ON ANY STREET CORNER

Supposedly a Canadian prog band,Busker were actually a duo from Ontario formed in 1973 and featuring Steve McCann on keys,guitars and arrangements and Randy Dawdy on drums,percussion and lead vocals.Randy had also spent little time with hard rockers Max Webster before joining McCann on Busker.The duo released their debut ''On Any Street Corner'' in 1976.

The sound of the band on the first three tracks is very uneven and also quite dated for the year 1976.While the keyboard work has strong Classical influences,when vocals enter the style is closer to Psychedelic Pop/Rock in THE BEATLES vein than any prog-related path.Still the harpsichord,organ,moog synth and clavinet of McCann delivers some quite decent notes.From now on the album has a rapid downfall,like on the absolutely horrible ''Time to boogie'' which closes the first side of the LP and sounds more like a NEIL SEDAKA track!!!The whole flipside is no better,not to say even worse than the opening one.All kind of commercial-oriented music like cheap straight rock,Pop Rock,Psychedelic Pop and Funk can be found here,but no signs of Progressive Rock,just some hints of bearable keyboard work.The worst thing is actually that even these tracks are far from memorable without traces of inspiring music,a below average production and often out-of-tune vocals.

As the album has never seen a re-issue till today and it is quite rare,it would be more than unfair to spent a high amount of money to listen to such cheap music.But even if it does,better avoid it at even the lower cost...Ok,add another half star for the decent sum of five minutes at the opening tracks.