Old Enough to Forget

Bad Company released Straight Shooter in 1975. The album contained eight songs, and the album's two singles "Good Lovin' Gone Bad" and ""Feel Like Makin' Love" have become classic rock classics. "Shooting Star" has gone on to be an FM standard.  I've always enjoyed Bad Company, and Paul Rodgers is often cited as the penultimate rock singer. It's interesting that renowned critic Robert Christgau who had written for The Village Voice when reviewing Straight Shooter stated that Paul Rodgers wasn't suited for hard rock as he didn't have a strong voice.* I'm not embarrassed but it's sort of telling that the era I started listening to the band was their late '80s and early '90s stuff featuring Brian Howe that gave Bad Company their gold and platinum second act. I know that time has been a little less than kind to this era of Bad Company at the time they were holding their own with the new kids and kicking ass. He...

This was the third of the three recent albums I recently found by The Babys. I've got my eyes out for the debut, but there's always something about a bands sophomore record that can be cool. For some bands their debut is a one and done. All the songs they'd spent years crafting were likely polished and presented and the real test is whether or not the band could have lightning strike twice.  I already know the answer but I'm curious to hear this one. It's been a while since I've done a song by song first impression so I'm just going to drop (carefully place) the needle and jot down my thoughts in real time ... more or less. Here we go ...  "Wrong or Right" is a sort of clunky slow burn with strings. John Waite is in fine form. A decent enough lead in track. The song really starts strong, and I'm thinking, "This is cool" and then the band goes into the duh duh duh duh duh duh duh section and sort of works but just feels out of sync wit...

I recently picked up a few albums (three) by The Babys - I'm still looking for their debut, but honestly I'm not looking too hard. I have   fond memories of the band and even though I can't remember much other than a couple of songs I still like them enough to want to hear their old stuff. Go figure. Head First was released at the end of '78 and they'd enjoy some chart success in April of '79 when "Every Time I Think of You" came close to cracking the top 10. It would be the band's most successful single ... but not their best song.. It's funny listening now, as I probably enjoy it more now than I did in the early '80s when I bought this one along with On the Edge . I know that "Every Time I Think of You" was the big hit, and it's a decent enough song, but for me it was the title track that floated my boat. It was a gritty, crunchy rock song with a great riff courtesy of Mr. Wally Stocker and his tasty guitar work. Not every s...

After a string of somewhat lacklustre albums Heart reinvented themselves as mainstream rockers, got picked up by Capitol Records and dropped one of their biggest albums ever in 1985. The band employed outside writers on over half of the tracks including the rejected Toronto track "What About Love" that became the band's first big hit in years, and after that the hits kept coming  "These Dreams" which would go all the way to number one, along with "Never" and "Nothin' at All", and "If Looks Could Kill" which was pretty cool. I wonder how much of this was right place, right time ... whatever the case Heart was back, and the album would sell over 600,000 in Canada, and over 5,000,000 in the States. Not bad considering their previous two records hadn't gone gold, and the band seemed to be done. Heart is one of those bands I never really gave much though to. When I was a kid I absolutely loved "Barracuda" and "Magi...

I'd heard of UFO before, but never actually heard them. The band's guitarist Michael Schenker was once a member of The Scorpions with his older brother Rudolf, but it's not like I knew much of their early work either. It just a nifty bit of trivia but that was about it. I sort of found Lights Out by accident. I'd been down to Krazy Bob's and I was looking for something specific so I tend to be able to get in and get out - usually with something I hadn't planned on getting by the time I leave. I tend to enjoy my visits when I'm the only one in the store and Bob isn't trying to entertain people with his array of parlour tricks. For me it's tiring but when he's alone, Bob is a treasure of knowledge and more often than not has an uncanny knack for suggesting something I'd not heard of before but was tangentially related to what I was looking for.  One of the perks of dropping a bit of cash is Bob will often ask you to choose a record (or two) fr...

If push ever came to shove and I had to honestly list my favourite songs "Jane" would be near the top. I can't really describe what it is about the song that just crushes all my buttons, but it did - and still does. When this came out in '79 the sheer number of killer songs that were out that year was astounding (look it up, make your own list). The album though was a different thing all together. Freedom At Point Zero was an album a buddy of mine had, and I remember listening to it once . Expecting more than it could possibly deliver I was profoundly disappointed. I don't know if I even made it to the second side. I borrowed the record and put the song on a mix tape, and then gave it back - he didn't want it back, but I didn't want it either. When the band had another hit with "Find Your Way Back" a couple years later I never even bothered trying to find the record ... I had written the band off. Fickle I know, but my roots didn't go back to...