2025 Classic Rock / AOR Journal Vol. 2

Bob McBride - Sea of Dreams. 1973 Capitol Canada (LP). As with the Harvey Mandel below, Sea of Dreams was being prepped for sale, when I heard some very intriguing music. The album cover originally drew me in at the thrift shop, and when I saw it had some value, I added it to the stack. So who is Bob McBride anyway? He was the primary vocalist for the famous horn rock band Lighthouse. Sea of Dreams is tagged as folk rock, and I suppose that's the hard truth, but there's far more of a rock element here than is usual for the genre. It grooves hard, and there's plenty of electric guitar that is quite acidic in tone. A4 recalls Neil Young, and my mind at that point began to wander and lose interest. A5 has a bit of an America feel to it. The B side did little to bring me back, and completely loses steam about midway through. Ah well, not a bad listen overall, with a strong opening. A familiar tale, drugs ultimately did McBride in, and his promising solo career mostly ended here. He did manage a couple of albums in the later 70s that remain unnoticed despite major label releases. I'll eventually spin up a Lighthouse page, and will add McBride in at that point. (11/21)

*Harvey Mandel - Feel the Sound of Harvey Mandel. 1974 Janus (LP). I'm largely ignorant of Harvey Mandel's work, so when I put this on to ensure the quality for resell, I was pleasantly surprised at what was coming back. I then placed it as aside for a full listen. And here we are. Mandel is most known as a blues guitarist, who spent time with Canned Heat and John Mayall. It appears he took about 20 years off from the late 70s until the mid 90s, and has been recording ever since. Starting off with a strong funk number, Mandel plays various forms of blues and rock. I really like the grooves on this title, along with Mandel's guitar tone. I think B1 sold me. Picking up some Frank Marino at the end of this. The cover is pretty darn great too. I'll keep my eyes peeled for Mandel albums in the future. Might build out a page eventually. I'm considering Mandel as Classic Rock in the same sense as early ZZ Top. (11/21)

Electric Light Orchestra - No Answer. 1972 United Artists (LP) (1971). After hearing the below, I decided to pull out A New World Record and this, their debut (the record show isn't until November). A New World Record just isn't for me. But I felt this one at least deserved a few words. Consider that both Roy Wood and Jeff Lynne essentially wanted to expand upon The Beatles' experiments with classical instrumentation. For example, 'Eleanor Rigby' and 'I Am the Walrus'. Both are favorites of mine, so let's give this one more listen. At this stage, the Electric Light Orchestra really is a small chamber unit. No crazy synthesizers here. This isn't a rock album, and really belongs in its own category. It does have a Beatles flair, without the psych element. I'm tempted to keep this for being unique, but I'll let it go. I love the story of how the album was named for the US pressing. Apparently a secretary from United Artists called Harvest over in England to find out the name of the album, and no one picked up the phone. So she wrote "No Answer". Perfect! This isn't urban legend either, and has been confirmed. (9/5)

Electric Light Orchestra - Face the Music. 1975 United Artists (LP). Well I think I finally found the ELO album I was looking for. I've documented a couple of their late 70s albums that were more ubiquitous in my youth, neither to my taste. Since that time I found the first album along with A New World Record. And they didn't do too much for me either. The opener of Face the Music is a track I remember liking when I first got into FM radio in 1977. I didn't realize until now that it was ELO behind it! Has sort of this odd 'Pinball Wizard' meets Alan Parsons Project thing going on. A2 is a sappy ballad that blows. A3 is of course their first true megahit 'Evil Woman'. I liked this song when I was 11 and I still do. It's probably the best song they ever did, at least of those I know. Well OK, I recognize A4 as well. Haven't heard 'Nightrider' in forever, and probably didn't pin ELO on it either. You have to remember that ELO would have dominated the radio airwaves in '77 and '78 when that's pretty much all I listened to, along with my puny record collection I possessed back then. B1 is kind of a punky prog track, an oxymoron if there ever was one. With Zeppelin undertones. B2 is their other great hit. 'Strange Magic' is probably their second best track ever (in my book). It's pretty weird honestly, especially for a Top 40 smash. B3 is an out of place rural infected song. B4 is a nice closer. This is the best I've heard from ELO to date. I can let the LP go, but if I find the CD cheap, I might keep it. (8/30)

