Journey - Escape (1981)

Note: this release was originally purchased as a cassette tape, later replaced by the 2006 CD reissue which includes 4 bonus tracks.

In 1981, between my disco era and my New Wave/New Romantic era, I was just a "normal" 14/15 year old white boy listening to much the same music as my peers: mainstream album oriented rock. When I think of rock albums released that year, I always think of Tattoo You, Foreigner 4, Freeze-Frame, Paradise Theater, and, of course, Escape. Sure, there's many others (Shake It Up, Queen's Greatest Hits, etc.), but for whatever reason my mind groups those 5 albums together. I owned all of them on cassette with the exception of Tattoo You, which I had on vinyl.

The Stereo Review write-up (see below) puts it best: "Journey is a good example of rock's youth fetish...they've let themselves settle comfortably into playing for kids." Can confirm and, as a member of that target audience, the 15 year old version of myself appreciated the group's efforts. I prefer earlier Journey singles such as Lovin' Touchin' Squeezin', Any Way You Want It, etc., but there's no debating the addition of keyboardist Jonathan Cain took the band to greater commercial heights. I definitely didn't appreciate Steve Perry's high flying vocals as much as I should have in 1981, but I eventually came around.

I listened intently to this album for many months before gradually sliding into my next music phase mid-1982, summarily declaring album oriented rock artists as sell-outs, and becoming an intolerable music snob at my high school - "You listen to who? April Whine? REO Speedwhat?" - while continuing to buy Asia and Def Leppard albums. Such is high school teenage reasoning and posturing. Go figure. So, after several decades, the purchase of this CD had more to do with simple nostalgia than the music itself and, as such, was easily worth a couple of bucks. And as for being an intolerable music snob, I've outgrown all that. Kinda sorta. Maybe.

There's no liner notes to speak of, but there's plenty of photos of the Escape tour and a complete listing of tour dates. I was at home in my rural town at the time, but the band played two dates in nearby Houston in early November 1981, recording them for eventual release on video (the bonus tracks on this disc are also from those dates/recordings). Following the concert, the requisite concert jersey started making appearances around my high school.

Speaking of 1981 rock albums, on March 21, 1981, Billboard magazine started publishing separate charts for both rock albums and rock tracks based not on sales, but radio airplay. For more info, please visit: Billboard Rock Albums & Top Tracks, March 1981 - September 1984

Press of the time:

• CashBox:"Great rhythms, brilliant hooks"
• Record World: "Journey is poised for its greatest success yet."
• Stereo Review: "decent enough as kid stuff, but rock should reach higher"
• Billboard: "arguable the best thing they've done both artistically and commercially."
• Rolling Stone (★★): "a veritable march of the well-versed schmaltz stirrers."

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard 200: #1 (1 week)
• Billboard Rock: #1 (3 weeks)
• CashBox: #1 (3 weeks)
• Rolling Stone: #5

Tracks: Plenty of hits here; half the album hit at least one Billboard chart.

Title	Hot 100	Rock	AC
Who's Crying Now	4	4	14
Don't Stop Believin'	9	8
Open Arms	2	35	7
Still They Ride	19	47	37
Stone In Love		13

While I enjoyed the singles back in '81 and '82, I've heard Who's Crying Now and Open Arms enough for one lifetime and Don't Stop Believin' enough for three lifetimes. But from the get-go I've thought Stone In Love was the best cut on the album and I'm not alone in that opinion. It was good to reconnect with the rockers Keep On Runnin', Escape, Lay It Down, and Dead Or Alive. Still They Ride still bores me.

Bonus tracks: a prog-rockish b-side and fairly rote live versions of the three overplayed tracks mentioned above. Makes me want to hit the eject button and escape this particular journey. (bad puns most definitely intended)

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: This album reminds me of cruising on Friday and/or Saturday nights during my sophomore year of high school. The cruising drag in our small town started at the Dairy Queen, then headed west about a mile on state highway 35 (7th Street) turning south downtown at the county courthouse, then travelling another mile down state highway 60 (Avenue F) to the shopping center that contained Bay Cinema 4, the local movie theater. Turn the car around and retrace the same path. Repeat ad nauseum. I didn't have a drivers license, so I had to pester older friends to take me cruising with them. Regardless of whose car we took, Escape was played on nearly every trip.

I didn't have an Atari 2600, but I was close friends with two brothers who owned one. I was with one of them when they bought the Journey Escape video game and I remember the both of us being disappointed in the thing after only a few minutes and then quickly going back to playing Pitfall or Pac-Man. Don't think we ever gave the thing a second chance. What a waste of $30 (adjusted for inflation, that's $100 in 2025).

