gold and platinum second act. I know that time has been a little less than kind to this era of Bad Company at the time they were holding their own with the new kids and kicking ass. He...

When TOTO released their massive All in In 1978 - 2018 anthology it was as a record and CD collection, and at the time I didn't want the records, but boy oh boy was I interested in getting the remastered discs. Elliot Scheiner by all accounts had worked his magic and the much maligned Turn Back in particular was supposed to sound amazing. I remember following on the band's site and there were questions about when and if the CDs would be offered as a standalone ... Short answer: Yes, and in May of 2019 I picked up the set, and when it arrived it was a good day. The box set included a bunch of stuff like Live in Tokyo 1980 as well as XX and Old is New which were all included in the box set. Of course I now have serious buyers remorse in not getting the records as I'd love to have Kingdom of Desire and Tambu on vinyl ... even though I have the original CD releases and the remastered CDs. I was scrolling on line and saw Old is New on sale and snapped it up. Which is sort o...

The first time I recall seeing Curt Cress' name in the credits was on SAGA's Wildest Dreams back in '87. Who was this guy and where was Steve ... for that matter what happened to Jim? His name would pop up again on SAGA's much maligned (I love it) '89 follow up The Beginner's Guide To Throwing Shapes.  I have a couple of other albums with Chris. Pete Schilling's song "Major Tom (Coming Home)" and Far Corporation, the brainchild of Frank Farian featured Curt on drums. Reading up on Curt he's been on literally thousands and thousands of recordings over the years. He is a monster player who knows what he's doing. Curt Cress - Clan, or CCC, or Curt Cress Clan was released in Germany in 1975 on Atlantic Records when he was twenty three years old. When this was released he was already a seasoned professional who'd been playing professionally since his early teens. I managed to find a wonderfully pristine copy in a small shop in Vernon BC of...

WARNING : The following blog entry is likely a little more disjointed than usual, and let's be honest a lot of my meanderambling is hard to follow at the best of times. Heartbeat City was a really interesting experience as I had somehow convinced myself that this was dated and by default a lesser entry in the band's catalogue as a result of it's commercial success. I had long thought less of this because of the "drum machines" and it more or less became the narrative I started with ... of course as I listened I found a different experience awaited ...  If you're seat is in the upright position let's get going.  When  Hearbeat City  dropped I thought it was hands down the coolest record The Cars had ever released. After years of cool songs they perfected their rather unique blend of technology and rock and roll and the results were spectacular ... except for "You Might Think" a song that while a hit, to me was irritating, except for the killer gui...

I wonder how much of a debt Dave owes to The Honeydrippers 1984 EP Volume One ? That showed there was an audience for this kind of stuff. Since they never dropped a number two, Diamond Dave did that for them. I did buy The Honeydrippers EP, but never did get Crazy from the Heat . I did like the videos and thought his version of "California Girls" was awesome. I did know that Christopher Cross provided backing vocals with Carl Wilson. For whatever reason I thought that was really cool ... mainly because I loved and still love Christopher Cross' music. When this dropped Dave was still in Van Halen and as his little EP took off, eventually going platinum I guess he figured a solo career was to be had and off he went. It is telling, that while Ted Templeman produced, long time engineer Donn Landee wasn't twiddling the nobs. Okay maybe not telling, I'm probably reading into it, but Donn and Ed seemed to be really tight and who knows maybe there's a nugget of truth ...

Back in the mid '80s when I was working downtown I'd often spend my lunch hour rummaging through the racks at A&B Sound, or if I was in the mood to dumpster dive Sam the Record Man had row after row of discount records. I picked up a lot of questionable stuff, like Stephen Still's Thoroughfare Gap  and Dan Fogelberg's Captured Angel ... don't ask why I remember those two in particular. It's not like I remember anything from them. I'm not shitting on the records, I just don't remember them, but I remember buying them. I don't think I played them more than once or twice. I also remember one album I kept seeing and ignoring: Coney Hatch's Outa Hand. Over the years I'd see the Carl Dixon's name pop up. Sort like a Canadian Waldo. Oh look, there he is with April Wine ... oh man, that's cool. Hey Aldo Nova is covering a Coney Hatch song written by Carl, "Hey Operator" nice. Look there's Carl on the Speed Channel doing mu...

