Old Enough to Forget

Gary Wright followed up his double platinum release The Dreamweaver in 1977 with The Light of Smiles . It must have been a surprise and a bit of a disappointment when the album didn't perform as well as hoped. It did chart as high as 23 on the Billboard top LP and Tape chart according to what I read on the wiki, but it must have been more of a spike than anything. As the album didn't seem to attain any certifications that I could see. Not that it matters, I've said it before, and I'll likely say it again (more than once) most of my favourite albums never really attained any significant commercial success.  I'd seen this album over the years, but that was about it. Gary Wright was Mr. Dreamweaver and I'm sure somehow it was worked into his epitaph when he passed away a couple of years ago. For me I was really curious about this one, lately I've been a sucker for finding albums that follow a big release. For Gary Wright he was flying high after The Dreamweave...

Blind Faith released one album in 1969 bringing together the talents of Eric Clapton, Steve Winwood, Ginger Baker and Rick Grech. This album was infamous when I was a kid because it had a topless young girl holding what looked like a chrome airplane. The photograph by Bob Seidemann was titled "Blind Faith" and it would end up being the name of the band and the album. I never knew there was an alternate cover until I found this one in the dollar bin. I have to admit the cover had seen better days, but the lyric insert was still inside the jacket and the album itself ended up cleaning up quite nicely. All in all a win win. Now I was just a wee lad when this came out, so my introduction to some of the songs would come many years later on radio when they'd have their '60s themed lunch hours, or the occasional oldie would crop up on rock radio. The song that seemed to get the most play was "Can't Find My Way Home" which is a brilliant song written by Steve Wi...

Thanks for popping in, this month is a little bit of this and a little bit of that. I seemed to be in a but of a maudlin mood and went back to the '70s for a couple albums by Dave Loggins and Ian Thomas. They were both young men at the time with a level of maturity that seems beguiling to me now as I sit here listening as an old man. Yeah, make no mistake, my youth is in my rear view mirror now. Told I was feeling maudlin. Regardless, for a bunch of albums that go back several decades it's funny how this still feels fresh to me. Peter Schilling - Error in the System (1983) Toronto - Lookin' for Trouble (1980) Steve Winwood - Arc of a Diver (1980) Dave Loggins - Personal Belongings (1972) Ian Thomas - Delights (1975) Peter Schilling - Error in the System (1983) From the catalogue of one hit wonders on this side of the Atlantic Peter Schilling hit it pretty big with "Major Tom (Coming Home)" a catchy song that seemed to be here, and then gone. Which is too bad, ...

1986 was a great year for music, and the summer soundtrack was particularly good that year. There were two album in my collection that were joined at the hip, Peter Gabriel's So , and Steve Winwood's Back in the High Life . As the summer cooled down Bon Jovi would drop Slippery When Wet , followed closely by Paul Simon's mesmerizing Graceland . Those are just the tip of the iceberg, and are stories for another day. Still when I think of Winwood, I think of Gabriel, I don't know why - they're really nothing alike other than they were a couple of Englishmen who reached their commercial peak at the same time. I'm not going to go back and list off Steve Winwood's other accomplishments with bands like The Spencer Davis Group, Traffic, or that lone Blind Faith album ... the guy had laurels he could have rested on. Heck with all that he was still only 38 (which seemed ancient back then) when he dropped Back in the High Life . By comparison, Tom Petty was 36 and...

I have a soft spot for this album. Back in '84 I got this solely based on "Love Will Show Us How" A mini master class in pop perfection. When I lost my records, I replaced this with a CD, and then recently for whatever reason a near perfect record showed up in the dollar bin - so I had to drop the buck.  I know this is probably not the popular opinion, but of the solo efforts from the Fleetwood Mac camp this is the album I like best. Oh sure Lindsey Buckingham released Go Insane in '84 as well, and I really liked the title track, and I appreciated how weird he got, but it wasn't something I pulled out very often - and of course I no longer have it (you never know, that could change one day). Then there was the witchy woman herself, Stevie Nicks, who I will admit had some great songs, but mostly I found her voice irritating. So here we have Christine who must have figured it was time to do a solo effort as well - and no doubt this cost a boatload of money to produc...