Old Enough to Forget

There was a period of time when Corey Hart was unassailable. It was fun to take pot shots and call him names because he popular with the teenage girls. Heck, when he covered Elvis' "Can't Help Falling in Love" on Fields of Fire it was open season. But, honestly it was pretty awesome. To say Corey Hart and the '80s are synonymous isn't a stretch. With Boy in the Box it was do or die. After all the success of "Sunglasses at Night" there's was no way he'd be able to top his debut. Right? The then 23 year old Mister Hart dropped a remarkably mature effort that managed to capture everything that was cool about the early '80s. He had the look and swagger, and he could deliver the songs to back it up. I guess because I was growing up at the same time, and am a year younger I totally forgot that Corey Hart was basically my age. To say the album was a phenomenon here in Canada is a bit of an understatement. Sort of like saying Canadians like beer...

When Glenn Frey passed away back in 2016 it sort of sucked the fun out pooping on his solo work. There was no doubting his talents as a writer, a singer, and honestly as an under appreciated lead guitar player. However, Glenn also seemed to have a penchant for leaning into the syrupy side of pop.  After the Eagles imploded you knew it was a matter of time before the dynamic duo would start releasing solo albums, and it would be interesting to see who really had the Midas touch when it came to putting out music. Glenn struck first in May of 1982, and released No Fun Aloud , and right off the bat it was like the most insipid and middle of the road elements from The Long Run were being used as the template for what would constitute success. The one two pillowy punch of "I Found Somebody" and "The One That You Love" got some play, but honestly were pretty disappointing. There was a little life in the reworked "The Greeks Don't Want No Freaks" song "Pa...

Last fall I stumbled upon Doug and the Slugs debut album, and was more than a little surprised at how good it was. My previously held belief that the band sucked had to be revisited and I had to admit I'd done the Slugs wrong. I wouldn't go so far as to say I was a fully slimed convert, but I was at least on the path to putting away my salt shaker. After the barrage of "Too Bad" I don't really remember hearing anything else by the band until "Making it Work" started getting some airplay, and yeah, it was catchy and all but I didn't consider myself a fan so I never picked it up. Lo and behold buried between the 1980 debut and the '83 release Music for the Hard of Thinking the band dropped their 1981 follow up Wrap It! An album I honestly didn't know existed. Then again, that's not saying a lot as the amount of shit and silliness I don't know far outstrips any semblance of knowledge and meaningless trivia I have accumulated over the y...

Rock 'n' Roll Juvenile came out in '79, and I remember the song "Carrie" being played on the radio, and then being somewhat confused when a very similar version by Cano singing with an audible French Canadian accent actually outperformed the original here in Canada. When he released "Devil Woman" in 1976 I was hooked. It was a song I really liked but I never picked up any of his albums. It wasn't until I saw a buddy of mine at the mall holding a copy of Rock 'n' Roll Juvenile in the early '80s and I must have given him a little goofy look (which is honestly just my resting face) and he got all defensive and went on about how good the record was and that I shouldn't be a snob about his choice in records. Well, I liked the aforementioned "Devil Woman" and I did like "Carrie" and I really liked "We Don't Talk Anymore" and had recently gotten into The Tarney/Spencer Band and at the time songs from I'...

The first time I got this album it was a gift from my old roommate Otto. For a goofy little nebbish he would occasionally surprise me with some left of field musical treasures. Although, I still think he was reaching a little when he brought home the new "Led Zeppelin" album by Kingdom Come and forced me to listen to "Get it On" over and over again.  I'd not listened to Mars Needs Guitars in a long, long, long time. The first thing that I jumped out at me was how David Faulkner's vocals reminded me of his fellow countryman Peter Garrett from Midnight Oil. I think the reason this never occurred to me was at the time I didn't have any Midnight Oil until Diesel and Dust in 1987. I'm not saying it was all the time, but there were a couple of songs where it stood out. Not a bad thing, just a thing. Even at the time this felt slightly out of step with what was going on in 1985. It seemed like everyone was using drum machines and synthesizers and having t...

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...

This was an interesting score. A Canadian first pressing of the Zager and Evans classic 2525 (Exordium & Terminus) . Finding albums like this for a buck always seems like a surreal score. The vinyl was is passable shape with some expected wear, but nothing too visible. It did though clean up remarkably well, and then while I was putting it into the sleeve I dropped it on the floor.  Putting the record on there's something undeniably appealing about "In the Year 2525" that seemed to sum up all of trepidation people were feeling about the future and the headlong charge to oblivion through the wanton pursuit of technology. Or something, it's a lot to take in for my little brain. It's always been a weird and goofy song that managed to go number one all over the world. Heck, even the official science fiction nerds who ran the Hugo Awards nominated it for some type of special award - although it's not clear if they won or not but it's an interesting bit of t...