Old Enough to Forget

Styx is one of my favourite bands ever ... if I was to tick off on my left hand my top bands it would often run something like April Wine, PRISM, Styx, Toto and Cheap Trick. Depending on where I was on the curve, some of them would change, but Styx was pretty constant. I often forget SAGA, and when I remember I just add them to my list and pretend I have more fingers. It's a bit blurry now what I got first - I'm thinking it was the blue vinyl Best of Styx , a compilation of songs for their Wooden Nickel albums. It was a treasure to me, and when I lost it I was pretty bummed out. I've been looking for another copy. In my junior high school the band room had a great stereo and we were allowed to listen to records when on break. I remember hearing Styx's Grand Illusion , and later Pieces of Eight , there. I also remember someone bringing in a John Travolta record and having to sit through Razzamatazz - let's just say it didn't have the same positive impact the Styx...

Happy Valentine's Day. "Love Stinks" was probably the first time I remember hearing The J. Geils Band. There was a video I saw once that was so goofy I wasn't sure how to process what I was seeing - was it terrible or awesome? It. Was. Awesome. I was hanging out at a buddy's house for the weekend around the time the album came out and Gerry says, "Hey, check this out." He plays "No Anchovies, Please" and I'm enthralled. Over the last forty-plus years, I hadn't heard that song until I put the record on for the first time in the basement. But, I'm getting ahead of myself ... I need a preamblemeanderamble first. I never had a copy of Love Stinks , and when I found one in a clearance bin I snapped it up. The cover was really dirty, so I got my microfiber cloth and a dab of water and cleaned off what I hoped was just dirt. The insert was there and the vinyl was in excellent shape. The J. Geils Band broke wide open to the masses after a ...

Sleepwalking is one of my favourite albums ever. Released in 1982, Sleepwalking was a marked departure from his previous album, Snakes and Ladders , and the ones before that. So many people think of Gerry as a one-hit wonder because of "Baker Street" from 1978's City to City , and I suppose, depending on where you were, this was sort of true. But I remember a number of songs from his first few records getting radio play when I was a much younger man. I was on a train in 1982, travelling back from a youth conference or something, when my friend Gerry - who had (and may still have) great taste in music - had a cassette copy of Sleepwalking and insisted I listen to it because it was awesome. Being a fan already, I listened to the first few songs, and gone were the folk elements; instead, the songs were laden with synthesisers. But it wasn't like he was trying to be Trio or Gary Numan - this was still unmistakably Gerry Rafferty. It was indeed awesome. I think I said so...