Back in 1982 this popped onto my radar when I found the album in my little Christian bookstore. It was this Irish band that steered me in U2's direction and in short order I picked up October , and then quickly snapped up Boy as well, but it all started with this Andy McCarroll album. I pretty much played this to death. It was a strange, quirky, overly preachy but wonderfully endearing album ... and it has not aged well, but it still sounds awesome nonetheless. At the time I had no idea this was actually released in 1980, and it was rebranded from Moral Support to Andy McCarroll and Moral Support and released in North America in 1981. By the summer of '82 this along with my U2 albums Boy and October and Toto IV were in constant rotation. The U2 records are their own story, with each album was recorded onto a 90 minute cassette, and it lived in my car. What this has to do with anything is still to be determined. Think of it as a placeholder to be referenced if necessary.* For s...

When I found this album back in '83 it had a remainder cut out on the cover. Makes one wonder what Capital records thought was going to happen with a three song vanity project from Brian May. Me, I loved this from the moment I saw it ... I just knew, KNEW it was going to be awesome. I was determined to love this no matter what. How hard could it be to love something that had Brian May and Eddie Van Halen on the same album? Apparently not hard at all ... but harder than I first thought ... but it didn't matter. Rounding out the friends, was drummer Alan Gratzer (REO Speedwagon), bassist Phil Chen (Rod Steward, Jeff Beck, Joan Armatrading) and Fred Mandel (Alice Cooper, Domenic Troiano, Queen and Pink Floyd) on keyboards. These boys could play. As Brian writes on the back cover essay this was just supposed to be a hang and jam with some people he had wanted to play with. You can practically hear the songs coming together. The three songs on the MINI LP are essentially an audible ...

Little Image, or little image, or my favourite and most aesthetically pleasing littleimage. is an alternative pop band from Dallas Texas. The band features the talents of Jackson Simmons (vocals, guitar), Troy Bruner (drums) and Brandon Walters (bass, synth). This is what passes for alternative nowadays. Yeah, I am old. Well, oldish, but it's all relative. Still, gotta give these kids props. They're a band, and band's are not the flavour of the day. Hollywood Records may or may not have the cachet they once had when they were the home of Queen and Fastball. They're still a major label in an age when I have no idea what labels are supposed to do for an artist. I suppose if I had the time I could write a letter to Ashton Ulrich and Mike Daly the dynamic duo who are the band's A&R team and ask them. Self Titled  is another one of those Marco Polo Platters I shelled out less than ten bucks for. I don't know why I just don't take a picture of the album and ...

After selling over 4 million copies of Toto IV the band set about crafting a worthy follow up. It took a while and in the process Bobby Kimball exited the band and was replaced by Fergie Frederiksen. Fergie sounded nothing like Bobby which I thought was a good thing ... others not so much. As this is my bloggity thing, I get to say what I want, and yes it was a good thing. Heck, I'd go and pick up So Fired Up by LeRoux just because Fergie sang lead - oddly enough with LeRoux his time as lead vocalist would be a one and done as the band would break up leaving Fergie looking for work ... which he found with Toto ... for one album, and then Fergie was looking for work. I'm getting ahead of myself. I know that music is practically disposable now, but dang it this whole vinyl thing pretty much forces an active experience which I really find enjoyable. Weird how often it never used to. I'd put on an album and let it play while I fiddle farted around ... if it wasn't for the ...

In May of 1981 I was given a pile of Christian records ... okay maybe not a pile, but it felt like a lot. I don't remember all of the titles but I do remember How the West was One by 2nd Chapter of Acts. This was my introduction to Phil Keaggy and his playing melted my brain. One of the vocalists in the band was a skinny young kid who sounded like a boy when he spoke and had a huge voice. It seemed inevitable that he'd release a solo album at some point. That point came in 1979 when Toward Eternity  was released, according to Mr. Ward's website he was 18 when he recorded the album, which is sort of mind boggling. I probably got it in 1982 when I was 19, and the most ambitious song I'd written to that point was "49 Rats Eating Beer-sausage." I remember reading the credits as I listened to the songs, and was really excited to see Phil's name listed on most of the tracks. The album opens with a one two punch that still makes me grin like an idiot. This is di...

The Adventures popped up on my radar back in 1988 when I heard "Broken Land" on the radio ... once. I was at work at the time and the some caught my attention. I waited patiently in the hopes the song would be identified, and thankfully when it was over I got to hear a mumbled titled by The Adventures. I found the album, and got more than just the one song. It was so good and so different than most of what was in my CD player at the time. A year later they dropped Trading Secrets with the Moon , and while I never heard any songs on the radio, my mix tapes pulled a few songs and then I lost track of them. During the dying days of Krazy Bob's I popped in more than usual, often dropping more cash than usual because it was the end of an era and there were still treasures to be had while they could be had. This particular trip was only to mine his discount bins, which he would often seed with hidden gems. He was never shy about pointing out stuff I missed. On this particular v...