Old Enough to Forget

Good Lord, here we go. Hang on, Strap in, and put in your mouth guard. Ted Nugent - Weekend Warriors (1978) Gerry Rafferty - North & South (1988) Visage - Visage (EP) (1981) Greg Kihn Band - Kihnspiracy (1983) Johnny Winter - Captured Live! (1976) Ted Nugent - Weekend Warriors (1978) This was long one of the albums I wanted, but never bought. The cover was vintage ted, and the cover was absolutely captivating. This was Ted in a single frame. Sitting here listening this is all new to me. The first pass through I didn't have any credits other than what was on the back cover. I still tend to lean on Double Live Gonzo! as Ted's high water mark, and while over the years I've filled in some of his earlier studio albums, I really never became a true blue fan. I was a pretty solid casual, and still consider myself a fan of his music. Considering Weekend Warriors came hot on the heals of Double Live Gonzo in the fall of '78 I sort of expected more of the same. Which is w...

Back in '82 Larry Norman was top lining a slew of releases into the North American market with "Larry Norman Presents." At the time I had no idea these were merely repackaged releases. The Gap had come out a couple of years earlier, but in '82 this was the first time I'd seen or heard of Bryn Haworth, and it seemed intriguing. At the time, any association with secular artists was an odd badge of honour and here was Bryn Haworth with the Eric Clapton Band: Dave Markee, Chris Stainton, Henry Pinetti and Bruce Rowland. Well, that must mean something. I wasn't sure what to expect. I wasn't expecting what I got.  It was different, but man was it ever good.  At this point Toto IV was out, and that was constantly on my turntable, along with their earlier release Turn Back . Resurrection Band had dropped D.M.Z. and "Military Man" was one of my favourite songs. My goodness Stu Hess was near the top of my favourite guitar players ... a list that was cons...

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 with "Baker Street" from 1978s 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 on the radio 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 (he 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 (English spelling) 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 it quite loudly ...

1978 was probably one of the more formative years for me musically. At the time I didn't really think much about it, but looking back on it, holy cow and boy howdy it was a banner year. It was the year "Baker Street" made the saxophone sexy, and the guitar solo in that song still makes me smile. It was also the year my cousin introduced me to Ted Nugent though his incendiary Double Live Gonzo , and Prism's sophomore album See Forever Eyes . The number of bands I waited patiently to hear songs from on the radio or at a friends was just mind boggling. I started making a list of the bands and songs that I could hardly wait to hear, but it got to be so long that it just looked silly listing a page of bands. It's a great list. I didn't have much in the way of vinyl, so it was up to friends and spotty AM radio to play my favourite songs. One of the coolest songs from my youth was a song called "Action" and it wasn't by The Sweet (although that is an aw...