Messina & Oates

The guest on this season's finale of "Live From Daryl's House" was Kenny Loggins. I haven't thought about Kenny Loggins in 30 years and then I took special care in trying to forget Kenny Loggins after his 90's trifecta of a Christian record, a children's record and a book/CD about his sex life. (I'll never hear "House At Pooh Corner" the same way again.)

But there was a short period, two albums really, where I really enjoyed Kenny Loggins. 1979's "Keep The Fire" and 1982's "High Adventure" both had a number of great songs, and I was a sucker for those Loggins co-writes with Michael McDonald.  "What A Fool Believes," "I Gotta Try," "No Looking Back" were all recorded by both Loggins and McDonald. "This Is It" and Heart To Heart" both recorded by just Loggins. Great stuff, full of hooks. Really well-crafted songs.

This isn't about any of that.

It's about "Swear Your Love," side one, track four, "High Adventure." No revelations here. Just sharing a tune I remember loving in 1982 and after whipping it out yesterday for the first time since, decided I still do. Of course it suffers a bit from being born in the 80s, but I still love it. Not really arena rock and maybe not quite power pop, but certainly a much better song than his 80's movie hit onslaught of  "Footloose," "Danger Zone" and "I'm Alright." Great chorus, great harmonies. Kind of girl group at its heart, I think.

As for his appearance on "LFDH," once you get past the initial shock of what Loggins looks like in the car on the way to club---I think he had his cheeks pulled back and pinned to the back of his skull---the performance was pretty good. I always hated "Your Mama Don't Dance," but Daryl Hall's band found a nice groove and it worked. The rest wasn't so bad, either.