Old Enough to Forget

As a kid I'd belt out "All By Myself" whenever I heard Eric Carmen's song come on the radio. It was a huge song ... at least to me. For a long time that was all I knew about him. I was a product of AM radio and unless my older cousins or my cool Aunt and Uncle had it I was stuck in that tiny bubble.  The first time I saw a Raspberries record I was at my buddy Andy's apartment in the mid '80s and was sitting on the floor looking through his voluminous collection. Andy was a couple of years older than I was and back then he was on the local co-op radio doing his thing. The station didn't have a lot of bandwidth and I couldn't get it out in the suburbs, so I never got to hear him and his dulcet tones. Andy was cool, had a cool voice, and a cool record collection. He loved The Grateful Dead, Michael Nesmith, and thought commercial music was a cancer. His girlfriend, and one of my closest friends Lori and I happened to think Starship's "We Built Th...

I'll admit I'm sort of a sucker for this era of soft rock. It likely explains why I'm such a big fan of Christopher Cross ... no I am not kidding. Before Mister Cross though there were others - one of whom was Stephen Bishop. A year earlier he had contributed a couple of songs to Art Garfunkel's 1975 album Breakaway , and this helped him secure a record deal. Careless would feature some of the best players of the '70s: Andrew Gold, Jay Graydon, Larry Carlton and Eric Clapton played guitar, Russ Kunkel and Jim Gordon among others on drums, and Chaka Khan who was also on ABC records appeared as a backing vocalist on a couple of track. Art Garfunkel also appeared on a few tracks. For a debut this is pretty awesome. Stephen co-produced the album with Henry Lewy who also engineered the album. Lewy was no stranger to great sounding albums which included  Mitchell's Blue and Neil Young's Harvest . The album opens with Stephen Bishop's biggest hit - or at least ...

Released in December of 1976, Hotel California would go on to become one of the best selling albums of all time. In the US it would go platinum twenty six times, and here in Canada it would move over a million units. As impressive as those numbers are, it would be Their Greatest Hits (1971–1975) that was released at the beginning of 1976 that has over 44 million reported sales. If you're keeping score there have been ten albums in the modern era that have reported sales of over 40 million and the Eagles hold the number 5 and 6 spots. I finally bought my copy well after the shine had worn off and the band had splintered into little pieces with the members trying their hands at being solo artists. Some with more success than others. As a kid I'd heard the album quite a few times. Heck I remember sitting in my friend's bedroom while the record played and that was probably around 1980 and us kids were still listening to the album. Aside from the title track I loved "Life ...

Back in the day it seemed like all the cool kids had a copy of the Steve Miller Band's Greatest Hits 1974–78 . The band had been pumping out albums since 1968, but the label figured the keys to success were to be found by only taking songs from the holy trinity of albums released between (stop reading if you know where this is going) 1974 and 1978. Although to be fair (did you add the extra 'to be fair' in your head?) the band didn't release anything new in '78 but the hits album came out ... I'm guessing on the assumption that it would be a hit before it was. The only thing I ever had as a kid by the band was a 45 of "Take the Money and Run" that I played a lot, and I always wanted to get more, but never did. Not even the legendary greatest hits record. Of course over the years I would end up with an awful lot of his stuff.  There was a lot of good stuff out there by Steve Miller, but it was the hits I wanted to hear. I didn't mind his blues stuff...

As a thirteen year old hormonal kid there was something about a red eyed devil woman wearing polka dot underpants that made my tummy feel funny ... okay it was lower than my tummy but really no one needs to know that. 1976 was a weird year. I was still big into BTO and rock and roll was king. However, there was an earworm that seemed to be everywhere and on all the time, "From New York to L.A." that was deliciously infectious and who cares if it was disco or that the song seemed to play at double time leaving Patsy Gallant singing her little heart out trying to keep up with the music. I can still sing along with the chorus, and this one song is why I picked up the album when I found it in a discount bin. I'd not thought of her or the song in decades, however, I saw the album in a bin and there she was red eyes and polka dots and while my tummy didn't tingle I did him under my breath, "I'm a star in New York ..." and almost expected someone to do the call...

