Old Enough to Forget

The Powder Blues were a strange anomaly who seemed to come out of nowhere, and for a couple of years their boppin' rhythm & blues was right there alongside the skinny ties and rockers. Uncut was an album that was self financed, and initially released late in 1979 on the band's own indie label Blue Wave because everyone they shopped the record to would say the same thing, "No one wants to hear the blues, this won't sell." They had released the album and sent copies to radio stations. Some sources claim they sold upwards of 30,000 copies before the same labels who had passed on the band were vying to get their hands on the band. The album would be picked up by RCA and would re-issue the album, minus one track ... it was a cover, and I suppose it makes the original more valuable. Uncut was (is) a really solid album. Songs like "Doin' it Right" and "Hear that Guitar Ring" were huge songs here, and the album would go on to sell a couple hund...

The other day I was listening to GNP's lone album, the one with Robert Bevan on vocals, and it brought to mind the old CBC television show The Raes - that featured Robbie Rae (who was really Robert Bevan if that wasn't obvious) and Cherrill Rae. Prism guested on the show, and they played a couple of songs from their latest album. It's funny the pointless stuff you remember, but I still can't figure out where I hid my spare keys in case there was an emergency. Armageddon was Prism's third album in three years, and this would be the album that would stand as the band's commercial high watermark. In the summer of 1979 the title track "Armageddon" was the best song I'd heard in a long time and over the decades has aged into one of the coolest rock songs - ever. It was pushing nearly eight minutes but it there were no wasted moments. My summer job in 1979, the year I turned sixteen, was with the forestry service, and along with a youth crew of close to ...

Before I put the record on I figured I'd jot down what I remembered from the album. It's been a long time since I've given this a proper listen. First thing to disclose is I am still a big SAGA fan after all these years. Back in 1989 when GNP dropped I bought it right away because both Steve Negus (drums), and Jim Gilmour (keyboards) were involved - they were the G &N in GNP. The video for "How Many Times" actually got quite a lot of play on YTV Rocks - that was hosted at the time by Laurie Hibberd and they even had an interview with Steve who talked about the album. I don't remember much about the interview, but he seemed pretty happy and there were high hopes the album would do well. I did like the single, and I had high hopes for the album too. As much as I wanted to like the album, as a whole it never really seemed to gel for me. In addition to "How Many Times" I made an effort to like "Safety Zone" as I put it on a few mix tapes. T...

Normally I don't buy a record I already have on CD, but I found this copy in a clearance bin because there was a scratch or something that made it unworthy of being in the regular rack. When I looked it over, it seemed pretty decent, although there was a little scuff on one side. I figured after a good clean it would likely play just fine - and it did. Sitting listening to this again has been like catching up with an old friend. I do get some grief on occasion for my love of Bryan Adams albums from some of my more discerning friends - then again I also like Nickelback - so to them they're justified in their assessment of my lack of musical taste and inability to adhere to the accepted tenets of good taste. Whatever. Once upon a time there was a skinny kid with a really high voice who took over Sweeney Todd from Nick Gilder and wrote songs with his partner Jim Vallance that showed up on albums by Prism, and BTO, although to be fair by that time those bands were no longer in ...

I am going to try and mostly write this one in real time. "Mostly" because I think the songs will go by faster than my brain can process the music, but I'll try to see what my gut says as I spin the album. First, a preamble of sorts, because every good story (even the bad ones) starts with an introduction. I'm hoping this is more like how the Hobbit fit with the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, and not how the prequel Star Wars movies were fitted into the franchise. Dang, I can see this has already gone off ... I can fix this, hang on. Let's start at the beginning - I'm at the other record store I like to go to the other day and entering the shop often makes me feel a little bit like King Arthur trying to cross the bridge by answering a series of questions. After a preamble that thankfully didn't involve coconuts and wind speed I'm in and it turned out to be a banner day. I had been listening to T-Bone Burnett and I got a hankering to see if I could find any...

Continuing on my trip through 1978 and here's Prism's second album See Forever Eyes . I remember going with my cousin to a hole in the wall record store to pick up an 8 track copy he had special ordered. Yeah, it was like that once upon a time in smaller towns and suburbs. Like any good Canadian kid I thought "Spaceship Superstar" was as close to a perfect song as there ever was. Here was their follow up, and I was going to hear more than one song. After ejecting the ever present Double Live Gonzo! from the truck's player this one got a fair amount of play over the summer, and I liked what I heard. Especially the rock songs where Lindsay tore it up. The early Prism albums were as much driven by the interplay between the guitar and keyboards as they were by the soaring vocals of Ron Tabak - a pattern some of my favourite bands employ to my delight (SAGA I'm looking at you). When the album launches into "Flyin'" arguably one of the best tracks on ...

1978 was probably one of the more formative years for me musically. At the time I didn't really think much about it, but looking back on it, holy cow and boy howdy it was a banner year. It was the year "Baker Street" made the saxophone sexy, and the guitar solo in that song still makes me smile. It was also the year my cousin introduced me to Ted Nugent though his incendiary Double Live Gonzo , and Prism's sophomore album See Forever Eyes . The number of bands I waited patiently to hear songs from on the radio or at a friends was just mind boggling. I started making a list of the bands and songs that I could hardly wait to hear, but it got to be so long that it just looked silly listing a page of bands. It's a great list. I didn't have much in the way of vinyl, so it was up to friends and spotty AM radio to play my favourite songs. One of the coolest songs from my youth was a song called "Action" and it wasn't by The Sweet (although that is an aw...