C/D: Triumph

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I am organizing my CDs after moving which means I am listening to cassettes, many for the first time in ages. I popped in my dubbed copy of Thunder Seven and totally recalled how it felt listening to it through headphones of my Walkman back in High School, digging songs such as "Spellbound" and "Follow Your Heart."

Some may call them a very poor man's Rush abnd the group has an alarming amount of filler in its cannon but I say classic nonetheless.

― NYCNative, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 07:00 (nineteen years ago)

dude, some BAAAAAD 80s memories coming back

http://youtube.com/watch?v=rRDS9AwDF6g&mode=related&search=

power trio fer shure

rik emmett & geddy lee should have switched bands for an album, i don't think anybody would've blinked

― gershy, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 07:34 (nineteen years ago)

I bought their Classics best-of CD for $3 last year; being American not Canadian, I'd never really listened to them much before. So I'm not sure how typical the stuff on this CD is, but I like it okay. Favorite tracks are probably "Hold On" (uplifting!), "I Live For the Weekend" (prime Canuck back-bacon hard rockin' shit!) and "Fight The Good Fight," followed by "Magic Power" (the most Rush-like of these, I'd say) and "Spellbound."

― xhuxk, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 11:29 (nineteen years ago)

Chrissakes, I was listening to Triumph mere hours ago! (Also for the first time in years...) "Poor man's Rush" is a cliche, but still true. (Strange how their configuration anticipates Husker Du: Guitarist and drummer who divvy up songwriting credits and vocal duties, mustachioed nonentity playing bass.) "Magic Power" and "Lay It On The Line" are their best songs, and "Rock 'n Roll Machine" is enjoyably ridiculous. Classics is pretty great, even though it leaves off a coupla good'uns (like their "Rocky Mountain Way", which I prefer to the original) and even though it doesn't leave off the gawdawful "Follow Your Heart". But it's still probably the only Triumph album anybody "needs."

Hardly ever listen to 'em myself anymore, but I'll always have a nostalgic soft-spot for the first band I ever saw live. (AMAZING laser show, which was kinda their entire raison d'etre.)

― Myonga Vön Bontee, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 12:17 (nineteen years ago)

the game board that the Just A Game LP folded into sucked...was a Poor Kid's Chutes And Ladders...

they were awesome live, to be sure...loved the way they treated a club gig like it was a football stadium...

― henry s, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 13:07 (nineteen years ago)

Every time I hear, hum, or think of "Magic Power," I always get reminded of the "Suddenly ahead of me..." part of "Red Barchetta," at which point I realize that's a better song and want to listen to it instead. I still have some sentimental affection for these guys but probably not enough to buy anything more. (I do have a $1 copy of Thunder Seven lying around.) They were kind of like Boston and Rush minus anything that was innovative about those bands (Did they even attempt any of the rhythmic or structural things Rush did?) but I guess Emmett could sing and they could play competently and their songwriting formula occasionally clicked. "Lay It On the Line" is probably my OPO.

― Sundar, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 14:16 (nineteen years ago)

Emmet kinda sounded like Jon Anderson, innit? But he also insisted on including a little 90-second classical guitar bit on EVERY album, so I guess he's got a bit of Steve Howe in him too.

― Myonga Vön Bontee, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 18:06 (nineteen years ago)

i had the cassette of thunder seven when i was a kid.

i remember liking it.

― M@tt He1ges0n, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 19:37 (nineteen years ago)

Strange how their configuration anticipates Husker Du

Seems to be worth noting that both Rik Emmett and Bob Mould were fans of the Gibson Flying V.

― J, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 21:44 (nineteen years ago)

in the cassette liner notes of thunder seven, they quote something from "finnegan's wake", that was the first time i ever heard of james joyce.

― M@tt He1ges0n, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 21:45 (nineteen years ago)

Pop that sucker in, M@tt. Let's see how it held up for you...

― NYCNative, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 22:11 (nineteen years ago)

i will soon! i'm getting a cassette deck from a friend that doesn't want his anymore.

my mom cleaned out my old closet back home so i got a ton of cassettes to listen to. i'm pretty excited.

― M@tt He1ges0n, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 22:36 (nineteen years ago)

with rush and loverboy, triumph was part of the canadian triumverate that dominated rock radio in rochester during my middle-school years. i remember "hold on", "magic power" and "fight the good fight" fondly. probably heard more, but i forget. i didn't realize until later that americans not quite so close to toronto weren't as steeped in candiana. (i was shocked the first time i went to a state where the cashiers wouldn't accept canadian dimes and quarters.)

― tipsy mothra, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 23:47 (nineteen years ago)

they accept canadian coins in MN, it's all good.

was april wine from canadia?

― M@tt He1ges0n, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 23:55 (nineteen years ago)

yes, they were...Montreal, if memory serves...just between you and meeeee...

hey, who remembers Max Webster, featuring Kim Mitchell, the Canadian Frank Zappa?

― henry s, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 23:59 (nineteen years ago)

Everything tipsy mothra said - growing up on the tundra, one just took it for granted that Triumph were, like, the biggest, most rocking band in the world. Plus when you're 9/10/11 years old "painfully derivative," "rock and roll," and "whatever's on WCMF" pretty much all sound the same.

"Fight The Good Fight" and "Lay It On The Line" are still big dumb fun and put the lie to the notion that punk killed off anything. Everyone who has name-checked "Magic Power": yr on my list :grrr:

Question: who is Triumph today?

― rogermexico., Wednesday, 14 March 2007 00:08 (nineteen years ago)

i remember kim mitchell's solo stuff -- he played in rochester all the time too. "go for soda"!

― tipsy mothra, Wednesday, 14 March 2007 00:09 (nineteen years ago)

http://durhamregion.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/unknown_max_webster.gif
I AM A WILD PARTY!!