I'm kind of surprised I didn't write about In Another Land earlier. I suspect this may be longer than it needs to be (likely a lot longer), sorry in advance but you should stick around anyway - it may be worth it. In terms of watershed albums this is right near the top of the most influential albums I have ever heard. The album was released in 1976 and a number of the older kids knew about him, but I was pretty clueless about Christian music. I was at a youth conference in '77 or '78 (things get fuzzy ) and the cool kids (who were likely four or five years older) were talking about an upcoming concert he was going to have in Vancouver, likely the Queen Elizabeth theatre but honestly the details are sketchy. The fact I remember anything at all is kind of amazing.  It was the youth group dances in the late '70s and early '80s where I first got a taste of his music. The big dance songs were "Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music" and "The Roc...

I was too young to remember The Poppy Family, although over the years some of their songs, "Which Way You Going Billy?" and "Where Evil Grows" have become part of the great Canadian musical tapestry.  To me though Susan Jacks was the lady who sang, "I Thought of You Again" a song that appeared on Canadian Mint a K-Tel compilation that also included "Where Evil Grows" and "Seasons in the Sun" songs that were connected although at the time I had no idea. I never really thought much of Susan Jacks outside of this one song. I never forgot the song, but it was just part of a memory from another time. When I heard of her passing a couple of years ago it made me sad.  A few months ago my wife and I went to Victoria to hang out for the weekend and go for the world's most expensive high tea at The Empress Hotel. It was also a weekend where an atmospheric river savaged the southern coast of BC. Vancouver was hit pretty hard and my buddies ba...

My introduction to Dwight Twilley came back in '84 when I first heard the single "Girls" on the radio. It was one of those albums that I remember still remember fondly. There was no internet and finding anything out about people was hit and miss depending on what you could suss from RollingStone, and later on Spin Magazine was cool. Really the only way to figure shit out for the average Luddite like me was to just go to the record store and look. At the time I had no idea what the difference was between Dwight Twilley the band, and Dwight Twilley the solo artist. I just figured it was a phase. I did manage to pick up Scuba Divers , and honestly sitting here I can't remember anything about it. Over the last year I'd picked up the two Phil Seymour albums, and I'd actually spent a fair bit of time listening to those, and I'd written up a slightly longer than usual bloggerity thing only to have a connection issue at some point where I save a blank page, and li...

Wings. Not Paul McCartney and Wings. Just Wings. Of course the reality is Wings was Paul's band. End of discussion. Wings at the Speed of Sound though is a band effort. To me this was their best line up. The core trio of Paul, Linda, and Denny were augmented by Jimmy McCulloch, on stringed things, and Joe English on drums. While the majority of the songs were credited to Paul and Linda, each member got a turn taking lead vocals which I was Paul's way of emphasizing Wings was a band. As a kid, it was the radio hits I knew, and on occasion a deeper track that would get some play. This is unfortunately the album known for "Silly Love Songs" a song so deeply and truly shitty I want to drag the needle across the record. I don't though. I persevere and who know, it's pushing fifty years now, it should be softening. Why not, I bought a Village People album ... and enjoyed it. I suppose I should just put the record on. I won't have to make any rash decisions unti...

If there was an artist I actively despised as a kid it was Leo Sayer. "You Make Me Feel Like Dancing" was just plain stupid, and that horrific Frankie Valli falsetto was too much. I always thought he looked liked a diminutive version of Robin William's as Mork flying through the air. Which just shows how time blurs things, as Mork and Mindy wouldn't debut for another two years or so after this album came out ... but I remember the cover, and the blurring of time certainly hasn't helped.  I always thought of Leo Sayer as being huge in the disco era, and that songs like the aforementioned dancing song and the ballad "When I Need You" were later than this ... apparently I was wrong. Funny that. I have memories of Leo Sayer on those late night music shows, and I guess it just all sort of ran together. Anyway, back to my active dislike of all things Leo Sayer. It really wasn't based on anything other than he wasn't rock, and I didn't like how he s...

"In the year 2076 radio and rock & roll will be around and some nostalgia freak with be munching on a kelp-burger and playing these songs as golden oldies." This was taken from the back of the album jacket, and they were only out by half a century. This was an album my buddy Andy had and I didn't get much more than a cursory shrug when I asked him if it was any good. I should probably let you know that as a kid there was no band more important to me than The Monkees. Those early shows, particularly when the band performed made me want to play. I didn't want to wear a toque (or as it was known with Michael Nesmith, "Wool Hat") but I wanted to play guitar. Those big Gretsch's were beautiful. The fly in the ointment was Davey, even back then I could tell he was there for the little girls, and I found his songs to be mostly annoying. Here we are in 1976 and the combination of Dolenz and Jones with the songwriting and production chops seemed like a good i...