Old Enough to Forget

I actually really like these odd little double A side collections. Take two somewhat related artists and cull a dozen songs from across their discography and try and make a buck at Christmas. There is no information printed on the spine, and no liner notes. To be fair, my used copy could have had some once upon a time ... but I doubt it. The double act Columbia Records decided to put together was Johnny Mathis and The Ray Conniff Singers. Whoever picked the songs for the Johnny Mathis side decided to stay with the sacred. From what I can figure five of the six songs here come from his 1958 Christmas album, with "Ava Maria" likely coming from Good Night, Dear Lord , also released in '58. The sequencing follows a loose chronological telling of the Christmas story. The album kicks off with "O Holy Night" and when it comes to the French Kiss note he does it with a full voice, no falsetto or warbly half measures. It's pretty impressive, and his voice seems to be ...

David Cassidy was striking while the iron was cooling. Rock Me Baby followed a few months after his previous album Cherish went  gold domestically.  Rock Me Baby  would stall just outside the top 40 at 41. His solo career would fare better in the UK and Australia but in North America but it certainly seemed like the gold run for The Partridge Family and David's solo career had come to an end in the first half of '72.  It must have been incredibly perplexing for a young 22-year-old David, who seemed to be trying to step out of the bubblegum pin-up world he was confined to. Like a lot of people who grew up in the '70s The Partridge Family was essential television, but actually listening to the music outside the confines of the show was a lot to ask. I liked The Osmonds, but I wouldn't be caught dead listening to Donny. Icky ... germs. When I found a copy of Rock Me Baby I snapped it up. Why not? The album cover looked cool, although the back cover was goofy. My ...

My parents, particularly my mum loved strings. Lush and syrupy and shrill. That's how she liked it. I bought a Frank Chacksfield record just so she could hear her favourite song of all time, "Ebb Tide" when she visits. When she was moving out of her house she had to downsize just about everything and I went through the remaining records in the cabinet. I found quite a few that came home with me. Some I was genuinely curious to hear, and some were for her to listen to when she comes over. Hits of the 70's was released in 1972 and the essay on the back cover says the album contains the main themes to three of the most successful motion pictures of the decade. Yup, two years in and they're calling it. Then whoever wrote the back piece went even further by stating, "70's music is the most feeling popular music in the history of man."  I gotta say I was hooked even before dropping the needle, and boy the album delivered the goods. In fact I'd go so f...

This is the album that has "Hold Your Head Up" probably one of the greatest classic rock songs ever. It's been a staple on rock radio for as long as I can remember. Well, that's not entirely true, but it is the one song I associated with Argent, and then in later years they were the band who originally recorded "God Gave Rock and Roll to You" a song that I associate more with Petra that Argent or KISS. To be clear, the versions by Petra sucked, and sucked hard, BUT the reprise that closed out the second side of Come and Join Us with the kids singing was awesome, seriously it's still surprising to me how good it was. A couple of years ago I found Argent's In Deep from 1973, and found that I really enjoyed the early '70s rock vibe and the interplay between guitarist Russ Ballard and keyboardist Rod Argent. The two were so good together. I'll have to pull that down again at some point. Today though I'm spinning All Together Now and the alb...

Here we have a Nana Mouskouri album ... finally. I mean this is a sort of big deal. She was always that singer who wore the big black glasses. I had no idea what she sounded like, but it's funny that we all knew who she was. I mentioned in another post I thought that she and Roger Whittaker were two sides of the same coin. I managed to find Roger Whittaker's Christmas album, and recently I was rummaging in the dollar bin for Christmas records and scored a really nice copy of Nana Mouskouri's 1972 album "Christmas With Nana Mouskouri."  Musically the songs hold up really well. I'm never quite sure what to expect with some of the stuff from the early '70s. The arrangements lean to the traditional, although there are a number of songs where there's a folky flavour. This was before adult contemporary was a thing, but I suppose it was always a thing just not a genre. So many things get shoehorned into a box after the fact, and I'm trying to see where th...

