Luther Van Dam

You’re lucky you are all getting this post. As I was about to come upstairs five minutes ago I almost wiped out on a rug at the bottom of the stairs, which would have led to me cracking my skull on the steps and possibly dying. My last words would have been “Simply Red…..YES!”, because I had just come across some old cassettes. So my post is going to be about them I suppose. So, Simply Red is/was a band that was pretty damn popular back in the day. I think they put out an album a couple years back, but I’m not sure what their status is today. Anyways, in 1989 they had a tremendous hit entitled “If you don’t know me by now“. It was actually a cover of an earlier hit, however it was massive as I remember hearing it growing up. We still have the cassette single it came on. I always found the cassette single to be a strange anomaly. They came in a little paper sheath and usually had two or three songs on them, much like vinyl singles but with a much shorter life span as the cassette single never quite caught on. We actually have a bunch of singles, however I seem to remember this one the most because I believe my father played it over and over again until I couldn’t stand the song. But after hearing it again earlier this year for the first time in many years, I decided to give it a closer listen. I was surprised to find out that it is an incredible song, and has quickly become one of my favourites.

My parents I see have some interesting taste in music. There are some Oak Ridge Boys tapes, Jon Secada (remember him? probably not), Whitney Houston (her first album which is pretty incredible), Lionel Richie (who was one of my favourite artists when I was young mainly because of the song “Dancing on the Ceiling“, Michael Bolton (“Time, Love, and Tenderness” baby oh yeah), Billy Joel (in his mid-80’s pop phase), Bruce Springsteen (Born in the U.S.A. which rocks of course), and I have in front of me Air Supply. Let’s face it; Air Supply is one of the shittiest bands to walk the face of the Earth. Never minding they both had the worst haircuts impossible (men should not have perms; this was inexcusable even in the 1980’s), their music was beyond sappy. Yet, even as I say this I am listening to “All out of Love“, just one of their many songs which had “love” in the title. For some reason I have a weak spot for this song. Sure, it’s as overblown and over-the-top as the rest of their music, however there’s something so goddamn beautiful about it that I certainly don’t mind listening to it. For all their stupidity, these gentlemen had very nice voices.

Of course, the best tapes lying in that box were two masterpieces from Phil Collins: “…But Seriously” and “No Jacket Required”. Let me say straight out that Phil Collins fucking rocks! His “Greatest Hits…Live” was one of the first tapes I went to the mall to buy, and it is still a great live album. Phil has an amazing ability to write both catchy pop songs and heartbreaking love songs without going too overblown or sappy. He is often criticized for turning Genesis away from it’s prog rock roots and turning it into a pop band. But hell I always liked Genesis better that way anyways. Anyways, I want to save all my love for Phil for another post where I can go through some of his best work.