Rocks In The Attic #126: The Edgar Winter Group - ‘They Only Come Out At Night’ (1972)

Ah, Edgar Winter, my favourite albino multi-instrumentalist.

For about three decades I’d say Frankenstein was the hit of this album. It was a US#1, it’s a truly fantastic song, and remains firmly as one of my favourite instrumentals. However, over the last ten or so years, Free Ride has really emerged as the standout track on this album. I’m not sure why, but it seems to encapsulate the 70s better than Frankenstein does. Frankenstein is just sick, to borrow the common parlance of today, but Free Ride is much more accessible. Ask a teenager today, and I reckon they’ll recognise Free Ride, but not Frankenstein.

I first heard Free Ride on the soundtrack to Richard Linklater’s Dazed And Confused. Since then, I’ve heard it on the soundtracks to countless films - it even popped up on one of the classic rock radio stations on a recent Grand Theft Auto video game. It straddles the fence between 70s pop silliness and edgy, ambiguous progressive rock, with that atmospheric break before the end of the song.

I can’t remember when I first heard Frankenstein though. I remember owning it on the soundtrack to one of the Wayne’s World films, but I’d heard it long before then. I remember having it on cassette at some point in my childhood - and I think I had presumed it was a TV or film theme. It could be really - it fits perfectly alongside those jazzy 70s TV themes by the likes of Mike Post and Pete Carpenter.

Hit: Free Ride

Hidden Gem: Alta Mira

Rocks In The Attic #118: Flowers - ‘Icehouse’ (1980)

Australian synth-pop band Icehouse were originally called Flowers, for this, their debut release. They changed their name to the title of this album not long after, and they’re still called that today.

With a sound not too dissimilar to fellow New Wave bands like Martha & The Muffins, Devo and Flock of Seagulls, they sound pretty cutting-edge for 1980, especially for a backwater country like Australia. Like most New Wave bands, you can hear the Bowie and Lou Reed influences dripping out of the stereo. They actually remind of the sort of bands that feature on the New Wave radio station in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.

Their two later singles - Hey Little Girl and Great Southern Land - would make them world famous a few years later. Well, world famous in the South Pacific, if you can call that fame.

Hit: We Can Get Together

Hidden Gem: Icehouse

Rocks In The Attic #25: Lionel Richie - ‘Can’t Slow Down’ (1983)

I’m not sure why I have this - I think it may have something I pilfered from my parent’s collection when I was starting to listen to vinyl in a big way. For years it remained on my shelf, unlistened to, and then I noticed it had a song - Running With The Night - that featured on the soundtrack to Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. I’m glad I finally listened to it, as the rest of the album isn’t half-bad.

Bookended by his big US #1 solo hits - All Night Long (All Night) and Hello - the album is his second solo output after leaving The Commodores, and is full of hits. Each of the five singles taken from the album charted in the US Top 10 - not a bad start for somebody described by one critic as ‘the black Barry Manilow’.

My good friend Roger used to use a ticket stub from a Lionel Richie concert as a bookmark, mainly as a conversation starter to meet girls on the train during his commute to work. Apparently it worked most of the time.

Hit: Hello

Hidden Gem: Running With The Night