Things have been picking up a bit lately as far as musical acquisitions go. A little while back, I finally found Strange Little Birds on vinyl, by Garbage. Back in the early 2000s, I was heavily into their unique brand of often dark and moody electro-rock, sometimes bordering on pop. I sort of forgot about them for a while (mostly while they were inactive), but in recent years have given a tiny bit of attention to newer releases. When I finally gave this particular album a full listen, I couldn't believe the wonderfully downbeat vibe, Shirley's still vibrant and haunting vocals, and the whole band's ability to still rock. A really nice package, too, with a colourful double album presentation that includes an etching and a bonus track on Side D. Very happy with this.
Not long after that, I grabbed some CDs that were too cheap to pass up: another Garbage album, Not Your Kind of People from 2012 (more catchy tunes than you can shake a stick at), Emma Bunton's 2019 release My Happy Place (pure pop bliss), and a slab of prog-thrash heaven on Voivod's 1997 album Phobos.
Then last weekend, at a nearby flea market, I found two long-timers on my record wishlist. First, I grabbed Balls to the Wall, the '83 metal classic by German headbangers Accept. I am very gradually rounding out my collection of early Accept, and this - their best-known and best-loved album - is a welcome addition. Much crunching and shrieking. Oh joy.
Then as I stepped toward another vendor's table, one particular record practically leaped out into my hands... Heads or Tales, by Canadian 70's-80's prog-rockers Saga. I've long been a fan of the band, though I somehow never bought this album before (I think I had a tape-to-tape copy back in the 80's). The colourful cover image caught my eye immediately and I was in there for the kill. And only five bucks! Other shoppers got a good laff at my loud (happy) reaction to the price. Heh.
Both flea market records play and sound great, so I'm pleased with my purchases. I could have dug through the bins all day long, but my daughter's patience wouldn't have held out that long. Pretty good for a quick spin through the vendor stalls. Lots of fun and some great music to enjoy. Nice to get out of that pandemic rut.
Sigh.... this week saw the passing of bass-playing monster Dusty Hill, whose gruff vocals were the perfect counterpoint to Billy Gibbons in their "l'il ol' band from Texas", ZZ Top.
At age 72, I guess you could say Hill had lived a pretty full life. A lifetime of music and fame, and probably his fair share of cash along the way. He had been playing live shows until recently, when he missed a gig due to a reported hip issue. It's been a long long ride for him and the boys of ZZ Top, who've been a tight-knit blues-rock trio since 1969, and recording legendary albums since '71.
I've been a fan of ZZ ever since I first heard them on the radio in the mid-to-late 70's. The songs I first got to know and love were Tush, La Grange, and Cheap Sunglasses. ZZ Top captured my imagination when they hit the mainstream bigtime with their Eliminator album in '83. I had the pleasure of seeing them perform live on their Recycler tour in '91. I'm still a fan today. In fact, in recent years I've been gradually adding early ZZ albums to my record shelves as I re-enjoy the vinyl medium. I'm at this moment spinning Francine, a favourite ZZ tune featuring Dusty on lead vocals. I also love his interplay with Billy on Beer Drinkers & Hell Raisers. Can't forget the biggest Dusty-sung ZZ Top track of all, Tush.
Progressive rock pretty much implies instrumental pieces, or at least long instrumental breaks within songs. In the case of Toronto, Canada's kings of prog-rock Rush, we mostly get great vocal songs that include awe-inspiring instrumental sections. The band only very occasionally wrote and recorded completely instrumental tracks.
On the vocal song front, I immediately think of the extended guitar-bass-drum extravaganzas of early Rush tracks By-Tor and the Snow Dog, lengthy bits of show-off-ery on The Fountain of Lamneth and The Necromancer from the Caress of Steel album, and the obvious "chapters" of the legendary 2112 suite. Literary gem Xanadu and the sci-fi epic Cygnus X-1: Book One, both on the Farewell to Kings album, boast some tasty, protracted non-vocal sections. These songs are all long enough that they can afford to incorporate both heady lyrical content and purely instrumental portions. It all works... in the Rush landscape.
