Old Enough to Forget

Your Mama Won't Like Me was released in 1975 and was her third album in three years, as well as the follow-up to '74s Quatro. Yes, I know most of that sentence is clunky, but it says what I wanted it to say. Once again she partnered with Mike Chapman and Nicky Chinn, who produced the album and wrote three of the songs. The balance of the material was written by Suzi and Len Tuckey, except for the cover of "Fever," initially made famous by Peggy Lee and since covered by everyone from Elvis to Madonna. Suzi's band was still anchored by Suzi on bass and Len Tuckey on guitar. Dave Neal was on drums, and Alastair McKenzie was on keys. This was the same lineup as 1974's Quatro . It's strange they weren't credited on the cover ... I guess we were supposed to recognize them from their pictures. Speaking of credits, the album didn't have a lot of them, but they included Chris Mercer (tenor sax), Mick Eve (tenor sax), Steve Gregory (tenor sax), Bud Beadle (b...

This was the shit when I was a kid. The album was legendary, and the two killers "Ballroom Blitz" and "Fox on the Run" were so good they were essentially career defining. I could stop right now and that would be enough. Mic drop and walk off.  ... I'm back.  I wanted to just jot down a few things because it's sort of my thing. It may be worth it. Maybe not, you never know ... this isn't a cheese shop, I could be deliberately wasting your time. Regardless, pull up a chair, or at least watch where you're walking if you're on your phone. I have vague memories of the cool kids talking about the song "A.C.D.C." and "Sweet F.A." and then giggle knowingly. I didn't have the album and I never heard them so I wasn't in on the joke. I knew what the album looked like. I would see it when I would browse through records dreaming about what I'd like to buy. Even then it was a long list ... it seemed long to me at the time. That ...

Suzi ... and Other Four Letter Words was another in a long line of Mike Chapman produced albums for Suzi Quatro. It's a mystery as to how Mr. Chapman found the time to work in Suzi when he had been working with The Knack and then Blondie on their breakthrough albums that same year.  I never really kept up with Suzi Quatro in real time. I was less than a casual fan and aside from when I heard "Devil Gate Drive" as a kid, didn't know any of her songs. The little AM station in my small town seemed to play it over and over back in 1974. Of course the reality was this all likely happened over the course of a week ... but hey, time is different when you're young. Other than Happy Days and that one song I really didn't know much about her, other than she looked good in black leather. 1979 was the height of new wave (disco was still huge too, but let's pretend it wasn't), Suzi Quatro dropped a glam infused collection of tight pop songs that were honestly a ...

As a kid "Ballroom Blitz" was one of the coolest songs I'd ever heard, followed closely by "Fox on the Run." Those two songs more or less cemented Sweet's reputation for me. In the '80s I finally bought Desolation Boulevard and that more or less scratched that itch. Then in the early '90s I picked up their best of CD and got "Action" and the radio edit of "Love is Like Oxygen" and as a bonus "Little Willy" a song I knew but honestly never associated with The Sweet, or simply Sweet. During my formative years though it was the 45 of  "Action" that rocked my world. I was never a big fan of 45s and only had a few as I hated having to change the record after one song. However, as mix tape fodder they were awesome, except I didn't have the ability to make mix tapes until I was in my late teens. What does all this meanderambling have to do with anything? Not much, it's just me sitting here while listening to ...

Obladi obla dah, this won't take long, my how the time has gone. This month has a double shot of The Knack, a band I've gotten into lately. They were so much more than a one hit wonder. I also figured four was enough this time. Just four albums this time out, and that's enough. This was the 17th Stylus over Substance post, and I think this will be the last one. Who knows I may resurrect this format in the future ... or not. Time will tell. Rick Wakeman - Journey to the Centre of the Earth (1974) The Knack -  ... But the Little Girls Understand (1980) The Knack - Round Trip (1981) Foreigner - Inside Information (1987) Rick Wakeman - Journey to the Centre of the Earth (1974)  I bought this as a curiosity, and it was a curiosity I got. I'd seen so many copies in the dollar bin it just seemed too interesting to pass up. I'll be the first to admit this would have been an astounding show to see live; however, hearing it as a stand-alone experience is a little more dis...

The summer of 1979 belonged to The Knack. Produced by Mike Chapman who was half of the infamous dynamic "Chinnichap" duo with Nicky Chinn. Mr. Chapman had an ear for candy and by gum (bubble gum, baby!) with The Knack he managed to catch lightning in a bottle. The album would go double platinum in the States, and in Canada it would move over 400,000 copies. The album was a big deal. Or so you'd think. The reality is a little more complicated. Going back to my teenage years, "My Sharona" was the song that propelled the band into the stratosphere. Kids everywhere could play the opening riff, and like "Smoke on the Water" it gave the song a sense of simplicity that belied the song's complex structure and numerous changes. It's a mini masterclass in musical excellence and there are no bum notes or wasted space. You don't even have to hear all of the opening riff to "name that tune." I ate it up until it made me sick, and so did an awf...

Sweet was always a weird band for me to categorize. Were they hard rock? Were they glam? Were they just a Chinnichap bubblegum act? I mean, these were the guys who rocked my world as a kid with "Ballroom Blitz" and melted my face with "Fox on the Run," both from the North American version of Desolation Boulevard on Capitol Records. Much later I heard "Little Willy" and couldn't reconcile that this was the same band. It was written by Mike Chapman and Nicky Chinn, names I'd later associate with an awful lot of really questionable glam-tinged rock, and some face-melting goodness. They were the kings of bubblegum glam, but they were so much more than that. However, let's be honest, "Little Willy" is just a head scratcher, but "Ballroom Blitz" was sheer wonderfulness, and the stuff they did with Suzi Quatro was wicked. To me, Sweet were a hard rock act. I had no idea what glam was as a kid. Music was either good or it wasn'...

This was mostly written and in my queue to post when I found out that Tina Turner passed away May 24, 2023. She was 83. Hard to imagine that almost forty years had passed since Private Dancer was released. It's always fun to revisit albums that you thought you disliked. I suppose the backlash was inevitable as "What's Love Got to Do With It" was pretty ubiquitous on MuchMusic and the radio for what seemed to be forever. I managed to keep up my dismissive airs for a long time, and even though I really liked "Better Be Good to Me," featuring the stellar guitar work of The Fixx's Jamie West-Oram and backing vocals from Cy Curnin, I stubbornly held my ground. The credits confirm both West-Oram's guitar and Curnin's backing vocals on the Rupert Hine produced track. It didn't help that everyone was trying to make a then ancient in pop years Tina Turner, who was all of forty five or six when this came out, a sex symbol. "Look at those legs!...

Well, I am a little ashamed to admit that 11-year-old me generally didn't think girls should sing rock songs. I mean, I liked some Olivia Newton-John songs I heard on the radio, and I'll even admit that when Helen Reddy sang "I Am Woman" in 1972, I sang along. It was catchy, shoot me. Our shitty AM radio station where I grew up would occasionally play rock songs, and for what seemed like an eternity, "Devil Gate Drive" got special treatment and was played over and over and over. I really liked it. I remember my mum turning off the radio - that just made it better. I mean, it wasn't B.T.O., but she had a growl and she was killing it. I don't think I ever really thought about it again after that brief period of time. Sure, like a lot of other kids, when she showed up as Leather Tuscadero on Happy Days it was like, "Ooh." In hindsight, I think this pushed her into the realm of caricature and used up any rock credibility she had accumulated. Th...