Released in'72, Words of Earnest was the band's third album in as many years. It would arguably be their most successful and also their last on Capitol Records. The band would take a couple of years before signing with Columbia who would distribute their last album to be released in the '70s, Do Your Thing But Don't Touch Mine. It wasn't long after writing about their debut that I found their four albums in really great shape for a pretty skookum price. Words of Earnest was the album I was most excited to hear as contained "Mercedes Benz" and "Guitars Pickin, Fiddles Playing" the two songs my Aunt Jeanne introduced to me. I'm glad I started with the debut before listening to this one. I know I skipped ahead by not playing Welcome to Goose Creek , but not everything in life follows a logical order. Whereas the debut was definitely a hodgepodge of eclectic hippy dippy psychedelic country, Words of Earnest settled into a groove early on, and w...

Back in 1980 my dad and I were sitting downstairs watch TV while we were playing Monopoly (a game I seldom one, and I never got to be the dog) and I think it was on PBS or something, and it was about music or something. I don't know what it was, but it was on. I can't remember what it was about, but there was a segment that stood out that was likely talking about music and television. Then they talked about something or other and then played a song that stopped me in my tracks: The hook was infectious, "Two triple cheese, side order of fries." The song played, and frankly I don't remember much about the video, but I remembered the name ... Commander Cote, and the segment went on and talked about his early work with his old band the Lost Planet Airmen. It stuck with me. What always struck me was I never sought out the record, or anything else by Commander Cote.  But, I never forgot. Then a while back I found the wicked We've Got a Live One Here! the band's...

Thanks for popping in, this month is a little bit of this and a little bit of that. I seemed to be in a but of a maudlin mood and went back to the '70s for a couple albums by Dave Loggins and Ian Thomas. They were both young men at the time with a level of maturity that seems beguiling to me now as I sit here listening as an old man. Yeah, make no mistake, my youth is in my rear view mirror now. Told I was feeling maudlin. Regardless, for a bunch of albums that go back several decades it's funny how this still feels fresh to me. Peter Schilling - Error in the System (1983) Toronto - Lookin' for Trouble (1980) Steve Winwood - Arc of a Diver (1980) Dave Loggins - Personal Belongings (1972) Ian Thomas - Delights (1975) Peter Schilling - Error in the System (1983) From the catalogue of one hit wonders on this side of the Atlantic Peter Schilling hit it pretty big with "Major Tom (Coming Home)" a catchy song that seemed to be here, and then gone. Which is too bad, ...

Digging through the pile and sorting the odds and ends up for grabs turned out to be a mixed bags of nuts. There were some here I'd not had a chance to sit with all the way through, and a others that were old friends I hadn't spent time with and it was time to catch up. Split Enz - Waiata (1981) A Flock of Seagulls - The Story of a Young Heart (1984)  Red Rider - Neruda (1983) The Moody Blues - The Other Side of Life (1986) Gordon Lightfoot - Don Quixote (1972) Split Enz - Waiata (1981) Right off the bat let's give credit where credit is due here. "One Step Ahead" is an absolutely killer track. I'd go so far as to say it's the centrepiece of the album. A close second is "History Never Repeats" another composition by Neil. Now I am fully aware that I never had this back in the day so sitting here listening four decades later is hardly fair. The lens I'm looking through is not the same as the one I had when I was a teenager. The songs on Wai...

I can't put into words the impact Larry Norman's music had on me when I was a teenager. In the mid '70s there were a bunch of older kids who were into Larry Norman, and I wanted to be like those kids. At the time Larry had just released  In Another Land (1976) that was the final album in his trilogy, and a few years later that would be my first Larry Norman album. By the early '80s Larry had started his own mail order company and under the Phydeaux imprint he was releasing some of his earlier albums, and a lot of live and compilation albums. I ate it all up, and went back for seconds. "Please sir, can I have some more?" In his newsletters there was also something new coming, and there was a map of upcoming albums ... that never materialized. At the time though it was still pretty exciting. I had heard snippets of Bootleg, although thinking on it now, I'll bet it was Street Level , (it was, thank you internet) from my friend Gerry, who seemed to have ever...

