Old Enough to Forget

When I started playing records again, "Out of Nowhere" was an album I had long hoped to find, and I got close a few years ago, but the shop that had it was asking a lot more than I was willing to spend to satisfy my curiosity. I'd been waiting for a long time, so what was the harm in waiting a little longer? Not to spoil the surprise, but guess who found a copy in a dollar bin? Me. It was back in 1979, and I was sitting in my bedroom listening to CBC radio's Ninety Minutes with a Bullet. It was more than a countdown show, it was a little window that looked out into the rock and roll world. "Baker Street" was still a big deal, and there was a giveaway contest to get Gerry's new record, and all you had to do was send in a postcard with the answer to the following question: "Who was Gerry Rafferty's musical partner in Stealers Wheel?" Apparently, since Gerry was hitting it big, it only made sense that this other person was going to release a ...

Okay, this one might be a little more pissy than usual. Mainly because I think enough water has passed under the bridge now, and frankly no one reading this will think, "Oh my, thank you. I can save myself the time and skip the album, I'll just stream 'It's in the Way that You Use It.'" Look this is going to be a meanderamble and likely veer wildly of course before it eventually ends. I can save you some time. Here's the score: 4 killers, 6 fillers. Although I only mention three songs in a positive light. Two of them are memorable, the others are good in the moment. Let's call it 4 good songs for the sake of brevity. That's not necessarily bad, if Mister Clapton was a baseball player he'd be the goat.*  August followed a year after Behind the Sun reintroduced Mr. Clapton to the world as a commercially viable artist. The album went platinum primarily on the strength of "Forever Man" a song Phil Collins did not play drums on. Th...

Joan Armatrading is a name I've known for a long time, but I've never really heard anything by her. I've caught snippets here and there, but that's about it. Then, a while back, I was reading up on the original Joe Jackson band, and Gary Sanford, whose guitar work was so interwoven into those early albums, spent some time in the '80s playing guitar on a couple of her albums. Well, that was intriguing. Maybe I should keep an eye out for some of her stuff. So I did. I added her to my list. As fate would have it, I managed to score a really nice copy of her 1977 release Show Me Some Emotion. For me, the draw here was the production credit: Glyn Johns. It was recorded at the legendary Olympic Studios, and if nothing else, this would be a really good-sounding record. Joan released her debut album in 1972, and Show Me Some Emotion was her fourth album and the second to be produced by Glyn Johns. Apparently, her 1976 album, simply titled Joan Armatrading , is considered es...

Back in '82 Larry Norman was top lining a slew of British albums 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 Spinetti 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...