Old Enough to Forget

Annunzio Paolo Mantovani died in March of 1980 at the age of 74. Before The Beatles dethroned him, Mantovani was Britian's most successful act. He was the king of lush orchestra arrangements, or more to the point, the syrupy strings that were all the rage once upon a time. It's not like people didn't eat it up. Reading up on Mantovani, because that's what I do ... and what better place to start than to skim over a wiki entry, he was a pretty big deal. According to the book British Hit Singles & Albums,  he was the first to sell over a million stereo albums, and it would seem he cranks out records like a sausage maker, in 1959 Mantovani had six albums in the US Top 30 at the same time. Goodness. Mantovani released a couple of Christmas albums back in the '50s, but this collection appears to be new recordings by The Mantovani Orchestra, conducted by long time arranger Roland Shaw. So even if Mantovani was no longer around, his arranger and orchestra were so it sti...

I had no idea who Walter Rossi was when I picked up Diamonds for the Kid . The name felt familiar, but I was probably confusing him with Gary Rossington. Who knows, I can't figure out how my brain works. Frankly it was the cover that caught my attention. My goodness that cream Les Paul Custom looked so cool. The Bigsby B7 and the missing middle pick up and the distinctive pots and mystery switch just looked awesome. There was Walter standing impatiently, looking a little like Al Di Meola (it reminded me of the Elegant Gypsy cover without the woman in black), with his hands on his hips with his shirt unzipped, probably down to his belt buckle, giving the camera a look that could wilt flowers and scare children. He may have looked like a middle aged guy with thinning hair who had seen it all and kept the receipts but he was only thirty three years old at the time. Walter was, as you may have guessed from the cover, a guitar player. In the '60s he earned his stripes playing with W...

On the Edge would be the last album by The Babys and their second to be released in 1980. John Waite would go on to a hit and miss solo career, and Jonathan Cain would join Journey. This was the album I liked best when I was a kid. I hadn't heard Union Jacks, so to me this was as good as the band got. The album opens with "Turn and Walk Away" that must have been a bigger hit in Canada as I'm sure I heard it on the radio. However, in the US it stalled outside the top 40. Too bad it didn't click, it's a hell of a song. This was the band's fifth record, and the band seemed to finally know what it wanted to be. The songs were cohesive and they were good. Sure, they were rooted in '70s rock, but the band seemed to be looking to the future.  The album was produced by Keith Olsen who was pretty busy during the '70s and '80s. There aren't many albums with his name on the jacket that I haven't enjoyed.  I wish I knew what the deal is with band...

DISCLAIMER: Today is a little more meanderambling than normal.  Oddly this wasn't the record I had intended to write about ... I was pulling out Heatbeat City and Panorama came out at the same time. So being me, I played both. It was strange and my reaction was backward to what I remembered. Back in the day it was Heartbeat City that I played to death ... I mean I had their other albums and they were good, but man oh man to 21 year old me Heartbeat City was far and away their best album. I hadn't actually played Heartbeat City end to end for a long time, and while I still thought it was great, it was  Panorama that felt fresh. It was the drums. David Robinson had a way with his fills and the way his tom toms jumped out of the speakers was just so good. They were fat and demanded attention. He didn't overdo it and not every song needed extra fills. Heartbeat City was mainly Fairlight programming and it was cool at the time.  Panorama was the band's third album ...

Hold Out came after a three year hiatus, and it would set the pattern for his releases through the '80s. After the success of Running on Empty it seemed like an eternity between records but his audience was waiting patiently and Hold Out would become his lone number one album on the Billboard charts. The album didn't do as well here in Canada but it would crack the top ten stalling at number six. This was the album I came to a few years later when my friend Steve couldn't stop heaping praise on the record. At the time I was enjoying Lawyers in Love and I did like the songs I'd heard on the radio. Over the years I've had this album on vinyl, then CD and now again on vinyl. Why get it again? It was on sale ... and I'm a sucker ... and despite some pithy comments to come, I really liked this album. It's always fun going back and reading up on things that are decades old and discovering the vitriol some artists are blessed with from the various critics. Jackso...

Union Jacks fell in between the trio of albums I had by the band back in the day. My buddy Andew who I'd jam with back in high school introduced me to some cool bands, notably Harlequin because he made me learn the guitar parts (as a fifteen year old I thought I got pretty close) to "You are the Light" and then we were farting around one afternoon and he was playing the lead riff to "Head First" by a band called The Babys. I thought it was really cool. It was probably not long after I picked up the album, and then when they dropped I'd snag Union Jacks and the band's last album On the Edge that came out in the fall of 1980. It's been a while since I've listened to The Babys and it's a bit weird listening now. Jonathan Cain would join Journey and John Waite would manage to carve out a pretty decent solo career. Then in the late '80s while Journey was in limbo Jonathan Cain, John Waite and Ricky Phillips would team up with Neil Schon and...

Ah, Split Enz - the new wave band who introduced the world to Tim's little brother Neil.  Thank you, good night. Don't forget to tip your server on the way out. But seriously folks, Split Enz.  Back in 1980 Split Enz was riding the crest of the first wave of new wave (it was clunky in my head too, but it is what it is). The band was creating something new and fresh and somehow still hearkened back to the roots of rock and roll. This was the album that had "Shark Attack" and the amazing "I Got You." There are others you may be partial to, but those are the songs I remember and frankly I never had any of their albums so pretty much everything is a deep cut when it comes to the band outside of the "radio" hits. Still, those two songs were indelibly marked into my musical DNA. All I knew about the band was they were from New Zealand, and that they'd been around a while before becoming an overnight success. "Wait a second, then how come you...

