Old Enough to Forget

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 k...

I'd never really thought of The Atlanta Rhythm Section (ARS) as a southern rock band. I'd heard a couple of their hits, but never really associated those songs with the band, they were just memorable songs on the radio. A while back I was reading up on southern rock bands and there was ARS mentioned on the same page as Lynyrd Skynyrd, Molly Hatchet, The Outlaws, and even .38 Special (who deserved more love than they got). I thought, "Am I missing something here? Aren't these the "So Into You" and "Imaginary Lover" dudes? That's soft rock." Still, I squirrelled the band away into my mental list of things to watch for because now I was curious. You may be wondering, "Hey, with all the streaming stuff, or even on YouTube why don't you just look?" My answer is simple. I don't want to. There aren't a lot of surprises out there, and I've got so much stuff in my library already I like discovering stuff, even if it is just...