Old Enough to Forget

A while back I snagged a bunch of new albums in an auction. I didn't think I'd win them, I just thought it would be cool if I won, so I put in a low ball and forgot about it until I got a message telling me to come and get them. Among them was Robin Trower's Bridge of Sighs . I knew about Robin Trower but really hadn't heard anything. The closest I got was a cover version of "Bridge of Sighs" by Steve Lukather from his 2021 album I Found the Sun Again .  Robin Trower was essentially a power trio comprised of Robin on guitar, with Reg Isidore on drums and James Dewar on bass and lead vocals. The guys weren't messing around with pretty pop songs, they were a rocking blues combo. Robin's blistering and tasteful guitar work was right up front, as was James' powerful voice. He sounded to me at least like a wicked blend of Paul Rodgers and David Clayton Thomas ... more Paul than Dave to be honest. All of this was enveloped by Reg's drumming ...  incl...

Albert Hammond is a name I knew as a kid because I loved "I'm a Train" a song that appeared on one of the K-tel collections I had. When I recently found a copy of Dynamite I got reacquainted with Mister Hammond and it got me thinking, "Surely he did more than just the train song." Surely (and don't call me Shirley) he did. I was actually quite surprised at how many songs of his I did know. As a solo artist he had recorded and released "It Never Rains In Southern California" in 1972, and when he found the hamster wheel life of a recording artist to be too much he turned to writing for and with others. A few of the songs he had a hand in: "99 Miles from L.A."  "I Don't Wanna Live Without Your Love"  "The Air That I Breathe"  "When I Need You"  "To All the Girls I've Loved Before"  It was his solo work I was interested in, and it just so happened I found a copy of his 1974 self titled release. ...

When I was a kid for a long time (kid time) my record collection was one album - Dynamite . Then it doubled when I bought Canadian Mint . Of course my memory is a tad flawed, but it wasn't until '75 I bought Four Wheel Drive as my first real album and I had those K-tel records for what seemed like forever. Dynamite and Canadian Mint were indelible records. For a generation who grew up on these weirdly edited hits and oddly sequenced collections we owe a debt of gratitude to Mr. Philip Kives who managed to make Winnipeg Manitoba the centre of the musical universe ... for a little while.  I was feeling a tad nostalgic the other day and decided to see if I could find my musical Rosetta Stone records. Apparently there are others like me, and when I asked about them Bob pointed me to a section that was set aside for K-tel compilations.  Oooh. While it wasn't a huge section it did yield not one, but two very nice copies of Dynamite at two very different price points ... and I ...

I was eleven when my aunt and uncle got me this for Christmas in 1974. I didn't have many albums and I played this album over and over. For me this was where Elton John started and ended. I never bought anything else, and while occasionally I'd hear songs on the radio this was the only album I needed. Elton's run from 1970 through 1974 was pretty amazing, and the songs selected here managed to touch on most of the big songs from this period. Of course there were omissions and substitutions depending on whether you were in the UK or North America, but at this time I had no idea. This was called Greatest Hits , so my young brain took this at face value. I have an indelible memory of me in the basement singing along to the radio when "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" was playing and I had my parents little wedge tape recorder beside the radio. As I sang along I thought I sounded so much Elton John I needed to record myself ... um, I recall hearing what I sounded ...

Obladi obla dah. This month has a double shot of The Knack a band I've gotten into lately. They were so much more than a one hit wonder. I also figured four was enough this time. Rick Wakeman - Journey to the Centre of the Earth (1974) The Knack -  ... But the Little Girls Understand (1980) The Knack - Round Trip (1981) Foreigner - Inside Information (1987) Rick Wakeman - Journey to the Centre of the Earth (1974) I bought this as a curiosity, and it was a curiosity I got. I'd seen so many copies in the dollar bin it just seemed too interesting to pass up. I'll be the first to admit this would have been an astounding show to see live; however, hearing it as a stand alone experience is a little more disconnected. While there were parts that were certainly engaging, and I was particularly enamoured with the narration by David Hennings, there there were quite a few sections where in the cold light of day you hear the imperfections evident in the performance. While it can b...

Number thirteen and still plugging away. I have notice though that I'm not keeping with the theme as consistently as I had expected. The intent of dropping a bunch of mini blurbs was to save me time and to allow me to put down some thoughts on albums without having to go too deep. You know, "Oh I liked this one." that sort of thing. But nope. My balloon is apparently very much full of hot air. Some of these are longer and I suppose I could have just blown a little more air into them and released them on their own. But I didn't, still I did get in a couple of short ones, so I'll take it as a win. Welcome to the summer baby. Get a drink, pull up a chair and let's waste so time shall we? Steppenwolf - Steppenwolf (1968) Max Webster - Live Magnetic Air (1979) Ian Thomas - Long Long Way (1974) The Grass Roots - Golden Grass: Their Greatest Hits (1968) Mel Tillis - Night Train to Memphis (1967) Steppenwolf - Steppenwolf (1968) Steppenwolf is one of those bands who...

Here we go kids. Hope you're ready as well start the slide into the summer months. Junary can be a weird month where it's either too hot, too cold, or too boring. I'm still working my way through the records I bought last December, and while I'm still adding to the pile I'm trying to slow down. Having my favourite record store go tits up was really bad for them, but good for me. Although they do have an auction, and at times that's been a problem but that's my cross to bear. This time out is another mixed bag of nuts. Some of the albums I had back in the day, and others are new to me. It's always fun to sit down, turn on and turn it up. Rock and Hyde - Under the Volcano (1987) Three Dog Night - Naturally (1970) The Moody Blues - This is The Moody Blues (1974) Carl Perkins and NRBQ - Boppin' the Blues (1970) The Kinks - Give the People What They Want (1981) Rock and Hyde - Under the Volcano (1987) A couple years after Payolas tried and failed to gr...