― m0stlyClean, Wednesday, 14 March 2007 00:12 (nineteen years ago)

Plus when you're 9/10/11 years old "painfully derivative," "rock and roll," and "whatever's on WCMF" pretty much all sound the same.

i miss my wcmf shirt.

― tipsy mothra, Wednesday, 14 March 2007 00:15 (nineteen years ago)

Nobody hurts and nobody cries!

My drummer was trying to remember that song last week, along with a couple of similar faves from the era e.g "Salt In My Tears," "A Fine Fine Day," etc etc (Briley and Carey both brits but and well nonetheless...)

PS tm: be pleased - I am trying to convince my band to play "Ah Leah." The drummer's down, so the two most irreplaceable members are already on board ;-)

― rogermexico., Wednesday, 14 March 2007 00:17 (nineteen years ago)

"salt in my tears" is great. and if you do "leah" i want a copy.

― tipsy mothra, Wednesday, 14 March 2007 00:22 (nineteen years ago)

True or false: we cannot determine the Triumph of today without first agreeing on the Rush of today...

― rogermexico., Wednesday, 14 March 2007 00:24 (nineteen years ago)

even Poor Kid's Chutes And Ladders sounds like it could be the name of a Rush album.

― bendy, Wednesday, 14 March 2007 02:16 (nineteen years ago)

Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge is a lot better than Black Parade, for real!

― Sundar, Wednesday, 14 March 2007 02:20 (nineteen years ago)

Whoa, wrong thread.

― Sundar, Wednesday, 14 March 2007 02:21 (nineteen years ago)

rogermexico
Question: who is Triumph today?

I thought about this far more than I probably should have. I think that Smashing Pumpkins were the Triumph of the '90s but still haven't come up with a modern comparison... It would be funny if My Chemical Romance was this generation's Triumph!

― NYCNative, Wednesday, 14 March 2007 08:12 (nineteen years ago)

was april wine from canadia?

M@tt He1ges0n on Tuesday, 13 March 2007 23:55 (Yesterday)
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yes, they were...Montreal, if memory serves

Sorry, memory faulted on that serve! They were from Halifax, with its 6638 miles of graded road.

― Myonga Vön Bontee, Wednesday, 14 March 2007 08:52 (nineteen years ago)

I thought about this far more than I probably should have. I think that Smashing Pumpkins were the Triumph of the '90s

I appreciate it! I still haven't come up with anything satisfactory. I dunno about Smashing Pumpkins though - they've got more than two good songs, they keep revealing hidden depths (I really do like them more and more these days), and that would make Rush, what, My Bloody Valentine? I suppose you could also make a case for STP...

― rogermexico., Wednesday, 14 March 2007 17:24 (nineteen years ago)

Coheed & Cambria is the Triumph to The Mars Volta's Rush...

― henry s, Wednesday, 14 March 2007 18:04 (nineteen years ago)

Discussing metal bands with Steve W1ll1ams during Chemistry lesson, sometime in the mid 80s.

Me: Triumph?
SW: Fuck off! They're about as heavy as my spunk.

― Noodle Vague, Thursday, 15 March 2007 00:07 (nineteen years ago)

even though they were named Triumph, they never once made me think of motorcycles...

The Rolling Stone Record Guide humorously docked their albums one star each "for plotting world domination from Canada. At least if they were German, they'd be scary".

― henry s, Thursday, 15 March 2007 00:14 (nineteen years ago)

"but I'll always have a nostalgic soft-spot for the first band I ever saw live. (AMAZING laser show, which was kinda their entire raison d'etre.)"

It wasn't my first concert, that was seeing Loverboy and Zebra, but I also saw Triumph's amazing laser show with a reformed Mountain as the opening act. I used to have one of those concert jersey's from that show.

It has been a few years but I swear I remember seeing the drummer Gil Moore of Triumph as a contestant on Jeopardy.

How about Spacehog as the 90s Alt Rock Triumph?

Triumph is to Rush as Molly Hatchet is to Lynyrd Skynyrd.

― earlnash, Saturday, 17 March 2007 03:09 (nineteen years ago)

ten years pass...

been loving the shit out of Triumph lately

#TeamAlliedForces

― blonde redheads have more fun (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 28 April 2017 14:00 (nine years ago)

I just saw a copy of Allied Forces at the Goodwill for $1.00 earlier this week. I didn't buy it.

― kwhitehead, Friday, 28 April 2017 16:42 (nine years ago)

damn dogg you missed a slickdeal

― blonde redheads have more fun (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 28 April 2017 16:46 (nine years ago)

I know. I had second thoughts. Stopped by a few days later and it was gone...

― kwhitehead, Friday, 28 April 2017 16:59 (nine years ago)

five years pass...

So there's a Triumph documentary about to be released.

Triumph: Rock & Roll Machine, produced by Banger Films (Alice Cooper, Iron Maiden, Rush and ZZ Top), delivers on revisiting a band that sold millions of albums, played for millions of fans, and never put themselves above their audience.

“The Triumph story was compelling to me, Marc, and the Banger team because it was an opportunity to piece together a broken puzzle,” says Sam Dunn (who co directed the film with Marc Ricciardelli). “We wanted to know how and why the band dissolved at the peak of their powers. It was quite the ride!”

https://www.livenation.com/exclusives/301/round-hill-music-nugs-net-announce

It premiered a couple weeks ago. I think $20 is a bit steep to "buy" it however.

― Loud guitars shit all over "Bette Davis Eyes" (NYCNative), Thursday, 26 May 2022 23:21 (four years ago)

and never put themselves above their audience

Oh fuck off. (Not you, NYCN. Whatever publicist wrote that line.)

― but also fuck you (unperson), Friday, 27 May 2022 01:27 (four years ago)

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