Canadian band Mannequin from 1982

This Canadian band, one of a gazillion bands of the same (banal) name, made one ST album in 1982 that is quite similar to Baby Grand which was so popular this past spring, so we're talking hard rock - AOR.  Right off the bat I'll say it's not as good, of course.  But it will be a joy for all those, like me, who grew up on bands like Styx (and later Van Halen) with the high-pitched harmony vocals atop hard guitars and intense rhythms, and a general feel for tongue-in-cheek playfulness.

The first track called Bobbie:





Notice that heavily overused A minor descending chromatic bassline, so famous from Stairway to Heaven, which is back in the news again as the estate of Spirit (not the composer himself, who passed) has won an appeal to retry the issue of plagiarism with regards to their song "Taurus".  Thoughts about that one?  I think everyone can agree the last thing that comes to mind when you listen to the latter song is oh, that sounds like Stairway to Heaven!  Not to mention the descending A minor pattern was used already by George Harrison in "While my Guitar Gently Weeps" and countless other composers beforehand... in fact Led Zep (Jimmy Page) had already employed it earlier for Babe I'm Gonna Leave You.

Listening more carefully to the lyrics I noticed there's a lot of odd gender bending stuff in there-- weird, or maybe, in the era of hair metal, not so surprising.  On the other hand, today, if you mentioned a gender-unsure person needs psychiatric help, you would get into a lot of trouble...