For Mom

For Mom, here's the two parts from You Tube of the interview between Roy Foley and "the voice", Steve Perry formerly of Journey.






Steve Perry interview pts 1&2

Mr. Mike's Highschool Record Collection: Loverboy-Wildside

Remember when CD's used to come in long cardboard boxes that were three times the size of the disc? The 80's, we just didn't care, did we?

This disc came out in college to be more accurate, but Loverboy is truly a high school favorite of mine. One of the first records I bought was Loverboy (1980) which contained classic tracks like "Lady of the '80's". Get Lucky (1981), Keep It Up (1983) and the immortal Lovin' Every Minute Of It (1985) followed and made me dream of impressing girls with too tight leather pants and a big ass red headband-if I ever dared to wear that. But, by 1987 Loverboy had become passe', you had to either have skyscraper high hair like Whitesnake or save the world like U2 to have an impact. And into this marketplace the Canadian rockers dropped their worst album, Wildside (1987).

The band was admittedly tired at this point in their career, years of recording and touring had taken its toll. Wildside had a heavy reliance on outside songwriters and gimmicky percussion to try to liven up some mediocre songs. So why feature it? Because I've heard their big hits a bazillion times and when I reached for some Loverboy to listen to this week, I slapped on Wildside.

In college, you were supposed to have outgrown arena rock groups that dress in matching color leather. But I stuck to my guns and here are the battle scars to prove it:

1. "Notorious" - The hit single scraped the Top 40 by peaking somewhere around #38 and probably not with a bullet. Co-written with Bon Jovi (who Wildside producer Bruce Fairbain oversaw the Slippery When Wet album) the song sounds like a deliberate cash in on the Jersey band's hot streak. It's a barreling, fun rock song with a surprising amount of harmonica.

2. "Walkin' On Fire" - You know you're buying your songs at a budget when you have a generic song title like this. "Fire" ranks up their with basic song titles like "I Wanna Rock Tonight" or "She's Hot (insert adjective here)". At least it doesn't completely rip off another song title.

3. "Break It To Me Gently" - Oops, spoke to soon. That's OK, this isn't Juice Newton but instead a fun throwback to the classic Loverboy sound - fast beat, new wavey synths and a sing along chorus.

4. "Love Will Rise Again" - Outside songwriters take hold again, but with better results. "Rise" is overdramatic in a cliched 80's way that has grown on me over time.

5. "Can't Get Much Better" - Or "Lovin Every Minute Of It pt. 2". This is my favorite song on the disc, an overblown rock anthem that plays at headbanging but never delivers a crushing chord. I still love this song.

6. "Hometown Hero" - is like "Break It To Me Gently" with fewer ideas. Not bad but never makes an impression.

7. "Wildside" - the title track is filled with that clunky percussion meant to toughen up the sound. Skippable then and now.

8. "Don't Let Go" - was one of my favorite songs back then, a sturdy pop rock tune with steely synths and epic rhythm breaks. The lyrics are weak but the song gets over on pure structure.

9. "That's Where My Money Goes" - is great because it shows a little personality, albeit a sexist one (Loverboy sexist? "Hot Girls In Love"? How could that be?). All about how Mike Reno's girl spends his money. Amusing bit of blues rock with vampy synthesizers and cash register sound effects.

10. "Read My Lips" - A few brief years before George Bush (the original version) took office, forgettable song that I can't remember even after hearing it this week.

11. "Don't Keep Me In The Dark" - a stellar power ballad with a great vocal by Mike Reno. This was considered a bonus track, meaning if you bought the record you didn't get this song. Remember when rock critics used to fret over whether bonus tracks fit the original artistic intention of the album?

And that was Wildside, which managed to go Gold despite Loverboy's fading audience. This album is practically forgotten and literally sells for a penny on Amazon.com. Thanks to You Tube, I saw a video for "Love Will Rise Again" that I never knew existed. Rad!




Loverboy - "Love Will Rise Again"

...you can't take the sky from me

I reckon I'll russle up some warp drive

The sci-fi show Firefly is not something I watched when it was on Fox a few years back. I was not watching much TV at the time and was a little put off by the whole "brought to you by Joss Whedon" being drilled into my head thing. While channel surfing, I would occasionally stumble upon it and not be able to make any sense of what looked like a western in space.

But I had a chance to catch Serenity the movie and saw something I hadn't seen in a while-a science fiction show with interesting characters and wit. Set in a post civil war intergalactic future, the show highlights one of the most interesting parts of the sci-fi galaxy-mercenaries. Mercs drift from job to job and are not bound by rules (Star Trek) or a cause (Star Wars). They are free to explore a fictional galaxy from top to bottom.

But Firefly plays it smart by not focusing as much on their mercenary lifestyle as the characters who inhabit it. The old west speaking Captain with a moral code, the second in command soldier, the lunkheaded muscle, the ditzy engineer, a high class concubine, a lighthearted pilot, the mysterious priest, an uptight doctor and his schizophrenic sister who is trained to kill. They fly on a ship that's the equivalent of the Millenium Falcon, a ragged hunk of metal that flies on borrowed parts and force of will.

Firefly mixes a sharp sense of humor in its blend of fantasy and reality. The humor makes the show stand out from, say, the realistic but dour Battlestar Galactica. Like it's namesake, Firefly buzzes lightly around sci-fi heavyweights that carry heavy messages and social commentary. It's that lightness that makes the show fun and a must see for me in reruns.