Old Enough to Forget

Before I put the record on I figured I'd jot down what I remembered from the album. It's been a long time since I've given this a proper listen. First thing to disclose is I am still a big SAGA fan after all these years. Back in 1989 when GNP dropped I bought it right away because both Steve Negus (drums), and Jim Gilmour (keyboards) were involved - they were the G &N in GNP. The video for "How Many Times" actually got quite a lot of play on YTV Rocks - that was hosted at the time by Laurie Hibberd and they even had an interview with Steve who talked about the album. I don't remember much about the interview, but he seemed pretty happy and there were high hopes the album would do well. I did like the single, and I had high hopes for the album too. As much as I wanted to like the album, as a whole it never really seemed to gel for me. In addition to "How Many Times" I made an effort to like "Safety Zone" as I put it on a few mix tapes. T...

As a kid I didn't really know a lot about Peter Gabriel. I was in high school when "Games Without Frontiers" was a big deal back in 1980. It was a pretty awesome song, and I remember being tempted to pick up the album, but never did. Still don't know why. Then again, I didn't have Genesis albums either. Like millions of other bandwagon jumpers I hopped on with So and stayed on for his soundtrack Passion, then more or less lost interest. I also really liked Plays Live , especially the live version of "Solsbury Hill" that still gets me right in the feels. That was about as deep as my collection went.  It was about a year after the album came out in the summer of '83 that "Shock the Monkey" was still getting a fair bit of play on FM radio, and the song admittedly was a bit perplexing to me, as I didn't know if I liked it, or was irritated by it. Time of course would have the last laugh, as it always does as the song, like so much of Mr. G...

Ten Years After is one of those bands a lot of people know about, but don't really know much about. At least that was the case for me. Alvin Lee, is a name I knew of, but much like the band I couldn't really name more than a song ... which I'll name later, likely a couple of times. They were kind of like Status Quo in that regard. Yeah I know I'm a Luddite, but cut me some slack, this stuff was just a tad before my time. I may be getting old but I'm not that old ... yet. Sill I do like a lot of the late '60s and early to mid-70s jam bands. As it happened I was out and about looking around a record store I'd not been to very often. They had a back wall lined with dollar records (I'm cheap). This wall didn't have that much going for it as it was chock full of showtunes and a lot of questionable stuff (maybe one day I'll by an Al Jolson album, but I'm kind of on the fence), but in the midst of all this nonsense I managed to score a couple of al...

This is the North American release of Himself that added his signature song "Alone Again (Naturally)" and changed up the cover art. Now Gilbert looked like Archie Andrews (without the ginger hair and freckles) rather than a street urchin from a Charlie Chaplin movie. If you didn't like the long haired freaky people, here was Gilbert, a dapper figure in his letter sweater looking like was just waiting to help an old lady cross the street to add to his collection of merit badges. This is a rather strange album. For me the draw was "Alone Again (Naturally)" with his double tracked vocal and  Paul McCartney infused delivery. The srupy string arrangement hearkened back to another time, but it sure was a great song. Even now this is a piece of pop magic, and it brings a smile to my face and a tear to my eye when I hear it - it makes me think about my dad. So I was more than a little curious when I got this from the bargain bin. It's not a throw away bubble gum alb...

Platinum Blonde was a short blip on the landscape, between 1983 and 1987 they released a trilogy of albums, with Alien Shore being their biggest album. On their debut they were a trio comprised of Sergio Galli on guitar and backing vocals, Mark Holmes fronted the band and sang lead vocals played bass and keyboards while Chris Steffler laid down the beat. It was a solid release and sold a couple of hundred thousand copies, which is lot in a small market country.  When it was time for a follow up, the band brought in Kenny MacLean to take over bass and keyboards so that Mark could focus on being a front man. It worked. Platinum Blonde were a band who were very image conscious, and taking a page from the Duran Duran playbook they were video friendly as well. The combination of a few really great songs, and accompanying videos the band took it to another level. When the little girls took a liking to the band, suddenly they were pariahs to the fans who liked their debut. Platinum...

An obscure album that barely qualified as a post script on the late Jim Clench's wiki page. I will admit to being a little uncharitable to Mr. Clench over the years. His contributions to April Wine prior to his departure from the band, were not among my favourites, although you absolutely have to give it up for "Oowatanite" a song that apparently led to a rash of fire bell thefts across the country back in the mid '70s.  From there Jim would bounce around. He was the original bassist in Loverboy, but left the band. He was on Bryan Adam's debut album and was also a member of B.T.O. on their last two studio albums after Randy's departure. Albums I originally refused to buy, but have recently been trying to make up for lost time, and frankly they're both decent albums but they've been mostly forgotten. Along the way, Jim joined up with 451 Degrees, and the band would release one album, and then disappear. Now, I'd seen the album a couple of times, but...

When I was a kid B.T.O. was synonymous with rock and roll. If there was a bigger, better and more awesome band I wasn't aware of them. The gear everything seemed to rotate around was Randy Bachman, the band's architect, producer, songwriter and occasional singer. Of course this how I saw it as a a twelve year old, who practically lived off Four Wheel Drive , and later Head On . I was of course aware of Not Fragile , how could you not be? I didn't have the album (yet) but the big hits appeared on my various K-Tel records. When Freeways dropped in 1977 I was a sophisticated teenager with slightly more refined tastes, and I was on the fence about getting the album. I had a good friend who had it, and he played it once for me, and the summary judgment was "This is shit." I wouldn't hear the album again for decades. When I found it on CD it was better than I remembered but it wasn't really a Bachman Turner Overdrive album. There were moments, but it was a Randy...