Finally, I will confirm that girls at my school seemed to enjoy having Open Arms sung softly in their ear while slow dancing. I didn't have many moves in high school, but I had a good voice, so you gotta use the tools at your disposal. Also worked well with Chicago's Hard To Say I'm Sorry and any Lionel Richie ballad.

Various Artists - Billboard Top Album Rock Hits, 1981 (1997)

The first volume of a very short-lived, 4 disc series from Joel Whitburn and Rhino Records covering the years 1981-84, which just so happen to coincide with the years in which your humble blogger attended high school. The track selection speaks for itself but I'm very disappointed in the lack of liner notes detailing each track. However, there was a "Rock Quiz" included in the CD insert if you are up to the challenge.

More from the CD insert:

For more on the origins of Billboard's Rock charts on March 21, 1981, click here or the image below:

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart

Tracks: Half have already appeared on this blog, but since we're here...

1. Waiting For A Girl Like You - Foreigner (#1 Rock, #2 Pop)
   Also on Foreigner 4, Complete Greatest Hits, and the Footloose soundtrack.
2. Hold On Loosely - .38 Special (#3 Rock, #27 Pop)
   Also on The Very Best of the A&M Years (1977-1988) and Class Reunion '81: Greatest Hits Of 1981.
3. The Voice - The Moody Blues (#1 Rock, #15 Pop)
   Also on Long Distance Voyager and The Best Of The Moody Blues.
4. Burnin' For You - Blue Öyster Cult (#1 Rock, #40 Pop)
   I'm surprised this only charted at 40 on the Hot 100 because 1) I sure heard it a lot back in 1981, and 2) licks, riffs, and hooks abound. 
5. Fire And Ice - Pat Benatar (#2 Rock, #17 Pop)
   I'm not a huge Benatar fan, but in my book, this is one of her better releases. It won the Grammy award in the now-defunct category of Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance.
6. Hold On Tight - ELO (#2 Rock, #10 Pop)
   Also on Time.
7. This Little Girl - Gary U.S. Bonds (#5 Rock, #11 Pop)
   Written by Springsteen with sax solo by Clarence Clemons but Bonds completely owns this old school rocker. According to Casey Kasem during the June 20, 1981 edition of AT40, the song was written after the Bonds and Bruce spent a few hours together commiserating about their stalled careers. And how great a stage name is Gary U.S. Bonds?
8. Find Your Way Back - Jefferson Starship (#3 Rock, #29 Pop)
   Of all the incarnations of this band, the "Jefferson Starship" years (1974-1984) are my favorite because they were putting out good stuff like this.
9. A Life Of Illusion - Joe Walsh (#1 Rock, #34 Pop)
   I have no idea why I wasn't listening to more Joe Walsh during my high school days. I should have become a fan after hearing Life's Been Good or even Funk #49.
10. The Stroke - Billy Squier (#3 Rock, #17 Pop)
    Also on Don't Say No.

Missing is the biggest rock hit of 1981, Start Me Up by The Rolling Stones, which spent 13 weeks atop the rock track chart beginning September 5 of that year.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: Lots, but here's one I've mentioned before. Around the time these songs were popular, all the "cool senior boys" at my high school would back their mid-70's Ford or Chevy pick-up trucks into parking spots next to the football stadium about 15 minutes before school began, stereos blaring. In addition to the driver, the truck cab would normally seat the driver's current girlfriend. Tradition held that the truck have bench seating and the girl would sit as close to her boyfriend as physically possible without actually climbing into his lap (this was a few years before wearing seatbelts was mandatory in Texas, not as if that would make any difference to young lovers). Trucks entered the school's parking lot at the slowest rate of speed possible with windows down and loud rock music testing the limits of stock speakers. These tracks were just a few of those heard throughout the neighborhood surrounding the school that year.

Back in '81, our high school campus had a student smoking area and no minimum age to buy tobacco plus the legal drinking age was 19 with no open container law, so there was most likely plenty of other stuff going on in those truck cabs. I was but a naïve, sheltered 14/15 year old, so I was just a spectator at that point in time.

Previously revisited for the blog:
Billboard Top Album Rock Hits, 1984

Bill Champlin - Runaway (1981)

Japanese import

Note: the CD I listened to was the 2016 reissue using SHM-CD materials/technology.

