msea4ever

[msea4ever]

Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me (Remastered 1995)

This hit #1 in Canada and rightly so. It’s a great song, put together and performed well.I had the sheet music for this album and recall sitting down by our old broken down piano trying to play it back in the 70s. I had a great ear for music but was never too great at reading scores. Anyhow, I can still sorta play it on the piano, but not like Elton John does. I dumb it down if it gets too tricky.

As I grow older, I’ll be honest, this song resonates less than when I was younger. I have always preferred this to the duet version with George Michael, even if the latter hit #1 in the US, while this take only made #2 there.

Americans like a splash. Canadians can appreciate finer nuances. What can I say?

[msea4ever]

Five Man Electrical Band - Fancy Dancin’ Man

This album came out before Five Man Electrical Band had it’s US hit, which I think was “Signs, Signs…” In Canada, they also had a hit with “I’m a Stranger Here.”

Anyhow, this was the very first album I bought for myself as a kid! It cost $2 at Zellers, a Canadian chain sort of like a scaled down Walmart. Zellers is gone now but I still have the album.

I liked the lyrics of this song. They became more relevant as I grew older. Many times I’ve felt the need to “dance” through situations because the folks around me just couldn’t understand what I had experienced. It’s not that I wanted to be secretive. But as Christ teaches, it is not wise to “cast your pearls before swine.”

That may sound harsh, but some genuine seekers do experience a fair amount of misunderstanding, behind-the-scenes gossip, and even direct attacks. And I’m no exception.

One professor comes to mind. What a prick that guy was. But I’ll get into that another day! 

[msea4ever]

Supertramp - From Now On (Audio)

Another Supertramp song, you’re saying! :) Well, they were one of my favorite bands in my formative teens, and I’m sorta revisiting those feelings and memories lately. So bear with me...

Here’s what I just posted at YouTube:

Lyrics show shades of things to come in "Child of Vision." For me, this is one the great ST lps. Vastly underrated IMHO. Mind you, I'm Canadian and Supertramp "hit all the right notes in Canada" as another reveiwer below put it. For anyone who has felt alienated in life, this song could be a lifesaver. Great stuff.

And that about says it all. 

[msea4ever]

Moody Blues: The Story In Your Eyes

There are a few different versions of this tune on YouTube. One is remastered, the other is “audiophile.” But I find this one closest to how I remember listening to the song on vinyl. I always thought it needed a bit of cleaning up, audio quality-wise, but modern attempts seem to butcher it.

As for the music, well, this album was fair at best. I won’t lie, I usually listened to this song and then skipped through some of the others. But being a diehard Moody Blues fan, there were times when I would listen to the whole thing.

This particular song has a wicked, ‘apocalyptic’ guitar solo that adds contrast to the otherwise mellow band. It’s a great song, IMO. Not as well known as it should be.

[msea4ever]

I Wanna Marry a Lighthouse Keeper

A quirky song from a violent, disturbing, and quirky film, A Clockwork Orange. I don’t think these people have any connection with the film but the video is surprisingly good. As for the film, well, I remember telling my girlfriend’s mother back in the day - when I was still a teenager - that I had either tried to see it (and couldn’t get in at the theartre cos I was underage) or I had finally seen it (a few years later). Anyway, she suddenly turned serious and said, “That’s an important film to see,” which, looking back, was a pretty diplomatic answer.

It’s a perverse film, but because it’s Stanley Kubrick and put together well, it’s often hailed as a classic, just a notch or two behind his true masterpiece, 2001: A Space Odyssey. 

The film also catapulted actor Malcolm McDowell to stardom.

In retrospect, it’s pretty clear that the film has become a cult classic. Today, Toronto is much like the horrific city portrayed in A Clockwork Orange. Sex, violence, and crime make the news every single day. It wasn’t always like this. But sadly, this dystopian urban nightmare doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon.

Apparently the novel by Anthony Burgess had a redemptive ending that the film skipped. 

Oh well, it is what it is.

[msea4ever]

I guess I was about 22 years old when this album came out. The track highlighted here seemed so slick, so modern, so new. I really only liked this first track on side 2 of the vinyl record, so would put the album on just for that. And it sounded good through my 80s stereo---NAD amp, Paradigm and Mirage speakers. I still own the Paradigm speakers and use them to this day!

[msea4ever]

Supertramp - It's Raining Again

Even Supertramp admits this album is a bit of a mess, not terribly inspired or fun to make. All the band members were rich and famous by now, living in separate estates---a far cry from the days when the “Supertramps” were living on the goodwill of others, running into the red, and inspired and cohesive as hell.

Famous Last Words was the last album with the classic lineup. The band didn’t exactly know they were going to break up but on a soul level, they must have. “Famous Last Words” says it all.

The album did produce two hits in Canada, this number and “Crazy.”

For me, it was a hard time in life. My partner was living in another city, and I was running into psychological storms full of insight but not in a controlled way. Actually, I was going through the beginnings of a transformation but it didn’t always feel like a good thing. Sometimes it was enlightened but other times downright weird. Like a chick cracking open an egg and wondering... what the hell do I see out there?

The Plato Cave Analogy was important to me back then. All sorts of new “light” was coming thru the cracks. So Plato’s philosophy worked well with that.

1982 was a huge turning point for me in other ways too. The good old days of high school friends were coming to an end. As we all changed, my very close friendships one by one disappeared into the mists of time.

So this song captures it - “Too bad I’m losing a friend.” But I had a lot more tough (and touching) stuff to go through during this time. So the angst and sorrow of this song, as much as I don’t like it too much, pretty much nails it for me, as Supertramp always has---right back to my early teens.

