Kenny Wednesdays #1 - Fast & Loose

Last week's post on Kenny Rogers & The First Edition was received far better than expected, to the point that Brian at Linear Tracking Lives! suggested I "Keep the Kenny comin'".

I'm sure this isn't what he had in mind, but over the next 10 weeks, I'll be posting a different Kenny every Wednesday. I was surprised how many Kennies I found... I've already got more than ten, and I'm sure you guys will have a few suggestions. And the great thing is, I can promise you now, very few (in fact, potentially only a couple of them) will be Muso-Friendly.

We'll get back to Kenny Rogers sooner or later, but let's start with another huge name of the 80s... although not as huge in the UK as in the US.

KENNY WEDNESDAYS #1: Kenny Loggins

Kenny Loggins started out as a songwriter in the late 60s. His first compositions were recorded by The Nitty Gritty Dirt Bans, though he was never a member of that group himself. He went on to team up with Jim Messina (formerly of Eagles influencers Poco and a post-Neil Young member of Buffalo Springfield) to record a number of successful US soft rock albums in the mid-70s. Loggins & Messina never really troubled the UK airwaves though, and neither did any of Kenny's later solo albums (although they all went Platinum in the US).

And then came Footloose...

I loved Footloose when I was a kid. It's pure 80s hokum - fleet-footed Kevin Bacon falls for the daughter of Fire 'n' Brimstone preacher John Lithgow who believes rock 'n' roll is the devil's music. (It is, let's face it. That's why it's so cool.)

Now, I've never been a dancer. And you won't find a lot of dance records making their way onto this blog because, as Moz once sang, they say nothing to me about my life. But few records are likely to get me tapping my toes like Footloose. It makes me feel like a teenager again. (Although not like the teenager I actually was.)

Loggins went on to record the theme to Top Gun too, but I never really got Top Gun. I watched it, sure: it was required viewing if you were a teenager in the mid-80s, but I just couldn't see what all the fuss was about. They were all a bunch of dicks. Footloose though... wow.