Peter and I are already taking a little heat for the title of this episode! “This album needs no defending,” they say, and while they may be right, let us cast our minds back. After all, it was only 1999 when the Canadian Minister of Movies declares that “the Canadian government has apologized for Bryan Adams on several occasions.”* In regards to the other complaint, “defence” and “defense” are both valid spellings of the word. “D-FENS” is not, but it is also a cool 90s reference.
Regardless, Bryan Adams has not been cool with everyone all the time, considered by many to be vanilla rock, mom rock, or worse. In Canada, at his peak fame and success, there was certainly some backlash. In this episode of Rock Daydream Nation, Peter Kerr and I will evaluate Bryan’s massive Reckless album. I have never owned a Bryan Adams album before this. Because I go all-in, I chose the deluxe Japanese 2 CD set. For this episode, Peter and I focused on the core 10 songs.
Join us for this fantastic dive into Bryan’s best, and perhaps set your assumptions aside. This is a good one!
* South Park: Bigger, Longer, Uncut
mikeladano.com 
He doesn’t need to apologize for Reckless. His Mutt Lange album though…
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That’s the angle we’re going for here!
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It’s a shame, man. Waking Up the Neighbours is incredible sounding from a production standpoint. Mutt with Bob Clearmountain? Come on! But the songs are so fucking stupid, with a few exceptions. “Touch the Hand” might make my worst lyrics of all time top five.
Conversely, Reckless is a really good, well crafted mainstream rock record.
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I think you nailed it with this comment. The songs got so dumb during the Mutt era, with I Want To Be Your Underwear probably the nadir.
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I actually thought you were making that song title up, but no. I quit after that first Mutt Lange excursion. If Bryan had quit after Into the Fire, I doubt South Park would have mentioned him at all, but he made so much money off the Lange shit.
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Hahah no I did NOT make that up, but I am glad I got the reaction I did! And you’re right without Lange there would be no line in South Park.
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That Robin Hood song is when I stopped listening. My favorite album of his is Cuts like a knife.
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Cuts Like A Knife is great! Kiss outtake Don’t Leave Me Lonely was on it.
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Enjoyed this, Mike and Peter. Great topic. I’ve never owned this Bryan Adams album but remember the singles from 1984, especially “Run to You” which was my favorite. “Summer of ‘69” was quite big too, although I remember some friends noting that it was funny that Bryan was actually ten years old back then. I also remember seeing the video of “Cuts Like a Knife” on MTV although I’m not sure if that was when it was new or later around the time of “Run to You.” I don’t think I remember any of the singles from his next album “Into the Fire” (1987), but by that point I was very retro and mostly into ‘60’s and ‘70’s music. Later Adams went in a more Adult Contemporary direction and I didn’t care for that in comparison. Henry.
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Hey Henry! One thing interesting – the big hit in Canada that I remember was the title track from Into the Fire… BUT…
The music video wasn’t the studio cut. It was a live cut from a live album that would come later on, called Live Live Live. It was solo with just Bryan and no band.
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I like Into the Fire. Is that an unusual opinion?
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Apparently it is, but I think it’s great!
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