Old Enough to Forget

I had no idea Ambrosia were THIS GOOD! Holy snot balls, rub tiger balm in my eyes I did not expect this. I mean, I knew of David Pack from Ambrosia mainly because I'd seen his name on Kerry Livgren's solo album Seeds of Change . I couldn't place the band though, as the only song I could recall was "Biggest Part of Me" that honestly sounded like a cheap knock off of The Doobie Brothers. Heck even the name, Ambrosia sounded wimpy. I thought it was a flower or the kind of drink that came with cherries and a wee tiny umbrella. The album opens with "Nice, Nice, Very Nice" and it's a killer song that has soaring keyboards and a great groove. Heck Kurt Vonnegut gets a writing credit so you just know it's going to be something ... nice. From the opening song I could not reconcile this as Ambrosia ... this was cool. Turns out the sucky stuff started on their appropriately named album One Eighty from 1980. However, take anything I write with a heaping tea...

When this came out in 1980 I was just around the corner from becoming a big Kansas fan. The first album I actually bought was Audio Visions , and I bought that around a year after it came out after hearing "Relentless" on a mix tape my buddy Gord had brought over - it also had "Flirtin' with Disaster" on it too, so it was a memorable tape - I don't know why I can remember this type of thing, but can't for the life of me tell you why I just went into the kitchen. 1980 had been a pretty big year for Kerry Livgren. Writing and recording two albums was a pretty big deal, especially since both albums are really good. I know I got Audio Visions first, but Seeds of Change was recorded earlier in the year - I'm not sure when I bought this one, but it was before Vinyl Confessions in 1982. I do know that my copy of Seeds has the Kirshner logo on the label, so it wasn't a later pressing - I'm not sure what this has to do with anything, but it's ki...

This is my favourite Kansas album. Other than a couple of songs I'd heard on the radio, I didn't really know much about the band. I do know my buddy Gord liked them, and I first heard "Relentless" on one of his mix tapes - and that was an awesome tune. I didn't really have any baggage when it came to the band. When I picked up their 1982 release Vinyl Confessions , I didn't realize there was a changing of the guard when a young John Elefante replaced Steve Walsh on vocals. By the time Drastic Measures dropped in 1983, I'd gone back and picked up the excellent (to me) Audio-Visions and had started collecting the band's back catalogue. I was really getting into the band. I'll be the first to admit my preferences leaned toward the rock songs, and the more meandering wiffle waffle stuff I put up with to get to the rock songs. Yeah, I'm thinking about "A Glimpse of Home" from Monolith with its pure cheese old-timey sci-fi radio intro... b...