Old Enough to Forget

Joe Hall and the Continental Drift. Trying to categorize Joe Hall is a bit of a conundrum, wrapped in an enigma coated in Panko and fried in bacon grease and served with a sprig of parsley. I can't say I ever really understood Mister Hall, or really got his music, but for whatever reason I still kind of consider myself a fan. He's sort of a musical WTF with a question mark. Is he taking the piss or is he serious? During the waning days of poor Krazy Bob's I would go in more often than not to scour his discount bins that were more often than not seeded with some really cool stuff. On the day where I found this 1977 CBC Transcription, I also found replacement copies for a couple of his albums that I had back in the mid '80s: On the Avenue (1978)  and Rancho Banano (1980). I looked and looked hoping to find Drinking with the Continental Drift (1979) an album I never had, that would have filled in a missing piece. But it was either hiding or whoever dumped their records w...

Book of Dreams from 1977 was essentially the second half of The Steve Miller Band’s Greatest Hits 1974–78 . Steve Miller released one of rock’s great one-two punch combinations: Fly Like an Eagle in 1976 and Book of Dreams in 1977, records that cemented him as one of the defining artists of the ’70s. The bed tracks for these watershed albums were essentially recorded at the same time, which is part of what makes them feel so cohesive. I remember a friend once calling Book of Dreams the best collection of leftover material ever recorded. I’m not sure how much water that comment holds, and I suspect Mister Miller was more concerned with pulling together the songs that best fit together stylistically. Besides, the answer to the question, “What if all the great songs were released as one album?” was already answered in 1978 with Greatest Hits 1974–78 . Does one really need to hear Book of Dreams ? Kind of depends. Here’s my conundrum: I don’t have the greatest hits collection, so ye...

A while back I'd found City Boy's second album Dinner at the Ritz and I'd made a comment about being on the lookout for more of their stuff. Well, I didn't have to look that hard or wait that long. In addition to finding Young Men Gone West I also snagged a copy of Book Early, both of which have been patiently sitting waiting. There are others out there ... it's just a matter of time, and space ... I'll need more space soon. Before the recording sessions started drummer Roger Kent left the band, and Tony Braunagel from Crawler was brought in to play on Young Men Gone West . The dual lead vocalists Lol Mason, and Steve Broughton were awesome and really worked off each other. Their voices are fairly similar but not entirely alike. Sort of like how people used to confuse Henley and Frey. Mike Slamer the band's guitarist has a lot of room to stretch throughout the album but never overplays or resorts to technical noodling for the sake of the noodle. The...

As a kid the coolest name to say outloud that wouldn't get you into trouble was Engelbert Humperdink. I could not figure out how adults were able to take this British helmet haired crooner seriously. I mean as soon as I heard, "Ladies and Gentlemen, Engelbert Humperdinck." I'd just lose it. Hump a dink, ha ha ha. In my twenties, my roommate had an Engelbert Humperdinck album, and every once in a while he'd appear in the living room in a black velvet smoking jacket and proclaim it was time for some Humperdinck. "Release Me"was fine, "Quando Quando Quando" was good, but we'd loose our collective shit and belt out "Lonely is a Man without Love" and then prance around. I never said I was mature, and for whatever reason I had developed a begrudging respect for Mister Hump a dink as a fine vocalist. I'll also be the first to admit that there's a generic quality to his vocals that make him hard to distinguish from many of his con...

This was the third of the three recent albums I recently found by The Babys. I've got my eyes out for the debut, but there's always something about a bands sophomore record that can be cool. For some bands their debut is a one and done. All the songs they'd spent years crafting were likely polished and presented and the real test is whether or not the band could have lightning strike twice.  I already know the answer but I'm curious to hear this one. It's been a while since I've done a song by song first impression so I'm just going to drop (carefully place) the needle and jot down my thoughts in real time ... more or less. Here we go ...  "Wrong or Right" is a sort of clunky slow burn with strings. John Waite is in fine form. A decent enough lead in track. The song really starts strong, and I'm thinking, "This is cool" and then the band goes into the duh duh duh duh duh duh duh section and sort of works but just feels out of sync wit...

Gary Wright followed up his double platinum release The Dreamweaver in 1977 with The Light of Smiles . It must have been a surprise and a bit of a disappointment when the album didn't perform as well as hoped. It did chart as high as 23 on the Billboard top LP and Tape chart according to what I read on the wiki, but it must have been more of a spike than anything. As the album didn't seem to attain any certifications that I could see. Not that it matters, I've said it before, and I'll likely say it again (more than once) most of my favourite albums never really attained any significant commercial success.  I'd seen this album over the years, but that was about it. Gary Wright was Mr. Dreamweaver and I'm sure somehow it was worked into his epitaph when he passed away a couple of years ago. For me I was really curious about this one, lately I've been a sucker for finding albums that follow a big release. For Gary Wright he was flying high after The Dreamweave...

I couldn't help myself, this was three bucks, and looked to be in decent shape. Nothing a little bath wouldn't clean up. A few weeks ago I had a hankering for Crystal Ball and it was on repeat in the truck for several days. This was around the time I'd spent a few days spinning Equinox the last album to feature the original line-up. Crystal Ball was one hell of a transition album as it was the one to introduce Tommy Shaw into the mix. His impact was huge and immediate, it still sounded like Styx but more better. A year later Styx returned with The Grand Illusion and the band was a cohesive unit where everything was fitted together. The album opens with the title track and this just felt different. Dennis and Tommy were both front and centre with "JY" offering up the blistering riff monster that anchored "Miss America" to start side two. This was the start of the big run for the band, and while there are some killers on Pieces of Eight , and the band...

