Past Prime Issue #16
Coldplay, Night Ranger, Barry Manilow, Ron Guidry & The American Analog Set
Sometimes this work can be unsavory. Trust me, it’s not all Ray Davies & Warren Zevon. Sometimes it requires us to discuss matters which polite society doth not speak of. For instance, nobody wants to talk about “What’s It Gonna Take,” Van Morrison’s agitprop troll manifesto. Not even the deepest seekers of The Mystic want to touch it. Nobody does. Nobody…but us.
Also in this issue: Middle-aged indie stuff (The American Analog Set & Kevin Drew). A thing about Brooklyn’s third greatest songwriter (Barry Manilow). That time when Coldplay teamed up with BTS. AARP Night Ranger, The tale of Louisiana Lightning. And, finally, a reminder that the shop is well stocked with Prince, The Velvet Underground, & The Cure. Now go on, you.
Priming the past.
Coldplay “Music of the Spheres”
And that is the thing about Coldplay — they are fine. Extremely so. But, also, just so — fine. Their bug — a complete lack of tension — has become their undeniable feature. Even in divorce, Chris Martin managed to avoid friction, co-describing his split from Gwyneth not as a separation or a break-up, but as a “conscious uncoupling.” However, where their consistency was once a strength, in time people began to whisper about their boring sameness. At the height of their ascent, Martin had quipped that Coldplay needed to focus on getting better, not bigger. By the second decade of the twentieth century, however, they were neither better nor bigger. They were more hovering blimp than soaring rocketship.
Night Ranger “Somewhere in America”
More than they wondered about Sister Christian — where she was going & what she was looking for — Night Ranger wondered what happens to our dreams in middle age. Do they still matter? Were they silly to begin with? Because while they were obviously an Eighties Rock band, they were also a middle-aged Rock band. Strictly speaking, they were more the latter than the former. They released five albums during their heyday but — amazingly — have put out eight albums since. Their most recent one, from 2021, was “A.T.B.O.” — an acronym for “And The Band Played On.” Its predecessor, from 2017, was entitled “Don’t Let Up.” Night Ranger were not content being “the Sister Christian guys.” Theirs was a destiny yet to be realized.
Since “You Forgot It in People” — the record that a generation made out to & broke up to — every Broken Social Scene album has been an event. The reveal of who’s in & who’s out & the inevitable comparisons to their masterpiece. But while they have all been events, they have been more so celebrations. For all of the gothic romance of “Lover’s Spit,” Kevin Drew sure seems like a jubilant fellow. “Hug of Thunder” is his brand. He’s less a frontman & more a glue guy. But he’s also somebody who exists outside of his collective. In between those BSS records, Drew has been releasing lower stakes solo albums. Initially, with many members of Broken Social Scene. Then with a few. And then, finally, all alone.
Barry Manilow “Here at the Mayflower”
Barry Manilow has sold eighty-five million albums — that’s more than Tom Petty, Nirvana or KISS. Once upon a time, he was the yellowing wallpaper of American music — for the better part of a decade, his songs were all over the radio, in grocery stores, waiting rooms & elevators. But, by 1984, years after “Mandy,” he’d hit a wall. Yes — the man who wrote the songs (but who I later learned did not write “I Write the Songs”) stopped writing the songs. After “2:00 AM Paradise Cafe,” it would be another twenty years before Manilow released another album of originals. When he did, though, it was a doozy. “Here at the Mayflower,” from 2004, is the apotheosis of Barry Manilow — an album of Swing, Mambo, Pop, Disco & Cabaret tunes about the apartment building in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, where he grew up. It was the record that Terri Gross & Oprah Winfrey desperately wanted. It was the concept album he was born to write.
The American Analog Set “For Forever”
Though they broke up in 2008, The American Analog Set started hanging out again in 2013. They’d meet up weekly & play music for the purest of reasons — because they enjoyed being together. It was familiar & comfortable. But in no way did their weekly jams sound like a reunion or even a precursor to a reunion. On the other hand, it did beg the question: If a band plays in a living room for no one but themselves, are they even a band? If a tree falls in a forest, does it make a sound? Nobody knew about these private get togethers & so nobody was asking. But then, a year or so ago, the fading flicker made a pop. Numero Group announced plans to reissue the first three AmAnSet albums. A lost track came to light. And then, seemingly out of nowhere, The American Analog Set, who were always as much a dream & a mystery as they were a band, revealed “For Forever,” their first album in eighteen years.
Past Prime pastime.
Sandy Koufax famously retired at the age of thirty, while still at the top of his game. To fans, his exit was abrupt, but graceful — the definition of an athlete leaving on his own terms. Ron Guidry was the opposite. While his career stats were almost interchangeable with Koufax’s & while their peaks were similarly untouchable, their retirements were a study in contrast. After a stellar ‘85 season, wherein he won twenty-two games, led the league in winning percentage & finished second in the Cy Young voting, Guidry faded. Injuries started to mount. Shoulder. Then elbow. Surgery was required. Rehabs were long. Every step forward felt like two steps back. Until, eventually, Gator was down in AAA, waiting for the call & wondering if he’d ever pitch in the majors again.