Old Enough to Forget

I found Ram in a discount bin and while there was some rash here and there on the record it looked like once the dust and bits of glitter (yes, glitter) were cleaned off the album was likely going to be a keeper. Sure enough after giving a cursory brush to remove some of the surface crap a cycle through the ultrasonic brought this one back to life. Aside from one or two moments of surface noise it played beautifully. I had briefly considered doing a little A/B comparison but I didn't feel like subjecting my needle to needless punishment. Ram is an album I've seen for decades and other than "Uncle Albert / Admiral Halsey" I didn't recognize any other songs. The gatefold I picked up didn't have any liner notes, so I'm not sure what originally came with the album but there were some basic credits, and among the supporting cast were Denny Seiwell on drums, Dave Spinoza and Hugh McCracken on guitar. It's funny to me how when I was a kid I just assumed Paul...

Foreigner was one of those bands people loved to dump on. They were a commercial behemoth, and the band had been on a killer run releasing one multiple platinum album after another since their debut in '77.  Apparently their previous albu m Head Games  from '79 had reportedly "under performed" compared to Double Vision. Which doesn't make any sense, for goodness sake the album has gone on to sell over 5,000,000 copies in the States alone ... sure Double Vision sold a couple million more than that south of the border but  Head Games was hardly a failure. Whatever the reason the band would take some time and literally regroup. They'd jettison Ian McDonald (keyboards, guitars, backing vocals) and Al Greenwood (keyboards) and emerge as a lean mean hit making machine. Depending on where you got on the wagon reactions to 4 were a little split. For me, I'd always liked the songs I heard on the radio, but my first album was Head Games , and that was a transitio...

I had always wanted to pick up a copy of this album, but I didn't. Not because I didn't like John Lennon, it's because I didn't want to hear the Yoko Ono songs. Yeah, I know it's a shitty reason, but it is what it is. We all know the history here, and that's what makes this so sad. I remember when this came out, and "Watching the Wheels" and "(Just Like) Starting Over" were getting some airplay and I really liked those songs - still do. I also remember reading there was disappointment in how John's "come back" wasn't doing as well as some had expected, and a lot of the early reviews pretty much shit on it. Everything changed December 8, 1980. Let's address the elephant in the room right off. The Yoko songs. I guess in terms of being artistic and taking chances and playing against the conventions of crafting listenable pop she was a master. Heck, I'll even grant that "Give Me Something" has a certain cha...