Old Enough to Forget

1985 was a hell of a year for cool music. Dire Straits was right there in the mix with some of the best songs of the year. Dire Straits was still Dire Straits flitting on the periphery of what was in vogue while somehow managing to be at the centre of things. A year that saw albums by The Cult, Talking Heads, Tears for Fears, John Cougar Mellencamp along with a host of others that are too numerous to mention without taking up most of this post. This album was huge - it would move over a million copies in Canada, nine in the States topping out at over thirty worldwide. Of course to twenty two year old me, it was "Money for Nothing" that floated my boat. Much like "Industrial Disease" did from Love Over Gold . I was at best "a sort of fan" but didn't have their records. My roommate had the band's live album Alchemy (which I heard after Brothers in Arms ) and "Telegraph Road" remains to this day one of my favourite songs by Dire Straits. I...

I had no idea what rockabilly or roots rocks was back in 1980. That's not necessarily accurate, as I really liked Dave Edmunds classic "I Hear You Knocking" from his 1972 album coincidentally titled Rockpile . Nick Lowe had some success with his '79 album Labour of Lust both of those guys would mine old time rock and roll and put a little twist on things. With Rockpile Nick and Dave were joined by Billy Bremner and drummer Terry Williams (who would later sit behind the kit with Dire Straits) and the band would release one album Seconds of Pleasure that yielded a minor hit "Teacher Teacher" that felt fresh and classic at the same time. There was a buzz about the album and I remember my buddy Gord who knew such things said this was a killer album. I never bought it, and never heard more than the one single, and then the album drifted into the abyss and would be one of those things I knew about but nothing about at the same time. Here I am sitting and grooving...

Whoever owned this before me, wrote "Bumpers" in black felt pen on the front of the album, on the back cover, and on both sides the album itself. So yeah, it was a pain in the ass trying to figure out how to remove most of the ink. I was pretty proud of myself, in that I was able to make it hardly visible on the front and back of the jacket. I had a defaced Wishbone Ash album, I applied my newfound knowledge and proceeded to nearly ruin the cover. Anyway, I dropped the dollar because I wanted to get "Cruel to Be Kind" a song I knew from back in the day, and if there was more than one good song it was all bonus. After all, it's not like I have a lot of his stuff. Although I was super close to picking up Rockpile's Seconds of Pleasure when it came out. The only other point of reference was Party of One back in 1990 because I really liked "All Men are Liars" which still cracks me up. Oddly enough the guys he'd form Rockpile with were here suppor...