Come Sail Away

This is just all kinds of groovy.

One of the many, many MANY things this COVID-19 pandemic has taught us is, fortunately, we live in an era where we can stay in touch with each other easier than has ever been possible. Zoom, WebEx, GoTo Meeting, Google Chat, Skype and I am sure things I am unaware of to date have given us mechanisms to remain connected and to even see each other while we all socially distance ourselves for the foreseeable future.

And that goes for creativity too. A global health crisis doesn’t stop the flow of art, it only hinders it a bit. People are still writing, still drawing and still singing and playing, whether alone or with friends via one of those platforms mentioned above. And thank JVJH for that—creation is something we all desperately need right now, innit?

Which brings me to this. This is just supercool.

OK, first I need to offer a confession. I love this song. Yes, I know it is goofy and precious and silly as prog can get. It’s overwrought and overwritten. (“We’ll search for tomorrow on every shore.” Wow). But I love it still. Love the water droplet piano opening. Love the odd verse-verse-chorus-chorus structure. Love the power chords when the songs shifts into overdrive. And I do love the way Dennis DeYoung sings it; dude was a Grade A Goofball, sure, but he had a set of pipes on him that most would kill for. Or at least maim for. The notes he hits twice on “To CARRY on” are pretty remarkable.

So I love the song, OK? I just do.

But these four kids…my goodness. Look how young they are! And they nail every INCH of it. They’re apparently called Leave Those Kids Alone (clever!) and are from Canada, and the youngest seems to be nine years old. You can check out their Facebook page for this and a ton of other terrific takes on classic rock songs. This sure as hell brightened my day and just may do the same for yours.

Play on, players!

Maybe I'm Amazed

Ran across an article about power ballads, which led to another and then another. (This one's especially funny.)

As with so many things rock, there's a lot of disagreement as to what the very first one was. Aerosmith's "Dream On" and Styx's "Lady"—both from 1973—have pretty solid claims to the arguably somewhat dubious throne.

But for my money—and with apologies to its predecessor "Hey Jude," with which it shares many traits, not least of which is the same guy singing and playing piano and who may have something to do with the writing—the true original power ballad is this.

Admittedly, due to its one-man-band origins, its a bit less obvious in the original studio recording than in its more famous live version from a few years later.

Now that's a power ballad.

Mullet and sequins and adorbs mugging or no, sweet FSM that man could sing. And, perhaps sometimes overly sweet pop confectionary aside, that was one hell of a band. It's not entirely surprising artists as talented as Joe English and Jimmy McCulloch chafed at being dictated to but, on the other hand, crazy good as they were, they simply were no Paul McCartney. Which, hey, is no crime: semantics aside, there really has only ever been one of 'em.

Giving Thanks

With apologies to my family and friends, this year I think I'm most thankful to have discovered that this brave new world has such creations as this in it.



I've got to be free...