Old Enough to Forget

I'll admit that this kind of music wasn't my cup of tea back when I was a teenager. It was generally balls to the wall rock or nothing ... unless it was a power ballad. Of course even back in '78 you'd have had to be living under a rock, with a rock on top of it not to have heard Nicolette's version of "Lotta Love" when it came out. It was a slick syrupy masterclass in soft rock ... the song was a big deal and it pulled the album along with it, peaking at #15 in the States, and #1 here in Canada. The album would go gold in both markets. It was a strong debut. This was all I knew about Nicolette Larson. I was okay with that. Then a couple of years ago right around the time Eddie Van Halen passed away there was a rash of Edward stories. There were more than a few about Ed's turn as soloist on Michael Jackson's "Beat It" and people were talking about it like it was the only time Eddie had played outside of Van Halen. I knew he had been on ot...

As a teenager, Friday night often meant staying up late and watching "concerts" on TV. Before there was MTV and MuchMusic, there was Burt Sugarman's The Midnight Special . Wolfman Jack would do something or other, but there would be "performances" by a lot of popular bands and musicians. Sure, they were likely lip-synced, but what wasn't? You mean to tell me Dick Clark's American Bandstand was actually live? There was a lot of stuff I don't remember, and some I actively disliked. Yeah, early Prince in a loincloth put me off his music for years. Then one night there was Christopher Cross performing "Ride Like the Wind," and after the fog machine more or less covers the stage, the band launches in, and there's no Michael McDonald. Were they actually singing live? I'm enthralled by this giant guitar-playing Baby Huey with a receding hairline. The song gets to the closing guitar solo, and for the first time you can really hear what he...