GTR. 1986 Arista (LP). Steve Howe approaches Steve Hackett and says: "I have an idea. Let's recreate the glories of my past, with you and me in the lead". Intrigued, Hackett pursues further. Like who he asks? "ASIA". God bless. And then name the band as gee-tar. What a waste of talent. Now all these guys are closing in at the end, many already have. Can you imagine if they chose to recreate classic Yes meets Genesis in the mid 80s? A renaissance of the great prog rock style could have commenced. But noooooooo. I gave this an objective 2.5 rating on RYM. I should have given it a 0.5 on principle. (6/22)

* - Keeping for the collection

2021 Classic Rock / AOR Journal Vol. 5 - Complete

The following all came from the 25 cent bin at Independent (Nov):

Foghat - Tight Shoes. 1980 Bearsville (LP). As noted on the Stone Blue entry, Foghat were one of the first bands I got into as an early teen. Tight Shoes was also part of this batch. Already by Boogie Motel (1979), I was pretty much done with Foghat. I never did hear Tight Shoes, but I didn't expect it was something I was going to keep, and that proved true. But it isn't such a bad album really, and it's very much of its era. To be honest, there isn't that much difference between Foghat and ZZ Top at this stage. Both were blues rock bands looking to update their sound to that of the 80s. ZZ Top just happened to adapt better, especially by 1983. There's some fine guitar, and that would be its saving grace. But those fat beats, with the sterile production only will take you so far. There's not much in the way of memorable songwriting unfortunately.

Illusion - Out of the Mist. 1977 Island (LP). Somewhere along the last two to three years I ended up with the second Illusion, and my conclusion to that record is similar to this, their debut. A fine post-early-Renaissance album with commercial sensibilities. Some progressive rock textures here and there (mellotron, a random meter change), and a very good album on the whole. Though not catchy enough to make it on FM radio and not underground enough to make it a cult classic. As such, not something I need to keep.

Lighthouse - Sunny Days. 1972 Evolution (LP). I recently spoke of Lighthouse's next album Can You Feel It, and what a disappointment the band was by 1973. Its predecessor is no different, and is arguably even worse. Most of this album is a slog to get through, with mainstream boogie rock as its primary driver. Sunny Days redeems itself a little bit on the final two tracks, with some excellent, guitar, horns, and "mellophonium". The latter I thought to be some variation of the mellotron, because the keyboard instrument does indeed reside on a couple of tracks. As it turns out, it's a variation of a mellophone, something akin to a French horn that looks more like a big trumpet. It's primary function is for marching bands. Learn something new every day... 

Pacific Gas & Electric - Get It On. 1969 Bright Orange (LP). This one is pretty easy to describe: Los Angeles based late 60s blues rock. Has some fine guitar solos but mostly it stays in its lane, and doesn't take too many chances. A little too monolithic for me. Comes in a nice gatefold cover. Strange that this album was released on four different labels here in the States.

Barclay James Harvest - Gone to Earth. 1977 MCA (LP). Nice die-cut cover. I have no idea what the allure of BJH is. I've tried many of their albums, and I'm left with nothing to hold onto. It's not prog and it's not even good AOR. Unlike bands such as FM, BJH seems very flat to me. The melodies don't stick.

