What Comes After
Back when music was scarce, when it wasn’t free, when if you didn’t buy it you couldn’t hear it, unless you sat by the radio and hoped the station had taste as broad as yours, which was never ever the case, dedicated musos combed the cut-out bins. That’s where we bought what we wanted to hear but weren’t willing to pay for, at least not full price.
That’s where I discovered the Move. They kept canceling at the Fillmore East, but when I finally bought an album I got it, and was primed for ELO.
And then there was the Kinks’ "Lola versus Powerman and the Money-Go-Round, Part One". It’s a timeless treatise on fame that includes more keepers than the title track.
And one day in Westport, at the back of a Sam Goody store, I bought the Stories album "About Us".
This was mere months before the band had its one and only hit, the ubiquitous "Brother Louie". But I purchased it because Michael Brown was in the band. Yes, that Michael Brown, of the Left Banke.
And there’s not one song with the creepy wistfulness of "Walk Away Renee" and "Pretty Ballerina", but "What Comes After" comes close.
I know every lick on "About Us". Because I transferred it to cassette and promptly drove cross-country. Repetition breeds integration. "About Us" is part of my life.
And if Ian Lloyd were on "American Idol", he’d blow the rest of the contestants away. He had a voice like Steve Perry’s, pure and high. But it was Michael Brown’s material that made the band sing.
And it’s all good.
But there are two incredible tracks, "Love Is In Motion" and "What Comes After".
For years you couldn’t hear this music, it was unavailable at any price. But now, through the magic of YouTube, you’re going to get a peek into my life. My seventies life.