Around 2010 or so, bored at work while listening to some West Coast/Adult-Oriented Rock/soft rock/melodic rock (most likely a Jarreau album), I searched for early '80s albums produced by either Jay Graydon or David Foster. I never found a definitive discography, but the wonderful Danish website Blue Desert directed me to some possibilities and prompted me to seek out a number of albums including this one from Champlin, plus albums from Airplay, Steve Kipner, Pages, and Marc Jordan. I purchased and downloaded all of those albums from the iTunes store and have since replaced all those downloads with physical CDs. That's for the best because iTunes no longer supports those particular purchases, although I still have access to U2's Songs Of Innocence. Yet another example of why I prefer physical product over downloads and streaming. But I digress.

This Runaway album was produced by David Foster and released by a guy that would soon (wisely) accept a job offer from the band Chicago. It bears more than a slight resemblance to the Chicago 16 album in terms of production, songwriting, arrangements, and personnel, so I've often referred to the album as "Chicago 15½" instead of "Runaway." And since I like Chicago 16, it makes sense that I like this offering as well.

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard 200: #178
• CashBox: #135

Why didn't Runaway perform better commercially? Here's what Champlin had to say about it:

It was weird, I did the Runaway album and the day that it was released, Joe Smith, the guy who had signed me to Elektra Records left the company. Two days later, I got a call from Chicago asking me to join the band. I went 'they’re (Elektra Records) going to lose this album,' I could see it coming from a million miles away. So I thought I’d better go for the rent, you know what I mean?^[source]

And "lose" it they did. I couldn't find any reviews or ads in any of the usual locations. Damn shame. With little support, I'm surprised it charted at all.

Tracks: I enjoy all 11 tracks and at a playing time of 39:24, there's no excuse for not listening to the CD from top-to-bottom. Elektra released three singles:

• Sara, co-written by Champlin and Alan Thicke, peaked at #19 on the adult contemporary chart and #61 on the pop chart. My pick for the album's top track.
• Tonight, Tonight, co-written by Champlin, Foster, & Raymond Louis Kennedy, #55 pop
• Take It Uptown, co-written by Champlin and Kenny Loggins

Four of the tracks are rated on their 'yachtiness' over at the Yacht or Nyacht website:

• Runaway - 91.25
• One Way Ticket - 76.5
• Take It Uptown - 62
• Satisfaction - 51

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: See above.

Christmas With The Canadian Brass And The Great Organ Of St. Patrick's Cathedral (1981)

My crack research team tells me that The Canadian Brass have released eight Christmas albums to date. This 1981 release was their first and finds the virtuoso quintet performing alongside John Grady playing the Great Organ of St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City. Familiar tunes, great arrangements, precision performances, and a fantastic recording hall. I don't often say this about classical recordings, but for this one I confidently tell the listener to crank it up!

Press of the time:

• Stereo Review: "richly resonant acoustic"
• Billboard: "one of the best Christmas collections ever offered"

Tracks:

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: My father bought this album on vinyl when it was released in 1981 so I'm reminded of my high school years and the many times I've heard these recordings since.

Previously revisited for the blog:
Jazz Roots (2008)
All You Need is Love (1998)
The Canadian Brass Plays Bernstein (1997)

Buggles - Adventures In Modern Recording (1981)

Note: this release was originally purchased as an LP, later replaced by a the 2010 CD reissue with 10 bonus tracks (UK import). Judging by the prices I'm currently seeing online, this CD must have gone out-of-print after I purchased it.

I'll sidestep my usual responsibilities by letting Trevor Horn explain the history of his album. Just click the thumbnail below:

I agree that this album has weaker material, but unlike Mr. Horn, I don't like this one better than The Age Of Plastic. As mentioned in the Trouser Press review below, this album is "interesting but not gripping." I should also note that the Horn-Downes split was apparently acrimonious. Horn makes it seem like Downes wasn't involved when Downes appears on 4 tracks and has co-writing & co-producing credits on 3 of those 4. Rightfully, Horn should get most of the credit and if it took going the production of this album to get to later Horn-produced albums like The Lexicon Of Love, 90125, Who's Afraid Of The Art Of Noise, Duck Rock, Welcome To The Pleasuredome, and the stuff with Seal, I'm quite glad it happened.

However, if you like The Age Of Plastic, you're probably better off finding a copy of English Garden by Bruce Woolley & The Camera Club than Adventures In Modern Recording.

Press of the time:

• Smash Hits (5½ out of 10): "the whole is much less than the sum of the parts"
• Record Mirror: "a weedy piece of whimsy"
• Billboard: "electronic and progressive rock experimentations"
• CashBox: "Despite their light-hearted pop image, this duo did pioneer the use of many electronic and synthesizer effects that more serious-minded British groups are pushing today."
• Trouser Press: "interesting but not gripping. Who's this intended for?"

