Old Enough to Forget

Gary Wright followed up his double platinum release The Dreamweaver in 1977 with The Light of Smiles . It must have been a surprise and a bit of a disappointment when the album didn't perform as well as hoped. It did chart as high as 23 on the Billboard top LP and Tape chart according to what I read on the wiki, but it must have been more of a spike than anything. As the album didn't seem to attain any certifications that I could see. Not that it matters, I've said it before, and I'll likely say it again (more than once) most of my favourite albums never really attained any significant commercial success.  I'd seen this album over the years, but that was about it. Gary Wright was Mr. Dreamweaver and I'm sure somehow it was worked into his epitaph when he passed away a couple of years ago. For me I was really curious about this one, lately I've been a sucker for finding albums that follow a big release. For Gary Wright he was flying high after The Dreamweave...

"Short People" was the first song I'd heard by Randy Newman when I was a kid. It was also one of those songs far too many people took at face value based on the title, who didn't even bother to listen to the song. I still remember the tempest in a tea cup and even then it was perplexing. Dang, even Billy Barty wasn't very happy about the song.  I know there were a lot of people who seemed to pride themselves on not listening to the lyrics of a song as a way of defending themselves when listening to "questionable" music. At least that was a defence a lot of "Christian" kids used to defend listening to secular music. The ability to be tone deaf and easily offended isn't something new ... The problem with satire is to some folks it's just truth wrapped in humour as a way of sending in a Trojan horse filled with hate and bigotry. Randy Newman's affinity for first person narratives that cut deep can be a little on the nose, and with ...

Like any kid growing up in the '70s you'd have had to be living under a rock to not be inundated with Neil Diamond songs. The cover for Hot August Nights was the epitome of what a rock star was supposed to look like. Although I never heard the album in it's entirety until fairly recently. I was dragged to the theatre by my parents to watch Jonathan Livingston Seagull . Despite his many ear worms, I never had any Neil Diamond records growing up. He was too safe and well, kind of boring. A little while back I was watching The Last Waltz, and amidst a who's who of rock royalty, up steps Mr. Diamond to sing "Dry Your Eyes" and I thought it was okay, but he was pretty commanding from the stage. He may have known he was the odd duck there, but he didn't seem to give a shit. I didn't realize that the song he played came from an album produced by Robbie Robertson, and that Garth Hudson was featured on keyboard on the track.  Man I love the internet, there...

Just about everyone's heard "Dream Weaver" - I suppose Wayne's World can take credit for that (although it is a different version, he did like to re-record this song). Still when I found this album I was pretty stoked as I happen to like that song, but I really liked "Love is Alive" and I'll be honest I'd forgotten about that one until I dropped the needle, then it was "Holy mackerel. I love this song." While my dollar bin copy didn't have an insert, there were decent credits on the back cover, and it was cool to see names like David Foster, drummers Andy Newmark and Jim Keltner and even a guitar cameo by Ronnie Montrose on "Power of Love" - it's the only guitar on the album and it comes at the close of the first side. After setting the tone with the various keyboard and special effects on the first four songs I actually didn't even notice the guitar the first time through - dang, even on the second pass it was there ...