Old Enough to Forget

Ah, Michael Damian. Well, it was bound to happen at some point. To be honest I've been actually looking forward to this, mainly because I had packed a lot of baggage in advance and was just waiting for a chance to unload on what I was hoping would be a big pile of monkey droppings. I'd have my revenge for "Rock On" and nothing was going to get in my way. Everybody knows that actors are often just frustrated musicians who were too pretty to be taken seriously. Then again, why is it that musicians want to be actors? Sigh. The album I found was his 1984 debut "Love is a Mystery" on Columbia. Dang, this label was home to some pretty awesome acts. Maybe this was a novelty release. Thankfully the copy I found for my dollar had the liner notes, and the core band was Michael on vocals and keyboards - and chimes (couldn't find a triangle?), Larry Weir on guitars and keyboards, and Tom Weir on drums. A quick peek on the internet revealed that Michael, Larry and To...

A band who can write a monster like "Mississippi Queen" must have deeper cuts just waiting to be discovered ... right? Let's find out. I found this in the dollar bin, and while it cleaned up okay, I didn't realize there was a pretty good wobble in the vinyl. I have a weight stabilizer and it helped a bit, although the first cut on each side is a little off until it moves in a bit - but it isn't too noticable. This really doesn't have anything to do with the album but it was part of my experience with the album so I'll allow it. The first thing that stood out was how tacky and well, bad the album design was. Sure, it was the early 70s an era of pretty much anything was allowed - or tried, but come on, this was also the era of really great Roger Dean covers, so having a cover with a blurry "action shot" of Leslie West and Felix Pappalardi surrounded by weird cartoon bird creatures that looked like angry McDonald's Fry Guys or worse technicolor ...

Ten year old me didn't know what to think of the song "Rock On" as it was a unusual thing but strangely hypnotic and cool too. It was etched into my developing musical preferences. I never forgot the song. I blame Jack Wagner for Michael Damian being able to release his version of "Rock On" - yeah, I know that's not fair or accurate, but dang it the only singing soap opera star I need (I was going to try and work an "All I Need" reference in there somewhere, but it seemed like a lot of work for zero pay off) is Rick Springfield. Let's just pretend that never happened shall we (although I will reluctantly admit his cover version was "okay"). Before finding this album, the only other song by David Essex I was aware of was " A Winter's Tale" a song I found a few years ago, that has become one of my favourite holiday tunes. It is a stunning piece - although my daughter thinks it's rather "meh" but likes that I ...

I honestly figured this was worth the dollar. Going in I knew that "All I Need" was an earworm - back in 1984 I worked in an office where we had a TV in the break room. Whoever got there first could choose the channel, regardless of how many other people would end up in the room. At least that was my interpretation of the rules. Most afternoons I'd have to sit and suffer through General Hospital. However, there were enough times where I'd get there first and change the channel to watch Looney Tunes that people made a concerted effort to beat me to the break room. So with respect to General Hospital it provided interim employment to Rick Springfield and like Pernell Roberts got to play a doctor on TV - although Rick got to play another character as well, a rock star named Eli Love (I am not making this shit up).  Given my love for his music I can give him a pass. However, there was another young cocky character named Frisco Jones who in the 80s was breaking hearts and ...