Old Enough to Forget

"Eyes of a Stranger" is a remarkable song. It put Payola$ on the musical map, and even after over four decades the song is still awesome. The band may have garnered some fans with it's debut and "China Boys" a song that got some sporadic play back in the day ... but I never really liked it all that much. This was the album that was supposed to allow the guys in the band to quit their day jobs, except for Bob Rock who balanced his house duties at Little Mountain Sound and being in the band. A wise choice as history would show. The band was centred on the core of Bob Rock (guitars) and Paul Hyde (Vocals) along with Chris Taylor on drums, and Laurence Wilkins on bass. Lawrence would depart after this album. The band's sound was born out of the British punk scene from the late '70s and their fuck you attitude was on full display with the band's name: Payola$. Yeah, that's a name that'll open doors to radio. I wonder how many conversations took pl...

Two Worlds came out in 1985 and the '80s had a sound, and by gum this was it. The flat splat of the drums, crisp guitars and gang vocals and sparkly keyboard parts. Body Electric was one of those bands who never really got out of the starting blocks. I remember seeing a poster for the band's debut on the wall at Little Mountain Sound. It was a cool cover, but all I knew was it was Frank Ludwig's new band, and as talented as Frank was, I never really got into his stuff. When "Do You Think They Can Tell" got some minor airplay in Vancouver I thought it was pretty cool, but it was the ballad "Don't Look Back" that clicked with me. That was an awesome song. So I picked up the E.P. and with only 5 songs, it was really all killer no filler. The album was produced by Bill Henderson and it sounded like a continuation of his '84 release Look In, Look Out . The album felt like a taster of things to come, except there wasn't anything else. This was a ...

Here we go kids. Hope you're ready as well start the slide into the summer months. Junary can be a weird month where it's either too hot, too cold, or too boring. I'm still working my way through the records I bought last December, and while I'm still adding to the pile I'm trying to slow down. Having my favourite record store go tits up was really bad for them, but good for me. Although they do have an auction, and at times that's been a problem but that's my cross to bear. This time out is another mixed bag of nuts. Some of the albums I had back in the day, and others are new to me. It's always fun to sit down, turn on and turn it up. Rock and Hyde - Under the Volcano (1987) Three Dog Night - Naturally (1970) The Moody Blues - This is The Moody Blues (1974) Carl Perkins and NRBQ - Boppin' the Blues (1970) The Kinks - Give the People What They Want (1981) Rock and Hyde - Under the Volcano (1987) A couple years after Payolas tried and failed to gr...

At the risk of sounding like a broken record and repeating myself, I'll bring you up to speed on my love hate relationship with Payolas ($). At best I was a casual fan but I will give credit where credit is due. When they were good they were as good as it got. Seriously, "Eyes of a Stranger" is just about as good as it gets, and over the decades the song has woven itself into the fabric of Canadian classic rock.  When the band followed up their 1982 release No Stranger to Danger a year later with Hammer on a Drum also produced by Mick Ronson, there was anticipation in the air. This was going to break the band wide open. "Where is this Love" was the song that got me in the feels and I would have picked up the album except the other song that got radio play was "Never Said I Loved You" where Paul and Carole Pope took turns singing ... in other words it was a duet. To say I had a visceral reaction to the song understates the meaning of the word visceral....

The other day I was listening to GNP's lone album, the one with Robert Bevan on vocals, and it brought to mind the old CBC television show The Raes - that featured Robbie Rae (who was really Robert Bevan if that wasn't obvious) and Cherrill Rae. Prism guested on the show, and they played a couple of songs from their latest album. It's funny the pointless stuff you remember, but I still can't figure out where I hid my spare keys in case there was an emergency. Armageddon was Prism's third album in three years, and this would be the album that would stand as the band's commercial high watermark. In the summer of 1979 the title track "Armageddon" was the best song I'd heard in a long time and over the decades has aged into one of the coolest rock songs - ever. It was pushing nearly eight minutes but it there were no wasted moments. My summer job in 1979, the year I turned sixteen, was with the forestry service, and along with a youth crew of close to ...

This was the album that was supposed to make The Payola$ huge ... all that was missing was an excellent album to propel Vancouver's perennial group of punk to pop heroes to the big time. They'd been skirting on the edge of success for a few years, and were so close to being a really big deal. The band first made it onto my radar when they released "Eyes of a Stranger" back in 1982 and the song was huge here in Canada (okay, maybe just Vancouver, but it seemed like it was huge). I remember an entertainment segment on the local news where the band was pretty excited about the prospect of being able to ditch their day jobs. A year later the band dropped Hammer on a Drum and "Where is this Love" was the big hit (all things are relative, it was on the radio and I liked it, so it must have been a hit), and remains one of those songs that'll get me right in the feels when I hear it. Mick Ronson had produced both of those albums, and while they did okay, from ...

The other day the Jim Foster popped into my head, I hadn't thought of him in well over thirty years. Who knows what brought that up. At least it wasn't "Pop Muzik" by M - then I'd have never gotten it out of my head. "X-ray Eyes" was a catchy song, and because of that one song I bought Power Lines when it came out in 1986. It got played it a few times, and I put the hit on my mix tapes, and honestly other than the one song didn't remember much about Jim Foster. I do remember that "X-ray Eyes" got airplay on the radio station just across the border, which I thought was cool. That meant it was a real hit, not just a CANCON obligation. I don't remember the video but I did watch it on YouTube and I still really liked the song. I was browsing through my other favourite record store when I found a sealed copy of Power Lines for under six bucks. It was remaindered cutout, but my goodness, how could I pass this up? I didn't, and I was pre...

Paul Janz released High Strung in 1985 and the single "Go to Pieces" got a lot of radio play, but didn't really break into the top 10. Which I still find perplexing as it was one of those ear worms that had all of the magic ingredients that made mid 80s pop so appealing. The song is awesome. Electricity, released in 1987, is the one album of his I didn't have, and I honestly can't remember why I didn't pick it up. If you lived outside Canada this was his debut, and I suppose it made sense to include "Go to Pieces" as I didn't know at the time High Strung wasn't released outside Canada. Paul has a distinctive voice, a deft hand with his arrangements and his song craft was impeccable, so it's a head scratcher as to why he didn't really catch on. I think a lot of people bet on him being a big deal too. One of those guys was Michael Godin. He was an executive with A&M who left his position to guide Paul's career. Electricity was m...