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard 200: #161
• CashBox: #165

Tracks: My crack staff informs me that I Am A Camera was released as a US single, but failed to chart. My top picks are Beatnik, Vermillion Sands, and to a lesser extent, the title track and Inner City.

Bonus tracks: Includes 2 b-sides, the 12" mix of I Am A Camera, plus 7 demos. "Interesting but not gripping," but even more so. Leans more prog rock than synthpop. Two of the demos were given to Yes, another to Dollar.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: Nothing from 1981; I wasn't aware of this album until the mid-'90s. When I finally learned of its existence, I picked up a used copy of the vinyl record as it had yet to be released on CD.

I saw "The Buggles" in concert in Houston on April 28, 2023 when they opened for Seal. They included a song from this album in the six song set. Downes wasn't invited and it was really the Trevor Horn show: he played bass, sang vocals, and it was all songs he had a hand in producing. To wit:

• Two Tribes (Frankie Goes to Hollywood cover; instrumental)
• Living in the Plastic Age (from The Age Of Plastic)
• Elstree (from The Age Of Plastic)
• I Am a Camera (from Adventures In Modern Recording)
• Owner of a Lonely Heart (Yes cover)
• Video Killed the Radio Star (from The Age Of Plastic)

Then the band changed clothes and returned to the stage as Seal's backing band. Yes, I bought an overpriced concert tee (two actually - one for Buggles, another for Seal). For what it's worth, when I saw Asia perform in April, 2008 in Dallas, Downes donned a silver sequined jacket and the band performed Video Killed the Radio Star.

Previously revisited for the blog:
The Age Of Plastic (1980)

Kool & The Gang - Albums 1979-1984 (2020)

UK Import

Some records are bathed in such a happy spirit that listening to them is like taking a short, revitalizing vacation. The effect has nothing to do with the loudness of the music or the heaviness of the beat; it's all in the spirit of the performance.

Review of As One in Stereo Review, February 1983, p. 76

I was in down mood recently and arbitrarily spun the Kool & The Gang compilation The Dance Collection and found my spirits immediately lifted. Not only were there many comforting, familiar tunes, almost all the tunes were positive, happy, major-keyed, at dance speed or midtempo. So I ordered this 6 albums on 3 CDs set from BGO and the albums have been in steady rotation ever since. I didn't have any of these albums back when they were originally released and boy did I ever miss out on some good stuff. The dates perfectly cover the years I was in grades 8-12 in middle/high school and on into my freshman year at university.

Why start the set in 1979 with the group's 11th studio album? Ladies' Night marked the beginning of the group's most successful era which (probably not coincidentally) also marks the debut of lead vocalist James "J.T." Taylor and the use of Eumir Deodato as producer. All six albums here peaked in the top 30 on the Billboard 200 chart and spawned multiple top 40 singles on both the pop charts (14) and the R&B charts (17).

Excellent remastering job on these plus a fantastic liner note booklet that includes full credits as well as a nice essay by Charles Waring, columnist for Record Collector and contributor to MOJO and Wax Poetics. Well done. I'll probably never listen to all three discs consecutively, but just putting one CD in and enjoying 2 albums is just the right amount of good vibes. Or maybe shuffle tracks from all six. I prefer the first two CDs to the third, but it's all just a big box of feel good.

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LADIES' NIGHT (1979)
6 tracks, 34 minutes

Press of the time:

• Rolling Stone: "It's clearly a long way from 'Jungle Boogie'"
• Billboard: "The group effectively fuses funk and disco with jazz, r&b and pop"
• CashBox: "worth the wait"
• Record World: "slick rhythmically and vocally with Deodato's production to match"

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard 200: #13
• Billboard R&B: #1
• CashBox: #14
• Rolling Stone: #32

Also, the album as a whole made the Disco Top 100 chart, peaking at #5.

Tracks: The singles are fantastic - Ladies' Night (#8 pop, #1 R&B), Too Hot (#5 pop #3 R&B, #11 dance), Hangin' Out (#36 R&B) - but the other three cuts are just as good and discolicious. The smooth grooves of Too Hot take me back to 8th grade dances/parties in a big hurry.

