Old Enough to Forget

For many years I had never heard the album in its entirety. As a kid I was enthralled with "Band on the Run" and loved the guitar riff from "Let Me Roll It" and really liked "Helen Wheels" which apparently wasn't meant to be on the album - but in North America it was included. "Jet" still remains a song that I like and detest in equal measure. I'm not sure why. It's likely a hold over from my distaste of Elton John's "Benny and the Jets" from that same year, and hearing Jet in a song triggered my gag reflex. Who knows, I can also see I'm starting this off by wandering off topic. Let me see if I can wrestle this to the ground and try and get things back on track. Back in '73 I can't really claim to have had the deepest of musical knowledge, but I can unequivocally state that from my earliest memories I have been pretty obsessed with music. It's pretty rare for something not to be playing in the background,...

I debated whether or not to go with the best of, as I had picked up a couple of Shawn's earlier albums before stumbling upon this one. True, the cover had seen better days, but the record itself was pretty much flawless. Honestly when I found this one, I still hadn't had a chance to sit and listen to the ones I already had. Collaboration from 1971 had a cool cover, and the gatefold had the credits and the lyrics, and aside from recognizing Trident Studios I didn't immediately recognize any of the players. Not long after finding that one I stumbled upon Bright White from 1973, and this one featured a truly horrible cover, but I recognized several names: Russ Kunkel on drums, Leland Sklar on bass, and Danny Kortchmar on guitar, who all seemed to appear on the title track. It was a buck, so I got it. Over the last few days I'd spun Collaboration a couple of times, and it was a cool and challenging record. I liked it but I just couldn't get my head around it. So I figu...

Ah, Michael Damian. Well, it was bound to happen at some point. To be honest I've been actually looking forward to this, mainly because I had packed a lot of baggage in advance and was just waiting for a chance to unload on what I was hoping would be a big pile of monkey droppings. I'd have my revenge for "Rock On" and nothing was going to get in my way. Everybody knows that actors are often just frustrated musicians who were too pretty to be taken seriously. Then again, why is it that musicians want to be actors? Sigh. The album I found was his 1984 debut "Love is a Mystery" on Columbia. Dang, this label was home to some pretty awesome acts. Maybe this was a novelty release. Thankfully the copy I found for my dollar had the liner notes, and the core band was Michael on vocals and keyboards - and chimes (couldn't find a triangle?), Larry Weir on guitars and keyboards, and Tom Weir on drums. A quick peek on the internet revealed that Michael, Larry and To...

This was another one of those "still sealed" records I scored for by birthday. The cover looked cool, I subconsciously filed this under rock and prog, and assumed I was in for a '70s keyboard driven album. I mean, with a title like Fuse , with a cover that featured an old glass fuse - the kind you could once find in your stove or old electric panel I figured this was going to be an electrified experience. Before I dropped the needle I scanned the back cover, and the only name I recognized was Hayward Parrot, who engineered the album. This was cool, as I'd just seen his name on The Front an album I'd just found. While the cover showed Rich Wamil & Copperpenny, the album's spine and the record label attributed this to Copperpenny. I'm guessing at the time there was some name recognition for Mr. Wamil, and sure enough on the credits his name is in bold print. The album opens with "Disco Queen" and sure enough, what I'm getting is a blend of ...

On of the record stores I like to frequent has a pretty solid online store. Every so often I'll just go on a splurge in the comfort of my home, where I am able to wear my crocs and not feel like I'm being judged. So there I am, mindlessly searching for stuff, and I key to the fact I can search for still sealed items ...  Well, this could be fun.  I went on a bit of a tear and ended up with about a hundred bucks of stuff that seemed like a good idea. I got the kids to pay for it as it was close to my birthday. One of the treasures that popped up was Underworld by The Front. The name of the band felt familiar, but I couldn't peg it at the time. So I added this to the cart. I honestly had no idea what to expect, but from the back cover photo was as it was on Duke Street records, so it was likely going to be okay. After all, Jane Siberry and Rik Emmett were on Duke Street at one point so I assumed this would be a guilty by association thing.  The album was indeed a lot of fun...

Red Rider seemed to come out of nowhere in 1980 with their song "White Hot." It was a wicked bit of rock magic that felt like something new. A big part of the sound was found in Ken Greer who added his string wizardry to the mix much like the late David Lindley complimented Jackson Browne. Ken's use of lap steel as a rock vehicle was pretty brilliant. When the band dropped their follow up in '81 I remember picking it up before anything had started to catch on the radio. "Lunatic Fringe" melted a lot of faces, and it's kind of hard to underscore how big a deal the song was to so many people. The song was a rock anthem that didn't sound like anything else out there. In short, this one song was worth the price of admission. Did I mention Ken Greer's solo? Excuse me while put my face back on. The rest of the album felt somewhat anti-climactic, but by no means was it a waste of time. It was still very firmly rooted in the '70s and while the '8...

Utopia is one of those bands I was always curious about as this was Todd Rundgren's band, and for years I'd seen his name pop up on various albums over the years. After a fairly long dry spell (at least two or three weeks) where I could only find obscure show tunes and old Disney records in the dollar bin, up popped what looked to be a decent copy of Deface the Music . There was a slight wobble but I figured it was worth a chance so I brought it home and gave it a little TLC and put it in the queue. Well, the slight wobble was more than slight and effectively made the first tracks on both sides unplayable, which was a shame. But not all was lost. I'm not sure what I was expecting musically as I hadn't looked it up prior to dropping the needle. I suppose the cover should have given it away, but come on, everyone seemed to have a cover like this at some point. Of course as soon as the music started I found myself listening to a long lost Beatles record ... or The Rutles, ...