Why the 70s? Why now? 

Don't know why, but I've been on a bit of Cheap Trick kick lately (try saying that ten times fast...). Of course there's "Dream Police," with its excellent combination of singable melody, quirky drama, and a perfect pinch of musical complexity to make it stand out. Pete and some UCLA folks worked up that number, along with some other gems of the 70s, for an informal performance at IASPM-US 2003 in L.A., so the song's always been fondly thought of.

Then Amper7sand said Pete would like their album In Color. Finally got around to buying it, three years later, and found I/Pete did like it. And thus, the impulse buying began, aided by "cheap" used versions of the Cheap Trick remasters on Amazon. Received Heaven Tonight (the album after In Color) just before the Yosemite trip. And, on the way to NE CA to almost die on a mountain side, I picked up the Dream Police album. Finally, yesterday the first Cheap Trick album arrived.

But that's not all. Some time ago I read an interview with Jake E. Lee, former guitarist for Ozzy and founder of Badlands, wherein he remarked that during soundchecks on the final Badlands tour the band worked up covers of songs by Captain Beyond. Curious, I downloaded a few songs and thought, "meh." Somehow I changed my tune, perhaps due to the Cheap Trick thing, and bought the band's first album, Captain Beyond, from 1972. It's kind of bizarre music in its combination of Hendrix-style blues rock, progressive rock time signatures, and reeeeaaallly far out lyrics about when the moon speaks to the sea and stuff like that. All in all, though a fascinating musical document from an under-theorized era in rock music history (post-Beatles, right at the start of genre explosion).

Well, maybe the 70s feeling has passed because my most recent purchases (last week) were all metal albums from 2006. Oh well.