Old Enough to Forget

Fireworks between 1977 and 1982 would release five studio albums, and one live recording. Then after this one the "band" would break up. From what I've read Marty McCall was Fireworks. The members of the "band" would come and go and each album would change. Guitarist Jerry Gaston was fairly consistent though, and on Sightseeing at Night co-wrote a number of the songs with Marty. Marty was a respected singer, and when Michael Omartian produced Christopher Cross' debut, I remember seeing Marty's name on the back cover as a backing vocalist. I knew about Fireworks, I'd just not heard them.  The early '80s was an interesting time for Christian music. The hippie dippy side of the Jesus movement was embracing the business side of the equation, and even the major labels were paying attention and either working out co-distribution arrangements or putting albums out on their own imprint. For Fireworks, being able to say you were on a major like MCA, eve...

There were a couple of years where I was predominantly buying "Christian" albums from a little bookstore that had a small feature wall where they'd display the new music that was coming out. There were some amazing records that I still look back fondly on. There were also more than a few spectacular duds that I tried hard to like, but never quite got there.  I knew who Randy Matthews was as I had been "gifted" a number of albums and in the small pile of records was a double live album called Now Do You Understand , from 1975 that was just Randy and a guitar. It was pretty cool, and he was a great storyteller. It wasn't my favourite album but it was classic early Jesus Music, and when I saw his new album on the wall, it looked like a rock record. Randy no longer looked like a wild hippie. His hair was cut, and his beard was gone, although I'm not sure how comfortable it was standing there plugged into a socket. Conveniently there was a turntable and a bu...