Old Enough to Forget

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 ...

I'm still digging myself out from the pile of records in the basement. Not that I mind, but my goodness there's a lot of stuff to go through, and frankly I don't want to short myself on anything so I'm still trying to spend time with them before putting them away. Oh, some will stay put for a long time I suspect, but there are always hidden gems and treasures among the old things that are new to me, A mixed bag this time of the familiar and not so much. The Who - Face Dances (1981) Rick Springfield - Hard to Hold (1984) Gino Vannelli - Brother to Brother (1978) Red Rider - Breaking Curfew (1984) Doucette - Coming Up Roses (1981) The Who - Face Dances (1981) This would be the band's first album after the death of drummer Keith Moon. Sitting on the throne behind the kit was Kenny Jones, who had been a member of The Small Faces. The album was produced by Bill Szymczyk and yielded the classic, "You Better You Bet" that helped pull the album to platinum s...

But Seriously Folks , released back in '78 was Joe's first solo album in a few years, and although I didn't know it at the time it was a pretty typical Joe Walsh record. ... that says nothing and makes no sense. Bear with me, I'm going to see what I can do with that and hopefully redeem myself. I have a pretty good idea what I meant. I'm just waiting for my coffee to kick in. Joe Walsh had been building his solo career after leaving The James Gang (I still remember going to the drive in theatre with my uncle Lloyd and my cousins where we saw Zachariah (if you know, you know) and The Holy Grail in a double feature. I'd see both movies more than once, and of those two I'd see one way more times than I should admit). While his first solo record Barnstorm did okay, it was his next two albums, The Smoker You Drink, the Player You Get and So What that would go gold. Joe was setting to be a pretty significant solo artist.  Then he joined the Eagles and put his so...

As a kid "Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo" was everything a rock and roll song needed to be. It was big, it was infectious and it was awesome, it had a lot of guitar. For many years this was all I needed to know about Rick Derringer. Then in the '80s I started seeing his name show up in weird places. Most notably "Weird" Al records. Of course being a wrestling fan back in the day when the curtain hadn't been pulled back to reveal the true nature of the business, I watched in awe as Hulk Hogan entered the ring to Rick Derringer's "Real American" and I knew this was Rick Derringer because they were schilling Rocking Wrestling , or The Wrestling Album , I don't know what it was called, and looking it up mid sentence just seems like a lot of effort. I did know that Rick was involved and I found that weird, and cool at the same time. Recently as I've been diving into a lot of records Rick's name kept popping up all over the place, from Bonnie ...

For number Four it's a mixed bag of five albums for your reading pleasure. Three out of five were new to me which is always an adventure. I think my favourite find in the bunch this time around was the Joe Walsh release. I do love me some Joe Walsh. Gotta say, four months in and holding steady. It's the last Sunday in May so without further ado ... Five for Fighting No.4 Joe South - Games People Play (1970?)  Moon Joyce - The Infinite Edge (1985)  Wang Chung - Points on the Curve (1983) Joe Walsh - The Smoker You Drink, The Player You Get (1973) Nestor Pistor - Nestor Pistor for Prime Minister (1978) Joe South - Games People Play (1970?) I was intrigued by the cover and figured this could be an interesting discovery and at worst I'd be out a buck. This was a re-issue on Pickwick, which meant it was licensed from Capitol and the songs were cobbled together from different releases. Not quite a greatest hits, but it was a mixed bag of pretty interesting tunes. Trying t...

1972 was a good year for Mister Winter. In the spring he released Roadwork (which I really liked) and then that fall he'd release They Only Come out at Night with his new band The Edgar Winter Group. The group would feature a young Dan Hartman on vocals, bass, and guitar and a lot of other stuff (he was a wunderkind, his picture looks like it a yearbook photo), and Ronnie Montrose on guitar - a year later Ronnie would leave and start his own band - but it was here that Ronnie honed his rock chops. I'll be honest I got this for two tracks "Free Ride" and "Frankenstein" and if the other eight tracks blow chunks I'd still feel like I got my monies worth. Then again, I found this in the dollar bin - it was a risk as who knows what condition this thing would turn out to be in. Turns out that with a little spit and polish the record looked pretty good. The record leads off with "Hangin' Around" and it's a decent song, and as the first side...

Of all their albums, this is probably the one I return to most often. A lot of the appeal is nostalgia, but also time and place. That, and I happen to really like this one. I was too young to fully appreciate Hotel California when it came out - I loved the title track, but I didn't get the album until many years later. When The Long Run finally dropped in the fall of 1979 the music I was listening to then was part of my most formative years, and this was fitted right in with a lot of my other favourite artists. New technology was starting to emerge as well, and the drum machine hand clap on "Heartache Tonight" was considered cutting edge. I heard a radio interview where Don Henley was explaining the drum sound and how they were going to replicate that in concert. Considering their last studio album, not counting the Christmas single, was a couple of years earlier it was an eternity between albums - and when they finally did get together to record the follow up to Hotel ...

Well, for a dollar I'm not going to get too bent out of shape over some idiot with the initials "BB" who thought adorning the album with their initials was a good idea. I thought since I'd managed to get an entire name printed in block letters off a Nick Lowe record, I'd have no problem with two little initials. There's the rub ... as you can see I managed to fade it a little, but I quickly realized I was also rubbing off the album art too. So I stopped rubbing before I wouldn't be able to see. Enough of that, as much fun as it is to write out thinly veiled juvenile masturbation jokes I think I'm edging close to losing it, so I'll stop. Okay, now I'll stop. Sorry. But they started it. Do they have mulligan's in blogwriting? Or am I supposed to do the honourable thing and delete stuff? Let's just start again, but as a compromise I'm leaving the other stuff as a reminder to myself to show what happens when I write without really think...

By 1983 I was already a huge fan of Joe Walsh. He was the court jester who also managed to be the king of his castle. I knew he was an Eagle, and he and Don Felder were the wonder twins thanks to "Hotel California" but what sealed it for me was his 1979 contribution to The Warriors soundtrack "In the City" a song that hit me in the feels, and to this day is one of my desert island songs. The Eagles version was okay too, but didn't have the same kick in the happy sack as the original. Fast forward to the spring of 1983 and Joe Walsh released You Bought It - You Name It , which to me is one of his best releases - ever. As much as I like his other stuff when I go to a Joe Walsh album it's this one. Go figure. I guess I was primed for this one given that one of my favourite songs from the Fast Times at Ridgemont High (the same records that introduced me to Oingo Boingo) soundtrack was his throwaway track "Waffle Stomp." When I lost most of my records ...

Oh what's this? I had no idea what to expect here, but it was on Asylum records, a label that had a great track record of releasing solid artists. It was produced by Bill Szymczyk who also produced the Eagles and Joe Walsh. Some of the names were familiar as well, so I figured it was worth a shot. Worst case I'm out a buck. The inner sleeve was missing (who knows what treasures were missing, more likely it was a plain plastic insert), but the jacket was okay and the vinyl was in better shape than I thought it would be. This was released in 1973 and is very much of its time, which isn't a bad thing. I love 70s rock and roll. It's enjoyable, and there were no clunkers that made me want to turn it down, but honestly not particularly memorable after my first listen. But it did warrant more time on the turntable.  I'm on my third pass now and it has a solid groove and songs are starting to stand out (according to the ever reliable Wikipedia it cracked the top 100 peaking...