Old Enough to Forget

Red Rider seemed to come out of nowhere in 1980 with their song "White Hot." It was a wicked bit of rock magic that felt like something new. A big part of the sound was found in Ken Greer who added his string wizardry to the mix much like the late David Lindley complimented Jackson Browne. Ken's use of lap steel as a rock vehicle was pretty brilliant. When the band dropped their follow up in '81 I remember picking it up before anything had started to catch on the radio. "Lunatic Fringe" melted a lot of faces, and it's kind of hard to underscore how big a deal the song was to so many people. The song was a rock anthem that didn't sound like anything else out there. In short, this one song was worth the price of admission. Did I mention Ken Greer's solo? Excuse me while I put my face back on. The rest of the album felt somewhat anti-climactic, but by no means was it a waste of time. It was still very firmly rooted in the '70s and while the ...

I was feeling a bit bummed out, so I went to the basement looking for something to raise my mood from shitty to something just slightly less than grumpy. I riffled through the albums that were in my "pending listen-to pile," and there was Zappacosta's 1984 self-titled release. This was an album I always meant to buy when it came out, and never did. Don't know why, I just didn't. "Passion" was a song that melded all the great elements of early '80s pop, and even the follow-up single "We Should Be Lovers" was great. When I was looking through a discount bin and saw a decent-looking copy with pristine vinyl, it was finally time to pick up the album. Like Paul Janz, Zappacosta built pop songs around his ability to carry a song through the power of his voice. The album kicks off with "Passion," and while the song is very much of its time, it's still a great listen and propels the album through a series of familiar and very strong s...