Thursday, January 7, 2016

Re-upped: Glider - Glider (1977)


Glider were a studio project assembled by former The Lost & Chamaeleon Church (and briefly Ultimate Spinach) guitarist, Ted Myers. He quickly drafted Scott McCarl (Raspberries), Gene Barkin (The Grassroots), Eddie Tuduri (Boxer) & hotshot session men Steve Halter, Jeff Stillman and Jeff Eyrich to round out the lineup. The band were quickly signed in 1976 to United Artists Records and began production at Conway Recorders in Los Angeles. Subsequent sessions continued throughout most of the year at Sound City, Village Recorder, Studio 55, Whitney Recorders and Heider Filmways. Their self-titled album hit store shelves the following year, with lead-off single, "You're Like a Melody" making a valiant attempt at conquering the airwaves. Despite fairly solid songwriting, the single flopped and quickly the album faded into obscurity. The project was seemingly dead in the water before it really began. Members went on to work with Surf Punks, Tanya Tucker, Air Supply, Natalie Cole, Nick Gilder and John Cale. Myers later became a successful songwriter before eventually transitioning into A&R work for Rhino & Concord Records.


This nugget has been a curiosity for many AOR lovers over the last three decades. With a lavish front cover (courtesy Annie Neilson), one could only assume this is an exercise in pretentious pomp. Well, there's good news and there's bad news. The good news is this is NOT pretentious pomp. The bad news is that it's not a mindblowing collection of lost AOR classics either. Honestly what we have here is a decent batch of mostly MOR 70's pop. Nothing terrible, but nothing really commanding your attention either. To Myers' credit, the writing here is mostly good, but his occasionally tuneless vocal delivery does tend to dull the edges a bit. There are big standouts though...such as the cynical "It's Too Bad", the rootsy "Always the Last One to Know" & my personal favorite "You're Like a Melody". The track bears a certain Pete Townsend stamp that seems at odds with the majority of this album's lightweight material.


Ripped by me (with my new USB turntable) from clean vinyl, here is Glider. Listen without prejudice and enjoy...

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks, man. Good to see you're back!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the rip. How do you like the USB turntable. Also what software do you use to make such fantastic sounding rips.

puertofan said...

Tkank you I was waiting for this one!

Anonymous said...

Nice post, and nice to see that you're still hangin' in there bro 8)

Anonymous said...

Thanks J

Nice job,always wondered how those USB players would do.

Nuxx

JKR said...

Good seeing you gents (Nuxx/Orchman) around these parts again! I LOVE my USB turntable. It's an Ion TTUSB model & despite the flimsy design, the output is fantastic. I use cheapo audacity to get the initial transfer & then do all of my mastering, EQ'ing & cleaning with Adobe Audition. I'm extremely happy with everything I've done with it thus far.

I have just upgraded the Baby debut LP with my own clean transfer & I think alot of you will be blown away at the improvements. Lots & lots more rare vinyl coming your way, folks :)

Anonymous said...

Many thanks for this album.

I have uploaded some great albums for you.

Mr Big [UK] (1996) Rainbow Bridge

http://sharebee.com/59c7e7de

http://rapidshare.com/files/174647641/Mr_Big.rar

Rhapsody Sweden (1978) Strange Vibrations

http://sharebee.com/444318fc

http://rapidshare.com/files/174625154/Rhapsody.rar

I have also Dicken (2007) From Mr. Big To Broken Home And Back 1977-2007 2 CD

http://home.no.net/mott/mrbiglp6.html

I can upload this album if you are interested.

Nils

JKR said...

Nils, man, always good to see you here...and even better when you come bearing gifts! So glad you dropped by & thx so much for the uploads!!!! :)

Unknown said...

thanks for this one, - nice mellow vibe to some of it, - cheers

akashaman said...

damn , & i thought i had some obscure lp`s , ha - actually i have this one ; what a killer cover eh ?
havent listened to it in years .so thanks for the reminder. i didnt know about the line-up, so thanks ~
incidently , i linked u up ; sorry for takin` so long : ha
great stuff !

sosgotcha said...

Hi
I don't succeed to download Glider ! Maybe the link is dead ?
In the same stuff please, could you have canadian band SEPTEMBER First of of 1979 ?
Thank you very much,

Sosgotcha

bobbysu said...

thank you very much

Anonymous said...

Thank yoy very much. Great!!!