Back in 1980 rock and roll was all over the place. The strange adult contemporary soft rock was right alongside the real rock and roll, and frankly it didn't seem out of place. The Doobie Brothers were probably to blame for much of this music taking over ... but honestly this was always around in some shape or form. Heck Player was mining the same vein back in '77 with "Baby Come Back" and it was Christopher Cross who really cracked it wide open showing there was gold in them there grooves. The derogatory term "Yacht Rock" hadn't been invented yet. This was just soft rock, or commercial rock, or radio friendly rock, or whatever. Now Yacht Rock is a beloved genre. Who'd a thunk it, and frankly a lot of acts who are on the boat shouldn't be ... that's the problem with labels, everybody ends up with one whether they need it or not. The album kicks off with one of the two songs I remembered from back in the day. Actually I thought there was a thi...

Good gravy here were are enjoying the lazy dog days of summer and thankfully the basements is still relatively cool compared to the rest of the house. The tunes are cranked and I'm annoying everyone in the house. Life is good. I suppose the most interesting thing to me in this bunch of records was hearing Leo Sayer's Living in a Fantasy , an album that fits with Cliff Richard's early '80s output produced by Alan Tarney. Man there was some good stuff coming in the early to mid '80s. Leo Sayer - Living in a Fantasy (1980) Christopher Cross -  Every Turn of the World (1985) Chalk Circle - The Great Lake (EP) (1986) Cliff Richard - Wired for Sound (1981) Red Rockers - Schizophrenic Circus (1984) Leo Sayer - Living in a Fantasy (1980) Man, had I known how good this album was I'd have gotten it years ago. I really, really liked the songs Alan Tarney produced with Cliff Richard. Oddly Cliff had a huge hit with "Dreamin'" in 1980, a song produced and ...

Oh boy here we are with the twelfth instalment of Stylus Over Substance. What was supposed to be the short bite sized impressions of stuff I didn't feel like waxing all nonsensical over and wasting too many words.  I've not always been successful, or coherent. Does it really matter? Probably not, you're either in, or you're out. It's all good. Sometimes it's better. I'm still working my through the piles of records I got for Christmas, and the additional pile I just got for Father's Day will eventually get my attention. Sit back, put your feet up, let's celebrate the fifty five other entries that came before, and get to the next five. Howard Jones - Action Replay (1986) Martha and The Muffins - Trance and Dance (1980) Terry Jacks - Y'Don't Fight the Sea (1975) Barney Bigard & "The Pelican Trio" - Barney Bigard & "The Pelican Trio" (1978) The Alpha Band - Spark in the Dark (1977) Howard Jones - Action Replay (19...

The future had arrived in 1980 and it was dragging the dinosaurs into the light. Suddenly Pete Townshend was standing in the open, looking around like he meant to be there. Perhaps he did. I mean, as a kid I wasn't unaware of who he was. Who he was. Ha, that's good one. I kill myself. Bottom line though, he was old. Woodstock old. That was old. So it was weird to hear and see so much of Pete Townshend at the beginning of the '80s when there were new sounds and new artists that were demanding attention. Okay, when I say so much, it wasn't as much as you'd think but the songs that were generating what seemed like constant rotation was probably over in the space of a couple of months. As a teenager time and physics don't work as closely as they do when you get older. Time is malleable, and those summer months where I first heard "Let My Love Open the Door" were magical times. Full of late nights by the lake, sleeping in a cabin, working in the bush with ...

The Doobie Brothers, yeah I know what you're thinking. Actually, I have no idea. More than likely you're likely asking, "What were you thinking?" Fair. As a kid it was "China Grove" that really got under my skin. That riff. Bam! My aunt and uncle had an 8 track copy of The Captain and Me along with a few others that to this day are indelibly stamped into my DNA. It's weird though that I don't remember more about that tape, aside from the weird fades and clicks as it moved from track to track and the cover. Something about that overpass just felt, sad . There were a few songs by the band I always really liked, but by the time I really got into music, the band was old and tired. Well, old at any rate they'd been around for years, how old were those guys? I mean my goodness I was listening to them when I was ten. Then when Michael McDonald joined the band things changed. There was a four year period between 1976 and 1980 then this new brand of Doob...

Well, things have been bustling in the house over the last little while. Mainly the boys took over the basement between semesters and that meant I more or less lost the use of the turntable while they played games to all hours of the night. I still manage to get some time in and relax but I've been tasked with a number of spring things too ... the driveway and back patio won't pressure wash themselves ... This time out is another collection of odds and sods. A couple of these were new to me and a few of these I'd not heard in years and years. Without further adieu I present to you the tenth iteration of Stylus over Substance ... no jumping, I don't want to skip the record. Rick Springfield - Tao (1985) The Kinks - Word of Mouth (1984)  Streetheart - Quicksand Shoes (1980) Kate & Anna McGarrigle - Dancer with Bruised Knees (1977) Kansas - Vinyl Confessions (1982) Rick Springfield - Tao (1985) This was one of the more overlooked albums by Rick Springfield. I bough...