When I set off to traverse the nation with Calvin, I had been in a full-swing soft rock binge. The result was a series of cassette mix tapes I made from my favorite dollar bin ballads that I entitled "Soft Rock for Hard Times." Calvin is lucky, because I somehow lost two of these in the move, and he saved himself hours of listening to Bread, the Eagles, America, etc.
Low and behold, hard times befell me again on the eve of this winter, so I put together another cassette. I figured I would share with you my favorite soft rock anthems that have made it on most of these mixes that I seem to misplace and lose as soon as I make them.
This last one I burnt to CD so that I could listen to it when my sweetheart and I drove up to her folks' place for thanksgiving. The CD player broke, and that CD kept playing, even when the car was off and the keys removed from the ignition. That's how you know it was good.
One of my favorite dollar bin soft rock albums. Their second album is nowhere near as good as this one. Doug Yule from the almighty Velvet Underground shed his urban grime to be the rhythmic roots to this breezy affair. George Martin quit the Beatles to produce this record. Pure beauty.
The rest of this record is not too strong, but it is worth snagging out of a 50 cent bin all for this magnificent nugget. Some record stores might pay you to take it off their hands.
I like to build it all up to this. After a good Stevie Nicks or Steely Dan burner or a nice touch of 10CC I bring the mix home with a classic like this.
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