Got to see them December 29, 1982. Highlight of my early youth.
Seriously don't know why I am posting this but it's a reminiscence thing.
Thing is, I will die on that hill that says the riff from Turn Me Loose is, while not the greatest, but pretty damned killer and deserves more recognition. That band was not bad when the Get Lucky album came out but they got wonky after that.
And that damned head band, that kinda ruined everything, even in the '80's when everything was just a bit odd.
Carry On My Blood-Ejaculating Son - JKL2000
I don’t know why, but I used to sing, “Cantaloupe, cantaloupe” along to that song.
I think that might just be their best song, despite all the factors working against it (sexist lyrics, clichéd “knees/please” rhyme, the aforementioned headband). It just has an energy and passion I don’t really find in their other songs. Unique in their output.
Confirmed Bachelors: the dramedy hit of 1883...
I love their first album, still have my vinyl. Taught myself how to play Little Girl on guitar.
The first couple albums had some good songs on them: Turn Me Loose, It's Over, Lucky Ones, Gangs In The Street, The Kid Is Hot Tonight, Take Me To The Top, etc.
Paul Dean is a pretty underrated guitarist, i think. He had some cool riffs and solos on a lot of those songs. He also was an experienced luthier did his own guitar repairs himself. I remember reading this article in Guitar Player, I think it was the May '83 issue (the one with the Women In Rock feature, with Kelly Johnson from Girlschool on the cover), and he talked about developing the guitar that he designed, which was offered first as a limited edition by a Canadian company called Odyssey Guitars (or was it Odessa Guitars?) then Hondo.
Anyway, he talks about how he had this one guitar that he smashed onstage, and he repaired the neck, using a drumstick as a splint, and filled in the rest with "plastic wood" (whatever that is). He said it had a really unique tone, which he really loved, but the guitar got left in the trunk of a car, and the heat caused it "to take a shit". So he tried several more times to repair and/or replace the neck, but nothing got it back to where it was after the first repair.
He eventually figured out that what gave him that great tone was that there was some air pockets in the neck, I guess similar to the acoustic pockets in a chambered "solidbody" guitar, such as a Gretsch Duo-Jet or Brian May's Red Special. So he tried making a couple necks, where he carved grooves in the neck, before putting on the fingerboard, and that gave what he was looking for. He also said that he made a joint at around the area on the neck where the fracture was on the original guitar that he smashed.
I'd like to be able to tell you I only know that because I re-read that very issue just recently, but the last time I Read it was about 10 years ago. And to be honest, I actually remember most of that from when I read the damn article like 35 (!!!) years ago!
Anothers tupid piece of trivia: they're one of the few bands I can think of who've been around as long as they have, with the least number of lineup changes. They broke up in the late 80's, but then got back together a few years later, with the same five guys. Their bassist Scott Smith (who had one of the first Steinbergers, he played it in the When It's Over video) passed away in 2001, but the other four guys have continued the band, and I think they've kept the same replacement bassist. So six band members in 40 years!
When I was a kid, whenever I heard Working For The WEekend, I'd do this candy ass Chuck Berry/Pete Townshend impression during the choruses. If you've ever seen the Kids Are Alright, Townshend does the same move during the live clip of them doing Roadrunner. Imagine the 10 year old me, doing that across the living room every time that stupid song came on MTV! Not a pretty picture, is it?
I was never a big fan, but "Turn Me Loose" is a great song. Also, being in my early 20's in the early 80's "Working For The Weekend" was one of our party anthems. I actually saw Loverboy live a few years ago as the opening act for Journey and I enjoyed them a lot more than I thought I would.
I don't know much about them otherwise, but "Working For The Weekend" is a good rock 'n roll hit single.
After that show I picked up a compilation CD and like about half of it. They are actually quite good musicians and Mike Reno was a good vocalist.Originally Posted by SteveSly
Mr. Geek has it right, IMO, about Paul Dean. Quite underrated. Good riffs, good solos and for at least one album, totally killer riffs. They got a little wonky after that with the poppiness and faded after that but that Get Lucky album was so cool at the time. Not surprisingly, When It's Over was the bathroom break for the whole crowd. Kinda felt sorry for Loverboy because they had to see everyone leaving.
Carry On My Blood-Ejaculating Son - JKL2000
While there was a cheese factor, I always thought their tunes were catchy and the guitar playing was great with some memorable solos.
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I was in a Top 40 covers band between 1981 and 83, and among the songs we played were Workin' for the Weekend and Lucky Ones. We did those at almost every gig once we were up and running. Those songs were always crowd pleasers.
I've played bass on Turn Me Loose a bunch with a cover band. Those octaves always made my left hand tired, lol.
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I used to like the song, Strike Zone but at the time, I was being brainwashed with that prog stuff.
The older I get, the better I was.