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CELEBRATE! (1980)
8 tracks, 35 minutes

Press of the time:

• Record World: "winning combination is back"
• CashBox: "The band continues to craft top-flight R&B/pop songs"
• Stereo Review: "the music is never very heavy, never very hot, never very anything except comfortable"
• Robert Christgau (C-): "they've adapted painlessly, nay profitably, to disco"

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard 200: #10
• Billboard R&B: #2
• CashBox: #12
• Rolling Stone: #19

Tracks: The title track has become the group's signature tune and wedding reception staple. Case in point: my lovely wife and I attended a wedding last month and all the 20-somethings in attendance at the reception flooded the dance floor when this song played and they knew every word of the lyrics. (Oddly enough, they belted out Whitney Houston's I Wanna Dance With Somebody even louder than Celebration, but that's neither here nor there.) The truth is, I've heard Celebration thousands of times by now yet I never tire of it and it never fails to improve my mood. A rare thing, indeed.

Celebration (#1 pop, #1 R&B, #1 dance, #34 AC) was the platinum-selling hit, but there were two other singles from the album: Jones Vs. Jones (#39 pop, #33 R&B) and Take It To The Top (#11 R&B, #1 dance) - of those two, the latter gets the nod from me. But that's just the first three cuts on the album. We're then treated to the tasty dance instrumental Morning Star (that sounds like it was lifted from a Tom Browne album of the time), then the funky Love Festival. There isn't much going on in the remaining tunes, but they're certainly enjoyable enough filler.

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SOMETHING SPECIAL (1981)
8 tracks, 36 minutes

Press of the time:

• Rolling Stone (★★½): "finds the band comfortably rehashing the successful pop-soul formula they launched with 'Ladies' Night'"
• Billboard: "light, lilting tempos, sprightly jazz tinged horn lines and simple good time messages"
• CashBox: "looks like it will continue the hot streak"
• Stereo Review: "These are nearly all monotonous, thumpy productions of songs about steppin' out an' gettin' down."

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard 200: #12
• Billboard R&B: #1
• CashBox: #10
• Rolling Stone: #19

Tracks: The lead track, Steppin' Out (#89 pop, #12 R&B, #16 dance), is a fantastic opener and I can't believe it didn't chart higher than it did. The other singles from this album were Take My Heart (#17 pop, #1 R&B, #16 dance) and my personal favorite from this release, the funk-fest of Get Down On It (#10 pop, #4 R&B, #16 dance). Take My Heart is a fantastic shuffle for sure and might have the best arrangement on the album, but "Get your back up off the wall!" is so dang catchy, the English teacher in me will even excuse the two consecutive prepositions. ;-) Good Time Tonight is the obvious attempt at duplicating the sound and feel of Celebrate and almost succeeds; Be My Lady and the super-positive Stand Up And Sing could each have been chosen for a single release; No Show is as close to a ballad as the group gets around this time and it's a dang good one, at that. The bonus track, Stop!, is a driving instrumental in search of lyrics and a melody but it's catchy enough that I'm glad it's included here.

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AS ONE (1982)
7 tracks, 36 minutes

Press of the time:

• Rolling Stone (★★★): "slick but substantial R&B-fueled pop"
• Billboard: "their best bid yet to make a substantial splash"
• Stereo Review: "one of the best dance records in many months"
• CashBox: "a best bet"
• Smash Hits (9 out of 10): "What more can you ask for?"

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard 200: #29
• Billboard R&B: #5
• CashBox: #36
• Rolling Stone: #24

Tracks: Street Kids is just an okay opener, but that's followed by Big Fun (#21 pop, #6 R&B) - which is indeed big fun with great horn licks and falsetto vocals. We're later treated to two entirely different but equally fantastic dance tunes with silly lyrics: Hi De Hi Hi De Ho and, my favorite cut on the album, Let's Go Dancin' (Ooh La La La) (#30 pop, #7 R&B). There's a nice variety here with some balladry, a little pseudo-reggae, funk-lite, some disco strings, the familiar Celebration and Too Hot grooves, and "I find its uncomplicated optimism heart-warming and irresistibly danceable."

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IN THE HEART (1983)
9 tracks, 35 minutes

Press of the time:

• Stereo Review: "a disappointment"
• CashBox: "takes them even further into the pop territory"
• Rolling Stone (★★★½): "state-of-the-art soul, brimming with optimism"

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard 200: #29
• Billboard R&B: #5
• CashBox: #30
• Rolling Stone: #50

Tracks: Joanna (#2 pop, #1 R&B, #2 AC) and Tonight (#13 pop, #7 R&B) were the big singles while Straight Ahead (#103 pop) didn't quite make the Hot 100. Regardless of chart success, those three are the cream of the crop here. Definitely my least favorite of the six albums included in this set.

In the late fall/early winter of 1983, I was briefly interested in a girl named JoAnn. She was a couple of years younger than me and, in her father's opinion, too young to go on a "car date" so that relationship never got off the ground. Other than the similar names, the girl and the song have nothing to do with each other. However, I'm always reminded of JoAnn when I hear this tune. The trombone solo, the sappy lyrics, the constant eight note electric piano motif - it all works for me.

