Old Enough to Forget

SAGA is one of my favourite bands hands down. Having said that, I'm not as obsessive as a true die hard. I mean I never poured over the lyrics trying to pieces together The Chapters but I did make a point of getting The Chapters Live when the band put the songs out in chronological order.  Living in Canada the opportunities to see the band live are few, so I settled for the live DVDs the band released. I did get to see them in a festival setting they were on second after Haywire (oh how I wished Ian and Paul would have done a song together, oh well) on one of the hottest days of the summer. It was as Eric Idle would say, "Hot enough to boil a monkey's bum." Anyway this is all just prattle, but it's sort of relevant ...I think.  Back to the obsessive comment, while I may not be a die hard who has to dissect everything into little pieces, I am a completest and when I get into something, I generally don't go in half way, if I like it - I want it all. With SAGA t...

Here we go this month's Stylus Over Substance Volume 15. Good lord, if each volume contains five little incomprehensible blurbs, that means this year I've gacked out seventy five of these little literary turds. Man, I'm kind of proud of myself. I suppose I've gotten a little lazier with this, mainly because after a couple of years I've realized that Blogger is probably the worst platform I could have chosen. Few of my pages get indexed, and essentially I am doing this for an audience of one most of the time. Me.  Which is honestly okay, I do this for me because I enjoy it, and every so often something I write makes me giggle or smile. Which is good enough. Besides, this is all part of intentionally listening to the music I have. It may not always be good, or great, but it's always an adventure and I often have no idea where I'm going until I get there. With that here's another five carefully curated random selections. Jefferson Starship - Modern Times (...

Eight miles high and still going. If I had a Byrds album this is where I'd have put it. Mainly so I could shit on that song and it's horrid 12 string guitar work that everyone else thinks is spectacular. It's the same sound my kids made when they'd get their hand stuck under the strings when they'd mess around in my music room. Anyway, before I drift too far off point. This month is mostly familiar names this time around. Funny I was pulling stuff from the to be filed pile and although bands like The Edgar Winter Group and Wishbone Ash were relatively new experiences for me, it was fun to revisit the Paul Janz album and finally get a chance to go through the final and much maligned J. Geils release. Then of course there's SAGA - man I love SAGA.  Five For Fighting No. 8 The Edgar Winter Group - Shock Treatment (1974) Wishbone Ash - Locked In (1976) Paul Janz - High Strung (1985) The J. Geils Band - You're Gettin' Even While I'm Gettin' Odd (1...

I was farting around meanderbrowsing (it's a real thing) through one of the record stores I occasionally shop. It's a treasure trove of stuff, but can be a tad overwhelming and while not disorganized it's all over the place. I've found more than a few awesome nuggets and the proprietor is an odd duck, at times in the best way, and other times it's overwhelming when I just want to quietly browse. However, he's a treasure trove of knowledge and his ability to retain an astounding amount of absolutely useless trivia makes me look like a moron. Something I can honestly do all on my own without help - but that's beside the point. Generally when I'm there I have a specific item I've got a hankering to find. Chances are pretty decent he has it, or knows about it. This is also the same guy that put me onto Hair Cut One Hundred (better than I expected), and the Karroll Brothers - which was a wicked score. We've also lamented poor Jim Clench's bad luck...

Lucky number seven. A bit of an odd assortment this time out. Mostly familiar faces, and some odd ducks I had no idea what to do with because I've written about the bands before, but the albums were still part of my landscape so I figured why not put them in anyway? So here they are for your reading enjoyment. Don't forget to like and subscribe, and ring the bell to get updates. ... yeah, that just reads as desperate. I'm just glad you're here. Fun drinking game for you - take a shot every time you find a typo or grammatical error. You'll need to do this when you have time to recover. Five For Fighting No. 7 SAGA - Wildest Dreams (1987) Ian Thomas Band - Still Here (1978)  Styx - Kilroy Was Here (1983) Juice Newton - Quiet Lies (1982) ABBA - ABBA (1975) SAGA - Wildest Dreams (1987) After Behaviour in 1985 the band's trajectory would take a turn. For some fans, particularly those who'd been on the bandwagon the longest, the next couple of albums would rep...

I remember seeing a SAGA button on some cool kids jean jacket when I was in high school, I didn't know what kind of music it was but I assumed it was heavy metal or something, as I figured that's what all the jean jacket wearing cool kids were listening to back then. Apparently it wasn't metal - but it was cool. Real cool. I did eventually find that button too, it's in a box in the basement, I need to find it. Back in the early '80s, premium movie channels were starting to be a thing, and where I lived I think it was called First Choice or something, it doesn't matter, but I was trying to remember because I thought it might enhance the story - sadly it was just more meandering rambling gibberish. Anyway, on the channel guide I saw a listing for a music special by SAGA - live in Montreal - or something very close to that. I had a large ghetto blaster I could hook up the TV connection to for stereo sound, and I got some tapes ready. I was going to record this (to ...

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 ...