The 1981 Listening Post - Bryan Adams - You Want It You Got It

 Bryan Adams - You Want It You Got It

#339

July 21 1985

Bryan Adams

You Want It You Got It

Genre: Rock

Allen’s Original Rating: 2.5 Out of 5

Rating: 2 out of 5

I have a little obsession. It’s about the perception of time. There’s a really good VSauce video on it. He talks about the same thing I do, but I’m purposely burying the lede. 

It’s weird to think that human beings are closer on the timeline to Tyrannosaurus Rex than say, Stegosaurus. And I think about that a lot when it comes to music because time is marked by events. This is why High School takes FOREVER!!! Not only do we have a limited about of experience as living creatures but there is something happening every damned day in High School, whereas, say, today, especially during a lockdown, the days fly by: Nothing is really happening. There are fewer amazing events as you get older and the spaces between them are far between. 

So, when I think about 2021, when this is being written, Pearl Jam’s 10 or Nirvana’s Nevermind are both 30 years old and that means that when they came out, any record released in 1962 was younger then than those albums are now. 

For example: The Beatles first really landed on our shores in 1963. That’s 28 years. But, in 1991 when the Beatles popped up on the radio they *might* be on classic rock but a lot of their older songs would find their way to oldies rock. If not them, certainly a lot of their contemporaries. It was no longer “modern”.  And that sort of freaks me out.

Cuz, about 20 years ago I was at a retirement resort where my mom was staying and the music they had piped in was music from the 60s. Like the Stones and The Beatles and it had me thinking…jeez, when I am in a retirement community will they pump in…The Clash and The Ramones? 

Umm…yeah. Those are oldies now.

So, here we are on this timeline and 1981 is 40 years in the past. Which means that all of these albums are the same age now as anything released in 1941 was back then and that predates “rock” by 14 years. 

But I distinctly remember Bryan Adams being all over the radio and being the vanguard of MOR rock. And, while this album isn’t his best (that would be coming) and he is definitely struggling to find the formula here, he is also really old. 

When You Want It came out our involvement in WWII wasn’t even as old as this record is now. But it doesn’t sound “old” to me. It sounds mediocre. But not old. 

Which makes me old. 

Because I’m closer to Stegosaurus than T Rex, if you get my meaning.

The songs just ain’t there, Bry. 

(This album got dropped by someone and it needed reviewing and I wanted to see if my original rating held up. I was too kind)

https://open.spotify.com/album/4HhfxkjFB38HBTEsNjGoEH?si=khSHD1BaQC61Vj1QoCHlAQ

The 1980 Listening Post - Bryan Adams - Bryan Adams

Bryan Adams - Bryan Adams

#59

Reviewed by Thom Bowers

Bryan Adams

Bryan Adams

Allen’s Rating: 2 out of 5

Thom’s Rating 2 out of 5

Tom’s Highlights:

Hiding From Love
Give Me Your Love
Remember (cause I'm a sucker for synth solos) 

By Thom Bowers

What does Bryan Adams bring to the party?

The question was constantly running through my mind since my first listen to this, his debut record. I had neever seriously considered it before. 

Since my initiation into pop music is largely inseparable from early Mtv, I do not clearly remember a pre-Adams era. He was always just...there, alongside other solid but unremarkable white guy solo acts with solid but umremarkable songs. But those songs did click with people and light up the charts, and he has enjoyed an impressively enduring career as an A-lister, despite not standing out much as a personality or performer.

So I suppose what he brings to the party are the songs, and I was pleasantly surprised to learn that those songs, by and large, came from him. My assumption, even before he scored with that Frankenstein's monster of a monster ballad from the Robin Hood movie, is that he was a blank slate propped up by larger forces. But delving into his backstory, he seems instead to be more of a journeyman songwriter who, at the time of this recording, still hadn't quite landed on whether he and his frequent collaorator Jim Vallance were writing for others or himself. It's worth noting that while this record didn't make any noise on the US charts, quite a few of the tunes were covered by (or intended to be covered by) artists such as Scandal and BTO, as well as lesser-known groups at the time.

The songs themselves also seem to bear that out, mostly coming across as grayscale demo sketches with spaces left for artists with a little more flair to color in: "Give Me Your Love" is a decent template of 70s era Hall & Oates, and "Don't You Say It" could have easily fit in on a Pablo Cruise record. Instances of stylistic stretching like these tend to be the album's more interesting moments, while the rest is...well, solid but unremarkable bare bones pop-rock being produced by a solid but unremarkable performer. But to be fair, one who both got in and pushed forward based on the strength of his own craft, and that ain't nothing.

Also, the chorus of Hiding From Love is still stuck in my head a week later, and that ain't nothing either. 

https://open.spotify.com/album/6IKA8Pe9HZoJWqxeKIb27C?si=cJ9b8C-HTs-Yjj4aG9F8wQ

The 1984 Listening Post - Bryan Adams - Reckless

Bryan Adams - Reckless


#299
November 5 1984
Bryan Adams
Reckless
4.5 out of 5


Highlights:
She's Only Happy When She's Dancin'
Run To You
Heaven
Somebody
Summer of '69
Ain't Gonna Cry

I almost forgot what "rock" sounded like during this year's retrospective. I mean, I know there were people out there trying to do it, even Molly Hatchet should be given some credit for trying to keep the Guitar/Guitar/Bass & Drums sound alive.
But here we are, a Canadian (!) icon reminding us what that fist-pumping, arena filling sound is.
The hits are candy (sorry, I like em...it's the Canada in me), the album tracks are better than serviceable. "She's Only Happy When She's Dancin'" & "Ain't Gonna Cry" re the 80s tracks the Rolling Stones didn't write but should have.
Was "Summer of '69" ubiquitous? Yes. Does it slavishly worship at the feet of Springsteen? Also, yes. But so did John Cafferty and Beaver Brown Band and who doesn't love the Eddie and the Cruisers soundtrack???
Who!?!?
You?
Sit down. It was fun.
Okay, it was cheese-rock. Which a lot of this was. But this sort of sound is integral to the fabric of rock. Not only can you sing to it, and air guitar to it, and air drum to it but it's also unabashedly and blatantly about a sex act AND it was a massive seller on the charts.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/reckless-remastered/940720637

The 1983 Listening Post - Bryan Adams - Cuts Like a Knife

The 1983 Listening Post - Bryan Adams - Cuts Like a Knife 

This one'll get me in trouble. Maybe I have a soft spot for this kind of heartland-y pop rock. Maybe it's cuz I'm older. I think it's all part of the Springsteen residue.
I liked it.

1/18/1983
Bryan Adams 
Cuts Like a Knife
4.5 Stars

Best Tracks
The Only One
Cuts Like a Knife

https://open.spotify.com/album/5ZZ5S9fqcpQo4N3n7nPUk7…