Come on you little fighter No need to get uptighter Come on you little fighter And get back up again

By this time cars had standard issue AM/FM radios. So I remember hearing this song in rich FM stereo while out driving on a rainy weekday morning in the fall. It was perfect. I could imagine all the sleepy 9 to 5ers listening to this along with me... sipping on coffees and getting ready for a dreary day at the office.

Sometimes life is like that. 😊

[msea4ever]

Blue World

This album did moderately well but nothing like its predecessor, Long Distance Voyager. Steve Winwood had a similar muted reaction to his follow-up to Arc of a Diver. It’s like these two giants from the 70s had massive 80s comebacks and then began to slide. Although that’s not entirely true because Winwood’s “Back in the High Life” and "Roll with It" were #1 hits. And the Moody Biues still had a few hits up their sleeve - e.g. “I Know You’re Out There Somewhere” and “Your Wildest Dreams.” But overall, there was a steady decline into the 90s in beyond.

It’s sad when greats lose their spark and just put out “nice,” technically competent stuff that doesn’t really hit. By way of contrast, most of the leading classical composers kept getting better with age. 

So what is it about pop?

Well, I guess pop really is youth-oriented. That’s where the Billie Eilishes and Justin Biebers come in. And sure as nightfall after the noonday sun, many stars make their mark and then begin to fade and become sad puppets mimicking their former stardom.

Some know when to get out. Others, well... it’s just sad sometimes.

While “Blue World” was only a moderate commercial success, I tend to really like it. But then, I was an avid Moody Blues fan as a kid. I snapped up whatever they put out at the record store. And I tried to like it even if it wasn’t that great. I liked them, you see, so even the mediocre stuff didn’t turn me away.

[msea4ever]

This Is the Sea (2004 Remaster)

This was one of the biggest songs for me in the 1980s. A wonderful partner and I had just gone our separate ways, which sort of opened me up a bit. I played the guitar and sometimes loud music in my apartment (much to the chagrin, I imagine, of the upstairs tenants!). A nice guy moved in and we became friends. He played music too. So we jammed a lot. He was an artist and I was just starting out with watercolors. 

“That was the river, this is the sea” is the idea behind my 80s artistic name, msea. For me, it means a transition from an old to a new life. The river represents small attitudes and aspirations. The sea is the big story. The big picture. 

Back then I would have described it as the Freudian unconscious vs. the Jungian collective unconscious. But these days those distinctions don’t really hold up anymore. The “sea” is much more than a mere concept.

I had applied for a scholarship to study in India and won. I was going on an adventure. And soulful songs like this were prepping and helping me get there.

At the time I thought the Waterboys were like the new Bob Dylan. But they’re quite diverse. This tune, however, did seem like an 80s update to Bob Dylan (who was starting to lose it by this time, IMO... although “Jokerman” wasn’t so bad, really).

[msea4ever]

The Psychedelic Furs - Heaven

I must say I do like this tune. It still sounds good after all these years. I probably played this at the wedding too (see last post).

[msea4ever]

The Psychedelic Furs - Love My Way (Official Video)

There was a lot of 80s music that wasn’t so much flashy but more sulky and introspective. Everyone wanted to look like David Bowie, Mick Jagger, or with Oasis in the 90s, John Lennon.

I played this album at a wedding where I was DJing. It was a disaster. All the younger people came up to me saying, “Turn it up!” while the older folks were saying, “Turn it down!” Meanwhile, I think the bride didn’t like my musical tastes very much. I suppose what I played wasn’t entirely appropriate. I was young and a bit of a goof, not thinking about what they would like but what I liked. Luckily, the bride had made a mixtape of her favs that saved the day.

[msea4ever]

You've never heard Billy Joel's "Vienna" like this | #Shorts

It’s true. I haven’t!

[msea4ever]

Billy Joel - Travelin' Prayer (Lyrics in Description)

No retrospective would be complete without adequate mention of Billy Joel. This was his first big album that people ‘in the know’ purchased. It wasn’t as big a hit as The Stranger, which would come later, but it’s so incredibly tasty that anyone interested in the history of pop should give it a listen. This opening tune is like an appetizer. It’s not a hit but... as I say, it’s just sooooo tasty. The album shows depth and variety, something that would fully flower in The Stranger. 

I’ll be honest, I didn’t like some of Billy Joel’s albums. But this and The Stranger, well, they’re in my personal Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

[msea4ever]

Elton John, Dua Lipa - Cold Heart (Claptone Remix / Visualiser)

A remix of a remix! I like this. Dua Lipa is fab and Elton John was a childhood fav. back in the 70s. The tune is a nice bridge from the past to the present, from a younger to an older superstar, and from a guy to a gal. Santana did something similar with Michelle Branch as did Lady Gaga with Tony Bennett. I really think it’s cool when the young, hot babes get all mature, respectful and yet playful with the older dudes. Age shouldn’t matter---not only in art but in life, too.

[msea4ever]

Rock'n Me - Steve Miller Band

Another song that was going through my head the other day. It was like the song was saying, “keep cool, keep on rockin’... you’ve come this far, you still got more to go...”

I couldn’t remember who did this song but soon remembered after a YouTube search. Steve Miller was pretty big when I was in high school. The younger generation may not know this song, but might recognize  “Time keeps on slippin’ slippin’... into the future...” (i.e. Fly Like an Eagle), which is also Steve Miller.

He’s an incredibly talented American who, I’m pretty sure, was entered into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I like the clean simplicity of this tune.