Old Enough to Forget

When Burton Cummings left The Guess Who and embarked on a solo career, he caught his second wind. Through the mid '70s to the end of the decade, he was huge at home. He went on a double-platinum run starting with his self-titled album in ’76 and hit triple platinum with Dream of a Child in ’78. I always assumed he was Canada’s unofficial troubadour. He also seemed to have more specials on CBC than Wayne and Shuster (just kidding - no one had more specials than those guys), and he hosted the Juno Awards in 1979 and 1980 when he was at the height of his popularity. Me? I could take him or leave him. He was a hell of a singer and all that, but he was also really cheesy at times. Though I really liked “My Own Way to Rock,” mainly because the guitar solo was so good. Considering my limited budget as a teenager, I never felt the urge to spend my money on his stuff. The one album I found a while back that is pretty much essential listening was his 1980 two-record collection, The Best of ...

I meant to pull out my copy of Hot Shots , but as I had recently found a couple of Trooper albums I'd not heard (which outside of their greatest hits album was pretty much everything in their catalogue) I figured why not put on something that was new to me.  It was either Money Talks , or Flying Colors , as there were a couple of songs I remembered from Flying Colors , so Flying Colors it was. Aren't you glad you get to get a little peek into my decision making process? I've not heard the album so it's the deeper tracks here I'm curious about, particularly the Frank Ludwig compositions. Frank had the unenviable position of being a decent writer and a good singer in a band where Ra was a great singer, and the songwriting team of Ra McGuire and Brian Smith were the backbone of the band. This I'm sure was a pretty sore spot, and it's not especially helpful or sporting for me to sit here and stir up the embers of what is now pretty ancient history. When Frank...