Old Enough to Forget

The other day the Jim Foster popped into my head, I hadn't thought of him in well over thirty years. Who knows what brought that up. At least it wasn't "Pop Muzik" by M - then I'd have never gotten it out of my head. "X-ray Eyes" was a catchy song, and because of that one song I bought Power Lines when it came out in 1986. It got played it a few times, and I put the hit on my mix tapes, and honestly other than the one song didn't remember much about Jim Foster. I do remember that "X-ray Eyes" got airplay on the radio station just across the border, which I thought was cool. That meant it was a real hit, not just a CANCON obligation. I don't remember the video but I did watch it on YouTube and I still really liked the song. I was browsing through my other favourite record store when I found a sealed copy of Power Lines for under six bucks. It was remaindered cutout, but my goodness, how could I pass this up? I didn't, and I was pre...

I suppose this was the band's debut album ... as Starship, but before this was Jefferson Starship, and before they went into space, they were merely Jefferson Airplane ... then came litigation and the names Jefferson, and Airplane were verboten so they kept their Starship and embarked on their mission to explore strange new sounds and try and hard as possible to be relevant. If you're going to try and go commercial, you need to have a song that can be commercial, and boy howdy doo little did they ever get the perfect vehicle that encapsulated everything cheesy about the '80s in one song, and that song was "We Built This City" written by Bernie Taupin, Martin Page, Dennis Lambert, and Peter Wolf (I used to think it he was the guy from J. Geils, but it's not that Peter). I mean it had it all, including a DJ voice over, how awesome. "Cheese Gromit!" As if getting a vocal showcase like "Sara" wasn't enough, Mickey Thomas gets to really stre...

Well, I am a little ashamed to admit that 11 year old me generally didn't think girls should sing rock songs. I mean, I liked some Olivia Newton John songs I heard on the radio, and will even admit that when Helen Reddy sang "I am a Woman" in 1972 I sang along. It was catchy, shoot me. Our shitty AM radio station where I grew up would occasionally play rock songs, and for what seemed like an eternity, "Devil Gate Drive" got special treatment and was played over and over and over. I really liked it. I remember my mum turning off the radio - that just made it better. I mean, it wasn't B.T.O. but she had a growl and she was killing it. I don't think I ever really thought of it again after that brief period of time. Sure, like a lot of other kids when she showed up as Leather Tuscadero on Happy Days it was like, "Ooh." In hindsight I think this pushed her into the realm of caricature and used up any rock credibility she has accumulated. This may ex...

Well, for a dollar I'm not going to get too bent out of shape over some idiot with the initials "BB" who thought adorning the album with their initials was a good idea. I thought since I'd managed to get an entire name printed in block letters off a Nick Lowe record, I'd have no problem with two little initials. There's the rub ... as you can see I managed to fade it a little, but I quickly realized I was also rubbing off the album art too. So I stopped rubbing before I wouldn't be able to see. Enough of that, as much fun as it is to write out thinly veiled juvenile masturbation jokes I think I'm edging close to losing it, so I'll stop. Okay, now I'll stop. Sorry. But they started it. Do they have mulligan's in blogwriting? Or am I supposed to do the honourable thing and delete stuff? Let's just start again, but as a compromise I'm leaving the other stuff as a reminder to myself to show what happens when I write without really think...

Um. I couldn't help myself, it was there in a clearance bin and I did like their cover of "Spirit In The Sky" which was a pretty spot on version of Norman Greenbaum's classic. I picked this up fully expecting to have a field day and make a lot of pithy comments, and more of less beat a dead horse. This was a band I didn't know what to do with at time. Looking at the cover images now I can't tell if they were going after a Boy George vibe or exaggerating Robert Smith from The Cure but with more make up and a lot more hair. Listening to it now, I actually feel kind of bad as I missed out on a pretty solid '80s album that was a lot more than it appeared to be. I've played this through a couple of times now, and this really is a solid album. I'll still single out "Spirit in the Sky" as the best song on the album, but it's not a case of killer and filler. They set 'em up and knocked 'em down. I had to go to the ever reliable and ac...

I suppose now is as good as a time as any to say thank you to Cyndi Lauper. as without her number one "Time After Time" featuring Rob Hyman on the counter vocal, I wonder if  Hooters would have been signed to Columbia Records. Fast forward a couple of years and a familiar voice is singing "All You Zombies" and it's a jaw dropping moment. It was a perplexing song to a lot of people - especially kids who weren't used to hearing a song about the Book of Exodus, or more likely the guys in the band were simply fans of Cecil B. DeMille and figured pairing Moses in a song with zombies would sound cool - it did. I remember a lot of people wondering if the guys were a Christian band or something.  Didn't matter. The song rocked and if it didn't make any sense so what? I bought the album, then lost the album - bought the CD, kept the CD and then when my wife wasn't looking bought the album again because I wanted to. I will also admit that on occasion I ca...

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 ...