As a kid variety shows were a staple. We had less than a handful of television stations, no one had cablevision, and colour TV was a futuristic concept. Like many families, our main set was a piece of furniture with the television set in the middle of a console. Rabbit ears were always being tweaked, or on occasion being held and grounded by one of us to help bring in a clearer picture. This was a time when there were summer replacement series, when the other hosts and performers went on vacation. My memory is foggy on the finer points on a lot of this, but I have memories of Johnny Cash, Andy Williams and a bear, The Smothers Brothers, my hero Glen Campbell, and of course Sonny & Cher. That show was somehow hilarious and cool at the same time. Seeing Cher on top of a piano singing "I'm a vamp." It was their song "I Got You Babe" that I never got sick of. Something about the oboe part just slays me. Then one day me and my cousins were picking up pop and chip...

If you mention the song "Sign of the Gypsy Queen" you'll get a flash of devil horns and a comment about April Wine. Okay maybe not the devil horns, but most of us remember when we heard April Wine launch into the opening notes of the song. It was awesome and it was written by Lorence Hud. When it was first released it was a regional hit in Canada, but I have no recollection of the song at the time. I was ten, so it's not like I'm going to be reliable regardless ... although some of those early memories are indelibly stamped into my brain. I always knew there was another version, and over time had read enough on the song to assume April Wine had taken some bare bones and reconstructed the song we know and love. That's partly true. There's more than enough in Lorence's version including a section with dual lead guitars to give the song a little more bite than expected, and it's a really good song, but not the great song April Wine released. Still giv...

Time for another edition of A Streaming Pile of Hit - where you put the "s" in hit is up to you. This time we go deep into the vat of cheese and dip into The Osmonds. Yeah you read this right. The Osmonds baby, and this is worth your time - really. Months ago I found a double album of material by the Osmonds. From the brothers to Donnie and Marie. It was a terrible cover, but on the inside were some surprises. Especially the stuff from the early '70s. I figured why not revisit Crazy Horses this looked like it had the potential to be awesome or awful. Far from being the joke you think you know the punchline to, there was a time these guys were the real deal. The album opens with "Hold Her Tight" a hard rocking song with a heavy driving riff that bears more than a passing resemblance to "The Immigrant Song" released in 1970 by Led Zeppelin. The difference being the smoking horn section and the talk box licks. Heavy metal wasn't a thing yet and whi...

This is the North American release of Himself that added his signature song "Alone Again (Naturally)" and changed up the cover art. Now Gilbert looked like Archie Andrews (without the ginger hair and freckles) rather than a street urchin from a Charlie Chaplin movie. If you didn't like the long haired freaky people, here was Gilbert, a dapper figure in his letter sweater looking like was just waiting to help an old lady cross the street to add to his collection of merit badges. This is a rather strange album. For me the draw was "Alone Again (Naturally)" with his double tracked vocal and  Paul McCartney infused delivery. The srupy string arrangement hearkened back to another time, but it sure was a great song. Even now this is a piece of pop magic, and it brings a smile to my face and a tear to my eye when I hear it - it makes me think about my dad. So I was more than a little curious when I got this from the bargain bin. It's not a throw away bubble gum alb...

As a teenager I knew more about Yes from their Roger Dean album covers than I did about their music. When I eventually upgraded my old Sound in the Round record player to a stereo that could go loud in the late '70s, the receiver also had a built in 8-track player. While never a fan of the fade out and click in the middle of a song, I did have a couple of cartridges I'd picked up, and I actually had a copy of Fragile , that I have no recollection of getting and played it a few times and remember not getting it at all - although "Roundabout" was as awesome as it was perplexing. Then the tape got eaten and that was that, and I didn't really think about Yes until the fall 1983 when the radio station across the line played this weirdly cool song called "Owner of a Lonely Heart" by ... Yes. Well, I remember thinking "That was cool." However, the classic Howe lineup wasn't my jam. I liked the Trevor Rabin era, and am still partial to his work wit...