The Giant Panther

I've been meaning to knock this one out for a while now and since I have an hour before The World Series I thought I'd toss this one back out to the masses for fun. Canada has long been a wellspring for catchy rock nobody seems to ever get to hear. I remember Kim Mitchell back in the 80's (Patio Lanterns & Might As Well Go For a Soda might ring some long lost bells) for example. The Pursuit of Happiness (TPOH) was one such band for me. Many of you will probably remember their quasi novelty track "I'm An Adult Now" released back in 1988 on their CD Love Junk. This is one of those humor meets pretty good song mashups for me. As I have noted in the past, I love when humor is injected into a good rock track. If I like AND it makes me laugh I'm sold. This record is classic cut out fodder. I remember loving this self titled record from 1975 by a Virginia band called Artful Dodger. Nobody I know can even recall this band, but I know every note on this record. I remember WNEW-FM in New York City, the mother of all FM rock stations for this once young listener, used to play a song off this record called "Think Think" for a couple of months back in 1975. I loved this record all the way through, but you can find it for 49 cents in a used record store and it's long out of print. It's a great record, but it's been a graveyard special since 1976. I guess what I'm trying to say is I love some records unconditionally even if nobody else on the planet has ever heard of them. In fact the older I get I'm convinced I have at least fifty of these in my collection. TPOH had a minor hit song with "I'm An Adult Now," but their record was really very good and it had/has zero audience.

Sometimes today, at least for me, I go shopping without a single shred of information about certain artists. I might hear them in Newbury Comics while I'm in the store or maybe I read about them in a trade publication, but back in the day it was all about the image. I'd buy anything on a whim trying to expand my horizons. I feel like I have to tell the story (again you're probably thinking) of how I had come to buy certain albums just by virtue of the artwork. In other words, by shear luck of the draw. I know I'll get the usual guffaws from a lot of you when I tell you I bought Joe Walsh's So What and Supertramp's Crisis What Crisis? just because of their covers and they are still two of my all time favorites. The Giant Panther hates Joe Walsh, but I'm a huge fan of his. Not because of "Rocky Mountain Way" or "Funk #49" or "Life's Been Good"; I love Joe Walsh because "Turn To Stone" was such a fantastic single. I didn't know The James Gang from Spanky and Our Gang back then, but I do now because of "Turn To Stone," which was actually a remix of the original version on an earlier record called Barnstorm. I love all of his "b" cuts like "Meadows" and "Indian Summer" and "Rosewood Bitters" and "Welcome To The Club." As for Supertramp I'm not embarrassed at all to admit to being a fan. Crime of The Century, Crisis What Crisis? and Even in The Quietest Moments were brilliant records long before anybody ever heard of Breakfast in America. I think you all know by now I go off on tangents at the drop of a hat, but I used to love shopping by picture or image. Albums were physically huge and a good album cover was a huge seller right up until the advent of the CD. I would have never bought Crisis What Crisis? without seeing that album cover and thinking those dudes are out there. I wanted to see what they had. I'm certainly glad I did. Great recording.

No one will accuse TPOH's Love Junk of having a great cover, but it was produced by Todd Rundgren and released on Chrysalis Records. Chrysalis, with its signature butterfly, was a British label existing as a subsidiary of Island Records. For me Chrysalis Records stood for Jethro Tull and Procol Harum, but it also housed a substantial portion of the library of such acts as Blondie, Ultravox and such inexplicably great sellers as Huey Lewis & The News and Spandau Ballet. True he said. Uggh. Anyway, Wikipedia does not give insight as to how TPOH came to be produced by sound wizard Todd Rundgren, but his signature sound (Bearsville?) is all over this disc. Harmonies out the wazoo (I should do some research on that word as it is amazingly prevalent in the lexicon of the past couple of decades don't you think?) and very clean sounding, Love Junk was a very good record in my opinion. It was never going to be album of the year, but I've heard much worse. Unfortunately most people haven't heard it at all. 49 cents might be high for the price this baby would fetch at a yard sale. No matter, "I'm An Adult Now" rocks pretty hard and has a few hilarious passages that I just love. "I don't hate my parents, I don't get drunk just to spite 'em, I got my own reason to drink now, think I'll call my dad up and invite him." This song just goes on and on with the cleverly written laughs. I wish I had written it myself. As for the album, check out the easy harmony on "When The Sky is Falling." Great stuff. I don't care if it's in the cut out bin. It's the public's loss as far as I'm concerned.