Old Enough to Forget

Number thirteen and still plugging away. I have noticed, though, that I'm not keeping with the theme as consistently as I had expected. The intent of dropping a bunch of mini blurbs was to save me time and to allow me to put down some thoughts on albums without having to go too deep. You know, "Oh, I liked this one." That sort of thing. But nope. My balloon is apparently very much full of hot air. Some of these are longer, and I suppose I could have just blown a little more air into them and released them on their own. But I didn't. Still, I did get in a couple of short ones, so I'll take it as a win. Welcome to the summer, baby. Get a drink, pull up a chair and let's waste some time, shall we? Steppenwolf - Steppenwolf (1968) Max Webster - Live Magnetic Air (1979) Ian Thomas - Long Long Way (1974) The Grass Roots - Golden Grass: Their Greatest Hits (1968) Mel Tillis - Night Train to Memphis (1967) Steppenwolf - Steppenwolf (1968) Steppenwolf is one of th...

Thanks for popping in. This month is a little bit of this and a little bit of that. I seemed to be in a bit of a maudlin mood and went back to the '70s for a couple albums by Dave Loggins and Ian Thomas. They were both young men at the time, with a level of maturity that seems beguiling to me now as I sit here listening as an old man. Yeah, make no mistake, my youth is in my rear view mirror now. Told you I was feeling maudlin. Regardless, for a bunch of albums that go back several decades, it's funny how this still feels fresh to me. Peter Schilling - Error in the System (1983) Toronto - Lookin' for Trouble (1980) Steve Winwood - Arc of a Diver (1980) Dave Loggins - Personal Belongings (1972) Ian Thomas - Delights (1975) Peter Schilling - Error in the System (1983)  From the catalogue of one-hit wonders on this side of the Atlantic, Peter Schilling hit it pretty big with "Major Tom (Coming Home)," a catchy song that seemed to be here and then gone. Which is to...

Looks like I almost got stuck in the '70s this month. Not a bad thing. Considering how much I go on about the '80s and all that, blah blah blah - I have collected a lot of stuff from the decade of my childhood. Which shouldn't really be a surprise considering most of what's available on vinyl is heavily concentrated in the '60s and '70s. When CDs came out I quickly jumped ship ... hence the lack of records from my favoured decade. Still, man, there was some great stuff coming out of my childhood, and a lot of new to me stuff that has truly stood the test of time. Let's take a look at this months ... Five For Fighting No. 10 Nick Gilder - Frequency (1979) Joan Armatrading - Armatrading (1976) Ian Thomas - Calabash (1976) Linda Ronstadt - Prisoner in Disguise (1975) The Vapors - Magnetic (1981) Nick Gilder - Frequency (1979)  Nick followed up City Nights and "Hot Child in the City" with Frequency and the single that should have been huge, "(Yo...

Lucky number seven. A bit of an odd assortment this time out. Mostly familiar faces, and some odd ducks I had no idea what to do with because I've written about the bands before, but the albums were still part of my landscape, so I figured why not put them in anyway? So here they are for your reading enjoyment. Don't forget to like and subscribe, and ring the bell to get updates. ... yeah, that just reads as desperate. I'm just glad you're here. Fun drinking game for you - take a shot every time you find a typo or grammatical error.  Five For Fighting No. 7 SAGA - Wildest Dreams (1987) Ian Thomas Band - Still Here (1978)  Styx - Kilroy Was Here (1983) Juice Newton - Quiet Lies (1982) ABBA - ABBA (1975) SAGA - Wildest Dreams (1987) After Behaviour in 1985, the band's trajectory would take a turn. For some fans, particularly those who'd been on the bandwagon the longest, the next couple of albums would represent the nadir of the band, but to me this felt like ...

Ten Years After is one of those bands a lot of people know about, but don't really know much about. At least that was the case for me. Alvin Lee is a name I knew of, but much like the band, I couldn't really name more than a song ... which I'll name later, likely a couple of times. They were kind of like Status Quo in that regard. Yeah, I know I'm a Luddite, but cut me some slack, this stuff was just a tad before my time. I may be getting old, but I'm not that old ... yet. Still, I do like a lot of the late '60s and early to mid-'70s jam bands. As it happened, I was out and about looking around a record store I'd not been to very often. They had a back wall lined with dollar records (I'm cheap). This wall didn't have that much going for it, as it was chock full of showtunes and a lot of questionable stuff (maybe one day I'll buy an Al Jolson album, but I'm kind of on the fence), but in the midst of all this nonsense I managed to score a c...

Look at that, six months in, and I'm keeping up with my once a month schedule of dropping five snapshots of albums I've found. This time around it's another mixed bag of goodies, and these are all new to my collection, which is generally a lot of fun. I finally picked up Stan Meissner's debut, and it was a nice score. I also found more Edgar Winter albums, and continue to go down the Rick Derringer rabbit hole - the man was a monster player and while not underrated, he was certainly underappreciated by the masses. Probably my favourite album this time out was finally connecting with Ian Thomas' debut album from 1973. What an incredible album. Yeah, full props to "Painted Ladies" and the alleged drama about the hit that never was, but there is so much more to this Canadian icon. I worry that he will be nothing more than a footnote as time passes, as the majority of his work remains out of print and can only be found by looking for old vinyl. Criminal, I say...

I was ten years old when I first heard Ian Thomas' "Painted Ladies" on my AM radio. I still really like the song, and throughout the '70s, he was the consummate singer-songwriter. Even his 1979 single "Pilot," which was equal parts irritating and cool with its quirky recorder (yes, a recorder) runs, was one I kind of liked but never really loved. However, when Ian performed it on SCTV with Bob and Doug (his brother Dave), it took on a second life. I knew Ian Thomas from many of his own songs, but also from the various covers of his material by artists ranging from Santana to Chicago. But it was Manfred Mann's Earth Band's retooling of "The Runner" that really floated my boat (oddly, I never did pick up a copy, and it is still on my list of things to look for one day). Fast forward to the summer of 1983, and I'm lining up to see Strange Brew , and in the opening credits, Ian Thomas delivers the title track, and it was a killer. It would ...