Fosterchild was a Canadian band who released three albums before calling it quits in 1980. The band's debut released in 1977 was produced by Bob Gallo, who also happened to be the head of A&R for CBS (Columbia) Records in Canada. The album was recorded at Little Mountain Sound in Vancouver, and mixed at Manta Studios in Toronto. I had been curious about the band for a long time, as I'd first heard of them around the same time I'd picked up Jim Foster's Powerlines. I just assumed the band would be one of those generic '70s rock acts that was good but nothing special. A while back I managed to find all three of the band's records and figured I get them all. Why not? I'll admit that the first spin through side one was pretty uneventful as I wasn't really paying attention and nothing really stood out. When I dropped the needle for a second pass I was more attentive and found myself enjoying the songs. I really liked the interplay between Jim Foster and V...

As a kid "Ballroom Blitz" was one of the coolest songs I'd ever heard, followed closely by "Fox on the Run." Those two songs more or less cemented Sweet's reputation for me. In the '80s I finally bought Desolation Boulevard and that more or less scratched that itch. Then in the early '90s I picked up their best of CD and got "Action" and the radio edit of "Love is Like Oxygen" and as a bonus "Little Willy" a song I knew but honestly never associated with The Sweet, or simply Sweet. During my formative years though it was the 45 of  "Action" that rocked my world. I was never a big fan of 45s and only had a few as I hated having to change the record after one song. However, as mix tape fodder they were awesome, except I didn't have the ability to make mix tapes until I was in my late teens. What does all this meanderambling have to do with anything? Not much, it's just me sitting here while listening to ...

Running on Empty is an album I associate with the early '80s, even though it came out in December of 1977. "Running on Empty" was the big song, and boy oh boy it had legs. Reading up on this one it was up for a couple of Grammy Awards in 1979. One for album of the year , and another for male vocal performance for "Running on Empty" which was pretty cool. As a record, Running on Empty was a bit of odd duck when it comes to live albums. Rather than the usual best of approach with crowd noise, Jackson Browne took a hard left at Albuquerque and road tested and recorded new songs. There were live songs, rehearsal songs, songs on a bus (which is really good, you can hear the bus), songs in a hotel room, and songs recorded backstage. He recorded it all over, everything recorded was part of the touring experience. Jackson Browne assembled a band featuring the best of the best. Russ Kunkel on drums, Leland Sklar on bass, Danny Kortchmar on guitar, and the incredible D...

File under: TLDR Note to the reader. First sorry, second not really, but I am sorry I don't have the ability to edit. Oh happy Valentine's day.  To celebrate let's take a gander at Meat Loaf's 1977 Bat Out of Hell. Over forty three million people disagree with me but for decades I thought this album was, and continues to be, one giant disappointment. I'll be the first to admit that despite decades of baggage the overwhelming power of nostalgia managed to erode even the hardest of convictions and I found that Bat Out of Hell was one of those albums I wanted to have in my collection, but I wasn't looking all that hard. It was an album I knew more about than I actually knew about. So at this moment in time I'm still holding firm on my long held opinion. But before I get into things, it's time for some meanderambling blurbage ... I remember seeing the cover when I was a kid and thinking it was the single greatest cover I had ever seen. What wonders were to b...

I'd heard of UFO before, but never actually heard them. The band's guitarist Michael Schenker was once a member of The Scorpions with his older brother Rudolf, but it's not like I knew much of their early work either. It just a nifty bit of trivia but that was about it. I sort of found Lights Out by accident. I'd been down to Krazy Bob's and I was looking for something specific so I tend to be able to get in and get out - usually with something I hadn't planned on getting by the time I leave. I tend to enjoy my visits when I'm the only one in the store and Bob isn't trying to entertain people with his array of parlour tricks. For me it's tiring but when he's alone, Bob is a treasure of knowledge and more often than not has an uncanny knack for suggesting something I'd not heard of before but was tangentially related to what I was looking for.  One of the perks of dropping a bit of cash is Bob will often ask you to choose a record (or two) fr...

Out There Tonight came out in '77 a year after the band's debut, and it was an album I'd been looking for since discovering Garfield a while back ... okay, last year. The band was a pleasant surprise, and I really enjoyed how Garfield French approached writing and how the songs were structured. It was progressive (I throw the term around, but basically to me it's a catch all for anything that isn't overly formulaic) and a little meandering, but not haphazard. This was carefully assembled and the off the cuff nature of Garfield's vocal delivery was deliberate. Think of Tommy Smother's acting all spontaneous and interrupting poor Dick with his meandering comments ... except nothing was random, it was meticulously crafted.   After I posted my blog about the band's debut I found Garfield's Facebook page. The page was inactive, but I figured I drop Mr. French a note to tell him how much I enjoyed the album. To my surprise I got a reply, and we traded a co...

"Short People" was the first song I'd heard by Randy Newman when I was a kid. It was also one of those songs far too many people took at face value based on the title, who didn't even bother to listen to the song. I still remember the tempest in a tea cup and even then it was perplexing. Dang, even Billy Barty wasn't very happy about the song.  I know there were a lot of people who seemed to pride themselves on not listening to the lyrics of a song as a way of defending themselves when listening to "questionable" music. At least that was a defence a lot of "Christian" kids used to defend listening to secular music. The ability to be tone deaf and easily offended isn't something new ... The problem with satire is to some folks it's just truth wrapped in humour as a way of sending in a Trojan horse filled with hate and bigotry. Randy Newman's affinity for first person narratives that cut deep can be a little on the nose, and with ...