But when it comes to solely instrumental tracks, there are only a handful that I can think of:
Naturally, there is the epic La Villa Strangiato, one of my very favourite songs in the Rush catalogue - from the 1978 album Hemispheres.
Clocking in at a staggering nine and a half minutes, the La Villa suite is arranged in "movements" (to borrow the classical music term) that tell a musical story of sorts, with themes and motifs that often repeat to introduce and re-introduce ideas and moods... almost like characters in a scene who leave, then reappear later. It's not only engaging as an atmospheric fantasy experience, but it also wows the listener with the incredibly complex and physically demanding performances by the band members. La Villa Strangiato evolved out of nightmarish dreams that guitarist Alex Lifeson had at the time of album development. The "chapters" of the song bear titles that include weird and funny made-up words that the guys in Rush invented themselves - like Lerxst and Shreve, and even make reference to a street intersection in downtown Toronto, "Danforth and Pape".
1981 was the year of Moving Pictures, the massive breakthrough album by Rush. I wore out that tape back in the day, getting even greater mileage on side A, which included the more succinct, yet just as compelling, instrumental YYZ (yet another Toronto reference; this is the Malton Airport's location code). Punchy and even a bit funky and jazzy, it flows seamlessly from one tempo and vibe to another, but also makes callbacks to earlier riffs and themes. A classic that helped usher Rush into a new era.
A full decade passed before Rush offered up another instrumental track on an album. This time it was on the 1991 release, Roll the Bones, the song entitled Where's My Thing (Part IV, Gangster of Boats Trilogy). See how Rush liked to joke around? Part four of a trilogy... yeah. By this time, Rush was coming off a very lightweight string of albums, and Roll the Bones was just beginning to see them off to revisit slightly heavier realms. But not quite yet. Where's My Thing is awash with synths, as was everything they did in the 80's, though Lifeson finds himself a comfy spot in the mix to soar. I really like his guitar tone here, bright and crisp, sometimes slashing (politely) chordal rhythms, working to stand out among all the electronics. A fun little funky-jazzy-rock number that doesn't exactly set the world on fire, but hey, it's Rush!
Next came Leave That Thing Alone, which appeared on the 1993 album Counterparts. This record saw the band returning to their heavier roots, much to my delight, and I'll be damned... this stuff stands up amazingly well today, unlike some of their 80's fare. On this tidy little instrumental, again, I love Lifeson's guitar sound, from rumbling, roaring Distort-O riffs to glistening, spirally lead licks and solos. It's a cool track all around, but Alex's 6-string work truly adds a - dare I say, emotional - quality to the affair. So... I don't know what this "thing" is that Rush refers to in these last two song titles, but it does make one think, use the ol' imagination... and leave it up to us, the listeners, to decide what they're talking (playing) about.
On Rush's next album, 1996's Test For Echo, we are treated to the instrumental experiment called Limbo. This track explores interesting territory, sometimes grooving, sometimes lurching with angular effect, sometimes cruising with phasors on stun. All over the place. Geddy's bass really pops here, when it can... Alex's jangly axe often dominates the mix. Sparse keyboard accents add colour, but only in select spots. This is boiled down closer to the true trio sound Rush had back in the day.
The Main Monkey Business, off the 2007 Snakes & Arrows album, is less familiar to me. I'm guilty of not getting to know these post-2000 recordings very well), so my commentary on it is minimal. I find it a bit similar to Limbo in its careful use of synth sounds, but I find parts a little less engaging than previous efforts. Perhaps more listens would change my mind. Things do get a bit busier and heavier, with more room to stretch out in this six-minute song (longer than the previous few instrumentals).
Off that same album came a short but sweet acoustic guitar piece, Hope, measuring at just two minutes. There's a vaguely folky feel to it, though the rock aspect isn't lost with the driving rhythm that propels it to a satisfying conclusion. Nice.