The dance-rock sound of Tonight certainly laid the groundwork for the next album...

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EMERGENCY (1984)
7 tracks, 36 minutes

Press of the time:

• Stereo Review: "can always be counted on to deliver easy-to-listen-to r-&-b dance music"
• Billboard: "the group continues to develop"
• CashBox: "one of the strongest song-for-song B/C collections of the year"
• Robert Christgau (B-): "anonymity is their signature"

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard 200: #13
• Billboard R&B: #3
• CashBox: #19
• Rolling Stone: #17

Tracks: This double-platinum album became the group's all-time biggest seller on the strength of four hit singles:

	Pop	R&B	Dance	AC
Misled	10	3	9
Fresh	9	1	1	5
Cherish	2	1		1
Emergency	18	7	41

For those keeping track, the above four singles make up over 57% of the whole album; they're all great and I can't imagine 1985 without them. They're also the first four track on the album. So what about the remaining three tracks? Surrender is a danceable attempt at Minneapolis funk, Bad Woman is a poor man's Careless Whisper, and You Are The One is a prayer set to a manic-synth-Latin-syncopated accompaniment. Still, 5 out of 7 ain't bad.

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Previously revisited for the blog:
The Dance Collection (1990)

John Klemmer - Fínesse (1983)

ELEKTRA/MUSICIAN MONTH (FEBRUARY 2023)

Note: this release was originally purchased as an LP, later replaced by this Japanese import CD.

I am familiar with this 1983 reissue on the E/M label. However, the album was originally issued in 1981 as a limited edition half-speed mastered Nautilus Direct-To-Disc Superdisc with different album art.

Click image to enlarge
Liner notes for this Nautilus release available here.

The release found a wider audience beyond the audiophiles once re-released on E/M in 1983 as evidenced by the fact that the album's run on various charts (below) was during the winter and spring of '83.

Klemmer - saxophone
Roy McCurdy - drums
Bob Magnusson - bass
Russell Ferrante - keyboards
Steve Forman - percussion

The music is performed well and, as you might expect, the sound quality is fantastic. My problem with Klemmer always seems to be the milquetoast material of similar tempo and feel. It's not awful and goes down smooth enough, but tunes certainly don't stick with you after the CD plays.

Reviews/ratings:

• Billboard: "slanted towards the saxophonist's softer side."
• The Virgin Encyclopedia of Jazz (1999): ★★

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard 200: Did not chart
• Billboard Jazz: #10
• CashBox Jazz: #4
• Radio & Records Jazz Radio National Airplay: #16

Tracks: 8 tracks, 35 minutes, no interview tacked on to the end. Like I said, it's pleasant, but a lot of the same.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None

Previously revisited for the blog:
Touch (1975)

2013 CD liner notes here
(in Japanese)

Joe Sample - Rainbow Seeker (1978)/Carmel (1979)/Voices In The Rain (1981)

UK Import

Three albums on 2 CDs from the Robinsongs imprint of Cherry Red Records. This compilation was released in 2021 and it is prime Sample. Considering Sample was putting out these fine solo albums around the time The Crusaders were releasing their best albums (e.g., Free As The Wind, Street Life) is absolutely mind-blowing. Recommended.

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RAINBOW SEEKER (1978)
8 tracks, 44 minutes

Not his first album apart from The Crusaders, but it probably counts as his first solo release. Eight Sample originals performed with the help of a couple of Crusaders: Pops Popwell on bass and Stix Hooper on drums. Also some top studio help from Ernie Watts, Ray Parker, Jr., Dean Parks, and Paulinho De Costa. It's lightly funky and uses a few timely disco tropes but doesn't rely much on them. I wish someone had played this for me in '78 - the timing was right as I was just discovering smooth jazz/instrumental pop around that time.

Press of the time:

• Billboard: "range from light and sassy to funky and reflective"
• CashBox: "all the cuts are exemplary"
• High Fidelity: "Much of this is attractive, above-average stuff"
• Record World: "lilting jazz album that shows off his talents to the fullest."
• The Virgin Encyclopedia of Jazz (1999): ★★★

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard Top 200: #62
• Billboard Jazz: #3
• CashBox: #60
• CashBox Jazz: #2

Tracks: Nothing to skip here. In All My Wildest Dreams has gone on to be widely sampled. Track 4, the mid-tempo Melodies Of Love, was the single and Sample glides effortlessly between piano and Fender Rhodes over a lush bed of strings. The album ends with a beautiful solo piano ballad, Together We'll Find A Way.