2021 Classic Rock / AOR Journal Vol. 1 - Complete

Supertramp - Even In the Quietest Moments... 1977 A&M (LP). Thrift shop find (Apr). Supertramp have become quite collectable in recent years - even their most commoditized albums are going for a tenner. Other than their out-of-nowhere 1985 prog(gy) album Brother Where You Bound, I've never had any use for Supertramp. But I'm trying to keep an open mind, and listening throughout to albums that I've dismissed in the past. To quote a part of my review for Brother: "And here comes along Supertramp - one of those bands that contributed to the dire state of the radio in the first place." Yep. The opener 'Give a Little Bit' is exactly what I was talking about there. Most folks will point out the album's closer as the grand progressive rock moment. 'Fool's Overture' is 10 minutes, and about double the length it needs to be. It's of the slow symphonic type, nothing overly progressive in my book. 'Lover Boy' is probably my favorite track, and I would call that one "good". It's not a bad album overall, but it's fairly average really. Oh well.

America - Hearts. 1975 Warner Bros. From RT (Apr). America are a band that I've passed on many times - even in thrift stores. Odd in that they have at least four songs that I think are superb - some of the best songs to ever be played on radio. In college, my roommate bought the America's History album, which is of course their famous greatest hits collection. Even then I loved those four songs. So when I went to our local used record store back then, I bought Holiday, which had one of these gems. I don't remember liking anything else, and sold the record off not too long after. Not surprised to see America in folk collector RT's stack. Maybe to amend that, I'm more surprised this is the only one I've run into so far. Now this album doesn't have any of those great four songs (which I won't mention until we get to their albums - if we get there). But it does have the 5th favorite, and that would be 'Sister Golden Hair', which is pretty good. In hearing the album opener 'Daisy Jane' - also on History - it's better than I recall. The best track for me is 'Company' and was that fuzz bass on 'Woman Tonight'? The rest is boring folk rock. So that assessment I made about America way back in 1986 seems to still hold court. Bummer.

Lighthouse - Can You Feel It. 1973 Polydor (LP). From the same estate sale (Mar). Being an enthusiastic horn rock fan, Lighthouse of course is a band that I do enjoy. Especially the debut album which has some fine horn charts, great melodies, and excellent lead guitar. By 1973, while Chicago is still cranking out hits, Canada's Lighthouse is desperately clinging on for survival, trying hard to regain that magic. The first thing you notice, while looking at the cover, is the band could have used a good dental plan. Then on the back cover, the producer is making excuses as to why it doesn't really sound that good. Too much music I believe was the lame excuse. He's right about one thing - it doesn't sound right. It has no heft whatsoever. It's a shame that a large talented band like this couldn't have come up with something more innovative. They should have gone full-on prog or funk or hard rock or something. But jeez, hearing them try so hard for radio airplay that sound like they're from 1970, just doesn't work. I think one track did manage to do OK on Canadian radio, and it's probably the best one here ('Pretty Lady'). I hesitated to buy this for fear of being stuck with it. But it does have the large poster, so that will help. Of course the giant 4 panel poster replicates the album cover... which highlights their teeth. Some guys just never do get plugged in right.

Mose Jones - Get Right. 1973 MCA / Sounds of the South (LP). From an estate sale (Mar). Mose Jones were a southern rock band, though they did have some groove to them. Probably the oddest aspect of their sound is the copious use of mellotron, hardly a southern rock staple. The music is as eclectic as their instrumentation, and is a mix of gospel, rock, funk, r'n'b, and folk. Highlights for me were the haunting acid folk of 'Ode to Drugan' and the jamming 'Julia's Beautiful Friend'. Interesting album, but not one for me to keep. Looks like Sounds of the South was a Al Kooper directed imprint back in the day, though it's new to me. The main group to have been on the short-lived project was Lynryd Skynryd. Nice gatefold cover.

Queen - A Day at the Races. 1976 Elektra (LP). Thrift shop find (Mar). The more I hear Queen, the less I like them. I figured it would be the opposite. They're just not for me. I find myself liking Brian May's guitar work... and little else. I've had good luck finding their albums at thrift shops and garage sales, which is great because they're easy to flip. I haven't heard them all yet, but A Day at the Races is my least favorite of their 70s output that I've heard to date.