I also remember they were the subjects of a couple MTV contests. One of them was a "Spend a Canadian Christmas with Loverboy" thing. I remember the promo had Scott Smith saying something like "...Or you could stay home, and listen to Perry Como...again". I thought that was funny.
The other was one where the winner got to be in a Loverboy video. As it turned out, the winner was in the video for a song called Queen Of The Broken Hearts, and she's only on camera for like 2 seconds. I always thought that was hilarious, for some reason. Imagine being told you're gonna be in a video that's gonna be in heavy rotation on MTV, you get flown to the video shoot, you spend an hour in hair and makeup (maybe not a full hour, but I'm sure it takes awhile to make a person look like they've been running around the desert for a week without a shower, hairbrush or curling iron), then in the finished product, you're only just barely in the thing. I wonder if that was the plan from the start, or if they got her there, and she couldn't even act to the standards required for a music video (remember, that was when everyone was, as Paul Stanley once put, "Trying to remake Raiders Of The Lost Ark in under 4 minutes").
He got washed overboard/ fell off a boat and was never seen again.
I remember reading in the liner notes keyboardist Doug Johnson giving props to Keith Emerson.
Loverboy had some great label radio record promotion for a bit in the states which was a rarity for a Canadian band.
Some good riffs, an 80s band, a few good songs at the time, but give me some April Wine instead. ;-)
I saw them once in some double-header in Toronto, but dobn't remember much about with whom or how they were... most likely, I was there to see the other band.
I did pay attention to the band, because of Paul Dean (good guitarist) and Matt Frenette (good drummer) who were all in Streetheart (a band whose first two albums I played around a lot) and I did buy LB's debut. It was OK hard rock, but too AOR-ish for my tastes (I was heading towards JR/F and jazz at the time). I actually liked Turn Me Loose allright (until I saw the dumb video) and wasn't that entralled by The Kid Is Hot Tonight. But by the time their second album was out with Working for the WE, I wasn't really interested anymore
I'll still always prefer the first two Streetheart albums over all of the Loverboy, but the former fizzled away lacklusterly after the members' successive leaving of the SH train and jumping on the LB bandwagon.
I just looked them up:I had no idea they'd done that many albums during the 80's and was not aware of their reformation in the late 00's. And that SH's excellent bassist Sinnaeve joined them during that period). But I still don't think I missed out on anything worthy.
For those not aware od Streetheart:
Last edited by Trane; 02-23-2019 at 10:25 AM.
my music collection increased tenfolds when I switched from drug-addicts to complete nutcases.
Ok, let me do a half-svetie here by posting more Streetheart:
my music collection increased tenfolds when I switched from drug-addicts to complete nutcases.
And to close my Steretheart trilogy (I really think they should've hit it big - at least more than LB did) , the cover that was the major cornerstone of their show (sometimes expanded to 20 minutes, if memory serves)
my music collection increased tenfolds when I switched from drug-addicts to complete nutcases.
re: Scott Smith
[QUOTE=luvyesmusic;883185]Yeah, I remember the news reports. I think it's on Wikipedia where it says something to the effect that he "drowned in shark infested waters" as if to suggest that's why his body was never recovered.He got washed overboard/ fell off a boat and was never seen again.
I suppose that's true. I remember when we used to get Much Music on our cable service, and I was surprised how much Canadian music there was never gets airplay Stateside. Of course, that's got a lot to do with CanCon, but it is kinda interesting how much stuff there is that you'd never know existed, based on what gets played on this side of the border.Loverboy had some great label radio record promotion for a bit in the states which was a rarity for a Canadian band.April Wine had some cool tunes, I liked some of their stuff. And I still say they had the greatest song title ever: If You See Kay.
Some good riffs, an 80s band, a few good songs at the time, but give me some April Wine instead. ;-)
LMFAO @ If You See Kay. Makes me think of the "Spinal Tapesque" show Z Rock. How do you say Spinal Tapesque, is that the right way to say it?
Interesting how a thread about a band no one cares about can be so interesting. Never heard of Streetheart(not a very good name BTW) and Mr. Geek always has some kind of crazy info that no one else knows. It's a win win situation.
Carry On My Blood-Ejaculating Son - JKL2000
I'll just add a bit more love to some Canadian bands back in the day. My brother turned me on to a group/duo called Frozen Ghost. They had a few good tunes and a great ballad ( sadly, I will always be a romantic at heart. ;-) LOL ) Dream Come True.
https://youtu.be/ScSrPFyEWgQ
There were a lot of good Canadian bands, like Chilliwack:
Triumph:
and for those of you who like a little synth pop, there's Images In Vogue:
I still dig me some Loverboy. They had some pretty damn addictive tunes.
Jon
Chilliwack was an excellent band. Even a little proggy at times. Talented group.
Jon
I have their eponymous double album from the early 70's, there's some interesting stuff on that record.
And of course, Chilliwack evolved out of The Collectors, who put a couple really good psychedelic albums in the late 60's.
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