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 was 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 heapin...

I'm kind of surprised I didn't write about In Another Land earlier. I suspect this may be longer than it needs to be (likely a lot longer), sorry in advance but you should stick around anyway - it may be worth it. In terms of watershed albums this is right near the top of the most influential albums I have ever heard. The album was released in 1976 and a number of the older kids knew about him, but I was pretty clueless about Christian music. I was at a youth conference in '77 or '78 (things get fuzzy ) and the cool kids (who were likely four or five years older) were talking about an upcoming concert he was going to have in Vancouver, likely the Queen Elizabeth theatre but honestly the details are sketchy. The fact I remember anything at all is kind of amazing.  It was the youth group dances in the late '70s and early '80s where I first got a taste of his music. The big dance songs were "Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music" and "The Roc...