Janis Joplin - Pearl. 1971 Columbia (LP). Thrift shop find (Feb). I don't know if I've ever been able to sit through a Janis Joplin album all the way through, which would include Big Brother and the Holding Company of course. It's obvious she puts everything into her singing. But ugh, that voice. She's just not my kind of girl (in any way, shape, or form). Her singing is both annoying and irritating. My favorite track on the album is 'Buried Alive in the Blues', which is instrumental lol. If she had been able to conquer her demons, my best guess is she'd eventually found her way to Country music, and obtained more fame there for the long haul. You can hear that twang in her singing. Just needed some control. Alright, so now I've heard one of her albums throughout. An accomplishment in of itself. 

J. Geils Band - Love Stinks. 1980 EMI (LP). One more from the 1980 era RT stack (Jan). There's a fine line between opportunist and selling out. Whereas REO Speedwagon is a clear example of the latter, J. Geils is more the former. At least that's how I hear Love Stinks. The title track is the most known song here, and 'Just Can't Wait' was another hit. Jay Geils and crew were from Boston, going back to the 60s, and clawed their way to the top with a fine mix of early rock n' roll, funk, and R'n'B. They're meant to be a fun group and yet they do bring some edge with them too. Of course they were smart to latch onto the late 70s AOR sound. I can respect this album, though it does stray from my personal interest area. A well spent 37 minutes before heading to the sell bin.

REO Speedwagon - Hi Infidelity. 1980 Epic (LP) Ha. Early 60s folk collector RT would just buy about anything on occasion it appears (Jan). This album is more like the 38 Special album below, in that it was played so often, it's pretty much part of my DNA. Unlike 38 Special, this is pure dreck. One of the most obvious pandering to the great FM radio god there ever has been. Even Journey put some elbow grease into their pop slop. I really tried to be objective, but it's just dentist-office painful to sit through. A couple of decent guitar solos I suppose. I had to spray down the stereo after playing this.

Shoes - Present Tense. 1979 Elektra (LP). Also from RT (Jan). This is exactly the kind of power pop that has gained a following in the last few years. Borrowing from the happy late 60s but with a modern indie styled vocal and songcraft approach. I kind of remember these guys back then, but they didn't make a mark. This really isn't my thing, but it wasn't painful to get through at least. I'm a bit surprised this album isn't more expensive, as most LP's in this genre have gone way up.

Blind Faith. 1977 RSO (LP) From RT (Jan). Another one of those albums that is highly praised (and has been all my life) but leaves me scratching my head. Early supergroup (1969) of Cream, Traffic, and Family but it doesn't remind me of any of them. Maybe a more bluesy Traffic. Like the Beck / Bogert / Appice, this album lacks bite. This has the girl cover, but is a later reissue. Not for me.

The Who - Face Dances. 1981 Warner Bros. (LP) From RT (Jan) Face Dances is not a critic or fan favorite, and has generally been panned across the board. And while I'm certainly not going to fall on my sword for it, I don't find it any better or worse than most major artist albums from this era. This was the first studio album without Keith Moon, so you know how that goes with the die-hard fans ("It's not The Who without Keith Moon" grumble, grumble, grumble...). But the year 1981 had more to do with the output than the personnel methinks. 'You Better You Bet' was the big hit of the day and it's pretty good. 

38 Special - Wild-Eyed Southern Boys. 1980 A&M (LP). From the RT collection (Jan). 38 Special were a band from Jacksonville, Florida, so they are often compared to The Allman Brothers and Lynyrd Skynyrd. And certainly 38 Special have southern rock tendencies, but mostly they are a rocking AOR band, pretty far removed from the above groups. Once again, 38 Special were a band that enjoyed great radio airplay success while I was in high school. In hearing this album for the first time throughout, tracks like 'Hold on Loosely' and 'Fantasy Girl' were already etched into my DNA due to repeatedly listening to them for 40+ years. On the whole though, the album isn't so bad. It has a bit more muscle than others of its ilk, and the guitar work is a cut above. And since it's from 1980, the music definitely has a 70s sheen to it.