Shooting Star Self Titled Virgin Records 1979

Shooting Star Self Titled Virgin Records 1979 CAT #VA 13133

Been putting this one off for a while. When I started doing this blog, I was worried about all the Kansas LPs I'd be sifting through, but I've grown to like the band Kansas. What I should have been dreading is Shooting Star albums.

This is Shooting Star's first LP which was recorded in England (they were after all, the first American band to be signed by the Virgin label) by Gus Dudgeon who did more famous work with the likes of Elton John and David Bowie. The result is over the top pomp rock with heavy emphasis on good times, being awesome, and getting the girl back. I mean, they're competent players and while pomp-rock can be great (see the band Boston), Shooting Star is just too fucking happy. No matter what the circumstances are, Shooting Star is fucking winning and celebrating with guitars.

Just watch this video, these guys won 1979.

Orphann Dan't Say No Omi Records 1980

Orphann Dan't Say No Omi Records 1980 CAT# OMI M 00032

Orphann was a Kansas City area hard rock group in the late-70's into the early 80's. Their first LP, Up For Adoption, is a bit more desirable, as it's bit heavier and possibly a bit more obscure than this.

Don't Say No is a potpourri of late-70's rock posturing. Easy categorization for the band is AOR. They're heavy on big guitars and solos, so big on the pomp rock. They do try to get creative from time to time, keyboards show up here and they try to sound a little less good time rock n' roll and more robotic, so there is also a slight prog influence, especially evident on the last two tracks of the LP, "Late Night Neighbors" and "In A Dream". Looking at this LP, it's looks like it should be an attempt at capturing the Tom Scholz's Boston sound and be an awful in the process. (Up For Adoption just looks like it should be amazing prog, tho). To an extent, Orphann was trying to capture some of that big time arena rock feel, but it doesn't turn out bad. Outside of dopey lyrical content, it's a pretty solid LP in terms of early 80's hard rock.

What is confusing is that the band recorded and played in KC. Yet, for this release, Omi is located in Los Angeles. The first LP shows Omi Records as a Kansas City based operation. Assuming then that this was Orphann's private label they must have packed up for California at some point after going as far as they could in KC.

Don't Say No

Missouri Welcome Two Missouri Polydor 1979

Missouri Welcome Two Missouri Polydor 1979 CAT# PD-1-6206

Meh, nothing but a bunch of meh-ness from this Kansas City band on their major label debut.  And, it's kind of hard to figure out all the MOR numbers on this album.  Was it the labels fault?  The band?  What was the reason for virtually no excitement on this record.

The first album was decent bar-band stuff.  This however, it's still bar-band stuff, but it's a bit more polished and lost some of the appeal in the process.  Some of the numbers have flashes of something that would at least got people off their ass, but the band keeps it at a medium pace; they aren't about to rock you despite that their tunes could have.  I'm just confused, did they walk into the studio and say, "Hey, we got some rockin' tracks for Polydor."  To which Polydor replied, "That's great, sure they rock, but do the tracks sound like the Eagles?"

To me, the album sounds like a dirty bar band trying to sound like the Eagles.  There's a smoothness to this entire record that would have been better served without.  Either way, this album marked the end of the band, Missouri.  The album features a re-recorded version of the band's surprise hit, "Movin' On," it's not any better and it's really not worse, although, people seem to cite the first version as superior.  It's just meh, the entire album is bland. devoid of color, and boring (however, second to last song, "Love on the Run", cool drum intro and synths begging to be sampled, but still, meh).

A collection of tunes

Kansas Drastic Measures CBS 1983

Kansas Drastic Measures CBS 1983 CAT# QZ 38733

There are worse albums than this, but, there are now albums worse than this by the band Kansas.  This is the bottom of the barrel for the band.  So long prog. rock and hello desperate attempt at over produced 80's hard rock.

The album was so lost with itself that it marks a break-up for the band.  After this, they called it quits for a brief time.  Just listen to the song, "Mainstream," you can tell the band was having trouble keeping it fresh as the lyrics describe the pressure of staying true to the band's sound, but trying to stay in touch with the pop rock trends of the day.

The band would later re-form and do a little more than just reunions.  But, they turned back to their days of 70's progressive rock.  The ideas on this album were left alone and died in 1983.  I could be a douche-y tool and make a bunch of puns with the word "drastic" or I could make snarky remarks about how awful this album is...but, it's not really worth it.  Everyone is well aware this isn't any good.

Mainstream

Joe Walsh Barnstorm ABC/Dunhill 1972

Joe Walsh Barnstorm ABC/Dunhill 1972 CAT# DSX 50130

Man, I'm done waiting for post-James Gang Walsh albums to impress me.  They're all the same, a few moments of classic rock awesomeness followed by mellow California style radio rock.  Boring.

This one is called his masterpiece.  His lovely textured guitar work and spacey open-ended songs, blah, blah, blah.  It's boring.  It's what would happen to the Grateful Dead if they got sober.  Soft boogie rock, soft melodies, everything soft.  It's a very country tinged affair, but not in a country rock way, in the spacey California country kind of way.  It's the songs here that probably led the Eagles to pick up Walsh as a guitarist and songwriter.

Admittedly though, I'm not really being fair to the album.  Of the Barnstorm-era and proper solo Walsh stuff I've dove into, this is one of the better albums.  I just wished Walsh would rock more, like "Rocky Mountain Way."  This album is missing a a rocker all together.  The space and psychedelic experiments into country are border line brilliant.  Had I started here, I wouldn't have said all the stuff about Joe Walsh being boring.

Birdcall Morning

Joe Walsh The Smoker You Drink, The Player You Get Dunhill/ABC 1973

Joe Walsh The Smoker You Drink, The Player You Get Dunhill/ABC 1973 CAT# DSX-50140

This is the second "Barnstorm" album from Wichita-Born Joe Walsh.  When Walsh left the James Gang, he formed a band called Barnstorm.  ABC put out the albums as solo LPS by Joe Walsh.  For the most part, it's Joe Walsh's thing, but the tunes are credited to Barnstorm Music and the Joe Vitale and Kenny Passarelli were members of a band with Joe Walsh at this time, not just his backing band.

The first song on the LP, "Rocky Mountain Way," is a monster.  It's a defining hard-rock song of the 1970's.  From there though, the album gets a bit soft.  Walsh explores soft rock and even Jazz inflicted tunes like the instrumental, "Midnight Moodies."  Despite solid songs like "Bookends", "Dreams," and "Days Gone By," they pale in comparison to "Rocky Mountain Way."

The album does have nice melodies, lots of cool instruments, good arrangements, all that stuff.  But, I could listen to Fleetwood Mac if I wanted clever soft rock, it's better.  It does have Joe Walsh's guitar, though.  He's good at that and probably the most famous Kansas born guitarist, ever?  I don't think there are too many that did as much with the instrument and established themselves as a player as much as he did.

Richard Pryor Introduces "Rocky Mountain Way"