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CARMEL (1979)
7 tracks, 40 minutes

Note: this release was originally purchased as a LP, later replaced by this CD set.

The first Sample solo album I heard, so probably my favorite. Most tracks have a bit of a Latin flavor. Very little Fender Rhodes, Sample displays his unique style of "showing off without showing off" on acoustic piano. Joined again by Hooper, Parks, and De Costa. Also on board are flautist Hubert Laws and Abraham Laboriel on bass.

On a marginally related note, my wife and I visited Carmel back in March of 1992 and found it, as well as the entire Monterey Peninsula, to be quite breathtaking. Would love to return to the lovely 17-Mile Drive and the Hog's Breath Inn with this album playing.

Your humble blogger walking off
the 18th green at Pebble Beach.
Carmel is on the left.

Press of the time:

• Billboard: "quite appealing"
• CashBox: "a romantic tribute to this coastal paradise"
• Record World: "playing owes more to mainstream jazz than fusion music"
• The Virgin Encyclopedia of Jazz (1999): ★★

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard Top 200: #56
• Billboard Jazz: #1
• Billboard R&B: #25
• CashBox: #58
• CashBox Jazz: #1
• Rolling Stone: #26

Tracks: I enjoy all seven, but my favorite is the samba-ish title track followed by Paintings and A Rainy Day In Monterey.

The first six of the seven album cuts are on the first CD with the remaining track - More Beautiful Each Day - leading off the second CD before moving on to...

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VOICES IN THE RAIN (1981)
7 tracks, 41 minutes

Note: this release was originally purchased as a iTunes download, later replaced by this CD set.

Slightly different from the other two albums here in that there is an increased use of synths (it was 1981, after all, so to be expected) and there's a couple of vocal tracks. Not a bad album by any means, but it doesn't quite measure up to the previous two.

Press of the time:

• CashBox: "another brilliant, light jazz fusion outing"
• Billboard: "keyboard wizardry in varying moods"
• Stereo Review: "everything tumbles down in confusion"
• Record World: "Another glossy package of tasteful pop-jazz"
• The Virgin Encyclopedia of Jazz (1999): ★★

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard Top 200: #65
• Billboard Jazz: #2
• Billboard R&B: #29
• CashBox: #70
• CashBox Jazz: #2
• Rolling Stone: #39

Tracks: One of the vocal tracks, Burning Up The Carnival, with vocals by Josie James, is quite tasty and my favorite track on the album. Of the instrumental tracks, my picks are Greener Grass and Dream Of Dreams.

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The CD set ends with three bonus tracks, the single edits of Melodies Of Love (from Rainbow Seeker), plus Burning Up The Carnival and Dream Of Dreams (from Voices In The Rain).

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Previously revisited for the blog:
The Best of Joe Sample (1998)

Various Artists - Christmas Wonderland (1981)

A 1981 compilation of traditional holiday music; selections previously released on albums from the 1960s on CBS-associated labels. Also released under the title It's Christmas!. An above-average collection, this thing reminds me of the Christmas compilations my father would pick up at the local Firestone shop every December in the '70s.

It seems odd to think that people would go by the tire store to pick up Christmas LPs, but that's exactly what we did back then. I still listen to those LPs as I chase memories of Christmases past.

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart

Tracks:

Only two stinkers on the whole thing, so a mindboggling .857 batting average for this album. My top picks are from Lynn Anderson, Sister Mahalia, and Julie Andrews. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the performances from John Davidson and Carol Burnett, mainly because my foolish young mind first associated them with television, not recordings. The rest are more than acceptable with the exception of tracks 7 & 9, mostly because of the poor arrangements (Little Drummer Boy with no drums? and what's with all the clarinet noodling?) but also because McCracken and Warfield are opera singers and oddly out of place here. All tracks are new to my collection with the exception of the Conniff cut. Now go listen and chase some childhood Christmas memories of your own:

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: Longtime readers of this blog may remember that I am the son of a Presbyterian minister. The downtown church my father served from 1978-1986 presented 'living tableaus' every Easter and Christmas and had done so since the 1950's. Church members would dress in costume and sit/stand on the church lawn as people drove by in their cars to observe various scenes of the Christmas story in December and the death and resurrection of Christ in the spring. It was the church's "annual gift to the community."

