Ten Albums: Number 2 - Toad the Wet Sprocket - Fear

In time of pandemics, we all seem to have a bit more free time. For me, the cancelling of, well, everything has really killed my writing routine, where most of my writing was done at coffee shops while my kids were at sports practice. I haven't been able to adjust and man is it frustrating.

But a friend tagged me in one of those annoying, yet fun Facebook challenges to post 10 albums that have influenced my musical taste. One record a day for ten days. No explanation, no review, just the over.

Yeah, I can't do that without an explanation. Plus, it gives me something to write about. So, here, over the next ten days will be my ten albums followed by a bunch of words.

Toad The Wet Sprocket - Fear

There was this girl I liked in high school who was huge into Toad the Wet Sprocket. She was also super cool, liked college rock and new tons of bands I had never heard of. She pressed me to listen to Toad's their prior release, Pale, which I liked, but it was sort of a sad record. Then this came out.

I mean, come on people, it starts with Walk on the Ocean, ends with I Will Not Take These Things for Granted. The songs are all so different, and take on some heavy themes, like Hold Her Down, a song about rape. The angelic voices during the last minute and a half of Pray Your Gods. And the big hit, All I Want, which I still love, even after it became a staple on the 101.9, The Mix as a contemporary adult hit. The afore mentioned girl and I wrote in a notebook together for most of high school. When we got tired of writing, we'd put in song lyrics that the other person had to guess. This album was probably the most quoted album in those notebooks and it's because there is not a bad song on the album. This was also not like anything else I was listening to at the time, a steady diet of Rush, Queensryche, Cracker, Tesla and Stevie Ray Vaughan (but really mostly Rush). It pushed me towards music that wasn't as mainstream

Toad went on a tour of colleges to support the release of this album, including a show at Harper. The girl had an extra ticket at the last minute and asked me to go, but I was already at work at La Roman's Kitchen and I couldn't get someone to work for me.  Fear not, for Toad played a million college campuses over the next few years and I went to seem them at many, including a Tuesday night at ISU while we were juniors. I'm still trying to remember how I talked my mom into letting me go to that.

Toad became a band I saw every time they toured and bought their records at midnight at Tower Records the minute they were released. I remember my immense sadness when they broke up in 1998, although they performed some one off shows and mini-tours on and off before getting back together for good in 2009.

Of course, you are more likely to hear Walk on the Ocean or All I Want through the overhead speakers when you are at Jewel today than on a radio station.

In the breakup years, Glen Phillips wrote, recorded and toured frequently. The shows were in smaller venues, usually just Glen and his acoustic guitar. A few years into dating, my wife and I went to see Glen at the Black Orchid Nightclub at Piper's Alley. I had a hockey game right before the show and I raced back from the game, hurriedly showered and got ready and was still sweating a little bit by the time we got settled into our seats and ordered drinks. It was such a great night, a great show, a night we talk about frequently, a show all other Glen Phillips shows are measured against. It's a night I could relive again and again.


The lyrics of I Will Not Take These Things For Granted are relevant right now as we are all trapped inside:

but if it's frightening, I'll bear the cold
and on the telephone
your offer warm asylum
I will not take these things for granted