Paper Lace, oh man. "The Night Chicago Died" and "Billy Don't Be a Hero" (although I don't think it was their version I remember. That honour went to The Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods in North America) were ear worms of the highest order when I was a little kid. There was something decidedly infectious about the songs and while as I got older I developed a certain disdain for the songs that moved me in my youth there was always a spot in my heart for this stuff. It's why I still like to listen to "Seasons in the Sun" and "Last Kiss" and am not ashamed to admit this was my jam. Of course Paper Lace was never a band who seemed to rise above their early success and have been more or less relegated to the pile of other AM gold singles that bombarded the airwaves in the '70s. This particular Polydor release appears to be a repackaging of ...And Other Bits Of Material the band put out in 1974. As to whether it was available here I don...

By 1974 Andy Kim was already a pretty established writer and performer. Most of us kids knew "Sugar Sugar" but couldn't have told you who wrote or sang it ... it was The Archies and that was that. Of course everything is processed through a lens and there's a huge difference between what I was able to process as an eleven year old who was obsessed with the radio and music and the knowledge and trivia I have accumulated over the intervening decades ... decades . Good lord, when did I get old? Andy Kim was the eponymous release on ICE records in 1974, and it was distributed here in Canada by London Records. The song everyone, and I mean EVERYONE knows is "Rock Me Gently" a song that was made to sing along too. Like so many others back in the day much of my record collection was comprised of K-Tel anthologies, and there were two that I played until I almost wore the needle through the vinyl. Canadian Mint . 22 songs that were carefully edited and condensed to ...

Here we are at the end of Christmas celebrating Epiphany. In addition to the traditional gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh I offer to you John Fahey's 1974 re-issue of his 1968 album The New Possibility . An album that was an unexpected surprise and will no doubt become a record I return to over and over. I had no idea who John Fahey was when I picked up the album, all I knew was it had an interesting cover, that could have been released any time over the last fifty years. It was the definition of simplicity, and it was on Takoma records, a label I knew from Truth Decay by T Bone Burnett way back in 1980. I figured it was likely some acoustic flavoured collection of Christmas carols and that would be just a-okay by me. One of my all time favourite Christmas albums is A Christmas Collection by Neil Hogan that came out in 1989, and featured finger style steel string renditions of popular favourites. The album opens with "Joy to the World" and sure enough it was exactl...

I figured, you can't really go wrong with Mr. Showmanship. I was still rooting around for records before Christmas, and honestly I ended up with more records than I had time to sit and digest. Oh, playing them was another matter, but sitting and taking it in and then trying to compose a pithy regurgitation of my auditory experience just took time I didn't have this season. Regardless when I found 'Twas The Night Before Christmas I was pretty excited, mainly because I'd be able to play it in the basement when mum was over, and not have her complain about the noise. After all, her favourite song ever, is Frank Chacksfield's "Ebb Tide" so her tastes run to the schmaltzy ... but in a good way. For me it just hearkens back to another time and it always feels nostalgic. I won't fall into the trap of equating them with the good old days, or a simpler time ... not being there I can't make such a sweeping generalization and not come across as a naive simpl...

Ah, a good old fashioned sing-a-long album full of medleys of all your favourite Christmas carols. Over the course of eight songs, Max accompanied by a full orchestra conducted by Frank Barber, would tackle and wrestle to the ground twenty eights songs, and one reprise. Max was a British comedian, singer, and impressionist whose career started in the mid '40s and he kept going for over sixty years. He passed away at the age of 89 in 2012. It was his singalong series that apparently sold in the millions on Pye Records, and he wasn't targeting the youth market - he was aiming for an older demographic and was hearkening to a bygone era. The bottom right corner on this one has Vol. 8 which at first confused me, were there seven more in this series? Well, yes ... and no. There weren't seven Christmas albums, but this was his eighth. I have to admit that I had prejudged the album based solely on the cover. It looked like a children's record and I figured the singalong songs w...

Hot on the heels of We're an American Band, Grand Fund teamed up again with producer Todd Rundgren and released Shinin' On in March of 1974.  The album is probably best remembered for the band's cover of "The Loco-motion" that took the Eva King classic written by Gerald Goffin and Carole King and turned it to eleven and delivered one of the greatest distorted guitar solos of all time. The album is short, just a little over half an hour and contained eight songs. Depending on how you look at it the album is pretty uneven and somewhat generic. However, then they were good, they were next level. The album opens with the title track, and that one is pretty great. The previously mentioned "Loco-motion" was the reason I picked up the album - well, that's not entirely true, it was in the dollar bin and in pretty decent shape - I would have picked it up regardless, but I was stoked to get the choo choo song. What I wasn't expecting was how unbelievably...

Funny how things have changed. As a kid I hated Chicago. I mean, I remember hearing "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?" and I would think, "Yeah, it's time to turn off the radio." Then when David Foster unleashed "Hard to Say I'm Sorry" in the early '80s Chicago would release a series of insufferable ballads that resulted in Peter Cetera becoming bigger than the band. I have to admit I secretly liked some of those songs. I eventually bought my first Chicago album in 1988 when the band released 17 - because I liked "Heart in Pieces" - I even liked it when Tim Feehan put out his version of the song on his 1990 release Full Contact . Yeah I'm taking a while to get to the point, mainly because this is a weird album for me. I'm trying to process what I'm hearing. I found this for a buck, which means I paid fifty cents a side for this double album. Released in 1974 VII is a bit of an odd duck, is it a jazz record? Is it ...