If memory serves, the Christmas presentation started on the north end of Avenue H with three wisemen riding camels made of 2x4's, chicken wire, papier-mâché, and brown spray paint. A little further down the street, viewers were treated to several shepherds looking up at an angel standing atop the church roof, a local farmer would usually bring some hay and a live donkey (insert 'ass' jokes here). The short drive would end with the manger scene of two teenagers and their newborn child being portrayed by a middle-aged couple holding a doll. Some years, the part of Jesus was played by a 60 watt light bulb. Cardboard crowns, fake beards, homemade shepherd's crooks, wigs, the whole nine yards. Typical mid-century Americana.

Being a somewhat normal self-involved teenager, I hated the things, but as the preacher's kid, I was expected to be in them and, judging by the promo photo placed in the local newspaper in 1981 (below, I'm in the middle), I was miscast as one of the wisemen. I'm told the church no longer produces a tableau - due to lack of interest, too many entertainment options, dwindling church membership, take your pick - but the presentations had a good 50 year run. The whole thing really doesn't have much to do with this compilation other than coincidental timing, so never mind. As you were. And Merry Christmas.

Tuesday, December 22, 1981

David Byrne - The Catherine Wheel (1981)

a.k.a. "The Complete Score from the Broadway production of 'The Catherine Wheel' choreographed by Twyla Tharp." The production was staged at the Winter Garden Theatre from September 22 - October 18, 1981. The CD cover promises 72 minutes of music, but my CD player indicates a running time of 69:09.

This album always intrigued me as a teen because it seemed artsy and I desperately wanted to explore a more artsy side of my personality. Not so much in the sense of wearing dark clothes, squatting in an abandoned warehouse, smoking clove cigarettes, and developing a heroin addiction, but more the creative, artistic side of things. Writing and performing music for a dance production? Teenaged me would have jumped at the opportunity (and, in retrospect, I should have created my own opportunity). So it's more than a little surprising I never picked up this LP back in the '80s.

Tharp's website describes the production thusly:

The Catherine Wheel takes its title from a torture device used in the martyrdom of Saint Catherine of Alexandria. This device has lent its name to a number of familiar things over time - a spinning firework, a crochet pattern, a flower. Tharp’s second Broadway production operates within a world of plurality wherein an archetypal family faces the implosive forces of domestic squabbles and abuse.

Tharp employs another reoccurring symbol with connotations that are at once beautiful and ominous. When one dancer hands another a pineapple, it is both a sign of hospitality and hostility. The shape recalls the Mk2 hand grenades of World War II, nicknamed "pinapple grenades." The dramatic tension builds until it finally explodes in the athletic, pure-dance finale.

The music and lyrics here are full of the tension mentioned above, mainly sounding somewhere between Talking Heads and Byrne's recent collaboration with Brian Eno, My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts.

I went through several distinct stages with this release: 1) curiosity, 2) annoyance, 3) tolerance, 4) appreciation, 5) enjoyment. So it's worth the effort to actively listen to the entire work 5-6 times before passing judgement.

Press of the time:

• CashBox: "a heady mixture of third world rhythms and nuclear funk"
• Record World: "Creatively composed and rich in tone colors"
• Rolling Stone (★★★★): "a dazzling mixture of rock & roll overdrive, R&B elasticity and ambient gimmickry"
• Stereo Review: "music with a ghastly emptiness inside"
• Robert Christgau (A-): "The magic's all in Byrne's synthesis of the way drums talk and the way Americans talk"
• High Fidelity: "seemingly esoteric and ambitious assignment"

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard 200: #104
• CashBox: #107
• Rolling Stone: #37

In The Village Voice's annual 'Pazz & Jop' critic's list, this album placed at #13 for 1981.

Tracks: There's 23 tracks here. I think it is only natural that I prefer the ones that are most like Talking Heads. To my ears, those are:

2. His Wife Refused
11. Poison
14. My Big Hands (Fall Through The Cracks)
18. Big Business
21. What A Day That Was
22. Big Blue Plymouth (Eyes Wide Open)

The instrumentals are quite repetitive but they are hypnotic and that's about what I would expect for this sort of production, keeping in mind this is designed to be music for modern dance, not music for listening, if that makes any sense.

I was previously familiar with Big Business and What A Day That Was because of their inclusion in the wonderful Stop Making Sense film. I'm not saying I dig that thing, but I do have the framed movie poster currently above a couple of my CD shelves in my study:

Okay, okay, so I do dig the thing. I dig it very much. It's the best concert film ever produced and I've been a fan of it since its release.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: This is one of those LPs I'd always pick up in the record store as a teenager, carefully read the cover, then reluctantly put it back, deciding to spend my hard-earned Burger King pay on something else.

Previously revisited for the blog:
My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts (1981)