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"...We All Do The Best We Can..."
Part of the Rock-Soul-Folkie duo of LOGGINS and MESSINA (Jim Messina was ex Poco and Buffalo Springfield) – Kenny Loggins had already clocked up five studio albums and 2 live sets with the pairing between 1972 and 1977 - and along with it considerable chart success and record sales. His inevitable solo career began in earnest in April 1977 with "Celebrate Me Home" on Columbia Records and continued into his most productive and commercially viable decade – the Eighties.
And that’s where this brilliant little duo CD combo comes in – giving us his 5th and 6th solo albums from 1982 and 1985. The big hair and big productions break down as follows…
UK released 4 August 2014 – "High Adventure/Vox Humana" by KENNY LOGGINS on Beat Goes On BGOCD1160 (Barcode 5017261211606) is a BGO digital compilation that offers 2LPs Remastered onto 2CDs (no bonuses) and plays out as follows:
Disc 1 (41:32 minutes):
1. Don't Fight It [Side 1]
2. Heartlight
3. I Gotta Try
4. Swear Your Love
5. The More We Try
6. Heart To Heart [Side 2]
7. If It's Not What You're Looking For
8. It Must Be Imagination
9. Only A Miracle
Tracks 1 to 9 are the album "High Adventure" - released September 1982 in the USA on Columbia Records TC 38127 and CBS Records 85932 in the UK (peaked at No. 13 on the US album charts).
Disc 2 (43:56 minutes):
1. Vox Humana [Side 1]
2. No Lookin' Back
3. Let There Be Love
4. I'll Be There
5. I'm Gonna Do It Right
6. Forever
7. At Last
8. Loraine
9. Love Will Follow
Tracks 1 to 9 are the album "Vox Humana" – released April 1985 in the USA on Columbia FC 39174 and CBS 26221 in the UK. 'Vox Humana' is the Latin for Human Voice – the album peaked at 41 on the US album charts (didn't chart UK).
The substantial 24-page booklet features all lyrics and track-by-track annotation (with Loggins own notes) and a detailed summary by noted writer NEIL DANIELS. The outer card wrap – now generic with all BGO CD reissues – gives the whole shebang a classy feel too. But the big news is that Bernie Grundman's stunning original Production values have been brought to the fore by a superb 2014 ANDREW THOMPSON remaster. These CDs sound huge and in a good way.
In the late Seventies and into the Eighties – I was like many – obsessed with all things MICHAEL McDONALD. I hunted down his many contributions on other people's albums – Steely Dan, Christopher Cross, Bonnie Raitt, Stephen Bishop, Donna Summer – you name it – I had to have it. Loving the "Minute By Minute" album by The Doobie Brothers to distraction in 1978 – I more than noticed the name KENNY LOGGINS turning up on songs – especially his co-write with McDonald on the fabulous Grammy-winning "What A Fool Believes". That connection again features strongly on the "High Adventure" platter where McDonald co-writes and plays keyboards on three (no silken vocals unfortunately) - "I Gotta Try", "Heart To Heart" and "Only A Miracle".
Co-Produced
with BRUCE BOTNIK (of THE DOORS fame) – the 9-track "High Adventure" LP also
featured a co-write with Journey's STEVE PARRY on "Don't Fight It" itself
benefiting heavily from the zippy guitar of NEIL GUIRALDO (Pat Benatar's
better half). It was a chart hit – peaking at 17 in the USA in September 1982. Production
genius and ex Skylark Keyboardist DAVID FOSTER contributed to "If It's Not What
You're Looking For" - while TOM SNOW who did beautiful songs for Randy Crawford
like "You Bring The Sun Out" on her lovely May 1981 album "Secret Combination" for Warner Brothers co-wrote the equally pretty "It
Must Be Imagination". His long-time session associate MIKE HAMILTON also plays tasty guitar throughout.
With the mega soundtrack "Footloose" taking up most of 1984 – Loggins returned with the 9-track "Vox Humana" in 1985, again featuring large amounts of co-writes with heavy-hitters like DEAN PITCHFORD, TOM SNOW, NATHAN EAST, DAVID SANFORD and his wife EIN LOGGINS. The album also featured the usual plethora of classy session players – MICHAEL LANDAU and BUZZY FEITON on Guitars, STEVE POCARO of Toto on Synths, MICHAEL OMARTION on Keyboards, DAVID SANBORN on Saxophone and NEIL LARSEN with GREG PHILLINGANES also on Keyboards.
"I'm Gonna Do It Right" benefits from the backing vocals of THE POINTER SISTERS, STEVE LUKATHER's Guitar solo on "Forever" is typically brill and economical, PHIL BAILEY's backing vocals on "At Last" are cool and DAVID FOSTER provided choppy keys on "Lorraine" and "I'll Be There". Michael McDonald would name his second solo LP after Track 2 "No Lookin' Back" - a co-write between him, American Vocalist and Keyboard Player ED SANFORD and Kenny Loggins.
Both discs are all so Eighties I know – terrible jackets and equally awful trousers. But as always with KL, the
melodies in stuff like "Heart To Heart" and "The More We Try" are still there. Fans need this BGO twofer and it's another winner from England's Beat Goes On who champion the neglected side of reissues so well...
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