Snakes & Arrows offers up yet another instrumental, in the form of Malignant Narcissism. It's another shorty, just over two minutes, though this time it's a rampaging bull with loud, slapping drums and searing, slashing guitar. And some fun and flippety bass fills by ol' Ged. Not angry sounding, but rather confident and focused in approach. Quite good.
That's it, I think. There were also some instrumental bits used only in concert performances, which we got to hear on their live albums. The most famous would be Broon's Bane, the intro to The Trees on the live '81 release Exit... Stage Left. But I don't really want to go there today. A topic for another day, maybe.
I'm writing this while listening to the Toronto Blue Jays game on TV. They're not doing so well at the moment. But I'm trying to keep things Canadian today, so even if I turn the game off, or once it's over, I'll then spin at least a few records by some of my favourite Canadian musicians.
I plan to play maybe one side each of some of the records, since I don't have a ton of time on my hands. First up, I'll put on A Million Vacations, a proper summertime album by Max Webster. This 1979 release, the band's fourth, spawned their biggest hit thus far in their career, Let Go the Line. But the record is packed with bright, fun music... like Paradise Skies, Night Flights, the title track, Rascal Houdi, and Research (At Beach Resorts). Such nostalgic memories attached to this stuff, of teenaged me cranking up my Vacations 8-track tape on the family stereo when everyone else left the house.
Then I think I'll pop on the Love Crimes album by Harlequin. This record contains some of their biggest radio hits, Innocence, Love On the Rocks, and Thinking of You. Ah, I remember seeing these guys play at my high school when I was just getting to know the blossoming Canadian rock music scene.
All The Best From Prism is jammed with a fine selection of their pop-rock gems, including Spaceship Superstar, Take Me to the Kaptin, It's Over, Armageddon, Young & Restless... so many more. I recall a friend in my neighbourhood who had just gotten his first home stereo system. He had bought a pile of records to start out with, and he invited me over for a listening session. Armageddon was among the tunes I heard that day.
David Wilcox was a hoot when I saw him perform at a dingy old bar on the outskirts of my hometown back in the mid-80's. I believe it was a New Year's Eve, too, so the suds were flowing... heavily. His Out of the Woods album boasts some of his many terrific barroom bluesy-rock tunes, such as Do the Bearcat, Hot Hot Papa, Bad Apple, and That Hypnotizin' Boogie. Oh yeah.
Now that I think about it, of the handful of records pictured above, I've seen all but three of those artists perform live. The exceptions are The Stampeders, B.T.O., and Prism. But I've seen Max, Harlequin, Teenage Head (those three at my high school... and Max and solo Mitchell many times more later), Saga and Triumph a couple times each, and Wilcox, as mentioned before.
Man, so much great music came out of Canada during the 70's and 80's. Why was that? Was there something in the water? All I know is that since I couldn't have been a teen during Beatlemania, this was the next best thing... Canada, and even the province of Ontario in particular, spawned so many amazing artists and albums. The songwriting was primo, backed up by better than average musicianship, and exciting live shows.
By the way, I know I left out the most obvious band here... Rush. But like I said, that's so obvious. I talk about them a lot in my blog, and we all know they were the greatest Canadian music artists of all time, right? That acknowledged, I just thought today I'd put the spotlight on some other great musicians, maybe not quite as big and famous as Rush, but just as deserving of attention. If you haven't already, check out some of the albums mentioned and pictured above.
I've got a bunch of other records (not to mention even more CDs) by homegrown artists, including prog rockers FM, prog thrashers Voivod, Burton Cummings, Loverboy, and even some non-rock like jazz pianist Oscar Peterson, folk legend Gordon Lightfoot, classical guitarist Liona Boyd, and yes, even a little something by country-pop singer Anne Murray (hey, it was like 50 cents in a thrift shop, so why not?). Oh, and a comedy album by SCTV creations, Bob and Doug McKenzie (with Rush's Geddy Lee making an appearance).
So today... all Canadians must break out the patio lanterns, raise up your lager or ale (or a soda if you're the designated driver), do your rock'n'roll duty, and salute this great nation.
