Old Enough to Forget

It was going to happen sooner or later. Nostalgia is a cruel mistress ... she can dull the sharpest edges and over time can even soften the hardest of opinions. I found this in the dollar bin, and frankly at a dollar I was worried about what this would cost me. Not only from a monetary perspective, but my time, and more important, my credibility. Fourteen-year-old me was screaming, "Don't you dare. DON'T DO IT! Put it down. Walk away!" Then there was grey-bearded me holding it and looking at it, thinking, "How bad could it be? I actually kind of like 'Stayin' Alive,' and me buying this record won't bring disco back, and no one will have to know I bought this." I pulled the album out of the bin, and carefully took out the records. They'd seen better days, and there were a couple of decent scratches that would no doubt make their presence known later. The jacket was in decent condition, and both of the albums had the original sleeves. I dus...

Just about everyone's heard "Dream Weaver" - I suppose Wayne's World can take credit for that (although it is a different version, he did like to re-record this song). Still, when I found this album I was pretty stoked, as I happen to like that song, but I really liked "Love Is Alive" and I'll be honest, I'd forgotten about that one until I dropped the needle. Then it was, "Holy mackerel. I love this song." While my dollar-bin copy didn't have an insert, there were decent credits on the back cover, and it was cool to see names like David Foster, drummers Andy Newmark and Jim Keltner, and even a guitar cameo by Ronnie Montrose on "Power of Love." It's the only guitar on the album, and it comes at the close of the first side. After setting the tone with the various keyboards and special effects on the first four songs, I actually didn't even notice the guitar the first time through. Dang, even on the second pass it was t...

Over the last year and a bit I've been accumulating more dollar store treasures than I have time to actually process. It doesn't mean I'm not giving them a proper listen and consideration, it's just that not everything has a story that can meanderamble for a while and still say nothing at the end. Also, there are a lot of bands where there are numerous albums in their discography that are sitting on my shelf (more than one, as my wife reminds me) and they deserve a shout out. I figured since no one really reads this nonsense anyway and this is all about me fuelling my own inflated sense of hubris, I'd start a new segment I'd slot in maybe once a week, or once a month, or perhaps quarterly, or as an annual thing. I'm hedging my bets, as I generally have a lot of ideas and poor follow-through. Not everything is a dollar store treasure. Some of these I've had a long time, some not so long, and some were more than a buck. However, let's be optimistic and...

I suppose I really should have started with In Another Land , as that was my first Larry Norman album, and one that was a really big deal to me - but it was also the foundation upon which my love for this particular album was built. An album I felt at the time was the best thing he'd ever done - of course, with the benefit of hindsight I can unequivocally say that isn't true. Besides, I'll get to that one and probably others in due time. I'll start here because it's where I am and I wanted to listen to Something New Under the Son . So I am. Larry Norman is a polarizing figure to a lot of people, but I only knew him from his music and first-hand accounts from my dear, dead friend Dave, who went on tour with him doing live sound many years ago. Dave had nothing bad to say about Larry, and to quote good ol' Forrest Gump, "And that's all I've got to say about that." To me, Larry was as big a deal as there was, and for many years I eagerly bought ev...

I'd seen this before in the bin, but kept flipping through the stacks. I'd see it a few more times, each time stopping to look at it a little more. There was something kind of cool about the cover where the stylized Celtic knot had the dotted yellow line - it was a strange street for sure. I pulled the record out of the jacket and I was struck by the centre image. There was the familiar Mercury label, the same one I'd seen a thousand times on BTO's Head On album. Well, I'd bought things based on odd associations before - like when I had to buy anything that Solid Rock Records released (this was generally a good thing) - so who knows, maybe this was a hidden gem. There weren't any real scratches or rash, just a lot of dirt and dust. It seemed to clean up okay, but we'll see how it goes. The album opens with the title track, and this wasn't straight-ahead pop or rock. It was leaning toward the progressive, but with a pop bent. Oddly enough, the vocals rem...

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 t...

Slipstream was a complete unknown for me when I found it in the bin. It looked interesting, and the back cover was one of those weirdly ubiquitous band shots with floating bust shots of the band looking off into space that were supposed to give a sense of mystery - or something. How would I know? I was 13 when this came out. The album cleaned up amazingly well. I didn't initially recognize any of the names on the back cover. I had assumed, based on the names, that The Sutherland Brothers were Iain and Gavin, two Scottish lads (yeah, I went back and rewrote some of my initial meanderings after I looked the band up), and Quiver were drummer Willie Wilson and guitarist Tim Renwick. This is really tight soft rock and feels like a lot of other stuff from 1976, and it was pretty enjoyable. As good as any of their contemporaries, in my opinion. First time through nothing really rose above the rest in terms of standout tracks - that isn't meant to be a shot. The whole album is full of...