Old Enough to Forget

There are a few "HOLY SHIT" albums from my youth that still deliver the goods. Their debut is something to behold make no mistake, but in 1978 it was Boston's second album that was my first real introduction to the band. The title track was pure sonic magic and I couldn't get enough of it. I remember trying to dial in the rock stations on my stereo at night because sometimes the signal would be strong enough to reach Vancouver from the small town I grew up in. Every so often I'd be rewarded and I'd hear the song. It probably only happened once, maybe twice but it was enough to be indelible. Heck me and my buddy Andrew who was a hell of a guitar player when we were in our teens (far better than me) decided we'd learn how to play "Don't Look Back" and as Andrew had figured out how to play the cool rhythm parts I'd have to learn the lead fiddly bits. To our credit we did a passable job without a bass player, singer or a drummer ... although ...

I suppose the meanest thing I could say about this one is, "Hey look kids it Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo's less talented doppelgangers." Of course that's more than a little unfair. I did say it was the meanest thing I could say, and really, after all this time is it even fair to take pot shots at QuarterFlash? No it isn't fair, then again no one said life was fair. Let's step back and address the elephant in the room, their 1981 hit "Harden My Heart" a song that went gold, and single-handedly carried the album to platinum status by the middle of '82. The album had legs and "Harden My Heart" was an excellent song, and is still an excellent song. The saxophone solo was right up there with  Raphael Ravenscroft's work on "Baker Street" - yeah, it was that good. So we know for certain the album had one killer track and I'm going to just park that one in a safe space and listen to the rest of the album ... you know, the son...