Triumph

You can blame this one on my former band mate, Steve. He posted something about the band Triumph on Facebook the other day, and now I can’t stop listening to them.

They were the first band I ever saw live. My uncle took me. It was 1985, I think. It might have been 1986. They were, of course, the other three piece band from Toronto with a singer whose voice was so high only dogs could hear it. The difference between Triumph and Rush was that Rush seemed completely uninterested in the mainstream, while Triumph pretty much lived there. In the 70’s they were one of an infinite number of straight ahead heavy rock bands, but in the 80’s they got steadily slicker and more radio friendly. Back when I was in junior high and high school, I thought Thunder Seven (from 1984) and Allied Forces (from 1981) were the best records. I still think that’s true, but we can throw in Just a Game (from… ummm… was it ’78?) in there too. I think those records, mostly, still stand up. I was never into their first US record, Rock and Roll Machine. That was actually a compilation of their first two Canadian records. It just didn’t sound very good and at that time the recording quality meant a ton to me. Today, I give it a listen and think it’s okay and then put Thunder Seven back on. Never Surrender was another big one for them, but it seems to be a little weak to me today. The Sport of Kings (the album the were touring when I saw them) is just way too glossy 80’s for me now. There are a few good songs, but most of it sounds like the sort of thing Journey would have been pleased with. I can’t even listen to the last album they made, Surveillance I think it was called, but I couldn’t stomach it back when it came out either. Progressions of Power was from… 1980 maybe? That one seemed weak back then, and it still seems weak today. It’s not that bad, it just seems like a step down.

Here’s a video from the US Festival back in 1983. As I watch this, I recall that they had a stage show that was so huge you kind of imagine Pink Floyd looking at them and thinking, we got some work to do. I remember lasers and explosions and a flying drum set and all sorts of crazy arena rock stuff that Nirvana and Pearl Jam thankfully flushed down the toilet. At the time it was okay, I guess, but it took so much attention away from the music that I never missed that sort of thing. In this clip though, it’s a festival and they didn’t have their own stage show. They just played the music. Novel thought, eh? I remember Rik Emmett being one of the guys who wore his guitar up very high. That is actually the correct way to hold a guitar, even though it’s not nearly as cool as slinging it down by your waist. I don’t remember the way his hands were positioned though. His left hand seems to be holding the guitar WAY out in front of his body, and his right hand is almost coming at the strings from underneath. It looks weird and uncomfortable to me, but I can’t argue with the way he plays. Lightning fast and impeccably clean. Then there’s Gil Moore (was it Gil or Gill? Can’t remember. I think it was Gil). He also looks weird as he plays. I can’t quite put my finger on it. It’s almost like he’s seven feet tall and the drums are down below his knees. As for Mike Levine, he’s exactly as I remember him. He often looks like he’s going to fall over backward, but that’s just a good old fashioned 70’s rock posing for you.

Triumph – Fight the Good Fight at the US Festival in ’83.