Old Enough to Forget

Once upon a time the boys in Duran Duran were taking a break, and two of the three Taylors formed a band with Robert Palmer and drummer Tony Thompson who had pounded the literal shit out of the skins on Bowie's 1983 album Let's Dance . In the spring of 1985 they dropped an album called The Power Station , named after the legendary New York studio. I'm guessing the guys were having trouble coming up with a suitable band name as they opted to use the same name. The album opens with "Some Like it Hot" and right off the bat you really get the feeling you're in for a ride. To say Tony Thompson sounds huge on this song is an understatement. At this point in the mid '80s Phil Collin's was sort of the standard bearer for big gated toms and from the get go it's like Tony said to the engineer, "Hold my beer." Having Robert Palmer front was pretty cool, as at this point in his career he was still better known as that guy who covered "Bad Case o...

Once upon a time the cool boys would trash Duran Duran and the cool girls the boys wanted to get to know, had Duran Duran posters on their walls. They were the best of times, they were the worst of times. Begrudgingly I had to admit they had a few decent ear worms, and their videos were like cool mini movies. It wasn't easy to keep shitting on them, but I tried. I remember going to the mall back in 1984 with my buddy Mike, not that one, the other one, who used to date my wife (that's a story for another day) and we were talking about new music as we walked into a record store and there on the wall was a Duran Duran poster for Seven and the Ragged Tiger and I went into my whole Duran Duran sucks thing, and he looks me in the eye as if he's about to reveal a secret to me. "That's a pretty good album you know."  I can't remember my response, but it was probably really caustic. I think that was the trip I bought the new solo albums by Dennis DeYoung and Tommy...

At first glance you'd think this was a release by Julio Iglesias, but you'd be wrong. I'm not an expert in all things Palmer, but I've been a fan of sorts since first hearing him kill it covering Moon Martin's "Bad Case of Loving You" when I was in high school. While I never listened to this album in its entirety until now, I did  have the excellent compilation Addictions Vol.1 (I never did get the second as the first one hit all the high points for me) and recently found a copy of 1979's Secrets (which I enjoyed, and may revisit here at some point - or not) so I was prepared to hear some odd musical choices that were sort of his thing. He always seemed like a rather handsome class clown who was out there to have fun and do what he wanted. Robert Palmer was riding a wave, coming off the rather surprisingly good Power Station album and he would use the bump in notoriety to his advantage. When Riptide came out in 1985 he was primed and ready to go. You...