Old Enough to Forget

As a kid I most vividly remember Steely Dan as an inconvenience on the radio. There was a special place in hell reserved for "Rikki Don't Lose That Number" a song that would pop up at the most inconvenient times ... like when I was listening to the radio. Whatever they were was not rock and roll - how did this weird stuff even count as music? The only other song that bugged me more as a kid was "Midnight at the Oasis" by Maria Muldaur. They both seemed to be on at the same time, although that's probably not right but it's how I remember it. As I got older I begrudgingly started to give Steely Dan their due. I was learning to reconcile how these nerdy jazz guys were welcomed with open arms into the fraternity of rock and roll. It was because they were so good. Yes, even "Rikki Don't Lose That Number" started to get under my skin ... Maria, not so much. Steely Dan records were technical marvels, they sounded almost perfect. The best musicians...

When TOTO released their massive All in In 1978 - 2018 anthology it was as a record and CD collection, and at the time I didn't want the records, but boy oh boy was I interested in getting the remastered discs. Elliot Scheiner by all accounts had worked his magic and the much maligned Turn Back in particular was supposed to sound amazing. I remember following on the band's site and there were questions about when and if the CDs would be offered as a standalone ... Short answer: Yes, and in May of 2019 I picked up the set, and when it arrived it was a good day. The box set included a bunch of stuff like Live in Tokyo 1980 as well as XX and Old is New which were all included in the box set. Of course I now have serious buyers remorse in not getting the records as I'd love to have Kingdom of Desire and Tambu on vinyl ... even though I have the original CD releases and the remastered CDs. I was scrolling on line and saw Old is New on sale and snapped it up. Which is sort o...

I have a soft spot for this album. Back in '84 I got this solely based on "Love Will Show Us How" A mini master class in pop perfection. When I lost my records, I replaced this with a CD, and then recently for whatever reason a near perfect record showed up in the dollar bin - so I had to drop the buck.  I know this is probably not the popular opinion, but of the solo efforts from the Fleetwood Mac camp this is the album I like best. Oh sure Lindsey Buckingham released Go Insane in '84 as well, and I really liked the title track, and I appreciated how weird he got, but it wasn't something I pulled out very often - and of course I no longer have it (you never know, that could change one day). Then there was the witchy woman herself, Stevie Nicks, who I will admit had some great songs, but mostly I found her voice irritating. So here we have Christine who must have figured it was time to do a solo effort as well - and no doubt this cost a boatload of money to produc...