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Anybody into the band SAGA?

#61
Wow... Some of my all time favorite bands mentioned in this thread. Sorry I'm late! Call me weird but I thought "Conversations" was a friggin masterpiece of a song! "No Stranger" got constant play time in my car! Ahhhhh High School Days! Then of course there was Triumph and April Wine.... "Shes a ROLLER!!!" "Just Between You and Me" was "our song" (girlfriend at the time). I was in a band and we used to do "Say Goodbye" and our guitar player could play "Petite Etude" well enough to tug on your heart strings.
 
#62
WOW you sent me on a flashback of my later teen yrs. I seen Saga open up for Eddie Money in Ohio back when "On the Loose" came out as a single....Didn't care for their albums...BUT they were VERY impresive Live and were fun to watch too...thanks for the flashback!
 
#63
39-Bassist said:
WOW you sent me on a flashback of my later teen yrs. I seen Saga open up for Eddie Money in Ohio back when "On the Loose" came out as a single....Didn't care for their albums...BUT they were VERY impresive Live and were fun to watch too...thanks for the flashback!
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I still say up to this day that the best concert I attended was a Saga concert. I have seen no better concert since. And i've seen some big and less big names.

My second best was a Smash Mouth concert. What a fine live band that is.
 
#65
shadowmac said:
A little history:
I had heard the song "On the Loose" a thousand times and always kind of dug it, but never really listened to what was going on musically. I recently heard it on the radio and REALLY listened. Wow, I was stunned; great voice, great musicians, fantastic layering good lyrical concept, seamless segues.
I recognized / noticed (for the first time) that the keyboards were up-front in the mix, which isn't really a mixing practice aimed to please mainstream Amercans, traditionally, that is more geared towards European audiences. I suddenly understood that THAT mixing practice was the very reason that I had subconsciously dismissed this song and band so long ago.

Upon hearing it again a few weeks ago (in the car) I turned it up and found myself enamoured. Furthermore, I thought that SAGA was a one hit wonder and was over and done. On the contrary, SAGA has put out well over a dozen studio albums and several live albums with the newest studio release, "The Human Condition", coming out this month. I now own 4 SAGA albums, I have 2 more on order. SAGA is currently signed to INSIDEOUT RECORDS, which is pretty cool! The new record is the first with someone other than the original singer, Michael Sadler, doing lead vox. The new guy sounds similar to DC Cooper - for you fans of power metal - (a mixture of Geoffe Tate, Rob Halford and Dennis DeYoung for those of you who don't know DC).

On any given album you will hear parts that remind you of STYX, QUEEN, RUSH, ASIA, THE CARS, UTOPIA, MARILLION, and many more. This is a WOW band that is very popular overseas, hails from just to the north of us and most americans have either forgotten or have never hear of. That, is a travesty. If you like the above bands and / or are a fan of stellar musicianship, Check SAGA out, you'll be glad you did.

Anybody else into SAGA??? Please comment.
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My old band played On The Loose when it first came out. It's a great song with great a great arrangement.
 
#68
This was my introduction to SAGA. "Don't Be Late"



I first saw this video on MTV back in the early 80's (when they played real music). First time I saw it, I freaked out about how great this song is! It took me forever to find the Silent Knight LP though. Saga was not known in the states at that time and their records were hard to come by. =)
 
#69
ERIC31 said:
This was my introduction to SAGA. "Don't Be Late"



I first saw this video on MTV back in the early 80's (when they played real music). First time I saw it, I freaked out about how great this song is! It took me forever to find the Silent Knight LP though. Saga was not known in the states at that time and their records were hard to come by. =)
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That song has good arrangement. this band is has some great musicians overall.
 
#70
WalWarrior said:
The act I'm in now does "On the Loose". Everytime we play it people go nuts. I brought up another tune along the same lines for the act to play, a tune by HEAD EAST off the "Flat as a Pancake" LP called "Never Been any reason". Catchy tune as well.
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I was in a Top40 act in the Eighties that closed every night with "Never Been". Great tune, and people went nuts! Bass breakdown and everything!

J!
 
#72
Love Saga. Jim Crichton is a solid bassist, puts groove in what could be considered a near-prog band. Ian Crichton is a totally underrated guitarist. The legacy of that band is that they are a keyboard-oriented band so as a guitarist, Ian gets overlooked. I'd say for consistency their best cds are Silent Knight (1980) to Behaviour (1985). I have a few after this time period but I believe this was their golden-age.
 
#76
I'm late to this thread but have to echo the SAGA-love. I still think those guys are awesome musicians who crafted some great songs.

I have a few of their LP's in my basement somewhere. Now that I've got my whole CD collection streaming from a NAS drive server to my stereo and Iphone I think I'll transcribe a few albums to digital over the holidays.

If they were mentioned in this thread I missed it, but if we're talking world-class avantgarde in the 80-'s you can't forget Rough Trade with Carol Pope.
 
#77
Brick Top said:
It's really a shame that the Hip never broke it big world wide. They are easily the best rock & roll band that Canada has ever produced. Yes....even better than Rush in my book...
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They do a really good cover version of Rush's 'Limelight'! Especially the vocal style suits that song very well!

What else? Oh yeah, me too: I love Saga! :) First heard them around the time 'Worlds Apart' was released, 1981 or so. However they kinda 'disappeared' to me after the 'Behaviour' album...Until I came across 'Worlds Apart' again when looking through my sister's LP collection, in '91; And boy, did they have a renaissance with me after that!! :D Right away bought the first 5 albums on CD plus the live one, 'In Transit'. And very cool: It was right around that time that drummer Steve Negus and keyboarder Jim Gilmour had rejoined the band, and I got to see them live during the subsequent Germany tour (They've always been immensely popular there - Completely unknown here in New Zealand, though).

I have to admit, though: I didn't much like the album that followed, 'The Security Of Illusion'; Didn't have much of their 'classic' sound. 'Full Circle' however had some really good material on it. It's the last Saga album I've bought.

Cheers,
volker :)
 
#79
I was actually wondering why you had posted that April Wine clip, darius8 ;) Their 'Harder, Faster' album's pretty good too, though (It was only years after first hearing their '21st Century Schizoid Man' that I found out this was actually a cover version of a King Crimson song).

"I have to admit, the guitar player is very good." <--- A bit of sarcasm aimed at the egg-slicer faction? ;)
 

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